You may not know it, but according to 60 Million Consumers, your favorite household products may be harmful to your health.
A study conducted by the magazine 60 Million Consumers and published Thursday, December 9, reveals that at least a third of household products sold on the market are “potentially harmful”. To come to this conclusion, the magazine edited by the National Institute of Consumption looked in detail at the ingredients that make up 119 household products marketed by 52 brands purchased in April and July 2021.
The leading French consumer magazine has established a “menag’score” to classify these cleaning products. By studying the composition of the labels, the lists of ingredients made public by the manufacturers and finally the concentration of the substances, 60 million consumers established a score based on scores ranging from A to E.
The highest letter A is for products that are safe to use. The E rating, on the other hand, is the lowest and underlines a potential danger, the magazine indicates that these are “strongly discouraged products, too many problematic substances”. The most alarming notes represent a harmfulness for both health and the environment.
Two particularly dangerous products
Out of all the household products tested and studied, at least 39 of them obtained a menag’score D or E. This means that these products used daily for cleaning can have repercussions on your body and are very polluting. These products contain harmful substances that can be irritating, create allergies or even act as endocrine disruptors.
60 million consumers emphasizes its warning on certain products in particular: multi-surface disinfectant wipes and those for cleaning toilets as well as disinfectant sprays and deodorants. Products in aerosol form are all the more worrying because their substances are diffused in the air.
These cleaning tools are very popular with French consumers, although they are not without consequences. 75% of multi-surface and toilet wipes obtain a score between D and E and 58% of sprays for disinfecting the air are perceived as harmful.