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Green Guide 98 | September/October 2003 Levels of pollutants in indoor air, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, can be from 2-5 times to more than 100 times higher than outdoors, thanks in large part to toxic, irritating volatile organic chemicals, or VOCs, that evaporate, or "offgass" from home decorating and cleaning products. Step one for home cleaners ought to be, open a window and let those pollutants out! Yet rather than letting in a crisp autumn morning breeze, many consumers stubbornly keep using synthetic room fresheners and fragranced cleaning products that are full of VOCs and other toxins. These can make our indoor air unhealthy, provoke allergic skin, eye and respiratory reactions and harm the natural environment, as well. For more information, read on and also see The Green Guide's Household Cleaning Supplies. Take these so-called air fresheners. In homes where aerosol sprays and air fresheners were used frequently, mothers suffered from 25% more headaches and 19% more depression, and infants under six months of age had 30% more ear infections and 22% higher incidence of diarrhea, according to a study at Bristol University in England that was published in New Scientist in 1999. In choosing among alternatives, however, consumers need to be alert to greenwashing. "Just because a product says it's natural doesn't mean it's nontoxic," says Jeffrey Hollender, CEO of Seventh Generation cleaning products. The claim is undefined and unregulated and can be applied to just about anything under the sun, including plastic, which comes from naturally-occuring petroleum. Because no standards exist, claims such as "non-toxic," "eco-safe" and "environmentally friendly/ preferable/ safe" are also meaningless, according to Consumers Union's Ecolabels website (ecolabels.org). And currently, only food and herbs can be labelled as certified organic, so the word "organic" on the face of a dish or laundry soap doesn't wash. Instead, David Steinman, coauthor of The Safe Shopper's Bible, advises looking on labels for specific, gentler ingredients that also perform effectively. These include grain alcohol instead of toxic butyl cellosolve as a solvent; detergents based on coconut or other plant oils rather than petroleum; and plant-oil disinfectants such as eucalyptus, rosemary or sage rather than triclosan. You can also mix your own, as does Annie Berthold-Bond, green living editor at care2.com and author of Clean and Green (Ceres Press, 1994) and Better Basics for the Home (Three Rivers Press, 1999). According to Annie, a few safe, simple ingredients such as plan soap, water, baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice and borax, can satisfy most household cleaning needs. They will also save you money. If you're in the mood to detoxify, getting rid of germs doesn't have to mean overkill: This is your home, not a hospital. In 2000, cleaning products were responsible for nearly 10% of all toxic exposures reported to U.S. Poison Control Centers, accounting for over 206,000 calls, over half of which were about children under the age of six. According to Philip Dickey of the Washington Toxics Coalition, the most acutely, or immediately hazardous, dangerous cleaning products are corrosive drain cleaners, oven cleaners and acidic toilet bowl cleaners, and anything containing chlorine or ammonia (which should never be combined-see below). Read on to get the dirt on various conventional products and ingredients, and how to make your home truly clean, rather than a chemical holding tank. Dish and Laundry Detergents, All-Purpose Cleaners Problems: Most conventional dish and laundry detergents are made from petroleum, a nonrenewable resource.
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