|
Survey of chemical substances in cleaning products for ovens, cookers and ceramic cooktops 2 Survey of chemical substances in cleaning products for ovens, cookers and ceramic cooktops
2.1 Definition of products included in the surveyIn this project, cleaning products for ovens, cookers and ceramic cooktops are defined as special-purpose products with the main purpose of cleaning ovens (including gridirons, baking trays etc.), grill, ceramic cooktops and cookers. Products marketed for stainless steel care are often placed on the same shelves as products for cleaning of ovens, cookers and ceramic cooktops and are used for e.g. cleaning of kitchen hardware and stainless steel surfaces, including gas and electric cookers. These products are also included in the survey. For some all-purpose cleaning agents and other cleaning products, cleaning of ovens and cookers is stated as one of many possible applications, but the survey does not comprise these types of products. The survey focuses on consumer products, i.e. products that are used in private households and that are available in retail shops. In addition, data were collected on products used within industry, institutions, the catering trade, etc. in order to make a comparison of the composition of consumer products and products for industrial use, respectively. 2.2 SurveyFrom April to July 2005, a survey was made of the chemical substances in products for cleaning of ovens, cookers and ceramic cooktops sold on the Danish retail market. The survey was performed as a combination of data collection from the listings of ingredients on the products and direct contact to the manufacturers and suppliers stated on the products. Furthermore, manufacturers of products for industrial use were contacted. Internet searches were made in order to obtain supplementary information on manufacturers, suppliers and products on the market. The products were identified with the following types of retailers:
Cleaning products for ovens, cookers and ceramic cooktops are primarily sold in supermarkets and retail shops for kitchen hardware. In the periods from 3 to 24 May and 23 June to 4 July 2005, visits to 9 different supermarkets, 2 retail shops for kitchen hardware and a drugstore resulted in 21 different special-purpose products for cleaning of ovens, cookers and ceramic cooktops, including a special-purpose product for cleaning of microwave ovens. It is thus a limited range; six of the twelve visited shops had 1 - 3 different products within the above product range on their shelves, while a few supermarkets had 6 - 9 different products. To some extent, the products sold in supermarkets were overlapping. The visited discount supermarkets did not handle special-purpose products for oven and cooktop cleaning. The prices of the products were DKK 15 - 69 for 20 - 500 ml corresponding to approx. DKK 60 - 1,100 per litre. An Internet search (via Google) was made in order to identify potential products not sold in retail shops, but no other products available to consumers were found. It was assessed that the purchased products covered the entire Danish retail market for special-purpose products for cleaning of ovens, cookers and ceramic cooktops in the period from April to July 2005. Table 2.1 gives an overview of the products purchased in retail shops stating the form and function of the products and their classification, if any.
* R48/20: Harmful: danger of serious damage to health by prolonged exposure through inhalation, R65: Harmful: may cause lung damage if swallowed, R67: Vapours may cause drowsiness and dizziness, R51/53: Toxic to aquatic organisms, may cause long-term adverse effects in the aquatic environment From Table 2.1, it appears that a little less than half of the products (9 of 21 products) belong to the group of ceramic cooktop cleaners while only a few are products for cleaning of electric cooktops. This correlates well with the fact that today most cookers have ceramic cooktops or are gas cookers while cookers with electric cooktops constitute a continuously decreasing share. For (interior) cleaning of ovens, 5 different products were found of which 2 spray products (Nos. 1 and 6) occur most frequently in the retail shops. Many ovens currently marketed are so-called self-cleaning ovens where the cleaning takes place while the oven is used (catalysis, grease and grimes are combusted at temperatures between 200 and 300 ºC) or by use of a special mode for cleaning the oven (pyrolysis, approx. 500 ºC). In self-cleaning ovens, cleaning agents should thus not be used on the self-cleaning surfaces, which is also specified at the informative labels on the oven cleaners. Cleaning agents may only be used for the non-self-cleaning surfaces, typically the oven bottom and glass front. Cleaning agents for microwave ovens are niche products, which are slightly outside the scope of this survey. In microwave ovens, grease and grimes are not baked on as in ovens; it is more likely that dried-up grimes are to be removed from the surfaces. Only one special-purpose product for cleaning of microwave ovens was found, and the consumption of this type of cleaning agents is considered to be limited. A limited range of products for stainless steel care was found, which are also considered to be niche products with relatively low market share. Of the 21 purchased products, five were classified with respect to health risks (see Table 2.1). One oven cleaner was classified as ‘corrosive’ due to its contents of sodium hydroxide. Two products for cleaning of ceramic cooktops were classified as ‘irritant’, which must be due to their contents of surfactants and/or organic acids. Two stainless steel care products were classified as ‘harmful: danger of serious damage to health by prolonged exposure’ due to their contents of solvents. Finally, one stainless steel care product was classified as ‘extremely flammable’. Manufacturers and suppliers of cleaning products for ovens, cookers and ceramic cooktops were identified via the purchased products, by Internet searches and by personal contact to the Association of Danish Cosmetics, Toiletries, Soap and Detergent Industries (SPT). Manufacturers and suppliers were contacted by telephone in order to obtain information on volumes sold on the Danish market, market shares (if any), where the products are sold and detailed data on product compositions (specification of concentration ranges for product components). If the company wanted to participate, the initial telephone conversation was followed up by an elaborating e-mail describing the survey study and the product information required. The direct contact to manufacturers and suppliers resulted in supplementary information in the form of safety data sheets for approximately half of the products. Several of the manufacturing companies did not, however, want to contribute with information on their products or could not spare the time needed to procure the required information. 2.3 Consumption of cleaning products for ovens, cookers and ceramic cooktops in DenmarkIt was not possible to obtain detailed information on the total consumption of cleaning products for ovens, cookers and ceramic cooktops in Denmark either via contact to manufacturers, to the Association of Danish Cosmetics, Toiletries, Soap and Detergent Industries (SPT) or via statistics. A conservative estimate of the total consumption of cleaning products for ovens, cookers and ceramic cooktops is that, on an annual basis, 400,000 - 600,000 product units are sold in Denmark, of which products for ceramic cooktops constitute more than 50 %, while the remaining part is made up of products for oven cleaning (based on confidential sales figures from manufacturers and statistics from purchasers). Furthermore, no data were available on the consumption of products for stainless steel care, products for electric cooktops and for microwave ovens in Denmark. 2.4 Ingredients in the productsIt was common for all the purchased products that their listings of ingredients mainly stated group names for certain types of ingredients, e.g. preservatives, anionic surfactants, non-ionic surfactants, polycarboxylates, etc. without specifying the individual constituents (as provided by EC recommendation of 1989 /7/, which applied during the period of the purchase of the products). On a few products, other types of ingredients are specified to some extent. On three of 21 products, no listings of ingredients on the packaging were found. The products can be divided into five different product types (see Table 2.2).
Table 2.3 gives on overview of the different types of ingredients that form part of the products stating their function in the products.
Appendix A gives a list of the ingredients declared on each product and the classification and labelling of the products. Cleaning products for ovens, cookers and ceramic cooktops typically contain substances such as surfactantc (non-ionic and anionic surfactants, fatty acid soaps), solvents, acidity regulators (acids, bases), abrasives/polishing agents, preservatives, silicone compounds, thickening agents and fragrance (see Table 2.2). The ingredients vary in accordance with the application area and form (spray, gel, liquid) of the product. E.g. silicone, abrasives and thickening agents primarily form part of products for cleaning of ceramic cooktops, while solvents mainly occur in oven cleaners and stainless steel care. Oven cleaners are the only product group that contains corrosive substances (sodium hydroxide). Oven cleaners as sprays also contain propellants. Six of the products stated a content of fragrance in their listings of ingredients. Two of the products not stating a content of fragrance had, however, a distinct odour, which indicated that fragrances presumably formed part of the products. Based on their odour, the remaining products were assessed not to contain fragrances. No content of colorants was declared on any of the products. A few products had a turquoise blue colour indicating that these products may contain colorants. Table 2.4 gives the specific ingredients that were identifiable on the basis of the listings of ingredients of the products and the safety data sheets received. Table 2.4 is assessed to contain a representative section of the substances that form part of the products, although detailed information was not available on all of the purchased products. CAS numbers and classifications of substances (List of dangerous substances /2/) were added when they did not appear from the listings of ingredients or safety data sheets (SDS) of the products. 2.4.1 Petroleum distillates/white spiritThree solvents of the petroleum distillate type form part of five of the tested products. The three petroleum distillates are identified with the CAS-numbers 64742-82-1, 64742-48-9 respectively 64742-47-8, cf. Table 2.4. The two first mentioned are different types of white spirit, which WHO name white spirit type 1 respectively type 3 /30/. The third petroleum distillate is produced in the same way as white spirit type 3, but it has a higher boiling point interval. Thus it is closely related to the two types of white spirit. In the later health assessment, these petroleum distillates will be assessed as white spirit. However, in Chapter 4 Chemical analyses the term “petroleum” is used. According to WHO /30/, the term white spirit covers five types of petroleum distillates, which are very similar (types 0, 1, 2, 3 and Stoddard solvent). In the EU type 1 (CAS No. 64742-82-1 - Naphtha (petroleum), hydrodesulfurized heavy) is the most commonly used petroleum distillate, the American variant of which is called Stoddard solvent (CAS No. 8052-41-3). However, according to LODS /2/, there is a difference in the demands to classification of the different variants of white spirit. According to LODS, Stoddard solvent must be classified with R48/20 (Harmful: danger of serious damage to health by prolonged exposure through inhalation), while this classification is not stated for European variant of white spirit (type 1). This is due to the fact that here the classification is solely made with regard to carcinogenic effect (Carc. cat. 2) and with regard to the risk of aspiration into the lungs (R65). In LODS, the term white spirit includes both Stoddard solvent and white spirit, which is not treated apart from the distillation (type 0, CAS No. 64742-88-7). These two types are classified in Denmark with R48/20-65, among others, according to the safety clause in the Directive on classification and labelling (67/548/EEC). Compared to the health and environmental assessments in Chapter 5 it is, however, worth mentioning that certain products, which according to the listing of ingredients contain white spirit of other variants than those, which are classifiable according to LODS, are classified with R48/20 anyway. It seems probable that this is due to the self classification of the producers. In this connection the use of R48/20 must be taken into consideration regardless the fact that this classification is not stated in LODS.
* Previous CESIO classifications, not updated (CESIO=Comité Européen des agents de Surface et de leurs Intermédiaires Organiques) 2.5 Comparison of products for private and industrial useAs a supplement to the information gathered in the survey of products on the retail market, selected companies manufacturing or supplying products for industrial cleaning of cookers, ceramic cooktops and ovens were contacted. The selected companies are some of the main stakeholders in the professional market in Denmark and their products are thus considered representative for this market. In general, manufacturers and suppliers for the professional market have, to a larger extent, easily accessible data on their products (supplier’s safety data sheets) on their websites, which made it much easier to obtain information on the composition of products for industrial use. 16 products for industrial use were identified comprising 14 products for oven and grill cleaning, one product for ceramic cooktops (identical with Product No. 16 in Table 2.1) and one product for stainless steel care. To a high degree, the types of chemicals substances forming part of products for private and industrial use, respectively, were coinciding. The products primarily contained the same surfactants, solvents, acids and bases, while the frequency and concentration with which the substances occurred in consumer products and professional products varied. The most pronounced difference was that the oven cleaners for industrial use were generally more aggressive as almost all of them were strongly alkaline (containing sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide at concentrations of up to 30 %). The pH values of these products were typically between 13 and 14. Table 2.5 shows the classification of the identified products for industrial use.
Of the 14 oven cleaners for industrial use, 11 products were classified as corrosive and 2 were classified as irritant. For comparison, only 1 of the 5 oven cleaners identified on the retail market was classified as corrosive (Table 2.1). For cleaning products for industrial use, the supplier is obliged to prepare a safety data sheet. This SDS includes information on correct handling of the product and potential use of personal protective equipment. In companies working with dangerous substances and materials, the employer is under obligation to prepare workplace instructions and distribute these to the employees together with instructions in correct and safe use. Employees handling dangerous substances and materials should thus always be informed about the way in which the products should be handled and the personal protective equipment that must be used. For products sold in retail shops, the consumers may read information on the use and safe handling of the product together with environmental and health hazards on the product label.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||