Safe & Natural
Cleaning
by LuluJones
A clean house IS a happy house, but if you’re buying toxic products, your money will do little for your happiness and will, instead, cost you your health and the health of your planet. This month’s ANFSCD revolves around general “green” cleaning product awareness. Please consider using environmentally friendly products that you either buy or make yourself because you’ll be helping the planet and ensuring that you and your family are not getting poisoned.
Which products are we talking about?
Products containing: bleach (chlorine), Phosphates, Alkylphenols and their derivatives, Volatile organic compounds (toluene, styrene, xylenes, and trichloroethylene). In other words, READ THE LABELS!! (especially for these toxic chemicals) Also, if you see the words, “Poison,” “Danger,” “Warning,” and/or “Caution,” it might be wise to stay away from those products.
What They Do to Your Health
- chemicals found in cleaning products cause both acute and chronic effects
- the EPA found that indoor air contains 2-5 times more pollution than outdoor air. In fact, the Consumer Product Safety Commission found that of the homes tested, the outdoor air contained less than 10 volatile organic compounds (VOC's) while the indoor air contained one-hundred and fifty VOC's. Many of the VOC's involved were traced to household cleaners
- over 90% of all reported poisonings in America occur at home and the leading reported cause of these poisonings is household cleaners
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Lemons clean!
- While cancer is the most well-documented result of chronic exposure to household chemicals, direct evidence connecting household cleaning chemicals to cancer is difficult to come by. There is however, enough anecdotal evidence to raise considerable alarm.
- Health effects attributed to the chemicals in cleaning products include: Asthma, Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) or environmental illness, Neurological problems and Organ damage
What They Do to the Environment
- Hazardous chemicals endanger the environment by contaminating our groundwater, lakes and oceans.
- One of the biggest culprits in ocean pollution is phosphates, common in laundry detergents and some cleaning products. The average consumer nationwide uses about 30 pounds of laundry detergent a year; all together, Americans use about 8.3 billion pounds of dry detergent and a billion gallons of liquid detergent each year! High phosphate levels can kill life in rivers, streams and oceans by causing "algae blooms." Algae slimes dense enough to suffocate marine life have been swelling around the world, especially in coastal bays. They are largely caused by fertilizing pollutants called "nutrients" in human sewage and farm runoff.
- Some marine experts call this type of ocean pollution a silent, global epidemic that if unabated could destroy American's most scenic and commercially valuable waters. From Long Island Sound to the Santa Monica Bay, nutrients have devastated many popular fishing spots and shellfish beds. Many coastal bays have turned the hue of pea soup, and some have regressed to "dead zones"--water so depleted of oxygen that only primitive creatures such as bacteria and algae can survive
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- Household cleaners, garden pesticides, paints, batteries, detergents, even flea powders can be hazardous to our health and the environment.
What You Can Do
- Find out more about this subject to be better informed. Dig deeper for more information about the health risks, the chemicals, the environment and making your own safe and natural products. Visit your library or do a search online.
-Make your own cleaning products with non-toxic substances, i.e., safe and natural materials like baking soda, borax, washing soda, essential oils, lemon juice, salt, vinegar, herbs, natural liquid soaps, and other ingredients. Dig deeper for more information about making your own. Visit your library or do a search online.
- Avoid products containing chlorine bleach or sodium hypochlorite.
- Choose products with a neutral pH.
- Avoid petroleum-derived ingredients. Instead choose surfactants derived from vegetable oil. Look for d-limonene and pine oil solvents.
-Choose products that are biodegradable and non toxic to humans and aquatic life.
- Avoid products containing EDTA and NTA. Look for alternatives with sodium citrate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, and sodium silicate.
-Buy products from companies that make natural and safe products: Seventh Generation , Gaiam
Sources:
http://www.gaiam.com,
http://www.oxyboost.com/utility_pages/nontoxic.html
http://www.shareguide.com/hazard.html
http://www.ems.org
Lulujones is an American freelance writer trying to live sustainably in France.
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