Why Should I Change My Household Cleaning and Hygiene Products?

Many people have posed this question to me. “Why should I change my household cleaning and hygiene products?’ This is a valid question and it has a valid answer. For me and my family, we chose to start making these changes because we felt like the Lord was directing us to do so. The more we change the products in our home or our lifestyle, the more we research and find out just why we are making these changes. There are so many toxic chemicals in our homes, in our communities, and in our country. We live in a toxic society. We live in a poisonous society. 

The sad and disgusting part of all of this is that it is just accepted. I often hear excuses like, “There is just too much to change, so why start? It won’t make a difference.” Even excuses mixed with humor like “Everything gives you cancer now days.” The fact is whether you want to ignore it because it is overwhelming or laugh it off because you don’t know what else you can honestly do, we are killing ourselves. We have to stop believing the lie that there is nothing that we can do. There is something we can do! And it starts with just one change, your frame of mind. 

One hundred years ago or even seventy-five years ago our society was nowhere near as toxic, not even close, to what it is now. In one lifetime we have managed to completely poison our society. It might take another lifetime to detox our society, but it will be completely worth it! The cases of cancer, diseases, and sicknesses have MULTIPLIED beyond reason in just these past seventy-five years. I don’t want to live a life of sickness because of the poisonous products that I choose to buy when I can make or buy safe and healthy ones. I don’t want to continue to make an even more toxic environment for my children to live and grow up in. I don’t want to pass on death to my children. So, we are making a change.

 Some of the ingredients you can use to make non-toxic cleaners

It started out with one change several years ago. Over time as the change becomes easier we have replaced nearly all our cleaners and we aren’t finished yet! I am excited about the changes we have made in our home and I want others to be excited about the changes they are making.  The choices you make do not just affect you, they affect your family, community, and the world. The first change is the hardest, change your mind. After you change your mind and realize that you can make a difference, it gets easier. Here are a few more reasons that we continue to make changes that I found while searching the web:

The toxic chemicals in some commercial cleaning products have been linked to numerous health concerns, including asthma, reproductive difficulties, birth defects, respiratory problems, neurological disorders, autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer’s, Attention Deficit Disorder, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, and cancer. Within 26 seconds after exposure to chemicals such as cleaning products, traces of these chemicals can be found in every organ in the body.
~ Healthy Child Healthy World

Over 80% of adults and 90% of children in the United States have residues of one or more harmful pesticides in their bodies.

Petrochemical cleaning products in the home are easily absorbed into the skin. Once absorbed, the toxins travel to the blood stream and are deposited in the fatty tissues where they may exist indefinitely. 
~ ”In Harm’s Way,” a study by “The Clean Water Fund” and “Physicians for Social Responsibility“

 Women who work at home have a 54% higher death rate from cancer than those who work away from home. The study concluded that this was a direct result of the increased exposure to toxic chemicals, many of which are found in common household products.
~ Toronto Air Conference

Some chemicals in cleaning products have been linked to reproductive harm, which includes decreases in fertility, cancers of reproductive organs, miscarriage, premature birth, changes in sexual behavior, menstrual changes, changes in the onset of puberty, and other effects.  Many scientists now believe that chemical exposure, even at very low levels, can have adverse impacts on the reproductive system.
~ Women’s Voices for the Earth

Tests were carried out on blood samples from the umbilical cords of 27 newborn babies and 42 new mothers.  The samples were tested for eight groups of chemicals, including those found in cleaning products.  All of the samples tested positive for at least some of the 35 chemicals tested. Some of the umbilical cord blood samples contained as many as 14, and two of the mothers tested positive for 17 of the chemicals. Toxics Campaigner for Greenpeace International said: “It is shocking that such chemicals are in the human body at any stage of our life, let alone at the very start, when the child is most vulnerable.”  “These chemicals should not be in products, let alone in developing babies.”
~ Environmental Working Group

Chemicals in cleaning products can pollute the environment when sprayed in the air or washed down the drain, jeopardizing the health of our ecosystems.
~ Women’s Voices for the Earth

More than 7 million accidental poisonings occur each year, with more than 75% involving children under age 6.

~ The Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons

"A child is accidentally poisoned every 30 seconds at home..."

~ U.S. Poison Control Centers

When combined, chemicals are even more dangerous. Deadly fumes result from mixing ammonia with bleach (both found in many household products) creating lethal "mustard gas".

~ U.S. Government, E.P.A.

According to the National Research Council, no toxic information is available for more than 80% of the chemicals in everyday-use products. Only 1% of toxins are required to be listed on labels, because companies classify their formulas as "trade secrets."

 ~ Lorie Dwornick, researcher, educator and activist, 2002

In the past 50 years more than 75,000 chemicals have been introduced into the environment. Today 300 synthetic chemicals are found in the bodies of humans. Even newborn babies have synthetic chemicals passed on from their mothers.

~ REACH (Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals, a European Union program)

The EPA tallied close to 10,000 chemical ingredients in cosmetics, food and consumer products. Very few of these chemicals were in our environment or our bodies just 75 years ago.

In 1998, U.S. industries manufactured 6.5 trillion pounds of 9,000 different chemicals.

In 2000, major American companies dumped 7.1 billion pounds of 650 different industrial chemicals into our air and water.

Except in the case of foods, drugs or pesticides, companies are under no legal or regulatory obligation to concern themselves with how their products might harm human health.

~ Alexandra Rome, Co-director of the Sustainable Futures Group at Commonweal, a nonprofit health and environmental research institute, until 2000.

Of the chemicals found in personal care products: 884 are toxic, 146 cause tumors, 218 cause reproductive complications, 778 cause acute toxicity, 314 cause biological mutations, 376 cause skin and eye irritations.

 ~ United States House of Representatives Report, 1989

This is just a sample of the research. I encourage you to do your own, get motivated, and make changes.