"Organic chemicals are widely used as ingredients in household products. Paints, varnishes, and wax all contain organic solvents, as do many cleaning, disinfecting, cosmetic, degreasing, and hobby products. Fuels are made up of organic chemicals. All of these products can release organic compounds while you are using them, and, to some degree,when they are stored."
-from the EPA.
Many Americans are poisoning themselves with the products they use to clean their homes- and this information isn't just coming from nontoxic cleaner manufacturers like Seventh Generation- it's coming from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Last November I made the switch to green cleaning. I'd like to say it was a gesture of my deep commitment to protecting the environment for future generations, but the truth is, I made the switch to improve the health of myself and my husband today.
Here's some more cheery news from the EPA:
"Research shows that some VOCs can cause chronic and acute health effects at high concentrations, and some are known carcinogens. Low to moderate levels of multiple VOCs may also produce acute reactions."
What household cleaning products produce these damaging VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds)? The answer lies under the bathroom sink, in the linen closet, wherever you keep your cleaners. Products such as chlorine bleach, ammonia, oven cleaner, and toilet cleaner produce damaging VOCs both when you're using them, and when they're sitting seemingly harmlessly beneath the bathroom sink.
I have none of these products left in my home. So how do I clean? By traveling back in time and looking at what people used to clean their homes before these harsh chemicals were on the market. There is nothing in my home that can't be cleaned with vinegar, baking soda, and vegetable soap.
Vinegar can be used in place of chlorine bleach to remove stains. Half a cup left to sit in the toilet gets the bowl sparkling clean. A solution of vinegar and water cleans glass, shower doors, the refrigerator. Vinegar's acidic properties dissolve mineral build-up, and give it disinfecting properties. If your child broke into the cleaning cabinet and drank the bottle of vinegar, he might get sick to his stomach, but if he drank the same amount of chlorine bleach or toilet cleaner he would die if you didn't make it to the hospital in time. Even if he doesn't get into the cleaners, the EPA says it's possible their presence in the cabinet may cause him to develop cancer when he gets older. What do you want in your house- vinegar or toilet cleaner? Most people don't have to care about saving the whales to answer this question.
Baking soda is my abrasive cleaner of choice. It scrubs pots and pans, stove tops, scours bathroom tile, and eliminates grease and grime wherever I find it. It gets rid of odors in the refrigerator and on carpet and upholstery. (Bon Ami is a household-friendly and environmentally-friendly step up from baking soda for tough scouring jobs).
For everything that can't be cleaned with vinegar or baking soda, there's soap. But before we go any farther, let's talk about exactly what soap is.
As I learned in the fourth grade, soap is a surfactant, a substance that keeps water from beading up so the water comes closer in contact with dirty surfaces. The closer the water gets to the dirty surface, the easier those surfaces are to clean. Until World War I, all surfactants were soaps, and they were made from fatty oils derived from animal or vegetable sources. Wartime shortages of vegetable and animal fats during WW led to the development of synthetic surfactants in Germany. These surfactants used petroleum as the "fatty" oil source. These "artificial soaps" were called detergents, and became "widely available in the United States in the 1940's...today, detergents have all but replaced soap-based laundry products." (Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook)
Petroleum-based products haven't stopped their domination in the laundry room. Our dish soap, bath soap, all-purpose cleaners and countless household and health and beauty products are made from petroleum. Using a bottle of dish soap causes many of the same environmental problems as filling your car with oil, such as depletion of natural resources, and pollution and contamination from drilling. What's more, use of these products (especially in higher than intended concentration) pollutes your home! Detergents are less severely damaging to your health than the other cleaning agents we've talked about today, so I'll leave you with this thought: which would you rather wash your baby's bottle with- detergent made from petroleum, or soap made from vegetable oil?
Most vegetable based soaps on the market today are made from coconut oil- this goes for laundry soap or shampoo. Brands like Seventh Generation and Mrs.Meyers manufacture coconut-derived soaps. You'll also find dozens of health and beauty brands whose products are derived from coconuts instead of petroleum. Soaps are gentler on your skin, your clothes, your house, your health. And they're a heck of a lot gentler on the environment. To promote its products, Seventh Generation claims that if every U.S. household replaced their purchase of dish washing detergent with dish washing soap, the savings in petroleum could heat and cool 4,800 American homes for an entire year.
That's a lot of oil.
I think a lot of people feel that being environmentally responsible will lower their standard of living. This simply isn't true. In many cases, what's kinder to our outside homes is kinder to our inside homes and our personal well-being. Being environmentally responsible means being aware of the products you buy, and knowing your options. You don't have to buy petroleum based products and top-loading washing machines- there are alternatives. And green cleaning doesn't mean going back to the stone ages. Did you know a dishwasher run at full capacity uses about half the energy of washing dishes by hand? (Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook).
Every person, every town, city, province, nation has a unique set of physical and cultural needs. In order to make the Earth a good place to live, an effort needs to be made by government, industry, and individuals to establish guidelines, innovate solutions, and make choices that find a balance between our needs today and our needs tomorrow. Last night I heard Vice President Gore speak at the Oscars about environmental concerns as a "moral issue" as opposed to a political issue. I'd say it's an issue of survival.
This concludes the practical portion of my Green Cleaning series. Tomorrow, we'll take a look at coconut fuel and other nutty solutions to pollution problems. I don't know how many of them will be viable in the future, but it's a lot of fun to see what people come up with, and imagine some of my own.
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