Is Your Laundry Detergent Safe?

Is Your Laundry Detergent Safe?

Dana Grinnell shares the origins of her toxin-free online marketplace, Free Living Co along with her Top 3 Tips to Reduce Toxin Exposure Today.

I'm Dana, Founder of Free Living Co. Like you, I love to spend my time outside in our beautiful mountains and do my best to live a generally healthy lifestyle. My background in healthcare prompted over a decade of research and awareness into the toxins in our products and environment here in the US, becoming a student of clean living after witnessing so many otherwise healthy individuals entering the hospital for care. After living what I thought was a clean lifestyle for over a decade, I had a laundry detergent incident which prompted an entirely new career path.

On my return trip from Costco with the cleanest laundry detergent I could find that would service a busy, dirty, and stinky family of 5 - I opened my trunk to find the bottle had leaked all over the back of my car and in doing so, had turned from clear to radioactive purple, just by leaving the container. It occurred to me at that moment that the dramatic change was a result of a chemical reaction. I looked it up on the Environmental Working Group database (known as EWG) and discovered that the "free & clear, #1 dermatologist recommended" laundry detergent had ingredients known to cause cancer, reproductive, and developmental effects, allergies, and immunotoxicity. I'd had enough!

With absolutely no regulation on harmful ingredients in personal and household products, rampant greenwashing on labels, mediocre screening by "natural & healthy" brick and mortar and online marketplaces, and the shipping and packaging overload of trying to order clean products, I concluded there had to be a better way. Thus, Free Living Co was born.

At Free Living Co, we scrutinize and screen every ingredient in every product we carry and only carry products deemed to be safe for repeated human (and canine) use.

Here are my Top 3 Free Living Tips to Reduce Your Toxin Exposure Today:

Last Pump, Last Squirt. Download the EWG healthy living app. As you pump those last drops of lotion or spray that last squirt of all-purpose cleaner, scan the product to see what it's rated before buying it again. Aim for an EWG verified rating of 1 or 2 for personal products and A or B for household products.

Avoid Fragrance. Avoid anything with "fragrance" listed as an ingredient. There are over 3000 compounds that comprise the general term fragrance. You will have absolutely no way of knowing what chemicals are in that particular cocktail.

Bye Bye Plastic. As you use up your last piece of saran wrap or grab the last zip lock, replace your single-use plastics with reusable silicone, glass, bamboo, stainless steel, or beeswax alternatives.

Shop Small & Toxin Free. Follow along as I share monthly tips on clean living, visit our online store at freelivingco.co, or email me directly at dana@freelivingco.co.

Published January 2024, Neighbors of Park City, Neighbors of Heber Valley