Clean Green

Isn't it strange that the most unnatural things can come to seem natural -- and even necessary -- if you live with them long enough?

Take household cleansers. In the 19th century, people cleaned with a few everyday materials, like vinegar and soap. Then the cleanser industry developed, giving us individualized cleaning products for virtually everything in the house -- floors, rugs, ovens, toilets, drains, windows, tubs, clothes, silver, brass and furniture. We got so used to these products over time that now we feel we can't clean without them.

It gets stranger. Almost all these cleaning products (except the ones made specifically for the green consumer) are composed of dangerous chemicals -- most derived from the oil industry (surprise!). The more innocuous ones can irritate your skin, make you dizzy or cause temporary breathing problems. The really scary ones can burn you, blind you, damage your organs or combust. Some may expose you to a greater risk of cancer and other long-term health problems.

I first realized the danger some years ago, when I tried out a tub and shower cleanser and nearly passed out from the fumes. Consulting the label, I found a warning to use only in "well-ventilated places." (Could it have escaped the manufacturer's notice that tubs and showers are almost never well-ventilated places?)

Moving on to my other cleansers, I found that every one, without exception, had a warning on the label, ranging from mild to scary. Oddly, many also boasted that the product contained no phosphates, as if that were the green seal of approval, making everything else OK.

I'm sorry to say, I didn't immediately change my ways. Having bought into the idea that the products were necessary for cleaning, I continued to use them for quite a while -- mainly because I was scared the germs would hurt my kids. Eventually, though, I came to see that I was substituting one danger for another. The cleanser that killed the salmonella on our counter left a chemical residue that could harm our health in a different way, maybe not by itself, but in combination with the other chemicals in our environment and, increasingly, our bloodstream.

Synthetic chemicals -- of which there are more than 75,000 in use today -- have infiltrated every corner of our lives. They're in our carpets, clothes, cosmetics, baby bottles, toys, food packaging and vegetables. They can be found in the tropics and in the Arctic, in the air and in the ocean, in the bodies of both animals and people. Some are endocrine disruptors, like DDT and PCBs. What the rest may be, nobody knows. Less than 10 percent have been tested for safety!

I can't control my exposure to these chemicals in most areas of life, but I can when it comes to the cleansers I use in my own home. So I steer clear of them, except for special needs. Instead, I use natural alternatives made by companies with a strong commitment to the health of the environment and all of us.

I don't mean to minimize the danger posed by germs, but for a normally healthy family in 21st century America, household chemicals pose just as great a threat as bacteria. Knowing as little as we do about their effects, it behooves us to be careful. When it comes to policy, this approach is called the "precautionary principle." In common language, it's known as being "better safe than sorry".

-- The GreenGuys