Toxic Chemicals at Work

Are you asking yourself why I care about chemical cleaner regulations and alternatives?

It took me this long to do a post about it because the reason seemed self-evident. Especially since there's a long list of good links under the "No Stink Cleaning" tab at www.JustCleanTuscaloosa.com.

Ready-made cleaning compounds marketed to homeowners are nothing to fool with. They make cleaning a nasty and dangerous activity -- for ordinary people who clean once a week or so, but especially for the maids and janitors who do it for a living.

A good place to start to see what I am talking about  is the Environmental Working Group consumer guides section. They have databases with ingredients and safety information about all kinds of commercial goods. The organization has also put together a cleaners "Hall of Shame" that rounds up innocent-sounding cleaning products that pack a toxic punch.

The list also targets store-brand cleaners, which typically don't disclose what's in them or who makes them on their labels, and air "fresheners," which pollute the air while claiming to clean it. An advocacy group called Women's Voices for the Earth went and tested a batch of name-brand products to see what unlisted ingredients were in them. Here's a summary, with a link to the full study.

Seeing a product on store shelves does not guarantee it's safe by any means. The New York Times had an article about that just this Sunday.

So if most chemicals get into the marketplace without being tested, how do we know they're bad?

An association up in Canada has a massive fact sheet with info about toxic ingredients and less hazardous alternatives here.

The American Lung Association has a short and sweet explanation -- with research citations -- here. Infection Control Today magazine has a longer, more in-depth survey of the literature around cleaning chemical exposures that's focused on chemical-intensive health care settings here. Here's a little newspaper article about the effects of the stinky perfumes that are proliferating among personal care and cleaning supplies.

Here's a 2012 article from Environmental Health Perspectives journal about hidden hazards. Short version: Avoid products with perfumes and antibacterial agents. Forbes magazine has a good, um, executive summary of the study and what to do about it here.

Are you persuaded that cleaning chemicals do more harm than good? Clean doesn't have a smell, and if it does, it's most likely not safe to breathe.