Household Toxicology

EN 100 Lab 4 – Household Toxicology

Note: please type directly on this document for this lab – you’ll need to adjust your tables for some of the products.

1.) Choose 10 products from your home or apartment. The products you choose should be a combination of cleaning (dish/clothes washing, disinfectants, etc.), personal care (soap, shampoo, deodorant, cosmetics, tooth paste, etc.), and non-prescription medications (NOT food products).

2.) Now read this article: https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/decoding-product-labels#:~:text=The%20FDA%20requires%20that%20makers,to%20their%20amounts%2C%20in%20general.

List one thing you learned regarding how to read chemical labels on products:

3.) Identify and write down the active ingredients from the labels on the products you chose (active ingredients are often labelled separately, but not always) in the table below. Add more lines for each product if you need them.

4.) Using the search bar at the following websites, read the information you can find for each active ingredient, and type a brief description of its toxicity in your own words into the table below. Be sure to include any acute or chronic health effects, and whether the ingredient has any carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic properties. If there are no known toxic concerns, write “none” in the description.

https://medlineplus.gov/

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

https://www.whatsinproducts.com/

5.) Finally, I want you to rank your 10 products from the most toxic to the least toxic, based on your data from your research. Explain your opinion in four or more sentences.

Name of Product 1:

Active Ingredient	Description of toxicity

Name of Product 2:

Active Ingredient	Description of toxicity

Name of Product 3:

Active Ingredient	Description of toxicity

Name of Product 4:

Active Ingredient	Description of toxicity

Name of Product 5:

Active Ingredient	Description of toxicity

Name of Product 6:

Active Ingredient	Description of toxicity

Name of Product 7:

Active Ingredient	Description of toxicity

Name of Product 8:

Active Ingredient	Description of toxicity

Name of Product 9:

Active Ingredient	Description of toxicity

Name of Product 10:

Active Ingredient	Description of toxicity

Ranking of Products (with 1 being the most toxic):

Ranking	Product
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Explanation of ranking: