The inside dish on dish soap: discover the dirty little secret about most conventional dishwashing liquids--and how to clean up your kitchen with natural alternatives.(PERSONAL CARE: ECO-HOME)

Dirty dishes. Just when you've got them all washed, they begin to pile up again. But washing dishes is more than a never-ending chore; it can also be bad for your health. Like other household cleaning products, dishwashing detergents don't have to list their ingredients, yet the grimy truth is that many conventional products contain petroleum-based compounds like sodium lauryl sulfate and diethanolamine (DEA). Sure, these ingredients will give you a sinkful of suds, but they can also combine to create cancer-causing substances known as nitrosamines. If that weren't worrisome enough, liquid dishwashing products also throw in formaldehyde-releasing preservatives like DMDM hydantoin. Formaldehyde is a probable carcinogen that irritates the skin and respiratory tract.

Why Antibacterial Is Not Better

Dishwashing liquids don't just wash away the grease and gunk that coat your dishes. Many of today's detergents also eradicate harmful bacteria with ingredients like triclosan. The problem is that while triclosan effectively kills these nasty microbes, it also stays in the environment--converting to a dioxin when in water and exposed to sunlight--and can cause the formation of chloroform in your kitchen sink, if your water has been treated with chlorine. According to Stuart Levy, professor of molecular biology and microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, scientists are also worried that the overuse of antibacterial products could cause some bacteria to become resistant and might even interfere with the immune system in humans.

Dishwasher Woes

Automatic dishwashing detergents aren't much better. One key ingredient in these powerful cleaners is the chemical sodium hypochlorite (chlorine bleach). An environmental pollutant, it's responsible for those acrid fumes coming from your dishwasher and can damage both the skin and eyes. The chlorinated chemical is also released into the air when you open your ...