During the last couple of years we’ve seen a lot of research validating what Canaries (people with chemical sensitivities) have been telling everyone for years: Everyday laundry products contain harmful toxic chemicals!
see: Toxic Chemicals in Fragranced Laundry Products and Health Effects
Below are links to articles and independently done (and funded) published research that show SOME (not all) of the toxic chemicals in conventional, everyday laundry products. Chemicals we have 24/7 contact with, because not all of them get rinsed out of clothing and bedding… Chemicals that get washed down our drains and into waterways, and don’t get adequately filtered out of our drinking water… Chemicals that if your municipality sells sewage sludge, then also get spread onto farmers fields as fertilizer (for food you buy and eat from the supermarket)… Chemicals that get blown off laundry lines or pumped out of dryer vents (that were only designed to emit moisture) off your property and into the surrounding neighbourhood air for everyone else to breathe…
Note that even the “natural” and fragrance-free products can contain toxic chemicals, because the industry is not regulated and they can say and do pretty much what they want.
Links updated October 24, 2015.
From the Silent Spring Institute:
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Consumer Products Contain Potentially Harmful Chemicals Not Listed on Labels
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Check the pdf Consumer products tested for endocrine disruptors and asthma-associated chemicals for the specific laundry products tested, which are some of the most popular.
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From EWG:
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Hormone-disrupting contaminants were detected in Laundry Wastewater
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Don’t get slimed: Skip the fabric softener
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From Dr Anne Steinemann:
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Toxic Chemicals in Fragranced Laundry Products and Health Effects
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Scented Laundry Products Emit Hazardous Chemicals Through Dryer Vents
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Dryer Vents: An Overlooked Source of Pollution?
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About Those Fragrance-Free Laundry Products
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From Washington Toxics Coalition:
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From Women’s Voices for the Earth:
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Tens of Thousands Call on Procter & Gamble to Strip Cancer-Causing Chemical From Tide Free & Gentle
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More about laundry products from Women’s Voices For the Earth:
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Some ‘green’ detergents contain petrochemicals (CBC)
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Some more Solutions
… until the toxic chemicals are banned, here are safer alternatives…
Safe Home Alert! What’s Wafting from Your Dryer?
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Toxic Laundry Detergent Ingredients to Avoid
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Page 2 has a recipe and tips
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Keep Your Laundry Safe & Truly Gentle
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Lighten Your (Chemical) Load
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Other Actions
Please write or call the makers of your current products and ask that they provide safe,effective and most importantly, non-toxic products, and then switch to something safer until they do.
Please call or write your legislators and government representatives to demand toxic chemicals be banned from everyday products, and that ALL ingredients be labelled.
And please donate to the groups doing the research on our behalf, people and groups like Women’s Voices for the Earth, Environmental Working Group, Silent Spring Institute, the Washington Toxics Coalition, and Anne Steinemann, because they are the ones doing the work that these corporations and industries have prevented government from doing. Thank you.
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Here’s hoping that one day soon, all laundry products will be safe for us, safe for those downwind and downstream, and safe for future generations.
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“All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; Third, it is accepted as self-evident.”
~ Arthur Schopenhauer
Seriously "Sensitive" to Pollution 
Suggestion: print and mail articles to local news station as “concerned viewer”
Media does get the press releases… And media runs off advertising these things, they’re not interested in publishing very much of the truth if it loses them $.
I think Public Health Departments have to get more involved, especially now that IFRA has published the “reported” ingredients found in fragrances, and we can see that many are indeed as harmful, if not more so than those found in tobacco smoke, which has already been banned from so many indoor environments.
Many of us think laundry products are particularly problematic because exposure is so constant, and the residues are everywhere. They not only get into the air and water and remain in clothing and bedding, (getting absorbed by skin in addition to inhalation) but when people sit on furniture, they leave residues which are picked up by the next person (or pet) who sits there, when they put cash in their pockets, it gets residues, the packaged chemicals are volatile and spread to foods and other products in stores, the list goes on…
Here’s a new one from davidsuzuki.org, many of the ingredients mentioned are found in laundry products (and might not be listed on the labels)
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/health/science/toxics/the-dirt-on-toxic-chemicals-in-household-cleaning-products/
From “How to dispose of household hazardous waste”: “Some examples of household cleaners considered to be HHW are: abrasive cleaners, aerosol air fresheners, all purpose cleaners, ammonia, bleach, disinfectants, drain cleaners, fabric softeners, glass cleaners, laundry starch, laundry stain removers, mildew removers, oven cleaners, rug and upholstery cleaners, toilet cleaners, and tub and tile cleaners. “… http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/queen-of-green/faqs/cleaning/how-to-dispose-of-household-hazardous-waste/