Consumer Specialty Products Association Highly Critical of NRDC Study on Home Air ...( WASHINGTON Sept. 19 -- Statement...),Health

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Statement by Chris Cathcart, President, CSPA: "The Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA) was disappointed with the report issued by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) alleging health concerns linked to the use of air freshener products. NRDC's report appears to be based on an extremely limited study of only one unit each of 14 air freshener products. As a result, the study makes unscientific generalizations about the products and the ingredients they contain. CSPA and its members support the fair and unbiased evaluation of products in the interest of the consumer, but we expect that testing to be rigorous and scientific. The NRDC paper, in contrast, seems to rely merely on limited information and aims to create unwarranted fear among consumers.

"CSPA has numerous specific concerns with the NRDC study, which even it admits is far from comprehensive. These include:

* The NRDC study's conclusions are fatally flawed: Statements about

product safety should be based on rigorous and unbiased scientific

research, not supposition based on a very limited study. For its paper,

NRDC says it tested only one sample unit each of 14 products. This is

limited to the point of irresponsibility and does not account for

background contamination, laboratory error or numerous other variables

that could occur with such a small sample.

* Generalizations about Phthalates are irresponsible: Making

generalizations about phthalates, as NRDC does in its paper, is

scientifically unsound and irresponsible. Phthalates include a large

array of chemicals used in industrial and consumer products. While some

have been shown to have adverse effects, many have been deemed safe by

the World Health Organization, Europe's Scientific Committee on

Consumer Products, the Environmental Protection Agency and othe
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