Back in the day when washboards and clotheslines were the norm, a tub full of water and a bar of lye soap, sunlight, wind and a lot of elbow grease were the only things needed to clean, bleach and dry a load of clothes. But today's modern conveniences—mega-sized washers designed to launder for an NFL team, dryers that bake your clothes, detergents with their own muddy footprints—have upped the eco demands of this unavoidable task.

Awash in Chemicals

Thanks to government trade-secret laws, manufacturers of cleaners aren't required to disclose ingredients on product labels, making it difficult for consumers to choose an environmentally preferable and healthier alternative.

Although phosphates, still used in dishwashing detergents and known to promote algae growth that in turn suffocates aquatic life, have been phased out of laundry detergents, health risks remain with other laundry chemicals, most notably nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs). NPEs are surfactants (chemicals that help other ingredients penetrate dirt and grime) that belong to a class of hormone-disrupting compounds called alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs). Unfortunately, "It's added to lots of cleaning agents," says Jason Marshall, lab manager at the Toxics Use Reduction Institute.

Popular because they're inexpensive, petroleum-derived NPEs break down in the environment into nonylphenol, which harms the reproductive abilities and survival of fish. They also aren't easily removed by wastewater-treatment facilities; Sierra Club has detected NPEs in 61 percent of U.S. streams tested. Linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), a common surfactant used instead of or in conjunction with NPEs and often listed on ingredients as "anionic surfactants," doesn't fare much better environmentally. Like phosphates, LAS can deprive water of oxygen and kill aquatic life.

Fortunately, NPEs are slowly being phased out in the U.S., thanks to European Union efforts to remove them, says Marshall. "Companies don't want to make four different products with four different formulations," he says.

Environmental and health concerns aside, detergents containing NPEs are less effective than those without, according to Consumer Reports tests. Still, detergent manufacturers have yet to find a perfectly healthy replacement for LAS, NPEs and other APE surfactants. Alcohol ethoxylates derived from plant and vegetable oils have a lighter impact but are created using a process called "ethoxylation," which produces the probable human carcinogen 1,4-dioxane as a byproduct. Present in very small amounts in the final product, dioxane poses a serious cancer risk when inhaled at high levels in occupational settings.

Besides surfactants, petroleum-based synthetic dyes, fragrances and other chemicals are often added to detergents for aesthetic appeal. Synthetic fragrances may contain hormone-disrupting phthalates, which prevent the scent from dissipating but also provoke asthma and other respiratory problems (see "Body Burdened" www.thegreenguide.com/doc/109/cdc). A study published online at Environmental Health Perspectives this March suggested that phthalates also may be responsible for increased obesity in men. Optical brighteners, fluorescent chemicals used to make clothing appear cleaner, can rub off fabrics onto skin and cause rashes.

Detergents aren't the only beasts to contend with. In 2005, chlorine-based bleaches caused 19,581 poisonings in U.S. children under 6 years of age, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. After disappearing down drains, chlorine reacts with environmental organic matter, creating harmful organochlorines such as dioxin. In 2000, testing found high levels of dioxin in San Francisco Bay fed in part by bleach from residential laundry use.

Also, those seemingly innocuous floral fabric softeners emit, among other chemicals, neurotoxic toluene and trimethylbenzene, styrene (a possible carcinogen), the respiratory irritants phenol and xylene, and thymol, which can cause abdominal distress, according to a study in the May 2000 issue of the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. But safer alternatives abound; see the checklist (right) for ideas.