|
Cleaning Your Home…Is it healthy? Making a few small changes in the way you clean your home can end up changing the world. Like many of you, I grew up thinking that using powerful toxic cleaning products was the only ‘true’ way to get your home clean and disinfected. I felt so strongly about helping others have a clean home that my husband and I started Contemporary Butler Cleaning Service. After several years of using ‘standard’ cleaning products and suffering from ever-worsening allergies, frequent headaches and serious skin irritations, I began researching healthier ways to clean my clients’ homes. My goal was to continue offering a meticulous cleaning service, but to do so as naturally as possible. After extensive research (many thanks to CleanPeers.com) and trying a variety of products, I found several products and natural recipes that really do the trick! Some facts to consider: · The EPA estimates that the air inside your home can be 3 to 70 times more polluted than outside air.
· More than 7 million accidental poisonings occur each year,
with more than 75% involving children under age 6!
· According to the U.S. Poison Control Centers, "A child is
accidentally poisoned every 30 seconds at home..." If you look around your home, you’ll likely find
anywhere from 3 to 25 gallons of toxic cleaning and personal care
products. Many of these items release toxic fumes even while being
stored in your cabinets. Our children are particularly vulnerable.
These pollutants tend to collect close to the floor, so children are
breathing in greater concentrations than adults. This is true for
your pets too. And keep this in mind -- within 26 seconds after
exposure to chemicals in cleaning products, traces of these
chemicals can be found in every organ in the body. More facts to consider:
· In the past 50 years more than 75,000 chemicals have been
introduced into the environment. Today 300 synthetic chemicals are
found in the bodies of humans. Even newborn babies have synthetic
chemicals passed on from their mothers.
· Of chemicals commonly found in homes, 150 have been linked
to allergies, birth defects, cancer, and psychological
abnormalities. Now let me assure you there are alternatives! As awareness about these dangers and concern over the environment increase, it has become much easier to find natural and green cleaning products, and at prices everyone can afford. If you’re so inspired, you can even go back to basics and make your own – the use of vinegar, borax, washing soda and essential oils are truly powerful cleaners. One of my favorite recipes is to mix 1 tsp of natural dish soap, 5-10 drops of tea tree oil with 2-3 cups of water – this makes a great all-purpose cleaner! Concerned about mold and mildew? Don’t use bleach! Yes, you read it right…’don’t use bleach.’ The National Organization of Remediation and Mold Inspectors has concluded that bleach does not kill mold spores, it only changes the color, thus ‘hiding’ the mold and enabling the microflora to return under the right conditions. According to Spore°Tech Mold Investigations, since bleach is 99 percent water and water is one of the main contributors to growth of harmful bacteria and mold, use of bleach will actually cause regeneration of the mold. If you use a cleaning service, be sure to ask them what products they are using and whether they would consider using green or natural products in your home. Not only is it important for you and your family, you’d be doing them a favor as well. If your service is not open to making these changes for your health, maybe it’s time to consider one that will. As an experienced professional in the cleaning industry, I would be glad to assist you in identifying green and natural cleaning products. Please feel free to contact me via my website at www.contemporarybutler.com
Additional Facts about Household Chemicals
The Average American Uses about 25 Gallons of toxic,
hazardous chemical products per year in their home...A major portion
of these can be found in household cleaning products. More than 32 million pounds of household cleaning
products are poured down the drain each day nationwide. The toxic
substances found in many of these are not adequately removed by
sewage treatment plants. Guess what happens when these are returned
to the rivers from which cities draw their drinking water? The toxic chemicals in household cleaners are three
times more likely to cause cancer than air pollution. Cancer rates have increased since 1901 from only 1 in
8,000 Americans, to 1 in 3 today! By the year 2010, this disease
will afflict 1 of every 2 individuals! Cancer rates have continued to increase every year
since 1970. Brain cancer in children is up 40% in 20 years. Toxic
chemicals are largely to blame. According to the National Research Council, no toxic
information is available for more than 80% of the chemicals in
everyday-use products. Only 1% of toxins are required to be listed
on labels, because companies classify their formulas as "trade
secrets." Unregulated air pollution has caused one in six
children in the Central Valley of California to suffer from asthma.
More than 5000 children in the San Joaquin Valley Air District are
hospitalized each year for asthma. The death rate from respiratory
diseases in the Imperial Valley -- at times more than double that of
the rest of the state. Up to 2.2 million Californians suffer from
asthma. Nationwide, air pollution causes between 50,000 and
100,000 premature deaths per year – and soot accounts for a majority
of these. Soot is the most deadly air pollutant, accounting for more
deaths than homicides or automobile accidents. According to the
California Air Resources Board, diesel soot accounts for 70 percent
of the cancer risk from toxic air pollution statewide. The Washington (state) Department of Health discovered that one fourth of tested farm workers handling pesticides were overexposed to extremely hazardous chemicals. Carbamates or organophosphates can cause dizziness, breathing problems, muscle twitching, and paralysis. Scientists are discovering a whole universe of health
effects associated with the products of our industrial age with
profound implications for public health and regulatory policy. The
continuous appearance of toxic effects at lower and lower levels of
exposure is especially troubling since low-level exposure to some
chemicals is practically universal. · More than 75,000 chemicals are licensed for commercial use. · More than 2,000 new synthetic chemicals are registered every year. · The EPA tallied close to 10,000 chemical ingredients in cosmetics, food and consumer products. Very few of these chemicals were in our environment or our bodies just 75 years ago. · In 1998, U.S. industries manufactured 6.5 trillion pounds of 9,000 different chemicals. · In 2000, major American companies dumped 7.1 billion pounds of 650 different industrial chemicals into our air and water. · Except in the case of foods, drugs or pesticides,
companies are under no legal or regulatory obligation to concern
themselves with how their products might harm human health. · More than 1.4 million Americans exposed to household chemicals were referred to poison control centers in 2001. Of these, 824,000 were children under 6 years. · A New York sanitation worker was killed in 1998 when a hazardous liquid in household trash sprayed his face and clothes. · At any given time, there is 3.36 million tons of
household hazardous waste to contend with in our country. · In 1990, more than 4,000 toddlers under age four were admitted to hospital emergency rooms as a result of household cleaner-related injuries. That same year, three-fourths of the 18,000 pesticide-related hospital emergency room admissions were children. · Over 80 percent of adults and 90 percent of children in the United States have residues of one or more harmful pesticides in their bodies. · Petrochemical cleaning products in the home are
easily absorbed into the skin. Once absorbed, the toxins travel to
the blood stream and are deposited in the fatty tissues where they
may exist indefinitely.
|
|