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All SC Johnson product ingredients go through a hazard assessment to determine the amount that can be used safely

The SC Johnson Greenlist™ Program Sets Standards for Safe: An Excerpt from Our 2017 Sustainability Report

SC Johnson assesses every ingredient it uses to determine how much is and is not safe. 
SC Johnson considers the broadest likely use of a product, and goes beyond that, in selecting what ingredients to use and at what level.
Any potential ingredient on Earth – including oxygen and water – can be toxic at a high enough amount. And at a low enough exposure, everything is safe. So, every ingredient in an SC Johnson product must be assessed to determine how much is and is not safe. There are industry standards for safety, of course. But at SC Johnson, we go further.

We start with a hazard assessment using the information from our ongoing data collection. When there’s a potential hazard, we evaluate the ingredient to determine at what concentration it could be used, if at all, without any known adverse effects to human health or the environment. That’s the safe level.

Then, we conduct an additional assessment focused on exposure. SC Johnson scientists look at how a product is intended to be used and how it might be used by consumers. We consider the broadest likely use, and go beyond that, in selecting what ingredients we will use and at what level.

As an example, for a cleaning product most likely to be used once a week, we take it many steps further. We review what the level of exposure to an ingredient may be, assuming it is used not just once, but many more times in one day. 

We also consider the variety of ways in which consumers may use or come into contact with a product, such as a glass cleaning product used on a kitchen counter to prepare food. We consider all of those usage scenarios, and will multiply them out even further to create an even greater, more conservative safety factor. 

In each scenario, our goal is to determine the conservative “safer than safe” level. Then, that becomes the allowable concentration for SC Johnson scientists to continue product development.
Any potential ingredient on Earth can be toxic at a high enough amount. So, every ingredient in an SC Johnson product must be assessed.

Evaluating Hazard

Our assessment starts with a hazard assessment:

  • Hazard Identification – Using Greenlist™ criteria, determine if there are any hazards that need to be assessed, e.g., is an ingredient toxic to humans or the environment?
  • Response Determination – Using Greenlist™ data sources (from suppliers and publicly available data), determine how much of the ingredient can be used with no effect.

Applying to Product Development

Based on the completed evaluation, we set the highest concentration of the ingredient that is allowable in the product. This information is then used by SC Johnson scientists for new product development and improvements to existing products.

To understand the next step of SC Johnson’s Greenlist™ program, read about our four-step evaluation for hazard and risk.

2017 Sustainability Report
For more than 25 years, we’ve led our industry in transparency by publicly reporting SC Johnson’s environmental efforts and impact. Now, see our latest results.
See the Report

GreenlistExplaining the SC Johnson Greenlist™ Program: An Excerpt from Our 2017 Sustainability Report

GreenlistThe SC Johnson Greenlist™ Program Starts with Data: An Excerpt from Our 2017 Sustainability Report

Fisk JohnsonInformed Choices: A Letter from SC Johnson’s Chairman and CEO about Our 2017 Sustainability Report

TransparencyTrust from a Tradition of Transparency: A Q&A from SC Johnson’s 2017 Sustainability Report

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IngredientsSC Johnson Expands Fragrance Ingredient Disclosure, Continues to Lead Industry in Ingredient Transparency

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