EPA releases ‘Safer Choice’ label

Washington – Soon, safer products could be easier to find.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently unveiled a new logo to identify products made from safer chemical ingredients.

The Safer Choice label is scheduled to begin appearing on products in late spring and is intended to help consumers, businesses and purchasers find products that are safe for people and the environment. The green and blue label will state the following message: “Safer choice: Meets U.S. EPA safer product standards.”

More than 2,000 products – many of them cleaning products – have qualified for the label. The logo indicates that EPA scientists have evaluated the product’s ingredients based on the agency’s health and safety standards.

One version of the label shows a house and will be geared toward consumers. Another version will be for industrial and institutional products. A third version will identify fragrance-free products.

Companies can voluntarily meet the Safer Choice standard. Beyond having safer ingredients, a labeled product also meets requirements for performance, packaging, pH, and volatile organic compounds, according to EPA.

EPA gathered input from stakeholders and members of the public about the logo for more than a year.