Cleansing Product Information Disclosure Program — Recommended Best Management Practices

Overview

This is the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NY DEC) Recommended Best Management Practices (BMP) document for household-cleansing-product information disclosure. The BMPs operationalise the statutory disclosure requirement at 6 NYCRR Part 659.6, which is authorised by Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) Article 35 and which requires “manufacturers of household cleansing products distributed, sold, or offered for sale” in New York State to “furnish to the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation … such information regarding such products as the Commissioner may require, in such form as may be prescribed by the Commissioner,” including “a list naming each ingredient,” “the content by weight of each ingredient,” and “the nature and extent of investigations and research performed by or for the manufacturer concerning the effects on human health and the environment of such product[s] or such ingredients” (statute text quoted at p. 1, Purpose and Background). The regulation permits Confidential Business Information (CBI) to be withheld from disclosure subject to procedural protections at 6 NYCRR 616.7.

The document is the working guidance instrument after the NYS Supreme Court declared DEC’s predecessor “Program Policy on Household Cleansing Product Information Disclosure” null and void (Household & Commercial Products Association v. Seggos, August 2020 ruling). DEC maintains the BMP document as recommended practice while moving forward to implement the underlying statute and regulation (Purpose and Background, p. 1). DEC’s determination is that the most efficient, cost-effective, and accessible disclosure venue is the manufacturer’s own website, posted “in a manner that is obvious, noticeable and readily accessible, via the internet, to both DEC and the public” (p. 1).

Heavy-metal relevance is concentrated in two structural features. First, the BMP framework defines a four-class ingredient taxonomy — “intentionally added ingredients,” “fragrance ingredients,” “nonfunctional byproducts,” and “nonfunctional contaminants” (Section A.2 Covered Products and Definitions, pp. 2–4) — that explicitly captures heavy metals under the nonfunctional contaminant category, defined as “a chemical present in the environment as a contaminant which was introduced into a product, a raw material, or a product ingredient at any point in a product, a raw material, or an ingredient’s supply chain, as a result of the use of an environmental medium, such as a naturally occurring mineral, air, soil or water, in the manufacturing process” (p. 4). Second, Section A.3 (pp. 4–7) sets numerical disclosure thresholds for nonfunctional contaminants below trace levels via a five-step hierarchy of threshold sources, the highest-ranked of which is the NY DOH Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for drinking water, followed by EPA pre-MCL drinking-water values for 1,4-dioxane (350 ppt) and PFOA/PFOS combined (70 ppt), then the CA Prop 65 warning trigger level for chemicals on the Prop 65 list, then a default 50 ppb for any chemical not covered by the preceding levels (Section A.3.b, p. 6). Heavy metals appearing on any of the 23 Appendix B “Lists of Chemicals of Concern” — which include NY DOH MCLs (Pb, cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr) among heavy metals), CA MCLs, CA Prop 65, IRIS Neurotoxicants (Pb, Hg), IRIS Carcinogens (As, Cd, hexavalent chromium (Cr-VI), nickel (Ni) compounds), ATSDR Neurotoxicants (Pb, mercury (Hg), As, Cd, Mn), US EPA Priority Chemicals List (Pb, Cd, Hg, Cr-VI compounds), WA PBTs (Cd, lead (Pb), Hg compounds), IARC Carcinogens (As, Cd, Cr-VI, Ni compounds in Groups 1/2A/2B), US NTP Carcinogens (As, Cd, Cr-VI, Ni compounds), Marine Priority Action Chemicals (Pb, Cd, Hg), and others (Appendix B, pp. 17–19) — fall within the disclosure umbrella at the threshold determined by the highest-ranked applicable list.

The BMP document is held in the Heavy Metal Index corpus as the primary record of New York State’s recommended disclosure framework for household cleansing products and as the regulatory-context citation for the heavy-metal disclosure thresholds that the framework establishes for cleaning-product manufacturers selling into the New York market.

Key numbers

The document reports no contamination measurements. The reportable quantitative content is the set of numerical thresholds, ingredient-classification cuts, and disclosure-hierarchy values that the BMPs establish for the disclosure framework.

Section A.3 Confidential Business Information and Extent of Disclosure — nonfunctional contaminant disclosure thresholds (pp. 6–7)

Threshold hierarchy for a nonfunctional contaminant present below trace levels but above the practical quantitation limit (PQL) and on one or more Appendix B chemicals-of-concern lists. The applicable threshold is selected by the highest-ranked source from the following:

The BMP text additionally lists exceptions: trace nonfunctional ingredients not on an Appendix B list need not be disclosed (Section A.3.c, p. 7), and knowledge of nonfunctional ingredients may be based on raw-material supplier information without requiring independent chemical analysis by the manufacturer (p. 7).

Section A.3 — trace-quantity statutory definitions (p. 6)

Appendix E — consolidated Table of New York Disclosure Levels (p. 22)

The summary table consolidates the disclosure thresholds by ingredient class:

“Other” in this table means any chemical not on any of the Appendix B chemicals-of-concern lists.

Section A.3 — fragrance grouping ranges for CBI fragrance ingredients < 100 ppm (p. 5)

A manufacturer withholding fragrance ingredients as CBI (each < 100 ppm and not on an Appendix B list) may group them and disclose the number of withheld fragrances in one of the following ranges: 1–5; 5–10; 10–25; 25–50; 50–100; or over 100.

Section B.3 — product information and disclosure hierarchy levels (pp. 9–10)

Two distinct disclosure-level hierarchies must be displayed using HTML headings on the manufacturer’s website. Each level above and equal to the level achieved must also be displayed. (Section B.2 “Product Information” at pp. 8–9 establishes the required HTML heading structure for the product name, UPC, GS1 brick category, and product description; the level hierarchies reproduced here are under Section B.3 “Extent of Disclosure” at pp. 9–10.)

Section C.1 — phased-in disclosure-effective-date schedule (p. 14)

The BMP recommends a phased-in approach. The recommended sequence is:

Section C.2 — update cadence (p. 15)

Manufacturers should update disclosures (i) each time a product’s ingredients change, (ii) when a new product is introduced, or (iii) when a list of chemicals of concern is updated by its authoritative body — in the last case no later than six months after adoption of the revised list. Legacy data for discontinued products should be posted for two years post-discontinuation. All other disclosed information should be reviewed at least once every two years and updated as necessary.

Appendix A — GS1 GPC brick codes covered by the program (p. 16)

The program covers retail and commercial products meeting the surfactant-cleaning definition that are classified under the listed GS1 Global Product Classification (GPC) brick codes, plus retail/commercial/institutional products meeting the definition that would fall under those bricks if classified. The 24 brick codes are:

Appendix B — Lists of Chemicals of Concern (pp. 17–19)

23 authoritative lists are referenced. Heavy-metal-relevant lists (heavy metals expected to appear) are flagged in the right column.

Appendix C — Globally Harmonized System (GHS) hazard characteristics required to be disclosed (p. 20)

The product-level hazard-class disclosure list. Five GHS hazard characteristics named:

Appendix D — Short List of Chemicals of Concern (p. 21)

36 chemicals listed as the short list of chemicals of concern. No heavy metals appear on this short list — the list is dominated by organic compounds (1,4-dioxane, 1,1-dichloroethane, acrylic acid, benzene, benzidine, 1,3-butadiene, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, ethylene oxide, nitrilotriacetic acid, eight phthalates including DBP/BBP/DEHP/DnOP/DINP/DIDP/DiBP/Dioctyl, five parabens including butyl/ethyl/isobutyl/methyl/propyl, formaldehyde and five formaldehyde-releasing agents including 1-(3-chloroallyl)-3,5,7-triaza-1-azoniaadamantane chloride / DMDM hydantoin / diazolidinyl urea / glyoxal / imidazolidinyl urea / polyoxymethylene urea / sodium hydroxymethylglycinate / 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol, two N-nitrosamines including N-nitrosodimethylamine / N-nitrosodiethylamine, and PFOA + PFOS).

Statutory definitions (Section A.2, pp. 2–6)

Methods (brief)

Not applicable. This is a state-agency Best Management Practices guidance document, not an experimental or surveillance study. There is no sampling, no analytical instrumentation, no contamination measurements. The “method” content of the document is its specification of:

• Website-disclosure form requirements (Section A.1, pp. 1–2): main-website posting; one-click from home page; web page no more than four clicks from home; readily accessible to all users with no registration or CAPTCHA; machine-readable per Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.0 (ISO/IEC 40500:2012); English required, multi-language encouraged; per-product disclosure for products with different formulations (including different fragrances); shared disclosure permitted for products with identical formulations differing only in package size.
• Ingredient-classification taxonomy (Section A.2, pp. 2–6): four classes (intentionally added; fragrance; nonfunctional byproduct; nonfunctional contaminant), with statutory definitions.
• CBI claim procedures (Section A.3, pp. 4–7): CBI as defined in 6 NYCRR 616.7; procedural justification standard; generic-name framework from TSCA Confidential Inventory, ECHA guidance, NJ Trade Secret Registry Number, or Canadian Hazardous Materials Information Review Act for ingredients held as CBI; CBI fragrance < 100 ppm not on Appendix B may be grouped and disclosed as count ranges.
• PQL determination methodology is referenced but not specified in the BMP itself; PQL “value is based on scientifically defensible, standard analytical methods” and “could be different depending on the matrix and the analytical method used” (p. 4). The downstream TCCP draft for children’s products (Toxic Chemicals in Children's Products Program: Chemicals and Practical Quantitation Limits Under Consideration (Draft Update, Feb. 2023)) sets explicit PQLs for the heavy metals (e.g., Pb at 1.0 ppm, Cd at 1.0 ppm, total mercury (tHg) at 0.5 ppm, Cr-VI at 3.0 ppm, Ni at 0.05 ppm) under a sister NY DEC program that operates under ECL § 37-0901; those PQLs are not directly imported by the present cleansing-product BMP but illustrate the kind of PQL that would be applied here under the same analytical-methods-defensibility standard.
• Threshold-source ranking algorithm (Section A.3.b, pp. 5–7) for nonfunctional contaminants: NY DOH MCL → 1,4-dioxane special case (350 ppt) → PFOA/PFOS special case (70 ppt combined) → CA Prop 65 trigger → 50 ppb default.

Speciation. The document does not name individual heavy-metal species or set element-specific speciation conventions. The cross-referenced lists handle speciation according to their own conventions (e.g., CA Prop 65 distinguishes Pb from lead compounds, arsenic from inorganic arsenic and arsenic trioxide; IRIS Carcinogens distinguishes Cr-VI from total Cr; ATSDR Neurotoxicants treats Pb and Hg without further species qualification at the list-membership level).

Basis. All concentration values in the BMP are expressed on a finished-product weight basis (ppm of finished product, ppb of finished product, ppt of finished product). The 1,4-dioxane (350 ppt) and PFOA/PFOS (70 ppt combined) special-case values are drawn from EPA drinking-water-concentration assessments and are applied to the cleansing product in its sold form. The default 50 ppb is also a finished-product concentration. The trace-quantity statutory definitions (0.1 % for intentionally added, 0.5 % for nonfunctional) are weight percentages of the finished product.

Implications

• The BMP document is the primary record of New York State’s recommended cleansing-product disclosure framework as it operates after the August 2020 NYS Supreme Court ruling that struck down the predecessor DEC Program Policy. It anchors the regulatory-context layer of HMI’s household-cleaning-product matrix for the US-NY jurisdiction. The underlying statute (ECL Article 35) and regulation (6 NYCRR Part 659.6) remain in force; DEC’s working guidance for compliance is this BMP document until a successor Program Policy or rule is promulgated.
• The BMP establishes the only US state-level mandatory disclosure framework specifically targeting nonfunctional contaminants (which includes heavy metals introduced via environmental media such as mineral, air, soil, water during manufacturing) in household cleansing products. The five-step threshold hierarchy (NY DOH MCL → 1,4-dioxane 350 ppt → PFOA/PFOS 70 ppt → CA Prop 65 trigger → 50 ppb default) sets the practical concentration floor at which a manufacturer must publicly disclose the presence of a heavy-metal contaminant on the manufacturer’s website, provided the heavy metal in question appears on one of the 23 Appendix B chemicals-of-concern lists. Where a NY DOH drinking-water MCL exists for a heavy metal (Pb, Cd, As, Cr, Hg are MCL-regulated under 10 NYCRR Subpart 5-1.52, with Pb additionally governed by the federal Lead and Copper Rule action-level framework), the MCL value sets the floor; the BMP does not enumerate the element-specific MCL values, deferring to the cross-referenced 10 NYCRR Subpart 5-1.52 Tables 1, 3, 3A, and 7 for the numeric values. Where no MCL exists but the metal appears on the CA Prop 65 list (Ni compounds, additional As and Cd species), the CA Prop 65 warning trigger sets the floor. Where neither an MCL nor a Prop 65 trigger applies, the 50 ppb default applies.
• The “nonfunctional contaminant” definition (Section A.2, p. 4) is the operationally important category for HMI synthesis: heavy metals introduced into a cleansing product via a naturally occurring mineral, air, soil, or water used in the manufacturing process fall squarely within this category. The BMP framework requires disclosure of these contaminants where they appear on the cross-referenced lists at or above the hierarchy-determined threshold.
• The BMP excludes personal care items (toothpaste, shampoo, hand soap), foods, drugs, cosmetics, pesticides, and industrial-process cleansing products from scope. HMI’s personal-care matrix is governed by separate state and federal frameworks; this BMP does not extend disclosure obligations to those product classes.
• The BMP does not propose HMTc-relevant threshold values for any heavy metal in any matrix. No threshold values are proposed by this source page.

Limitations

• No original measurements. The BMP is a procedural disclosure-framework document, not an experimental or surveillance study. No sample sizes, no analytical methods (other than the WCAG accessibility and the references to PQL methodology in Section A.3), no concentration values for any heavy-metal contaminant in any covered product, no detection frequencies.
• No heavy metal is named explicitly in the BMP text. Heavy-metal applicability is established indirectly through the Appendix B references to authoritative lists (CA Prop 65, IRIS, NTP, ATSDR, NY DOH MCLs, CA MCLs, WA PBTs, IARC, etc.) that themselves include heavy metals. The BMP does not enumerate which Appendix B list members are heavy metals, nor does it set heavy-metal-specific thresholds; the threshold hierarchy in Section A.3.b is element-neutral.
• Document is undated; publication year imputed. The PDF carries no explicit publication date. The 2020 year is set based on (i) past-tense reference to the August 2020 NYS Supreme Court ruling in the Purpose and Background section, and (ii) the use of EPA pre-MCL drinking-water values for 1,4-dioxane (350 ppt) and PFOA/PFOS (70 ppt combined), which is consistent with pre-July-2020 drafting (NY DOH adopted state MCLs at 1 µg/L for 1,4-dioxane and 10 ppt each for PFOA/PFOS in July/August 2020). The actual publication date may be later than the year recorded here; an HMI session needing the exact date should consult the NY DEC web posting at the access URL or the file metadata.
• Framework is recommended, not binding. The BMP is the working DEC guidance after the predecessor Program Policy was declared null and void. The underlying statute (ECL Article 35) and regulation (6 NYCRR Part 659.6) remain in force, but the specific implementation choices in this BMP document are recommendations DEC asks manufacturers to follow voluntarily, not enforceable mandates. A manufacturer non-compliant with the BMP is not, by that fact alone, in violation of state law; they may still be in violation of the underlying statute’s general disclosure obligation.
• PQL methodology unspecified. The BMP defers to “scientifically defensible, standard analytical methods” without naming methods or instruments. Operational PQLs for heavy metals in cleansing-product matrices vary by chemical and method; the sibling NY DEC TCCP program (Toxic Chemicals in Children's Products Program: Chemicals and Practical Quantitation Limits Under Consideration (Draft Update, Feb. 2023)) sets explicit PQLs for children’s products but those PQLs do not transfer automatically to the present cleansing-product framework.
• Cross-referenced lists evolve. The 23 Appendix B lists, the Appendix D short list, and the GHS hazard categories all change over time as the authoritative bodies revise them. The BMP requires manufacturers to update disclosures within six months of a list revision (Section C.2, p. 15). HMI sessions reading this document should re-verify the current state of any specific list cited.
• Scope is NY-state-specific. The BMP applies to products distributed, sold, or offered for sale in New York State; it does not extend to products sold only in other US jurisdictions. Other states with cleansing-product disclosure regimes (e.g., California SB 258 Cleaning Product Right to Know Act, an explicitly related framework documented in a sibling source folder) operate under their own thresholds and disclosure formats.
• English-only document. The BMP body and appendices are in English. The document encourages but does not require multi-language posting in Spanish and the other ten most common languages spoken in the United States (Section A.1, p. 2).

Provenance

• Source PDF: the archived source file
• SHA-256: cea0eaf499364d9ca28c63a820be66b68d5347b4a469deeaa7fa6498669fff21
• File size: 312 KB; document body Sections A–C on pp. 1–15 plus Appendices A (pp. 16), B (pp. 17–19), C (p. 20), D (p. 21), E (p. 22). Total 22 pages.
• Publisher: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NY DEC), Division of Materials Management or successor bureau responsible for the Household Cleansing Product Information Disclosure Program.
• Programme home page: dec.ny.gov (Cleansing Product Information Disclosure Program landing page).
• Document title (header): “Cleansing Product Information Disclosure Program — Recommended Best Management Practices.”
• Authorising statute: New York Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) Article 35.
• Implementing regulation: 6 NYCRR Part 659.6 (also 6 NYCRR Part 659.1 for definitions and scope).
• Predecessor document: DEC Program Policy on Household Cleansing Product Information Disclosure, declared null and void by NYS Supreme Court (Household & Commercial Products Association v. Seggos, August 2020).
• Related references (per Section VI of the BMP, p. 15): Environmental Conservation Law § 35; 6 NYCRR Part 659.6.
• DOI: none assigned (state-agency guidance document).
• License: U.S. state government publication (NY-state-agency public guidance).
• Access date: 2026-06-03.
• Acquisition path: included in source-retrieval Agent Download Corruption Issue (KADC) folder household_papers/06_Regulatory_EPA_GreenSeal/, alongside the EPA Safer Choice Standard and Master Criteria, three Green Seal standards (GS-37, GS-52, GS-8), four EU Ecolabel documents, the California SB 258 Right to Know summary and factsheet, the Bello et al. occupational-exposure study, the David Suzuki Foundation toxic-chemicals review, the NIOSH HHE hospital-cleaning report, and the WECF Women and Chemicals report.

Related evidence

• EPA's Safer Choice and Design for the Environment (DfE) Standard (August 2024)
• EPA's Safer Choice Program — Master Criteria for Safer Ingredients (Version 2.1, October 2024)
• All-purpose cleaners
• Appliance cleaners (including stainless steel cleaners)
• Automatic dishwasher detergents
• Bathroom/tub/tile cleaners
• Bleaching/whitening additives
• Carpet cleaners
• Carpet spot removers
• Cleaning wipes (household surface wipes)
• Degreasers
• Descalers
• Dish soaps (manual dishwashing)
• Drain maintainers/cleaners (including biological-based)
• Fabric protectants (excluding waterproofing/flame-retardant per GS-48 boundaries)
• Fabric softeners (liquids and sheets)
• Floor cleaners (hard surface)
• Floor finishes & strippers (if included in HMTc scope)
• Other household specialty cleaners (by functional use-case)
• Kitchen/countertop cleaners
• Laundry detergent boosters/additives
• Laundry detergents (liquid, powder, pods/sheets, delicates)
• Laundry prewash products
• Laundry starch/sizing/fabric finish products
• Odor removers for hard surfaces
• Oven/grill/BBQ cleaners
• Pre-treaters (spray/gel/stick) and stand-alone stain/spot removers
• Rinse aids
• Toilet bowl cleaners
• Window/glass/mirror cleaners
• Lead
• Cadmium
• Arsenic
• Mercury
• Chromium, Hexavalent
• Nickel
• The dirt on toxic chemicals in household cleaning products

Update history

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