Green Goes With Everything

I am writing my blog in an airport today. That’s a first - probably not a green first. Since flying is one of the more ungreen things you can do, I am looking into buying carbon offsets. That is for another blog though. I always bring several books with me when I fly in case I get stuck in the airport for a long time. One of the books I brought with me on this trip is “Green Goes With Everything” by Sloan Barnett.

Ms. Barnett has been a consumer advocate and green activist for several years. She became an activist about cleaning up the home environment when her son developed asthma at the age of three. She was frustrated by doctors who could treat her son’s asthma symptoms, but who had no clue about the cause of his asthma. After a good deal of research she became convinced that it was chemicals in her home environment that was making him sick. From there she began researching cleaning products, carpets, hygiene products, cosmetics, food, air and energy. Lucky for the rest of us, she published a book that makes it convenient and easy for the rest of us to learn about cleaning up the environment in our own homes.

I have always heard that the air in our homes is more polluted than the air outside but I did not know why. I figured it was an accumulation of bad breath, overflowing litter boxes and rotten food and all we need to do is open the windows once in a while to air things out. That is not the case.

Over the past few decades, specialized cleaning products have evolved into dangerous concoctions that are marketed as absolutely necessary for a clean home. Manufacturers are not required to put their ingredients on the label yet many have warnings on them like, “Toxic! Poison! Fatal! Do not combine with ----!”. They include petroleum based surfactants as wetting agents, phthalates in fragrance, chlorine bleach, triclosan to kill bacteria, ammonia, lye, and many others. if you want to look up a particular product go to the National Institute of Products Database of the National Institutes of Health. You can look up a particular product or an ingredient to learn about the safety risk.

Some things to remember about cleaning products:
Fragrances are not necessary. In fact, they are one of the more suspect ingredients in cleaning products, hygiene products and cosmetics. Phthalates are chemicals that stabilize the fragrance and are used to make plastic flexible. To me, it is the smell that makes plastic smell like plastic. Ms. Barnett reminds us that clean has no smell. If you really need a citrus fragrance to make you think “That’s clean!” then add a few drops of orange essential oil or some lemon juice to your homemade cleaner of vinegar and water.

Suds don’t clean. Often suds are caused by surfactants like sodium lauryl sulfate or sodium laureth sulfate. These chemicals are in shampoo and toothpaste as well as dish detergents. They have the bad reputation of being hormone disruptors.

Warm water, soap and friction are the best way to clean your hands. It has become very trendy to make all kinds of antibacterial products. These products have triclosan which kills bacteria, but only the weak or susceptible kind. The strong resistant bacteria survive to reproduce and in a few generations - through survival of the fittest- you have a resistant strain of bacteria. Triclosan also goes through the water treatment plant and into our rivers and streams (as do many of these ingredients).

Simplify. You do not need many specialized types of cleaners. Make your own general cleaner or buy a concentrated general cleaner (see my Feb 9 post.) If possible, buy a cleaner in green packaging, like a box or recycled plastic. Of all plastic waste that goes to the landfill, 28% is from cleaning products.

I have mentioned only the cleaning products that pollute the environment in our homes. I recommend that you buy the book “Green Goes With Everything” to find out the numerous other modern products that may cause problems - like carpet, foods, cosmetics. It’s a great reference to have on hand and easy to read. Also, go to the website for the latest updates by Sloan Barnett.

Take the Body Burden quiz to find out which chemicals are coursing through your body. I scored a 24 out of 100, the average score is 39. It could be worse, but I still have some work to do.

If you want to be greener, begin at home.