Hazardous Household Products

Many of the products we use for housework, gardening, home improvement, or car maintenance contain hazardous materials that endanger our health as well as pollute the environment. The average house has an estimated 3 to 10 gallons of hazardous products.

Inappropriate use, storage, and disposal of hazardous household products can cause injuries, poisoning, and air pollution.

Hazardous Household Product Defined

A hazardous substance is defined in federal government regulations as one that may cause personal injury or illness during any customary or reasonable handling or use. Regard any household product containing a hazardous substance as a hazardous household product.

According to the Federal Hazardous Substances Act of 1960, household products are hazardous if they are:

• Ignitable -- capable of burning or causing a fire.
• Corrosive -- capable of eating away materials and destroying living tissue when contact occurs.
• Explosive and/or Reactive -- can cause an explosion or release poisonous fumes when exposed to air, water, or other chemicals.
• Toxic -- poisonous, either immediately (acutely toxic) or over a long period of time (chronically toxic).
• Radioactive -- can damage and destroy cells and chromosomal material (known to cause cancer, mutations, and fetal harm).

How can you know if a product is hazardous?

If a product contains a hazardous substance, the product must bear a label of specific size, and the label must contain certain information, depending on the toxicity of the product.

Levels of hazards are identified by the following:

• Danger-Poison -- substances that are extremely flammable, corrosive, or highly toxic.
• Warning -- substances that are moderately toxic.
• Caution -- substances that are slightly toxic.

As a consumer, make it a habit to read all product labels. The labels must include the following information:

• Brand name -- used in ads by the company that makes the product. It is the most identifiable name for the product.
• Common and/or chemical name -- Example: Sodium hypochlorite is the chemical name for the common name bleach.
• Amount of contents.
• Signal word -- danger, poison, warning, or caution.
• Instructions for safe handling, use, and storage.
• Description of hazard -- Example: Irritant to the skin, eyes, and to the gastrointestinal system, if swallowed. Other words used may include: vapor harmful, flammable, corrosive, absorbed through the skin.
• Precautions -- Label must have a statement of what to do to avoid the hazard.
• First aid instructions, when necessary or appropriate.
• Name and address of manufacturer, distributor, packer, or seller.
• Statement on how to avoid the hazard must appear with safe use instructions. (Examples: Keep out of reach of children. Use in a well-ventilated area.)

What is not on the label?

Label information addresses acute or immediate effects only. Chronic or long-term hazards to chemical products are not discussed.

"Inert" ingredients are chemicals added as "carriers" for the active ingredients in cleaners and pesticides. Only the percentages of inert ingredients are required on the label, not their identities. Some inert ingredients are hazardous.

Many chemicals have numerous trade and/or scientific names that make it difficult to compare products. Also, proper disposal information often is not listed on the label of many products.

Hazardous Household-Related Products

Some of the more common household-related products that are potential hazardous products include:

• Automotive products, including motor oil, batteries, antifreeze, gasoline, waxes and polishes, brake and transmission fluids, and diesel fuel.
• Home maintenance supplies, including paint varnish and lacquer, paint stripper, primer, rust remover, mineral spirits, glue, turpentine, wood stain, wood preservative, roofing tar, swimming pool chemicals.
• Household cleaners including, drain, toilet, and oven cleaners, disinfectants, ammonia, spot removers, cleansers and powdered cleaners, bleach, liquid cleaners and dyes, laundry degreasers, and household-related pesticides and insecticides.
• Other hazardous household-related products include aerosol products, dry cell and disc or button batteries, hearing aid batteries, moth balls and flakes, shoe polishes, photographic chemicals, smoke detectors, and air fresheners and deodorizers. Some nail polish removers, hair dyes, and hair sprays as well as some medicines have potential harmful effects.

The chart lists potential hazardous household products.

Exposure

Hazardous substances may enter your body in three ways:

• Toxins can be ingested by eating or drinking hazardous substances or contaminated foods and water.
• Toxins can be inhaled. Gases, vapors, and sprays pass directly through the lungs and enter the bloodstream.
• Toxins can be absorbed through the skin. Some hazardous products will injure the skin and be absorbed, while others can be absorbed without causing any damage to the skin.

Selection, Use, and Storage

Select right product

• Read the label. Are the ingredients safe to use in and around your home?
• Be sure the product will do the job intended.
• Buy the least hazardous product for the job. Use the signal words (poison, danger, warning, caution) as your guide.
• Buy the size you need even if the larger container is a better buy.
• Read precautions listed on the label. If directions, ingredients, or health warnings are missing, choose another brand or product with good labeling.
• Determine if the product has several uses. Avoid buying a different product for each job.
• Avoid aerosol products, if possible, because the fine mist produced is easily inhaled.
• Determine the proper method of disposal of the container.
• The term "nontoxic" is for advertising only. It does not indicate the product meets any federal regulations for nontoxicity.

Use it safely

• Follow the directions on the label.
• Use only for tasks listed.
• Handle the product carefully to avoid spills and splashes.
• Wear protective equipment (e.g., gloves and goggles) as recommended by the manufacturer.
• Use products in well-ventilated areas to avoid inhaling fumes. If you feel dizzy or nauseous, you must increase fresh air.
• Do not eat, drink, or smoke while using hazardous products. Traces of hazardous chemicals can be carried from hand to mouth.
• Do not mix products unless directions indicate that you can. Explosive or poisonous chemical reactions can result. Even different brands of the same product may contain incompatible ingredients.
• Completely use up the product.
• Avoid toxic chemical exposure when pregnant.
• Avoid wearing soft contact lenses when working with solvents and pesticides. They can absorb vapors and hold chemicals near your eyes.
• Carefully seal products to avoid escaping fumes and harmful spills.
• Use common sense.

Store safely

• Follow label directions for proper storage conditions.
• Leave the product in its original container with original label attached.
• Never store hazardous products in food or beverage containers.
• Tightly seal lids and caps.
• Store hazardous products in a locked cabinet (out of reach of children).
• Store incompatibles separately. Keep flammables away from corrosives.
• Store volatile products (those that emit vapors or fumes) in a well-ventilated area, out of reach of children and pets.
• Keep containers dry to prevent corrosion.
• Store rags used with flammable products (furniture stripper, paint remover) in a sealed, marked container.
• Store flammable products away from heat, sparks, or sources that could ignite.

Hazardous Household Products

Publication 1756
Extension Service of Mississippi State University, cooperating with U.S. Department of Agriculture. Published in furtherance of Acts of Congress, May 8 and June 30, 1914. Ronald A. Brown, Director