Warning labels on cleaning products only give the most basic information. They may say the product is an "Eye Irritant", or if you should "Induce Vomiting." But they won't tell you what propylene glycol butyl ether is. In case you didn't know it is an ingredient in ant and roach killer; however, it is also an ingredient in 409 and Fantastic kitchen cleaners. If you think about it, do you want to clean your counters with ant and roach killer? You can look up this information at the Household Product Database run by the National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine Specialized Information Services.Just for fun, grab a few of your household cleaners and look up some of the ingredients. It opened my eyes to what I was really using around my house. To get the most out of the search you only need to type in part of the ingredient and you will be given a list of possible matches. You can also search by product, although the number of products is limited and may be outdated.
Leave a comment if you find anything interesting in the database.
