The kitchen cupboard under most people's sinks is full of dangerous toxins. Yet we keep them within arm's reach of any child or adult, in the same space that we store and cook our food! It suddenly dawned on me one day that I didn't want things in my house that were hazardous, not only to OUR health, but to our future children's health. You hear so many horror stories of kids going into the cupboards and drinking laundry liquid, or staysoft and having to be rushed to hospital to have their stomachs pumped. What if they picked up rat poison or weed killer? Some people actually keep those in their kitchen cupboards too!
It's understandable. Our parents kept all their household cleaners etc, under the sink too. THEIR parent's probably did the same. We just tend to stick to what we know. The difference is, these days we KNOW what goes into those products... or we should! We have the power at our fingertips like never before! I googled the ingredients (because I don't have any in my house to look at!) and downloaded a pdf file with all the info you need on sunlight liquid INCLUDING first aid instructions and fire-fighting measures! Turns out sunlight liquid is combustible because it contains ethyl alcohol. Granted, it won't sustain burning unless there is other fuel nearby, but it makes you think a bit. It also contains:
- Diethanolamine - refer back to this post for info on this chemical. Just a couple of reminders: Skin and eye irritant which causes contact dermatitis. Hormone disrupting chemicals that have been restricted in Europe because continued absorption results in liver and kidney cancer. It's easily absorbed through skin to accumulate in body organs and the brain.
- Ethyl Alcohol: You may CHOOSE to drink alcohol, but did you know you were absorbing it through your skin when you washed dishes? Never mind if your child accidentally swallows some. It IS toxic in high quantities as we know. Even if you're a teetotaler, you are still getting alcohol into your system every time you wash dishes. Remember, water helps your body absorb things faster.
- Dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid: A 0.5% to 1% concentration in water caused significant irritation to eyes and skin. It is corrosive and may cause irreversible damage to eyes and skin. If you ingest it it can cause irritation of the mouth, esophagus and stomach, diarrhea, intestinal distention and occasional vomiting. When heated or on contact with strong acids, it produces highly toxic fumes.
- Sodium lauryl ether sulfate: refer back to this post for info on this chemical. Animals exposed to SLS experience eye damage, depression, laboured breathing, diarrhea, skin irritation and even death. Young eyes may not develop properly if exposed to SLS because proteins are dissolved. SLS may also damage the skin's immune system by causing layers to separate and inflame. When combined with other chemicals, SLS can be transformed into nitrosamines, a potent class of carcinogens. Your body may retain the SLS for up to five days, during which time it may enter and maintain residual levels in the heart, liver, the lungs, and the brain.
These are just SOME of the ingredients but I think that list is enough cause for concern? Think about when you wash dishes. Do you wear protective gloves? I always have because I hated the way my hands got all pruny and dry. I didn't realise I was actually protecting myself as well because I now KNOW why they get all pruny. It's because the outer layer of your skin, your epidermis, which is meant to protect you from absorbing anything, has been breached due to over-exposure to the water, which is filled with chemicals. That means that those chemicals have reached your inner layer of skin, or dermis, where all your blood vessels are and they are now floating around in your system making their way through all your organs and tissues. It's not at all unlike the body creams and soaps you use that are SUPPOSED to make you feel and look younger. The SAME ingredients that are supposed to be healing and nurturing, are in the cleaners you use to clean your floors, your toilets and your dishes.
Handy andy is another one. We have all used it for years without thinking about the consequences. If you download the data sheet (which you will find by googling "what are the ingredients in handy andy") you will see, at point number 2, that "this product is a transferred substance under the hazardous substances ... act. It is classified: harmful by inhalation and if swallowed. It is a skin and eye irritant ... harmful to the aquatic environment."It has a warning symbol on it to let people know it's a dangerous toxin and yet we keep it in our kitchens.
They warn you to keep exposure to a minimum, to wash hands thoroughly after handling, wear eye/face protection, avoid breathing vapors, to not allow contaminated work clothing out of the workplace and finally, to avoid release into the environment and to collect any spillage. That last point actually makes me want to laugh! We use it in our homes on a daily basis. It coats all our cooking surfaces and our floors! We wash it down our sinks where it travels all the way through the environment! There's no question that it ends up in an ocean and they have already pointed out that it harms aquatic life. Point 4 on the document tells you to contact the National Poisons Centre if you feel you have been harmed by this product...
Knowing all of this, the scientists take their product to the marketers and say, "How can we sell this to an unsuspecting public?" Well, that's easy. Don't put ANY of the above points on the packaging. That'll be a bit of a deterrent! Bet there were even a few laughs over that one...
They DO place a few warnings on, in all fairness, but it's the bare minimum and not enough to make us concerned. Especially since they make them seem so safe in the adverts! We look at those ads and we have a good laugh at some of them and we go out and buy the product because surely they wouldn't advocate something that was actually hazardous to us and, hey, the ad was funny! Unfortunately they would, and they do. Because it's all about the money at the end of the day, not your safety, and not the environment's safety.
In our pre-organic days, we were given a bottle of bubble bath from Woolies. After we finished the bottle, I kept it because it was a really nice glass bottle and I thought I could use it for something. (As you may know, I like to recycle things!) These days I use it for our mouthwash which I make for us (because have you SEEN the rubbish that goes into mouthwash?!) I was brushing my teeth the other day and I happened to actually read the writing on one side of the bottle. It said, "Keep out of reach of children." Then it had South African Poisons Information Centre and the number to call. This is bubble bath. Kids LOVE bubble bath. They ALWAYS manage to swallow some bath water. And we are bathing them in stuff that is considered dangerous enough to warrant putting the South African Poisons Information Centre number on it...
I don't want to go into my issues with beauty products again because I covered that quite a bit in my post "I can live without my Loreal? Could you?" THIS post is all about household cleaning products. But the frightening thing is, they are practically THE SAME ingredients. Put a pretty label on it and make it smell better, and you are fooled into thinking it's safer, but it's not. And it's not that different either.
And, once again, I challenge you with this thought: it's your body, it's your life, you can choose whether or not to take this stuff to heart. But once it leaves the drain in your house, it becomes a worldwide problem. Just imagine every household, in every suburb, in every city, in every country, on every continent, using all these chemicals and putting them all back into the environment. Is it any wonder our oceans are running out of fish and our planet is suffering?
If you won't consider it for yourself, consider it for your environment. We all have to share it. It seems rather unfair to leave the saving to a select few, and there are VERY FEW in comparison. If we could all stop supporting the big corporations, who have NO respect for us or our environment, maybe they'd be forced to start going natural. It's possible to do. Everything I use to clean my house is natural. I can water the garden with the water I use to wash my dishes because it's biodegradable. The same applies to my laundry and even my car! I don't use anything that says, "Keep out of reach of children." Most grocery stores sell organic cleaners so there really isn't any excuse. And I don't buy the money issue.
If you clean up your life food-wise, you save money because you no longer buy processed foods, only real, whole foods. If you stop buying all those unnecessary beauty products and stick to only what you need, you will also save money. That gives you a little extra to put into household stuff if it's needed. You don't need separate "bathroom cleaner" and " kitchen cleaner" and "floor cleaner" and "surface cleaner". You DO know you can use one product to do ALL of the above and it'll still do the same thing, right? You've been brainwashed into thinking you need different cleaners for different things and you end up buying them all and you give all your money to Unilever in the process. I don't blame you for thinking that. The marketing is brilliant. Every time I am even remotely tempted to buy something harmful, all I have to do is think of what it is doing to us, and to the environment, and I realise I'd rather go without something else, than cheat that way. It's not worth it and it's not worth the guilt I will feel after using it.
I challenge you to go into your cleaning cupboard, or your laundry, and REALLY look at all the poisons you store in your house on a daily basis without a thought. Is it any wonder cancer is so prevalent today and that global warming is such a real threat? WE are doing this, granted, unknowingly, but we are doing it to ourselves and to those around us.
I think it's time to stop. Don't you?
It is so true what you are saying! We are destroying our beautiful planet and our own health because the big companies, such as Unilever, have enough money to brainwash us as consumers. They don't care about us having a clean living space, they only care about a big profit at the end of the day!
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