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6 Natural Ingredients for Cleaning Your House Without Making It Toxic
by Reynard Loki
AlterNet
Most store-bought cleaners contain chemicals that can cause not just eye and skin irritations but even cancer, asthma and birth defects. They can be accidentally ingested by children and pets.
According to the EPA, household cleaners can contain an array of hazardous chemicals, “including carcinogens, persistent bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals, endocrine (hormone) disrupting chemicals, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that may pose risks to human health and the environment.”
But these products aren't just dangerous inside the home. “Cleaning products are released to the environment during normal use through evaporation of volatile components and rinsing down the drain of residual product from cleaned surfaces,” the agency says. The nitrogen in window cleaner, for example, forms dangerous nitrates that pollute groundwater.
And it's not just the chemicals in the cleaners that are a problem: The plastic containers require oil to produce and when the product runs out, that container ends up in a landfill, where it can take 1,000 years to degrade, all the while leaching out more harmful chemicals. When you look at their entire lifecycle, it's clear there's nothing clean about these toxic “cleaners.”
Thankfully, nature has provided us with all the necessary ingredients to keep our homes spic and span without killing ourselves, wildlife or the environment. Just use these six natural non-toxic ingredients—most of which you probably already have in the kitchen—for a spring cleaning that's better for your health and for the air, soil, water, plants, and animals around you.
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Every Day is Earth Day
Source: http://www.riseearth.com/2015/04/6-natural-ingredients-for-cleaning-your.html
