Dangers of Household Cleaners
Until recently I only cared if my cleaning product did its job or not. If a product claimed to cut through grease or remove soap scum, all I cared about was whether or not it did just that. If the product did not live up to the hype, or made me have to scrub a little harder, than I threw it away and never bought it again. I guess that I am becoming more concerned about my role on our planet, now I worry about what the products that I use are doing to the planet and to my family. When a product can easily blast through a clogged drain, shouldn’t I be a little concerned as to what it is doing to my body and to my family?
When you start to look at the actual ingredients in many cleaning products, you may start to remember some of your high school chemistry classes. Remember how destructive the acids and bases were when you dropped different items into them? Remember how dangerous it was to combine certain chemicals, such as ammonia and bleach? Well, many of your household cleaners are made of the same ingredients. Do a little research into what you are using and, more importantly, what you are releasing into your air. Every commercially available cleaning product has a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) posted on their websites. These informative guides will list all known and potential health hazards for their product.
Besides your own health and safety when using these products, also start to think about what happens to them when you are done with them. After you clean your shower, where does the chemical go? Well it goes down the drain. Our sewer lines go to processing facilities, unless you have a septic system, and these processing facilities try to remove all of the dangerous chemicals before they dump the water into our oceans. I know that they do a great job, but can they really get rid of everything that we dump down the drain? If you do have a septic system you should be even more aware of what you are putting down your drain. Septic systems rely on bacteria and other living organisms to break down your waste naturally and release the by-product to your yard. Dumping a bunch of chemicals down your drain every couple of months is going to do nothing more than kill off all of the healthy bacteria and lead to costly septic repairs.
Do your own research into healthier alternatives to your favorite cleaning products. You will be amazed at how many different options that there are to make your own homemade cleaners. If you can replace an expensive cleaner, such as CLR Cleaner, with a little cheap white vinegar, wouldn’t you consider it? You just may have to use a little bit more elbow grease, but if it is safer for your family and your world isn’t it worth it?