WASHINGTON – The Environmental Working Group has added information about healthy cleaners to its Healthy Living App, putting ratings at shoppers’ fingertips for more than 122,000 foods, personal care products and now healthy cleaners.
EWG developed the Healthy Living App to help consumers find products that meet the organization’s rigorous standards for health and safety. The new app combines three of EWG’s most popular resources, Skin Deep®, Food Scores and the Guide to Healthy Cleaners. Shoppers can scan the bar codes of products and foods to see how they rate in EWG’s databases.
The app’s improved user interface makes it easier for shoppers to find healthier products. Consumers who want to limit their exposure to harmful ingredients can now create, manage and share lists of their favorite products. The app allows users to search more than 2,500 cleaning products, including the first EWG VERIFIED™ cleaners.
The updated app also now includes links to EWG’s popular Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™. And a new feature allows users to submit photos of products not found, which EWG can then use to add new products to the databases.
“We’ve streamlined the app experience,” said Helen Lucey, EWG’s senior digital marketing manager. “In addition to adding all these new products, we’ve improved existing features, like the scanner, to make it more user-friendly.”
EWG’s Healthy Living Science team is led by Nneka Leiba and includes researchers who continually review the latest groundbreaking scientific research, and update the criteria used to determine how products are rated in the databases. The Healthy Living app draws on the most recent information to provide consumers with details about products and ingredients, so they can make more informed purchasing decisions.
“EWG has revolutionized the way consumers choose the products they use every day by providing easily accessible information that helps keep them up to date about potential ingredient harms and concerns,” Leiba said. “This app update is just the latest example of how we are working to empower people to make better choices.”
“Skin Deep picks up where the government and industry leave off,” said research and database analyst Carla Burns. “It provides easy-to-navigate ratings, as well as the science behind those ratings, so consumers know they can trust the information.”
Since its creation, EWG’s Healthy Living App has been installed 2.55 million times. This year alone, it’s had 623,000 users, and 2.33 million sessions.
“Finding healthier cleaning products should be smooth and effortless, but far too often, the process is exactly the opposite,” said Samara Geller, EWG senior Healthy Living Science analyst. “That’s why the addition of cleaners to the app has been so highly anticipated. It puts thousands of ratings into the hands of consumers wherever they go, making it easier than ever to find practical solutions to protect themselves and their families.”
The update is available for iPhone only. Stay tuned for an update for other smart devices.
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The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action. https://www.ewg.org/apps/
