THE POWER OF
NON TOXIC LIVING
THE POWER OF
NON TOXIC LIVING
If we were to let you know a way that you could do a common household task that would save the rivers, oceans and the environment we live in, would you be interested in hearing about it. Some people probably would, some wouldn't. But if we also told you that this same thing would also be a safe alternative to this common household task that would protect you, your family and your pets from daily poisonous and toxic exposure, most of you would probably want to hear more. We are going to introduce you to one aspect of the world of non toxic living and the powerful effect it can have on people and the environment.
Most household cleaners that are commonly available at your local supermarket contain toxic, caustic and non biodegradable ingredients that we expose our selves, our families and our environment to daily. In fact, within 26 seconds of exposure to these chemicals they can be found in every organ in our body. You may ask yourself, then why don't I get sick or violently ill when I clean my house? Some people actually do. Some just feel a burning in there throat or lungs or have trouble breathing or have watery eyes. Some may not feel anything. But this constant exposure to low level toxins in our lives has a profound effect on who we are and how healthy we will be.
In the past several decades, there has been a significant increase in the asthma rate amongst children, in fact a dramatic 118 percent between 1980 and 1993, and lung cancer in adults. In fact, six out of every 100 janitors in Washington State have lost time from their jobs linked to toxic cleaning products, specifically glass and toilet cleaners and degreasers, according to the Janitorial Products Pollution Prevention Project. A key reason for this is the fact that since World War II at least 75,000 new synthetic chemical compounds have been developed and released into the environment; fewer than half of these have been tested for their potential toxicity to humans, and still less have been assessed for their particular toxicity to children.
So now that we have raised your interest level, you may be inclined to go to you cupboards and take out your cleaning products to look at the ingredients. You will probably find that most of the products do not list their ingredients on the labels. This may seem unbelievable. How can a product that is in our house not fully disclose their ingredients, especially products with questionable ingredients? The reason is that a long time ago these chemical companies, notice the word "chemical", lobbied with Washington and contested that their ingredients were trade secrets and that by making the companies disclose their ingredients would essentially give their secret ingredients to the public. While this seems reasonable, do you think that if some of these ingredients were poisonous or dangerous to you and your family, don't you think you have a right to know if you were bringing these chemicals into your house. We do. That is why several years ago we decided that this was unacceptable to us and decided to use only non toxic cleaning products that have full disclosure of their ingredients on there labels. In fact, we even purchased a company that made the best all natural non toxic cleaning products that we were using in our home.
There are many great all natural, non toxic cleaning product manufacturers out there that fully disclose their ingredients and want to make a difference in peoples lives. These products range from kitchen and bathroom cleaners, laundry and dish soaps and air fresheners. The ingredients that you most want to avoid are phosphates, ammonia, butyl ethers or chlorine bleach. They are highly toxic and extremely bad for your health if it gets into your system by touch, taste or osmosis, the process of liquids entering into your body through your skin. For instance if you wipe down your kitchen table with these chemical cleaners not only can these toxins enter your body when you breath them, but also if your food touches the table and gets ingested or by your hands touching the table as you sit to eat. And this holds true for your entire family! How many times have you sat down at a restaurant and seen them spray and wipe a table after a party has just finished their meal. The next party sits down, takes the silverware out of the napkin and places it on the table. Now the cleaner that was used is all over their hands and eating utensils. This is just within one minute of sitting down.
If this were to happen once, it may not be that bad, especially if you are an adult. But just think you and your kids are exposed to this day after day after day. A child's body weight is so much smaller than yours. The dosage per body weight they are receiving is so much greater that an adult. And then think of the babies crawling across the floor you just "cleaned". Now that their hands have been sliding across the floor, where is the next place they go, into their mouth. Putting everything in the mouth is a crucial part of normal development; this is the way a baby learns about the world.
There are alternatives out their today that are safe and effective. The goal of this article is that we may have persuaded some of you to at least take note of one of the ways toxins can affect you, your family and the environment and what you can do to take steps to make changes. It is also our hope that we have convinced the others to go our and purchase all natural non toxic cleaning products and start using them in your home. Please be aware that if you do make the switch, the old cleaners in your cabinets are most likely toxic and should be disposed of correctly.
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