Gossip.
If there are elderly people in the family, you may often hear reminders that you should never use dish soap when washing dishes, otherwise the consequences can be serious, ranging from infertility to cancer.
If you check it again on the Internet, you will find that such a statement is really quite common, and many ** have also had official reports, and the investigation found that the formaldehyde of some dish soaps exceeds the standard.
Analyse. Why does formaldehyde appear in dish soap?
This is mainly related to the formula of dish soap.
Contrary to many people's intuition, dish soap usually does not serve a sterilizing function, especially in the early years. Because people use dish soap to remove grease from dishes, and to achieve this, only surfactants need to be included.
Surfactants are a class of substances that can be combined with both oil and water, and with them, oil and water achieve "water melting". There are many types of surfactants, from the most basic sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate to the advanced sodium methyl ester sulfonate, and it is not difficult to find a variety with low toxicity and low toxicity in the face of thousands of options.
In addition to surfactants, it is usually only necessary to add some fragrance to adjust the smell, and a dish soap is made.
However, the biggest risk of this dish soap is that it is easy to breed bacteria. Until now, when the market surveillance conducts random inspections of the dish soap category, excessive bacterial count is still the most common problem.
Formaldehyde is also used in this context, because as we all know, the aqueous solution of formaldehyde is called *** and is a particularly useful preservative. In the era of imperfect regulations, the use of formaldehyde to preserve and sterilize detergent has become the basic operation of many low-end detergents.
There is a standard for the formaldehyde content of dish soap.
However, the toxicity of formaldehyde cannot be ignored. Therefore, the problem of excessive formaldehyde was quickly noticed, and relevant regulations were gradually introduced and improved.
National Standard GB 194301 is a specification issued for detergents, which has the effect of enforcement. The 1994 version of this standard is called "Hygienic Standard for Detergents for Food Tools and Equipment", which does not refer to formaldehyde (and methanol associated with formaldehyde). In 2015, the standard that had not changed for more than 20 years was significantly adjusted, and the title was changed to "Detergent", which specifically added methanol and formaldehyde standards.
According to the classification in the standard, detergents are divided into class A and class B, class A can be used to directly clean food, class B is used to clean dishes, and the "dish soap" in daily life actually belongs to class B detergent. In Class A detergents, the content of methanol and formaldehyde must not exceed 005%, and category B is required not to exceed 01%。
In GB 19430In the updated 1-2022 edition of the standard, the detection limits for methanol and formaldehyde follow the figures from the previous edition.
Therefore, as long as it is a genuine dish soap, the possibility of excessive formaldehyde in the product is very low, and there is no need to worry too much.
No formaldehyde, dish soap.
How to ensure the antibacterial performance?
In fact, there are many types of new antimicrobials. In accordance with GB 194301-2022 requires, preservatives in detergents, to meet the scope of GB 22115-2008 "Specification for Raw Materials for Toothpaste". In other words, as long as the preservatives that can be used in toothpaste, they can be used in dish soap, including the well-known triclocarban, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, etc. The preservatives here are mainly to have the effect of sterilization and antibacterial.
It is worth noting that after years of development, some new surfactants have also had preservative effects, especially quaternary ammonium surfactants, such as benzalkonium chloride and benzalkonium bromide, which are also included in the preservatives allowed to be used in toothpaste. Therefore, for today's detergent products, it is technically easy to achieve the function of antiseptic without formaldehyde.
Conclusion. According to the national standard for detergents, the formaldehyde content of Class B detergents such as detergent is required to be no more than 01% 。Therefore, as long as it is a genuine dish soap, the possibility of excessive formaldehyde in the product is very low, and there is no need to worry too much.
*From: Scientific refutation of rumors.