Safer Choice is EPA’s label for safer chemical-based products. Every chemical, regardless of percentage, in a Safer Choice-certified product is evaluated through EPA’s rigorous scientific process and only the safest ingredients are allowed. For over 15 years, the program has certified products that are safer for families, pets, workplaces, neighborhoods, and the environment. The label represents leadership in safer product formulation. Here are some of the reasons why:

• To be eligible for the label, a product must comply with the Safer Choice Standard, which has very stringent human health and environmental criteria. The Standard incorporates safer chemical criteria for individual component class ingredients, like surfactants, solvents, and chelants.
• To help formulate products with safer ingredients and to increase transparency and understanding of safer ingredients, Safer Choice developed the Safer Chemical Ingredients List, which contains over 950 chemicals that meet Safer Choice criteria.
• Safer Choice reviews all ingredients in a product—no exceptions, no de minimis—against safer ingredient pass/fail criteria and thresholds. Safer Choice-certified products contain only the safest possible ingredients.
• In EPA’s product evaluation, it can and does go beyond prohibiting ingredients based on lists of chemicals of concern and applies analytical methods—developed at EPA to compensate for a lack of toxicological data—to prevent the use of problematic chemicals that have not made it to a list.
• Executive Order 13693 directs Federal agencies to select Safer Choice-certified products whenever possible. Safer Choice is also mandated by many state and municipal purchasers and is included in the LEED EB standard for maintenance in green buildings.
• Safer Choice is a partnership program that harnesses the energy and creativity of product formulators, and especially small businesses, to innovate with products that work and are safer for people and the planet.
• Safer Choice directs formulators to green chemistry alternatives before awarding the label and, under the terms of partnership, requires continuous product improvement to keep pace with innovation.
• Companies must make their formulary commitments in a signed written agreement with EPA, under which false statements constitute criminally punishable fraud. EPA also has an auditing program that includes annual audits to verify product ingredients.
• Safer Choice requires a first-of-its-kind ingredient disclosure for all products—either on the label or another easily accessible place—that will make the safer chemistry aspects of certified products more visible.
• EPA’s sole mission is to protect human health and the environment. It is sworn to fulfill that mission, uphold the public’s trust; and is accountable to the American people. [Source: EPA, Public Domain]