Avoid swallowed by children

We’ve been checking out the labels on the cleaning products, soaps, shampoos, deodorants, etc. that we use, looking for quats or substances that release them. Here’s an article that’ll give you an idea of why: Questioning quats’ safety, published in Chemical & Engineering News aka C&EN (volume 98, issue 30, pages 28–33 on August 3, 2020). Some not-so-good news for people like us trying to get rid of them: they may persist in, for example, household dust.

S. needed some eye drops recently and I was a bit taken aback to see a quat, benzalkonium chloride, listed as a preservative in two different products, from different manufacturers. We chose a quat-free product.

Also, though we hadn’t really taken notice of this until now, many personal care products manufactured in Asia for Asian markets don’t have lists of ingredients printed on their labels. Mystery-ingredients products are going to be phased out here at home, along with known quat-containing items. The Walch antibacterial foaming hand soap we’ve been using for years is one such product.

Credits: Pail image source