It’s May, and the light evenings and warmer weather might have inspired you to do some serious cleaning. It’s amazing how many household cleaning products we all have lurking in our cupboards – cream cleaner, carpet shampoo, dishwasher tablets, laundry powder, mould remover, window cleaner, polish, stain remover… the list goes on. But what’s in all those sprays, powders and liquids, which promise a sparkling, bacteria free home?

Well, quite a lot of scary stuff, which could well be harming us in our homes and also has damaging effects in the environment once the products wash away down our drains. Here are a few examples:

Triclosan
This is an antimicrobial agent, which is harmful to aquatic life and is used in personal and household cleaning products. Several major manufacturing groups are phasing it out.

Petroleum-based surfactants
These are found in household cleaning products like washing-up liquid – a common one is sodium lauryl sulphate. These chemicals biodegrade more slowly than vegetable-based surfactants and can form new and nasty chemical compounds as they do. There are many brands available which use vegetable derived surfactants instead.

Microbeads
These are toxic beads found in washing powder and abrasive cleaning products, as well as toothpaste and face wash. They’re too small to be filtered out of sewage and eventually end up in the ocean (adding to the 8 million tonnes of plastic entering the ocean annually) and in the stomachs of seabirds, whales, turtles and some, eventually, back on your plate in seafood. The UK government has just consulted the public on a ban, but only from cosmetics – even if implemented, microbeads would still be allowed in cleaning products.

Chlorine bleach (also called sodium hypochlorite)
Widely used, often in fabric bleaches like washing powder, this can become toxic when it reaches water systems.

So how can we avoid all this? Finding out what’s in cleaning products is not always easy, as manufacturers are only required to list the main ingredient families on the bottle – though they are obliged to give a website address with a full list.

There’s good news, though. Dedicated organisations have done thorough research to sort out the safest products – check out Ethical Consumer magazine’s regularly updated score table for household cleaners at ethicalconsumer.org. You can also use many cheap, simple products for cleaning, like white vinegar for windows, chrome or stainless steel, baking soda as a deodoriser, or soda crystals on grease. Combine these for an even wider array of uses – search for ethical consumers non-toxic cleaning kit for simple recipes.

Finally, why not try minimising the number of products you use? Washing-up liquid – in the form of hot soapy water – can do more than just the dishes. Get a brand with well-established ethical credentials like Ecover or Bio-D, and you’re good to go.