Time for Spring Greening!
Dear Reader,
I think we can all agree that there's nothing quite like a
sparkling clean home. But what if you discovered that those very
cleaning products are hazardous to your health? Somehow, the
crystal-clear windows, gleaming floors, shiny kitchen, and squeaky-clean
bathrooms aren't quite so appealing. And as my
patient Alicia discovered, products that are supposed to help eliminate bug-borne illnesses can backfire in unexpected ways.
Cleaners That Contaminate
Now you may be wondering, just how dangerous are
conventional cleaning products? The answer depends on how often you use
them and how weather-tight your home is. If you tend to keep the windows
and doors shut year-round, product fumes can accumulate to dangerous
levels. Chemical pollutants in the air inside homes can be as much as 70
times higher than those outdoors, according to the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). Since we typically spend most of our time
indoors -- in a house, apartment, or office with little ventilation --
we spend hours and hours in an environment loaded with these toxins.
Of course, people aren't the only ones affected by the chemicals in
cleaning products. With manufacturers churning out antibacterial
everything, experts are concerned about the creation of superbugs,
bacteria that have evolved a resistance to the chemicals designed to
conquer them.
If creating superbugs isn't bad enough, there are other downsides to
using conventional cleansers. The vast majority of Americans believe
cleaning products have been safety tested. And why wouldn't they? Safety
testing is required by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
But the testing is almost always done by the manufacturers themselves.
In all fairness, the tests aren't necessarily flawed or biased; however,
testing by a third party with no economic interest in the product is
the gold standard, and these tests are far from that.
4 Steps to Eliminate Dangerous Toxins
Luckily, there's plenty you can do to avoid chemical-laden cleaners.
Here are four steps I recommend to my patients who want to eliminate
these dangerous toxins from their lives.
1. Avoid any product labeled antibacterial.
Problem: Right now, Americans waging war on
germs use a staggering amount of antibacterial products, hundreds of
millions of pounds per year, according to some experts. But trying to
kill all bacteria could be a big mistake for several reasons. First, as I
mentioned earlier, antibacterial products can create indestructible
superbugs, something no one wants.
And there are other downsides to antibacterial products. Take hand
sanitizers, for example. Some studies show that they don't always work
as well as soap and water. Personally, I don't want to use something
that doesn't work. But I found something even more disconcerting: A
recent study determined that triclosan, the active ingredient in many
antibacterial products, has a profoundly negative effect on our immune
system's natural killer cells, our primary defense against virus and
tumor cells. To me, that's a real red-flag warning about the safety of
these supposedly beneficial products!
Solution: Good old unscented soap and water has worked
for centuries, and there's no reason to change now. In fact, the phrase
"if it's not broken, don't fix it" comes to mind!
2. Shop for cleaning products carefully.
Problem: When it comes to certain dangers, cleaning
products are clearly marked. But if you don't understand the
terminology, warnings can be confusing. Example: What is the difference
between a product labeled "danger" and one that carries the warning
"caution"? According to the EPA, "caution" means fatalities can occur if
more than two tablespoons are ingested, while anything labeled "danger"
or "poison" is so deadly that just a few drops can be lethal.
In between the two, there's the term "warning." Just one teaspoon of
these products can be deadly. And these terms apply only to adults. It
takes far less to poison a child or an animal. In spite of the labels,
household products poison about two million people each year, and more
than half of them are children.
Other than these legally required warnings, manufacturers of
conventional cleaning products usually provide little health
information. If you want to know what ingredients a product contains,
for example, you're on your own. Most mainstream product labels neither
include ingredients nor do they have to, thanks to trade-secret laws
that protect these "recipes."
Solution: Read, read, read the labels! Don’t
fall for pseudo-healthy "green-washed" products created by companies
hoping to profit from the nontoxic cleaning movement.
Terms like "biodegradable" and "natural" are legally meaningless, so
they can be used on products loaded with petrochemicals and toxins.
Also, don’t be fooled by terms like "free," "clear," "gentle," and so
on. I just discovered that a major manufacturer’s fragrance- and
dye-free laundry detergent contains a known carcinogen (a substance that
causes cancer) called 1,4-dioxane.
Instead, concentrate on the ingredients. On safe cleaning products, they
are usually listed. Most of the ingredients should be recognizable
names -- citrus or coconut extracts, for example -- not what appear to
be answers to a chemistry quiz. If you have questions, contact the
manufacturers. Those with nothing to hide should give you
straightforward answers.
