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Use Green Cleaners at Home

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 Subscribe To Our Feed

Keeping a clean home also means keeping a toxin-free home. One key way to do this is by using all natural multipurpose cleaning products that don’t emit Volatile Organic Compounds, have a neutral pH, don’t contain solvents, and are biodegradable. That doesn’t mean that you can’t wash with anything but vinegar and water, but you do need to watch out for ingredients that have poisonous fumes and leave harmful residues. Here are a few cleaner characteristics to look for:

Avoid Volatile Organic Compounds - Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs are fumes that can be toxic when emitted from certain solids or liquids. According to the EPA, concentrations of many VOCs are consistently higher indoors (up to ten times higher) than outdoors. This is because of the lack of ventilation of the VOCs that are off-gassed from many common products used at home. Health-harming VOCs in the home come from cleaning supplies, paint and paint removers, air fresheners, dry cleaned clothing, and plywood.

VOCs cause short and long-term harm to your health, such as dizziness, headache, eye irritation, flu-like symptoms, triggering asthma, and even life-threatening conditions like cancer. Pregnant and nursing women, babies and children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems are even more susceptible to the negative effects of breathing VOCs, so it is important to take steps to reduce VOCs in your home environment for everyone’s sake.

One of the most frequent exposures to VOCs in the home comes from cleaning products. From the everyday cleaners for the kitchen countertops, to the grill degreaser and window cleaner, to what you use to mop your floors, clean your carpets and scrub your tubs – they all give off noxious VOC fumes that are breathed in high concentration when being used, but also for hours afterwards and even as they off-gas sitting in the cabinet.

Neutral pH - Current common cleaning products come with extensive instructions about where and what to use them on and even more importantly, where not to use them. This relates to their pH level, either acidic, below 7.0, ranging to such levels as battery acid, to greater than 7.0, the alkaline side, inclusive of bleach. A neutral pH, that of 7.0, means the product is non-reactive environmentally when combining with water, not damaging to surfaces, and not harmful to your skin.

Neutral pH eco friendly cleaning products won’t harm even the most sensitive surfaces, such as marble, and you don’t have to worry about it throwing off the pH balance of your skin.

No Solvents - If you knew something was toxic and carcinogenic to the environment and the people who used them, you probably would avoid use. Common household products often contain solvents such as Ethylene Glycol Ethers (EGEs), alcohols, esthers, and Propylene Glycol Ethers (PGEs). You won’t be surprised to learn these are corrosive chemical ingredients.

Biodegradable - Rinsing, flushing, and washing only remove the chemical cleaners from your surfaces, not from the impact to the environment. Retaining their harsh, damaging nature instead of dispelling the toxicity by changing into non-damaging co-factors, common household cleaners are not environmentally friendly. There is also a level of greater dissipation in some biodegradable products, with some producing the desired result faster than others.

Making the move to replace your existing toxic chemical cleaning products to all natural multipurpose cleaning products is easy to do. You will be delighted with the effectiveness of the all natural cleaning products.

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