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Cleaning products: a risk for health and the environment. ABE-RTS Other videos from A Bon Entendeur on Youtube: http://bit.ly/2ljx9ve ABE looked at detergents for bathrooms and toilets. Are the substances they contain harmful to health? What is their environmental impact? Can we trust labels that claim to be environmentally friendly? Vincent Perret, a toxicology specialist, is categorical: for good cleaning, nothing beats a simple detergent and an acid for descaling. He warns us against all these products and their effects on our health. Professor Didier Pittet, head physician of the HUG infection prevention and control department, explains that by cleaning vigorously we remove more bacteria than by spraying cleaning products. Moreover, the sales pitch "eliminates 99.9% of bacteria" is neither desirable nor possible! The widespread use of disinfectant cleaning products can indeed lead to bacterial resistance. A bacteria that is more resistant to antiseptics risks becoming a bacteria that is also resistant to antibiotics! Ultimately, the residues from cleaning products end up in wastewater. The program was recorded at the Aïre WWTP in Geneva. Manuelle Pernoud met Hervé Guinand, Director of Quality, Health, Safety and Environment at Services Industriels Genevois, to talk about the improvements planned soon in a number of Geneva wastewater treatment plants. ABE also takes you to Penthaz in the canton of Vaud to visit the first WWTP in French-speaking Switzerland capable of filtering micropollutants. ABE asked the National Institute for Consumer Affairs (INC) to evaluate 22 cleaning products for toilets and bathrooms purchased in Swiss stores. The INC has developed the Ménag'Score, a new tool that is similar to the Nutri'Score. This tool classifies household products according to the risks associated with the substances they contain for both health and the environment. A rating system that the Institute would like to impose at European level on each package.