What’s Really in Those Cleaning Products?

Now, when it comes to our children, we take every precaution necessary. But do we really take those strict precautions when it comes to our cleaning products, especially the ones that we use around our children? It’s amazing how many harmful and toxic chemicals are in regular cleaning supplies. There have been recent studies stating that there is a link between some cleaning products and asthma and reproductive harm. It’s just not each individual cleaner that is the problem, it when you combine them.

Let’s say the bathroom; you need something for the toilet, the floor and counters, and for the shower. Now each of them separately is fine, but when you mix them this is where the concern is. You end up in a small space with many toxins exposed to each other. These solutions are highly concentrated mixtures of chlorine, formaldehyde, and sodium hypochlorite, which irritate your eyes, lungs, and skin. Even when these chemicals go down the drain, they can mix with others chemicals and create dangerous compounds like chlorine gas that can work its way back into your house.

There are safe solutions out there. But you do need to watch what is in each bottle. Yes, there are many kinds of “green” cleaners now, but not all of them are truly “green”. Some are still made with toxins; therefore they are still causing harm to people and the environment. There are others that still have toxins in them, and are either not labeled properly, or they are using different names to hide what they truly are. This is where we need to take some action; we need to tell our representatives for Congress that they need to create a bill that requires that all companies to disclose all ingredients in household cleaners on product labels and to replace toxic chemicals with safer alternatives.

We need to step up and help each other in creating a healthier and non-toxic planet, before there isn’t anything left to save!

Sami