Why my Black Friday purchase is giving me anxiety

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I was thinking about high efficiency, top loading, clean clothes and Black Friday pricing when I bought my new washer and dryer to replace our old appliances — not an exacerbated case of anxiety.

As the delivery men were hauling the washer into my tiny laundry room, I snapped a photo of the model number on a silver square in a spot on the machine that I’d likely never see again once installed. As I checked my photo, the words “Warning: Cancer and Reproductive Harm • www.p65Warnings.ca.gov” jumped into view.

A pit formed in my stomach — what am I to do with a washer and dryer with this warning? How had I purchased something that may cause cancer and brought it into our home? The delivery men knew nothing about it. And after many phone calls, the store we made the purchase at claimed to know nothing.

The representative from machine manufacturer could not tell me what to worry about. “Will use of the machines cause us to inhale toxic fumes?” I asked. “Is it a problem touching the surface of the machine?”

His response: “Don’t worry about it.”

“Is it a 1-star warning or a 4-star alarm?” I prodded.

They would not give me any insight as to whether these products contained a chemical or harmful metal or vapor.

As I began to research, I understood that more and more products contain this label. Per the website referred to on the label, “A Proposition 65 warning does not mean that a product violates safety or health standards. Californians who make a general practice of minimizing their exposures to toxic chemicals may want to use the warnings as one way to guide their purchasing decisions. Whether you decide to purchase, use, or consume an item that has a Proposition 65 warning is at your individual discretion.”

As a Minnesotan, I too care about minimizing exposure to toxic chemicals. To manufacturers making these products and stores selling these products in every state and online, we the consumer need to know this information before we buy, not learn from a hidden tiny tag about the potentialities.

Will butter, wine and bacon soon have this label? Too much fat, alcohol or nitrates can increase people’s cancer risk. If Prop 65 is to have value, a label that lists the identity of the potential harm and a danger rating is necessary.

We can’t have a label that takes a week to research! Who has time for this? After web searches, chats with bots, phone calls, I still don’t feel I have full clarity on the safety of my new washer and dryer, and whether the clean clothes touching my body are more likely to give me cancer after being washed by the Prop 65-labeled machines.

Flash-forward to last week, when I was gifted a wire basket to hold onions, sweet potatoes and fruit on my counter (anti-cancer foods). As I was cutting off the tags, I noticed a tiny label underneath “Warning: Cancer and Reproductive Harm • www.p65Warnings.ca.gov.” You can’t make this stuff up.

Nancy Gordon, of St. Louis Park, is a retired clinical dietitian.