Green Cleaning

Greening Your Home for Health

The following is from the AirAdvice Newsletter for September 2008:

There are a lot of reasons to make greener choices for your home.  “Green” these days refers to any products that are considered to be more environmentally friendly or save energy.  But there is another very important benefit to choosing green products.  Many products that are considered green are made with less chemicals or more natural formulations.  Having fewer chemical pollutants in your home translates to a healthier environment for you and your family.  Here are a couple of areas where making better choices can make a huge difference.

Building and remodeling materials constitute one of the single largest sources of chemical pollutants in a home.  Paints and varnishes, flooring, insulation and just about everything we use to build the modern home are all laden with chemicals that can cause a huge number of health problems ranging from asthma attacks to headaches, sinus issues, fatigue and decreased lung function. 

The good news is companies are now offering more environmentally friendly options for many of these products.  These green building materials are typically lower in volatile organic compounds (VOCs).  For example, low VOC paints are readily available, insulation can be made from newspaper instead of fiberglass treated with harmful chemicals and flooring can be made from bamboo or cork, reducing chemicals associated with traditional wood varnish or carpeting.  For resources on low VOC building materials, it’s as easy as doing an internet search for “Low VOC building materials” and you get a huge list of companies devoted to helping you make your home healthier and more environmentally friendly.

Cleaning products are another big source of chemicals, and one of the easiest areas where you can make a change.  The broom closet that may have held glass cleaner and floor wax twenty years ago now holds a mind-boggling array of single-use, throw-away cleaning products for every nook and cranny of the home.  This explosion in the number of products has taken its toll.  Almost all of these cleaning chemicals are not good to breathe, and have huge warning labels about using them in well-ventilated areas.  Unfortunately, with all of the air quality testing we’ve done here at AirAdvice, we’ve determined that even when these products are not in use, they are still releasing small amounts of chemicals into your home. 

However, there is a bright side.  Today, natural and fragrance free cleaning products are also more readily available.  Look for products that list ingredients you can pronounce or that do not use artificial fragrances.   Many of these items can be found at your local grocery store, at natural stores or by ordering them online.  Another great solution is to look for “home remedy” recipes online to make your own cleaning products!  Using recipes made from simple, less harmful ingredients like vinegar, borax (non-toxic), castor oil and glycerin, you can create home formulas that work as well or better than many of the toxic mixtures found at your local store.  For help, ideas and recipes, just do an internet search for “home remedy cleaning products”.  You may be surprised at just how well these forgotten and healthier formulas can work to keep your home clean.

Comments

[Ruth]

I'm really glad that people are being made more aware of the health risks of not switching to greener cleaning and building materials. I never realized until I read the book Green Goes With Everything just how badly my choices were affecting not only the environment but my health as well.

http://www.greengoeswitheverything.com/

[David Gordon]

Thank you, Ruth, for sharing the excellent information available from "Green Goes With Anything" program. The site offers "Ten Simple Steps for Improving IAQ and Health" - providing a great list of "source" pollutants. Removing source pollutants is the first step, according to the EPA. Ventilation and air cleaning are additional steps homeowners can take to reduce exposure to harmful particles, chemicals and biological pollutants, and thereby minimize their health risk. You'll see entries on my blog for more information.