Feb. 18--ALBANY -- Health and environmental groups sued Tuesday under a forgotten 1970s state law to force the nation's largest makers of household cleaners to reveal chemicals that go into dozens of products such as Mr. Clean, Resolve, Lysol and Ajax.

The lawsuit also claims the state failed for decades to enforce its own law -- a charge denied by both the state Department of Environmental Conservation and an industry trade group.

"We are seeking to dust this law off and make sure companies comply with it," said Keri Powell, an attorney for Washington, D.C.-based Earthjustice, one of the groups that sued in state Supreme Court in New York City. "People deserve to know whether products they use to clean their homes could be harmful to their health or to the environment."

The lawsuit claims a 1976 law supported by then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller required companies that sell cleaning products in New York to file semi-annual reports with the state listing the chemicals contained in those products, and to describe company-sponsored research into those chemicals' health and environmental effects. No reports have ever been filed.

Consumers need to know what cleaners contain because some chemicals in common household cleaners have been linked to respiratory irritation, asthma and allergies. Occupational exposures to some ethylene glycol ethers -- often used as solvents in cleaning products -- are associated with red blood cell damage, reproductive system damage and birth defects. Some solvents in cleaning products are also toxic to the nervous system.

Both DEC and an industry group agreed that the environmentalists were misreading the law, which they argued gave DEC the option -- but not the obligation -- of requiring companies to reveal what is in their cleaners.

"We believe that the activists are misinterpreting state law and that their threats are counterproductive," said Michelle Radecki, general counsel to the Soap and Detergent Association, which represents manufacturers.

He said an industry-created voluntary chemical disclosure program, due to begin next year, will inform consumers.

The lawsuit named national companies including Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Church & Dwight, and Reckitt Benckiser.

"We can't comment on the lawsuit but will review it when it is filed," DEC spokesman Yancey Roy wrote in an e-mail Tuesday afternoon.

Powell said the state is required to collect the cleaner chemical reports, and cited a 1985 DEC document that said the reports were "currently required" under the law.

"The voluntary industry reporting program is a good start," said Erin Switalski, a spokeswoman for Montana-based environmental group Women's Voices for the Earth.

But she said the program is not due to start for another year, and would allow companies to withhold chemical identities of fragrances, dyes and preservatives. "That is a black box of ingredients that is a concern for us," she said.

Other groups involved with the lawsuit include Environmental Advocates of New York, New York Public Interest Research Group, American Lung Association of New York, Riverkeeper, Sierra Club, and Montana-based Women's Voices for the Earth.

Brian Nearing can be reached at 454-5094 or by e-mail at bnearing@timesunion.com.

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