In one of my earlier posts, I talked about the importance of choosing safe personal care products. We come into regular contact with plenty of other chemicals, too—among them are our cleaning products, and as you might suspect, they are not all created equal.
According to the GoodGuide, a guide to safe household products developed by Dara O’Rourke, a professor of environmental science, policy, and management at UC Berkeley, some toilet bowl cleaners contain bromine, a suspected endocrine disruptor that causes liver, gastrointestinal and neural toxicity; many disinfectants contain 2-phenylphenol, a chemical that California recognizes as a carcinogen; and laundry detergents often contain phosphorus and 2-propanol, which, according to a 2006 study published in the Lancet, can cause neural and respiratory toxicity.
But you don’t have to resort to baking soda and vinegar (though that is certainly a safe option). There are nontoxic cleaners out there, and many of them are available at regular grocery stores. The problem is, you can’t necessary determine safety just by looking at the label—many so-called “green” or “natural” cleaners aren’t particularly green or natural (there are no regulations in place for these kinds of claims) . I’d recommend checking out the GoodGuide, which also has a handy iPhone app; another resource is MIT’s Green Alternatives Wizard, a database that provides safe alternatives for known chemicals and chemical processes. And if you do have to use potentially toxic cleaning products from time to time, ventilate your workspace and wear gloves. Better yet, ask your husband to do the dirty work for you: just this morning, mine was kind enough to battle the mildew that was building up on our shower curtain. Sometimes, all you have to do is ask.
Healthy Bun 