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Greening Up Your Cleaners

Keeping your house clean shouldn’t be hazardous to your health. But if you use products that contain harsh chemicals, it can be.

Many cleaning products contain ingredients such as ammonia, bleach, phosphates and artificial fragrances, all of which can harm your health and damage the environment. Natural cleaners, such as lemon juice, vinegar and baking soda offer one solution. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is starting to encourage the manufacturers of cleaning products to design safer alternatives as well.

The EPA is working with an organization called the Greenblue Institute to develop an online database of non-toxic cleaning ingredients (such as those derived from plants) that manufacturers can search when trying to design safer products. The website both markets environmentally friendly ingredients and provides a service to manufacturers.

Exposure to the chemicals found in numerous household cleaning products – such as glass and bathroom cleaners, carpet cleaners and detergents – can cause a wide range of health problems, including irritation to the skin and eyes; lung, liver and kidney damage; cancer; respiratory problems; damage to the central nervous system; and hormonal changes.

For more information on the health hazards of exposure to the chemicals in cleaning products, click here.

For more information on the Greenblue Institute’s database, go to www.cleangredients.org.

For more information on non-toxic cleaning products for your home, go to http://es.epa.gov/techinfo/facts/safe-fs.html.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org or www.healthandenvironment.org.