Go Green …it’s healthier than you think!

Make “going green” more than just a catchy line. Make it a part of your family’s life—every day with help from non-toxic household cleaning products.

Most products on the market are highly toxic, emit greenhouse gases and can harm your kids. Many childhood allergies and respiratory problems are linked to household cleaning products. Although these cleaning products account for 5-10 million household poisonings each year, some resulting in accidental deaths in children, most poisonings happen slowly, over a long period of time by gradual skin absorption or by daily exposure to toxins we breathe in the air. In fact, the EPA Report to Congress on Indoor Air and the subcommittee hearings on the Indoor Air Quality Act stated that indoor air pollution is one of the nation’s most important environmental health problems. According to the EPA, most homes have airborne concentrations of hazardous chemicals that are 2 to 5 times higher indoors than outdoors. In one five-year study, the EPA reported that a number of homes had chemical levels that were 70 times higher than outside.

One reason chemical concentrations are so high in many homes is that cleaning products release toxic vapors into the air when used or even while being stored. The FDA doesn’t regulate the chemicals in cleaning products, so what you’re using to give your home that lemon-fresh scent may actually make you sick. The next time you walk down the cleaning products aisle in the supermarket, notice how strongly it smells of toxic chemicals, even though all the packages are tightly closed. This is called out gassing. We are told, through advertisements, that our home needs to smell like “April, Springtime, or Pine” in order to know it is clean. Actually, clean doesn’t have an odor….it’s just CLEAN!

Household toxins not only affect us; they create toxic waste in their manufacture and use, which gets disposed of in the environment in the form of air and water pollution as well as solid toxic waste. Therefore, this harms wildlife as well.

Years ago, a House subcommittee asked the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to analyze 2,983 chemicals used in cleaning and personal care products, and 884 were found to be toxic. Of these, 778 can cause acute toxicity, 146 can cause tumors, 218 can cause reproductive complications, 314 can cause biological mutation, and 376 can cause skin and eye irritations. Cleaning products and personal care products should promote hygiene, health and beauty…. not make us sick.

Knowledge is Power. Choose green products which are highly concentrated, truly biodegradable and pH correct. Highly concentrated green products are those you mix yourself, so that you can use your own tap water. This makes them extremely economical to use and at the same time saves the waste of hundreds of empty plastic bottles. Look for biodegradable. This means that they are easily broken down by microbial or chemical action into small components, which are then absorbed into the air, soil, or water, and are non-polluting. Products with a short biodegradability time, taking place in seven days or less, are best. Some products that claim biodegradability may actually take many years to break down. In addition, pH correct cleaning products are safe for our bodies. Remember, what we put on our skin is absorbed into the bloodstream very quickly. If we clean with products containing harmful chemicals, we absorb them through our pores as well as breathe the fumes into our lungs.

Not only is “Going Green” the smart thing to do for the environment, but it can create a positive health impact on you and your family.