If a product cleans well, does it have to be bad for me, my kids, my pets and our eco-system?
(We don’t think so.)
Are there viable, non-toxic alternatives to common household cleaning products?
(Yes, there are. We’re glad you asked.)
So, without further ado . . .
Here’s What’s Really Under Your Kitchen Sink . . .
This article is intended to provide you with a brief overview of what to look for and what to avoid when considering household cleaning products. The format I’ve chosen could be best described as “good news, bad news.” First, we’ll look at the various toxic offerings to be found on the shelves of supermarkets and home improvement stores that also may be residing under your kitchen sink. After scaring you silly or at least giving you serious pause for consideration - with a list of carcinogenic and unpronounceable common ingredients in major household cleaners and accompanying grim statistics, we’ll show you how to banish them from your life completely and examine some quite effective, very economical and SAFE substitutes. This will require some attention on your part as a responsible consumer, however.
We’ve all been conditioned by years of insidiously sophisticated advertising from petrol-chemical hucksters designed to create a previously nonexistent market for their products…petrol-chemical distillates that we got along nicely without until around the 1950’s. The petrol-chemical industry outdid itself in convincing us their new products could clean faster and better than the homemade stuff our grandparents made do with, things like vegetable or citrus based cleaners, vinegar, washing soda, borax or baking soda. What they neglected to mention was how costly the widespread use of these cleaners would prove to be: to our health and to the environment.
The best place to start is by carefully READING THE LABEL of any cleaning product you intend to use. Manufacturers of cleaning products aren’t required by law to divulge or explain what precisely is in their products but, thankfully, they are required to tell us if a product is potentially harmful. If the label has any cautionary warnings or advisements, chances are it’s not good for you, your kids, your pets or the environment.
What to Look For:
Look for obvious words like “Danger,” “Caution” or “Warning.”
They’re not kidding. Time was when many household products were labeled with 
the skull and cross-bones symbol.
Sadly, this seemed to affect sales, so they replaced this symbol with indecipherable fine print warnings. The word “Caution” denotes an ingredient that is “harmful if swallowed” in quantities of an ounce to a pint. This, in fact, could be fatal to an adult. A label that reads “Warning ?” The potentially fatal dose here is as little as a teaspoon to an ounce. If the label reads “Danger,” a taste to a teaspoon of this stuff could really ruin your day. Or end your days.
Virtually every product so labeled may add deadly chemicals to your body either through ingestion, absorption through the skin and the inhalation of fumes. Many are cumulative and can be stored in the body in the liver or the fat cells. The only real distinction in the wording of a cautionary label is the amount of toxics in a particular product. Sound ominous? It gets worse.
Take a moment and search through the bottles of cleaning products under your kitchen sink or utility closet. Odds are very good that, if you have purchased any commercially available cleaner, any of the three words above will figure somewhat prominently in the list of ingredients.
Now, let’s examine the long-term health effects stemming from the use of these products:
See: “The Grim Statistics”
