Toxic chemicals such as ammonia, bleach and sodium laurel sulfate may do a good job of cleaning, but they do so at a cost that may extend beyond what you pay at the checkout. Whether you're concerned about breathing in toxic fumes or releasing them into the environment, you may want to choose more environmentally safe products. You and your environment can benefit from this choice.
Indoor Air Quality
Chemical cleaners release volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. These VOCs evaporate from surfaces or the containers in which cleaners are stored and you breathe them in. VOCs are one component of indoor air pollution and can irritate the skin, eyes and lungs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency advises that VOCs can contribute to liver, kidney and central nervous system damage and in some cases cause cancer. Environmentally safe cleaning products don't give off VOCs.
Less Toxicity
Bleach, ammonia, lye and many chemicals in commercial cleaning products can be toxic, even deadly if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed into the skin. While not completely harmless, environmentally friendly cleaning ingredients such as baking soda and vinegar tend to be less toxic. Always follow package directions and keep all cleaners, even environmentally friendly ones, out of the reach of children and pets.
Money Saving
Using environmentally cleaning products may save you money. If you make homemade cleaners from vinegar, baking soda, borax, vegetable soap and other household products, you save over purchasing ready-made products. Even if you buy commercial "green" cleaners, you could end up spending less money. When Libby MacFarlane and Candace Chung looked at green cleaning options at Wellesley College in May 2006, they found that commercial green cleaning products cost less per use than branded chemical products. Many green cleaners are multi-purpose, allowing you to use one product to clean many types of surfaces, which can result in savings over the purchase of several different types of cleaners.
Less Water Pollution
When you spray a surface with a cleaner and wipe it off, or mop the floor with a cleaner, some residue of that cleaner ends up in your rag, mop and the mop bucket, to be rinsed off and poured down the drain, where it eventually will drain into the water system. Some of these chemicals harm wildlife and could contaminate water supplies. For instance, the EPA reports that alkylphenol ethoxylate, a compound commonly used as a surfactant in cleaners, disrupts reproduction in wildlife exposed to water contaminated with this substance.
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