It’s no secret that environmental awareness has finally gone mainstream. One area where this is increasingly apparent is green cleaning products. In the past year or two, my local big box retailers have moved the Seventh Generation cleaners out of what my Rush Limbaugh-loving father would consider the “hippie foods” section and incorporated them alongside their popular-since-the-Hoover-administration counterparts in the heart of the store. Not wanting to be left out, familiar brands like Clorox have started selling new products sporting new labels that tout a commitment to natural ingredients and enviro-friendliness. And while these changes are, of course, a sign of progress, the modern world has made me a bit of a cynic, so I can’t help eyeing them with a dose of skepticism.

My wariness is warranted. With so many companies jumping on the green bandwagon, how can we separate the real thing from the green sheen?

The problem is that’s not an easy question to answer. Terms like “nontoxic,” “natural,” and “environmentally friendly” can be nearly meaningless, since there’s no standard definition nor governing organization verifying these claims. After all, lots of things that occur in nature can still be harmful. Mercury is natural, but I wouldn’t recommend taking a swim in it. Even the word “biodegradable” is misleading. Just about everything biodegrades eventually, if you’ve got enough time to wait.

To combat these concerns, organizations like Green Seal and EcoLogo have developed standards to certify products that are scientifically deemed safer and more eco-friendly. (You can find their standards, as well as lists of products that meet them, on their web sites.) The Environmental Protection Agency’s Design for the Environment (or DfE) program also formally recognizes products that use the safest ingredients in their class. So if you see any of the following seals on an allegedly “green” product, you can feel confident there’s some validity to the claim.

It seems nothing is ever simple, however. Seeing a trusted seal on a label is helpful, but if something marked as “green” isn’t certified, does that mean the label is a lie?

Not necessarily. At the moment, all certification processes are voluntary. Not every manufacturer seeks certification, and some manufacturers even question their value. For example, Seventh Generation (one of the original and arguably best known environmentally friendly product manufacturers) worked with the EPA as it developed the DfE program, but actually chose not to participate because they believe their own standards are more stringent. Other companies, like Method (whose cute minimalist packaging won me over far before it even occurred to me to question my bathroom cleaner’s environmental impact), have sought out one certification but not bothered with the others. And if you’re curious, the aforementioned Clorox Green Works products are on the Green Seal and DfE lists, but I couldn’t find them on EcoLogo’s site. (Note: There are many, many more brands bearing these stamps of approval, of course. I mention these three by name only because they are among the ones most readily available at the places nearly all of us shop.)

So in the absence of any universally enforced standards, how can we tell just which products in the cleaning aisle are the safest and most earth-friendly choices to make? The obvious answer is to check the label, but how do we know what to look for?

First, get familiar with warning words. Any cleaner that contains known hazardous chemicals must carry a warning label, but these watch words don’t all come from the same thesaurus entry. “Danger” carries a stronger caveat than “Caution” or “Warning,” but all three can mean a range of things. Scan for specifics and take sensible precautions to avoid injury or adverse health effects.

That one may be a no-brainer. Scanning the ingredients list is more complicated. Even a teeny bit of research on greening your cleaning routine turns up a text book’s worth of hard-to-pronounce and harder to spell chemicals to avoid. Here are some of the ones that come up the most, though:

• Alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs) and Nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs): Found in detergents, stain removers, and disinfectants. Can act as hormone disrupters, potentially threatening the reproductive functioning of fish and other animals.
• Ammonia: Poisonous when swallowed; extremely irritating to respiratory passages; can burn skin on contact.
• Antibacterial products: Some can cause skin and eye irritation; those containing triclosan may be contributing to the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the environment.
• Butyl cellosolve (also known as butyl glycol, ethylene glycol, monobutyl): Found in glass cleaners and all-purpose cleaners; poisonous when swallowed, and irritant to lung tissue as well.
• Chlorine bleach (a.k.a. sodium hypochlorite): Can irritate the lungs and eyes. If mixed with ammonia, it produces a poisonous gas.
• Diethanolamine (DEA) & triethanolamine (TEA): Found in sudsing products such as detergents and cleaners. Can combine with nitrosomes (which are oft-undisclosed preservatives) to produce carcinogenic compounds that can penetrate the skin.
• Phosphates: Used in automatic dishwasher detergents and some laundry detergents; they soften water, but also contribute to the overgrowth of algae and aquatic weeds in waterways, which can kill off fish and other aquatic life.
• Sodium hydroxide (lye): Found in drain cleaners, metal cleaners, and oven cleaners; corrosive and extremely irritating to eyes, nose, and throat, and can burn those tissues on contact. (We’ve actually talked about this one once before.)

I’m guessing many of you won’t be any better at memorizing that list than I am, but Seventh Generation has a cool tool that can help. If your phone is fancier than mine is, you can download a comprehensive label-reading guide as a mobile app. (If you’re old school, with low-end technology like me, there’s also a PDF version to peruse or print and save.) And if you want to search an extensive list of label lingo, Consumer Reports’ Greener Choices is a great resource.