Organic Living and Lifestyle Blog

Chemical Cleaning Facts - All Those Chemicals Don’t Do That Much Harm, Do They?

November 30th, 2007

Do you want to know the cleaning facts that are not widely publicised? If you’ve ever read the ingredients on the labels of your household cleaners, you’d know that they contain a number of different chemicals. You’re also probably aware that these chemicals have a distinct smell or odour. This article is intended to tell you what you probably don’t know. All the cleaning facts in this article have a direct affect on you and it should be your right to know them.

Our cleaning facts research states that there are over 75,000 chemicals licensed for commercial use in today’s world, with about 2,000 new synthetic chemicals licensed each year. A large number of these chemicals are suspected carcinogens or are thought to cause a number of health problems. It may surprise you to know that only 600 of these chemicals have been adequately tested. Commercial cleaning product companies are under no legal obligation to research how their products might harm human health. What’s more, only 1% of toxins are required to be listed on the product label. This is because companies classify their ingredients as ‘trade secrets’. -Lorie Dwornick, researcher, educator and activist, 2002

Want more cleaning facts? According to the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, chemical levels in the home are up to 70 times higher than outside. It has been proven that air quality inside the average American household is 2 to 5 times more contaminated than the outside air. This is due largely to the chemicals found in commercial products such as cosmetics and cleaning products. In 1985, research by the EPA concluded that chemicals in household cleaners are about 3 times more likely to cause cancer than any other air pollutant. Did you know that in the early 1900’s, only 1 in every 8,000 Americans developed cancer. This ratio has dropped to 1 in every 3 today!

Our cleaning facts research has also alerted us to the dangers concerning our children. Over a million Americans are treated for exposure to household cleaning products. The majority of these are children under the age of 12. When you take into account the weight difference between that of a child and that of an adult, the amount of air, food and water consumed by a child is far greater than that of an adult. This means that they are exposed more to pollutants than adults. A child’s immune system is also less developed and their developing cells are more easily damaged. Pollutants in the air tend to be more concentrated towards ground level. Children breathe air which contains more pollutants simply because of their height. They also tend to spend more time playing on the floor and in contact with cleaning product residues. Those chemicals which are tested are only tested for adults. Children are not considered. Does this sound worrying? What affect is our chemical lifestyle having on our children’s health?

The chemical industry claims that very low levels of exposure to these chemicals are safe, yet there have been no exposure studies completed for the large majority of these chemicals. There is also limited information as to how these chemicals interact with each other. According to the EPA, combined chemicals are far more dangerous. Did you know that mixing Ammonia with bleach results in a toxic gas extremely lethal to humans? If you also check the ingredients of many household cleaners you will find that they often contain both ammonia and bleach.

If you remember any of these cleaning facts, remember this. Petrochemical cleaning products are absorbed easily through our skin. The chemicals travel through our blood stream and are stored in our fatty tissues. Over time, the build up of these toxic chemicals causes many health problems, including cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. All this can be avoided with the use of ‘green’ products which contain no toxic chemicals and are much safer for the environment. You should also be aware that all the chemicals that you wash down your drains will inevitably end up in our rivers. The water in our rivers is put through a water treatment plant where it is mixed with even more toxic chemicals. It is then returned to us in our taps. Everything that we do to the environment we also do to ourselves!

5 Interesting Cleaning Facts

Cleaning Fact 1: Cold water will inhibit the spread of bacteria and germs. Hot water only encourages the growth of nasty organisms.

Cleaning Fact 2: Antibacterial soaps are really not necessary in the home and may do more harm than good.

Cleaning Fact 3: Commercial dish washing detergents often leave chemical residues on your dishes that accumulate each time you wash them. Those chemicals are absorbed into your food.

Cleaning Fact 4: If a chemical kills half of a group of test animals it is labeled toxic. If the lab animals survives after being exposed to an amount greater than that listed it is labeled non-toxic. These tests are not specific to humans and do not consider long term exposure. (Lab animals often include mice which have a stronger immune system than humans.)

Cleaning Fact 5: Women who work at home are at a 54% greater risk of developing cancer than women who work away from home. A 15 year study concluded that this is a direct result of the chemicals in household products.

-Toronto Indoor Air Conference 1990

Sources: http://www.cleaningpro.com/toxic.cfm http://www.getipm.com/pesticides/kids.htm -U.S. Government, E.P.A. -American Cancer Society

Technorati Tags: chemical, toxins, health, children, kids, toxic, bleach, ammonia, study, tips

Share This

Entry Filed under: Chemical Free Cleaning