Cleaning Up Some Misconceptions About New York's Laundry Detergent Ban

Earlier this year, the news was rampant with misleading stories that New York became the first state in the union to ban certain laundry detergents for containing 1,4-Dioxane after a third-party lab conducted testing on certain detergents. Fuel was added to the fire as reports of this "laundry detergent ban" spread quickly across social media such as TikTok. Despite the claims being made by social media influencers, New York did not ban any laundry detergent products. Rather, effective, January 1, 2022, New York amended its Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) Articles 35 and 37 to establish limits on the amount of 1,4-Dioxane that is permitted to be present in household cleaning, personal care, and cosmetic products sold or offered for sale in New York.