For the sake of your health and that of the aquatic environment, get to know what’s in your dishwashing liquid.

It may seem innocuous enough; a little squirt of soap, a few wafts of “orchard burst” or “honeysuckle rain,” some bubbles to clean the plates and then it’s all gone, down the drain, all that remains are the squeaky clean dishes. Except that’s not exactly the case. Unfortunately, something as innocent seeming as dish soap has a dark side: potentially significant hazards to human health and the planet.

Of the 324 “hand washing detergents” listed on Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) Healthy Cleaning Database, 53 scored an F.1 I went through those products with an eye toward earmarking the most worrisome ingredients and found the following ingredients, all of which scored an F, which means "the product is highly toxic or makes little to no ingredient disclosure".

And keep in mind, these are just the Fs, which excludes some of the ingredients that already have a bad reputation like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, which gets a C, or the mystery grab bag known as the catchall “fragrance” which gets a D. (How do you capture the smell of an orchard burst, anyway?) Here's what I found.

Specific ingredients of highest concern:
Cocamide DEA: Concerns include cancer, chronic aquatic toxicity, acute aquatic toxicity.

DMDM Hydantoin: Concerns include chemical release (formaldehyde in this case), irritation of the skin or eyes, pulmonary problems.

Ethanolamine: Concerns include respiratory effects, general systemic/organ effects, chronic aquatic toxicity, nervous system effects, skin irritation/allergies/damage.

Formaldehyde: Concerns include cancer, general systemic/organ effects, respiratory effects, skin irritation/allergies/damage, acute aquatic toxicity.

Sodium Borate: Concerns include developmental/endocrine/reproductive effects, skin irritation/allergies/damage, respiratory effects.

Sulfuric Acid: Concerns include cancer, respiratory effects, skin irritation/allergies/damage.

Triclosan: Concerns include chronic aquatic toxicity, acute aquatic toxicity, general ecotoxicity, developmental/endocrine/reproductive effects, cancer, immune system effects, organ effects, nervous system effects, skin irritation/allergies, eye irritation, cardiac and skeletal muscle impairment. Good times!