Your Health, Your Cleaners- The FACTS

Did you know?

• Ingredients in common household cleaners can harm your health and the health of your

   family.

• The World Health Organization estimates that 80% of all cancers are environmentally related.

• Cleaning chemicals can cause headaches, asthma, burns, permanent eye damage, major organ damage, and even cancer.

• The World Health Organization estimates that 30% of all buildings experience indoor air quality (IAQ) problems. Cleaning products can be a key contributor.

• A fetus may come into contact with an endocrine-disrupting chemical while still in the womb, but problems such as birth defects, infertility and learning disabilities may not show up until much later.

• Manufacturers are not required to list ingredients that make up less than 0.1% of listed carcinogens or 1% of listed OSHA chemicals.

• The World Health Organization states that indoor air pollution is attributable to the deaths of 1.6 million people per year – one death every 20 seconds.

* More than 9 out of every 10 suspected poison exposures occur at home with household products

* Women who work at home have a 54% higher death rate from cancer than women who work outside the home.

******DANGER • WARNING • CAUTION*******

Many household products contain organ damage, and even cancer. pesticidal and toxic ingredients that can be harmful to humans, animals, or the environment. -- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Is your product truly "Green"?

1. Does the company promote eliminating packaging waste & eliminating greenhouse gas? Cleaners that come in super-concentrated form—where you add your own water (saves $$$ too)—ex) drops + water= 1 bottle of cleaner.  Cleaners that are Organic—this is important—no chemicals on the materials that compose the cleaner.
2.   Seek out products that are….
1. 
   
   
   ·  Nontoxic
   ·  No harmful fumes
   ·  Hypoallergenic
   ·  No volatile organic cleaning compounds
   ·  Formulated without hazardous chemicals such as:
   1.     Kerosene
   2.     Phenol
   3.     Cresol
   4.     Lye
   5.     Hydrochloric Acid
   6.     Sulfuric Acid
   7.     Sulfamic Acid
   8.     Petroleum distillates
   9.     Ammonia
   10.   Sodium hydroxide
   11.  Butyl cellosolve
   12.  Phosphoric Acid
   13.  Formaldehyde
   14.  Chlorine Bleach
   15.  Morpholine
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   For a true green cleaners that work and saves money click here.
   
   
   References
   1. Landrigan PJ, Garg A. Chronic effects of toxic environmental exposures on children's
   health. J Toxicol Clin Toxicol. 2002;40(4):449-56
   2. Rumchev K, Spickett J, Bulsara M, Phillips M, Stick S. Association of domestic exposure
   to volatile organic compounds with asthma in young children. Thorax. 2004
   Sep;59(9):746-51
   3. Medina-Ramón M, Zock JP, Kogevinas M, Sunyer J, Antó JM Asthma symptoms in
   women employed in domestic cleaning: a community based study. Thorax. 2003
   Nov;58(11):950-4.
   4. Casas X, Monsó E, Orpella X, Hervás R, González JA, Arellano E, Martínez C, Martínez
   G, Ascosa A, Comín J, Ruiz R, Monsó B, Casas I, Esteve M, Morera J. [Incidence and
   characteristics of adult-onset asthma]. Arch Bronconeumol. 2008 Sep;44(9):471-7

Do Toxic Homes Cause Asthma?

Note: Today’s blog entry was written by Dr. Stephen Chaney. Dr. Chaney is a professor of biochemistry, biophysics and nutrition at UNC Medical School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He is also a prominent cancer researcher with a well established research lab he directs at UNC.

Everybody is going green. Biodegradable cleaners are finally in fashion.

But did you realize that many of the cleaners that you buy in the supermarket - and some of the biodegradable cleaners that you buy in the health food store - release toxic fumes in your home that can adversely affect the health of you and your children?

I'm going to focus on just one aspect of this topic - household chemical exposure and childhood asthma.  But first a bit of background information: The prevalence of childhood asthma increased 74% between 1980 and 1994 and has continued to increase in the years since.

The causes of this rapid increase in asthma prevalence are likely to be complex, but evidence has accumulated in recent years that some of the increase may be caused by early exposure to toxic chemical fumes in the home.

Why is that?

The American consumer keeps demanding cleaners that work better (It's considered a big plus if they require no effort) and are easy to use (Don't bother with messy liquids and pastes - just spray it on).  And manufacturers have been willing to oblige by adding ever more exotic chemicals to household cleaners and putting them in aerosol spray cans.

And of course no one opens their windows any more. That would be wasting energy and contributing to global warming.

The result is that these toxic chemicals accumulate in the air that we breathe in our own homes. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency has stated that the air inside our homes is often more polluted than in Los Angeles or New York on a smoggy day.

A number of studies have pointed to an association between these toxic household fumes and childhood asthma, but I'd like to focus on one particularly good study on this topic that was published recently in the European Respiratory Journal (31: 54-57, 2008).

This study measured the household chemical exposure of 7,162 pregnant women in England and looked at the incidence of asthma in their children at age 8.5 years.

A maternal composite household chemical exposure (CHCE) score was derived by measuring the pregnant mother's exposure to a number of common household products known to contain toxic chemicals.

The household products used most frequently were disinfectants (87.4%), bleach (84.8%), aerosols (71.7%), air fresheners (68%), window cleaners (60.5%), carpet cleaners (35.3%) and pesticides/insecticides (21.2%). (For information on the toxic chemicals in these and other common household products visit:  http://www.householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/products.htm)

Asthma was quantified based on persistent wheezing (reported by the parents) and several lung function tests that were administered at age 8.5 years.

To make sure that the asthma was not caused by simple allergies the children were also given a skin prick test against a panel of 6 common childhood allergens (house dust mites, cats, mixed grass, mixed nuts, peanuts and milk).  The study also controlled for confounding variables such as exposure to tobacco smoke, damp housing, pets in the home and maternal history of asthma.

In short, this was a very large and particularly well controlled study.

And the results were clear.  Higher household chemical exposure during pregnancy was associated with a 41% increase in childhood asthma in children with no known allergies.

What does that mean to you and me? It means that it is not enough to select household products that are safe for the environment.  We also need to select products that we use in our homes on the basis of their safety for us and our family - not just on the basis of cost and convenience.

To Your Health!

Dr. Stephen G Chaney

P.S. Shaklee, the company that brought us one of the very first biodegradable cleaners and the very first company in the world to be certified as climate neutral, makes a "Get Clean" line of household cleaners that are not only biodegradable but also contain no toxic fumes that could be harmful for your health.