The lawsuit seeks to invoke Article 35 of New York's Environmental Conservation Law -- a statute that's seen little action since it was passed in 1976 to combat phosphates, a family of chemicals once widely used in detergents until they were associated with negative health effects.
Health issues are central to the new lawsuit as well. Many of the activist groups in the lawsuit link the chemicals in household cleaning products to asthma, skin sensitization and other human health issues, as well as reproductive problems in aquatic life.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is the federal agency charged with overseeing home cleaning products, but it doesn't require cleaning product manufacturers to provide comprehensive ingredient lists, so few companies do.
And although the federal Toxic Substances Control Act was enacted in 1976 to regulate the introduction of chemicals, it grandfathered in most of the existing chemicals on the market.
In California, two laws were approved in 2008. Together they require the state to identify "chemicals of concern," to evaluate safer alternatives and to create a scientific clearinghouse for information on chemicals' effects, but environmental and health groups say it will be years before consumers see results.
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susan.carpenter@latimes.com
