NY's Expanded Ingredient Disclosure Requirements For Cleaning Products

In New York, the requirement that manufacturers disclose chemical ingredients contained in cleaning products can be traced to 1970 when the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) was amended to grant the newly formed Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) authority to regulate certain household products, ECL § 35-0107. This legislation was primarily directed to protecting water quality by prohibiting phosphorus in consumer laundry detergents and dishwasher products, but it also prohibited the sale of household cleaning products unless the manufacturer "furnish[ed]" to the DEC "information regarding such products in a form prescribed by [DEC]." Two years later, the DEC adopted regulations which parroted the language of the ECL, 6 N.Y.C.R.R. Part 659. These rules, which have been modified only once since the 1970s, mandate that manufacturers furnish lists of ingredients to DEC. For several decades, the DEC's activity in this area was limited to intermittent attempts