REPORT Wash away the toxins, Let's start with the laundry!

Protect your family’s health

You probably think the air quality in your home is healthful, wholesome or, at the very least, harmless. Yet, in 1989, the EPA determined that the toxic chemicals found in common household cleaners, often dispersed in fumes, are three times more likely to cause cancer than are other air pollutants. The EPA also reported to Congress that our indoor air contains the nation’s worst pollution, with the typical American home having chemical contamination levels 70 times higher than levels found in the air outside. In addition, disturbing results from a study conducted by the Toronto Indoor Air 90 Conference found that women who work at home have a 54% greater risk of cancer than women who work outside the home. The quality of indoor air is degraded by the common products we use every day. These products and the fumes and residue produced by their use are endangering our lives.

Toxic Products are a Threat to You and Your Family

Toxic household cleaners pose acute dangers in addition to their chronic or cumulative effects on the body. Every year, 5 to 10 million household poisonings are reported. Many of these are fatal, and the majority of victims are children. In 1990, 11% of all calls to Poison Control Centers involved a child and cleaning products. More children under the age of four die from accidental poisonings at home than die in accidents with guns at home. You certainly wouldn’t leave a loaded gun under in your laundry room or under your sink, but he products typically stored there are just as dangerous. The best protection against poisoning is removing toxic cleaning and laundry products from your home and replacing them with effective, nontoxic alternatives

Damage to Our Precious Groundwater

In addition to poisoning our children and polluting our air, toxic household products are a major polluter of our groundwater systems, threatening the health of future generations. Every time you pour your cleaning water down the drain, you pollute the Earth’s groundwater with many organic compounds, some of which have deleterious or unknown health effects.

We can all start undoing the environmental damage of a century’s worth of toxic buildup and protect our families from the devastating effects of toxic cleaners by switching to safer, more effective earth-friendly household products. These products contain natural ingredients known for their cleaning abilities, and many cost significantly less than their toxic counter parts.

... Herbert Rosenblatt has spent 20 years in the field of environmental protection and has 47 years experience as a chemical engineer

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