Thanks for visiting the Gorgeous Things blog and taking the time to share you thoughts on safe household cleaning.

That’s a good point about the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for cleaning products, we have these for our Cinderella cleaning range and you’ve prompted me to consider adding these as a download on our Online Shopping site >> http://www.gorgeousthings.com.au

Look forward to hearing from you again soon.

Cheers, LA

Having done some research into products I once used, by contacting companies and asking for the MSDS’, I am appalled at what is allowed onto our supermarket shelves.

I once used a body wash, the brand “Healthy basics” (I think…) and it’s main drawcard on the packaging was Aloe Vera and Vitamin E. When I researched the product I found that it contained Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate and Ammonium Laureth Sulfate which in addition to being a skin, eye and respiratory irritants, can may also be carcinogenic.

The list of potentially harmful ingredients went on – Tetrasodium EDTA , PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate , methylchloroisothiazolinone and methylisothiazolinone and Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride. All of these ingredients carried some form of potentially acute or chronic side affects. Kind of overrides the fact that it has a drop of aloe vera in it!

As you have both mentioned the same goes for cleaning products. As mentioned in Lesley’s article baking soda and vinegar are winners for cleaning the house… my entire house is cleaned like this. Toilets, floors, benchtops. Also microfibre cloths are impressive. They range ridiculously in price. There is no need to pay in excess of $15 a cloth though… Good ones range around $10 and are very effective on all surfaces. They can hold up to 7 x their own weight in dirt and the fibres pick up the smallest of particles (whereas household rangs just move the dirt around).

In regards to laundry powders, dishwashing powder/liquid etc – I will only use products that list ingredients on the packaging and if I am unsure will contact the manufacturer for a copy of the MSDS. Although it is disappointing how hard these can be to track down some times.

In regards to the companies & products listed in my article on safe cleaning, I’ve been careful to mention only those products & companies that are ‘true green’ and very concerned with the health of us humans and the planet.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your passion for making cleaning a safer activity.

Although green cleaners may purport to list all ingredients, the market is largely unregulated — which means consumers still must be wary of what’s in the bottle. Even cleaning products labeled “natural” may contain some fraction of synthetic chemicals. Or they may contain natural ingredients consumers would rather avoid, such as petroleum distillates, some of which can cause cancer. And just because a cleaning product is biodegradable and made from plant-based sources doesn’t mean that it is without potential adverse effects on health.

Plant-based ingredients included in some green cleaners include limonene (a citrus-based oil), pine oil, and the foaming agent coconut diethanolamide — all of which can cause allergic dermatitis. And a recent study of natural and nontoxic consumer products found the suspected cancer-causing chemical 1,4-dioxane in roughly half of 100 tested products — including several dishwashing liquids with words such as “Earth friendly” and “eco” in their brand names.

Consumer advocates have pressed for stricter labeling rules, but the industry has resisted, arguing that long lists of ingredients would create a distraction on product labels, drawing attention away from important safety information. To combat this, Europe has rolled out new restrictions on manufacturers of products containing chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems. These changes are forcing U.S. industries to find new ways to produce a wide range of everyday products. The new laws in the European Union require companies to demonstrate that a chemical is safe before it enters commerce. This is the opposite of policies in the United States, where regulators must prove that a chemical is harmful before it can be restricted or removed from the market. The European laws were adamantly opposed by the U.S. chemical industry and the Bush administration.

A recent survey showed that 80% of Americans still believe that the cleaning products they use in their homes are still safe!! These are probably the same people that ask for MSDS sheets and protective gloves and masks when asked to use a chemical at work. Wake up, why are we quick to blame our employers but yet in our homes we feel we are safe??? Asthma is up, cancer is still an epidemic and just look at the life expectancy of someone who cleans hotel rooms all day every day. If my memory serves me correctly, the Europeans did a 15 year study that came out in 2004 that found a woman who works in their own home has a 60% higher chance of getting breast cancer, hence these new regulations. The problem is not that any one cleaner is safe or not, what happens when you mix them all together? How did we get to this point….my mom cleaned with just one product….now we’ve been brainwashed to believe we need 10 different products to clean all the different surfaces in our homes, and don’t even let me go on about deodorizers. Now these same companies are coming out with ‘green’ cleaners and making us believe that because they are plant-based or enzyme-based makes them safe…well then why do they still have CAUTION written all over the bottle! Let’s face it, we don’t smoke in our homes or workplaces anymore and we need this same type of legislation to make our homes free of cleaning chemicals.