PRINTBad air days
Cleaning green can help
Sterling Publishing
Clean: The Humble Art of Zen-Cleansing by Michael De Jong
September 25, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Often, saving the planet motivates people to take environmentally friendly measures. Going green can also improve human health and productivity. Ongoing research from the federally funded Indoor Air Quality Scientific Findings Resource Bank shows that indoor air quality is often more polluted and harmful to health than air found in the great outdoors.
“In some cleaning products there are many chemicals that the [Environmental Protection Agency] classifies as toxic,” says Jeannie Kozak, an environmental engineer with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Kozak says that poor indoor air quality, which can be caused by regular cleaning supplies, can lead to nose and throat discomfort, allergic skin reactions, dizziness, nausea and headaches.
The main concerns in using consumer products such as regular cleaning supplies are volatile organic compounds and toxic air pollutants, Kozak says. According to the EPA, VOCs escape as gases from some liquids and solids, and they can be found in thousands of products.
The VOCs and toxic air pollutants are associated with chronic illness, as well as nerve, genetic, reproductive and fetus damage. So instead of grabbing a regular cleaning product, Kozak suggests using green products because they contain natural ingredients free from VOCs and toxic air pollutants.
Learning to be green can slowly change a daily routine. Richelle White, founder and co-owner of Herb’n Maid, a green cleaning company in St. Louis, says that starting at home is the easiest way to go green. “It’s an entry point for people to green up their lifestyle,” she says. “Then they start to learn more about being green for the rest of their lives.” Green cleaning offers a fairly cheap and healthful way to keep pollutants out of the house and the air.
The influx of green books in the past few years offers suggestions for environmentally friendly living to everyone from green novices to experts. No matter what your familiarity is with the green movement, or with cleaning in general, the following books can help.
For the green novice
Clean: The Humble Art of Zen-Cleansing by Michael De Jong
Making the jump to a green lifestyle can be complicated and expensive. Michael De Jong simplifies the process in his green cleaning book by providing realistic and cheap cleaning ideas. De Jong highlights five items that can be used to clean an entire house: baking soda, borax, lemon, salt and white vinegar. Mixing them together and adding water can save money and clean that nasty kitchen floor.
The first 15 pages are a quick reference guide within the book for things such as bathroom stains, kitchen sinks and clothing detergents. De Jong breaks the book into sections based on cleaning products and offers tips, such as dipping half a lemon in borax, which can be found in stores near the detergents, to create a sponge-like cleaner. The final chapter provides recipes that use the five items.
Sound suggestion: De Jong recommends mixing in a half cup of salt when washing new jeans. This will naturally soften the fabric.
Green Living for Dummies by Yvonne Jeffery, Liz Barclay and Michael Grosvenor
Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life by Sophie Uliano
For the green intermediate
Green Living for Dummies by Yvonne Jeffery, Liz Barclay and Michael Grosvenor
Green Living for Dummies takes going green one step further. Chapters focus on where the green clean takes place, such as in the house or on the road. There are simple tips to follow that won’t require drastic changes, but the suggestions do require more energy and time than those in Clean.
Multiple chapters describe little ways to adjust to a green lifestyle; some are more aggressive in how many changes should be made. One section of Green Living for Dummies gives the same list of materials as Clean but adds castor oil, cornmeal and olive oil. The expanded list offers a more extensive array of green cleaning options. For example, cornmeal can act as a grease stain remover.
Sound suggestion: The authors suggest saving old frayed toothbrushes to clean those other hard-to-reach places such as toilets.
For the green expert
Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life by Sophie Uliano
Instead of making small adjustments, Uliano suggests ways for those green doers who want major change in small increments. Although the tasks she promotes are simple enough, the process usually requires an investment in time, money and elbow grease.
The book is set up as an eight-step process, and Uliano gives greening tips for the home, body and environment. One feature that the others lack is Web site listings for green and organic products. She also gives lists of cleaning materials to lose, such as the air pollutant glycol ether, which is commonly found in floor and window cleaners. The book is more involved than the others, but for those looking to fully go green, Gorgeously Green provides a step-by-step breakdown.
Sound suggestion: Uliano recommends rubbing leather shoes with the inside of
banana peels to get them shining.
