Abstract

The American Cleaning Institute (ACI) serves the growth and innovation of the U.S. cleaning products industry by advancing the health and quality of life of people and protecting our planet. With a continued commitment to transparency, its experts have developed the Cleaning Chemistry Catalog (C3) (1), a resource that provides information related to the safety of ingredients used in household cleaning products.

Originally launched in 2012 under the name Cleaning Product Ingredient Safety Initiative, the Cleaning Chemistry Catalog illustrates how safety assessment data from publicly available sources can be incorporated into a screening-level risk assessment for household cleaning product ingredients. The database provides human and environmental health screening level risk assessments for more than 1,100 ingredients.

The American Cleaning Institute developed the Cleaning Chemistry Catalog (C3), a resource that provides information related to the safety of ingredients used in household cleaning products. This tool provides regulators, academics, manufacturers and consumers with information to better understand cleaning ingredients’ safety profile, efficacy and benefits to human and environmental health.

• Originally launched in 2012 under the name Cleaning Product Ingredient Safety Initiative, the Cleaning Chemistry Catalog illustrates how safety assessment data from publicly available sources can be incorporated into a screening risk assessment for household cleaning product ingredients used by ACI member companies in the formulation of household cleaning products sold in the United States. For each unique ingredient, chemical hazard data were identified through a number of public online sources and databases. Exposures were characterized for each ingredient based on the product types and their typical application methods. These findings were then combined to produce a conservative human health and environmental screening level risk assessments with a transparent and scientifically relevant methodology. The database now provides human and environmental health screening level risk assessments for more than 1,100 ingredients.

C3 includes a compilation of human health and environmental hazard data for each ingredient using publicly available sources. Over 7,800 individual records were collected from a wide range of sources. Collection sources ranged from general findings regarding safety to highly specific results of lab studies, to values adopted for use as benchmarks by governmental organizations based on research from multiple studies. Data collection focused on chronic and repeated dose toxicity testing, but included results from studies examining carcinogenicity or sensitization, when available. Public data for these endpoints are not always available. The hazard data were examined to establish a dose-response threshold against which to compare exposure.

C3 is accessible online (1), where users looking to use the database can search by CAS number or ingredient name to find a specific ingredient. Results will indicate if human health and/or environmental health risk assessment information is available, in addition to consumer and technical function names, product categories and if the ingredient is listed in the SCIL.

Information from ACI’s ‘What Cleaning Ingredients Do' (2), which provides consumer-tested ingredient function descriptions, has been included in C3 to provide enhanced understanding and an opportunity to standardize industry language, applicable across brand and product websites, education resources and packaging. The tool was developed by ACI’s Future Leaders, representatives of a cross-section of cleaning product manufacturers and chemistry producers.

Leveraging these ingredient terms and functions provides a pivotal opportunity for standardized industry language, applicable across brand and product websites, education resources and packaging.

This language allows product formulators, developers, and marketers to proactively help shape a better standard of consumer understanding of the role ingredients play in helping to make everyday cleaning products safe, beneficial, and effective. Enhanced understanding helps empower consumers to feel more confident with the products they have chosen to use in their homes.

Continued development and expansion of the C3 Database will allow ACI membership to enhance transparency with consumers and regulators, while giving academics and manufacturers more information to make informed decisions about the future of the cleaning industry. ACI will continue to enhance the environmental component of C3, and update C3 as more data and information on the identified cleaning ingredients become publicly available.