This CEO Wants You To Know Your Essential Oil Air Freshener Has Hundreds Of Chemicals In It

“I can’t really speak for the fragrance houses, but I think they would say — because we’ve talked to them — that they have intellectual property concerns,” said Johnson, whose great-great grandfather Samuel Curtis Johnson Sr. founded the Racine, Wisconsin-based company in 1886. “In today’s world, with the methods available to analyze what’s in products and what’s in fragrances, it’s easy to do that, so I’m not sure about the validity of that concern.”

It wouldn’t be the first time S.C. Johnson has challenged its suppliers. Under the leadership of Johnson’s father, Samuel, the company eliminated chlorofluorocarbons — chemicals, used as aerosol propellant, that erode the Earth’s ozone layer — three years before they were banned in the United States. Suppliers, and even some employees, were not happy.

“He was giving a speech in front of a bunch of people and the CEO of a major chemical company stood up in the middle of his speech, interrupted him, and said, ‘You’re going to ruin this industry,’” Johnson recalled. “But my dad was very principled and we just went ahead with it anyway. You look back on that decision today, in light of the strong laws that came in, and that was a very prescient decision.”

Back then, S.C. Johnson was ahead of new regulation. Now, it’s dogged by an old one.

Johnson faces a challenge in the form of Proposition 65, also known as California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. The law, originally meant to force businesses to warn the public of exposure to artificial and harmful chemicals, is the reason for labels that say when products contain chemicals “known to the State of California to cause” cancer and other ailments. However, chemicals that occur naturally in foods are exempt.