Trust Issues

I got some bad news today. My laundry detergent contains benzisothiazolinone.

When I was first diagnosed, I went online to the Proctor&Gamble website and looked up the ingredients for the Tide Coldwater detergent that I have been a loyal consumer of for years. While I found that the Tide Free & Clear and several other varieties contained methylisothiazolinone, my beloved Tide Coldwater looked safe according the ingredients list. And that was good enough for me.

Until it wasn't. Six months after my diagnosis I'd eliminated all the products in my house that listed isothiazolinones, yet I still itched constantly.

What gives?

And so I started emailing the manufacturers of the products I was still using, asking them to verify that their products were free of my allergens. Most companies were very helpful--and the ones that weren't got their products thrown in the trash.

Tide I had trouble with right from the start. I contacted them over two months ago and my first email got a canned response telling me how to search for the ingredients online--which would have been fine if that's the info I had been asking for--but I had specifically stated that I'd already looked at their online ingredients and wanted further verification that they weren't hiding any isothiazolinones.

And so I replied. "I have found the ingredients lists helpful, but what I'm really looking for is verification that your products are free from isothiazolinone compounds," I said.

A new person wrote back asking for more information and offering to send me a coupon.

Yeah, right. A coupon? I don't even know if I can safely use your product and the best you can do is send me a coupon? (The coupon never showed up, by the way.)

I politely sent them the information they requested.

The next reply, from yet another person, would have been comical if it wasn't so frustrating:

"I did a quick search and I was not able to find the formulations or any chemicals that end in isothiazolinone. I found all of this information on our website P&G Products safety. http://www.pgproductsafety.com/productsafety/index.shtml this page you can look at any P&G product and its ingredients."

Um... yeah. I did a quick search too and didn't find the ingredient. Which is why I'm contacting you!

"Thank you," I replied "but when used in low concentrations under a certain percent it would not be required to be officially listed. I'm looking to verify with your manufacturing department that this chemical is not used in any way in or during the manufacturing of your detergents."

A fourth person replied to me. "Unfortunately, we don't have the additional information that you are requesting about Tide Coldwater detergent at the moment. We've reached out to our internal teams and will be back in touch with you when we hear back from them."

That was in the middle of December.

And so I waited. I waited and I itched.

Eventually I figured they forgot about me and started investigating replacement detergents. While I assumed that their online ingredient list was probably accurate, it really irked me that nobody could verify if a specific ingredient was or was not in a specific product. What kind of customer service is that? Shouldn't that kind of information be readily available?

But it's not. And it's not just Tide either... many companies don't provide consumers with important information. I didn't realize just how few companies even list their ingredients on the bottles until I had to start looking. The ones that do often hide behind vague definitions like "fragrance" or "preservatives." Many other companies mask their ingredient lists with claims about "trade secrets" or "proprietary formulas." What does that even mean? Shouldn't consumers have access to information about what they are putting on (or in) their bodies--especially those of us with allergies?

Turns out that Tide had not forgotten about me.

I got an email this morning from representative #5 saying that "Tide Coldwater liquid laundry detergent does contain Benzisothiazolinone at very low levels since it comes in with an ingredient that we use, but it does not contain the other two preservatives (Methylisothiazolinone, Methylchloroisothiazolinone)."

What the heck, Tide? You couldn't have come up with this information TWO MONTHS ago? How incompetent of a system are you guys running if it takes you that long to verify an ingredient? This is a known ALLERGEN! Why wouldn't it be disclosed? Put it on your ingredient list! Very low levels? That's like telling someone with a nut allergy not to worry because your product only contains "very low levels" of peanuts. Or like saying "our food contains very low levels of cyanide; that's not a problem, is it?"

But I digress. That's probably just the anger talking.

In all honesty, I'm glad that they came clean with me--even if it took them awhile. I hope now that the "Tide Team" has done the research, they'll be able to help the next person looking for answers in a much more efficient manner. I hope that by sharing this information, other Tide users with isothiazolinone allergies won't have to suffer. I hope that their failure to list the BIT was an oversight on Tide's part and not just them being sneaky. (Turns out it's a component of the fragrance. And unlike some many other brands, Tide does have a section of their site where you can view the fragrance components. It's a 20 page PDF, mind you, but at least it exists. I couldn't find benzisothiazolinone listed there, but to be fair it's possible I overlooked it.)

I hope it doesn't take me a year to re-wash everything I own. (But seriously, I DO have to wash everything I own now--and I hate doing laundry with a passion.)

One thing is for sure though--I don't think I'll be about to put my trust in Tide (or any other P&G brand) again.

I'm using Greenshield Organic Free and Clear laundry detergent now. It's a soap nut based detergent, which is something I find pretty cool. While I'm not really sold on the whole "organic" movement, I like that Greenshield promises all of their products are free of methylisothiazolinone and other synthetic ingredients, as well as a host of other nasty things. I'm hoping it's a company worthy of my trust!

But mostly I'm just hoping that it gets my clothes clean.