GREEN! You read about it, you heard about it, yet you are not sure what are the direct benefits of it to you? You are not alone. Since green movement started number of people found themselves wondering, should they pay bit more for goods or services that are more environmentally friendly or not. In reality green products and services are better for you in more than one way; the most important one is coming through your janitorial service provider. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘environmentally friendly’
What can GREEN do for you?
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012Tips for cleaning greener at home
Friday, March 26th, 2010Do them all today or take it step by step — whatever works to get you cleaning greener!
- Less is more: Dilute your cleaning supplies according to instructions and use only what’s needed to get the job done.
- Open the window: Clean with windows and doors open so you don’t trap air pollution inside your home.
- Use gloves and other precautions: Cleaning chemicals may harm or penetrate skin and eyes — check warning labels.
- Keep kids away: Children are more vulnerable to toxic chemicals. If they like to help, let them clean with soap and water, not toxic cleaners.
- Avoid “antibacterial”: If your family is generally healthy, there’s no need to use potentially toxic “antibacterial” products, according to the American Medical Association. Wash your hands with plain soap and water.
- Never mix bleach with ammonia, vinegar, or other acids: These combinations can produce deadly gases.
- Don’t be fooled by labels — buy certified green products: Label claims aren’t always true. Cleaning supplies certified by Green Seal or EcoLogo meet green standards.
- Try natural alternatives: Experiment with non-toxic options like vinegar (great for windows when diluted with a little water — wipe with old newspaper or rags) and baking soda (mix with water to form a paste for scrubbing). Of course mix with care; some ingredients are dangerous when combined.
- Take care with pine and citrus oil cleaners: Avoid using these cleaners especially on smoggy days, when the ingredients can react with ozone to produce cancer-causing formaldehyde.
- Skip the biggest hazards: Avoid air fresheners, use a baking soda and water paste to clean the oven and tackle toilet stains, and use a mechanical snake to unclog the drain.
- Dispose of your old toxics safely: If you choose to toss your old cleaners instead of using them up, drop them off at your local hazardous waste facility. Don’t pour cleaning supplies down the drain — some of the ingredients can harm wildlife as well as people.
In the Kitchen:
- Skip the biggest kitchen hazards, use safer alternatives: Replace oven cleaners with a baking soda and water paste and corrosive drain cleaners with baking soda and vinegar or a mechanical snake.
- Fight germs without nasty chemicals: Microwave your sponge — wet it and zap for two minutes to kill germs.
- More non-toxic ways to fight germs: Wash your hands often with regular soap and water — no need for “antibacterial” soap. Wash dishes and clean counters frequently so germs don’t collect and avoid “antibacterial” dish soap. Take out the garbage regularly to avoid germs, pests, and bad odors.
In the Bathroom:
- Skip the biggest bathroom hazards, use safer alternatives: Scrub toilets with baking soda and water instead of an acidic toilet-bowl cleaner. Use baking soda and vinegar or a mechanical snake instead of corrosive drain cleaners when you have a clogged drain (prevent clogs by using a drain cover).
- Fight germs without nasty chemicals: Focus on the toilet — keep germs isolated by tossing toilet cleaning rags into the wash right away and keeping the scrub brush in an out-of-the-way spot.
- More non-toxic ways to fight germs: Wash your hands often with regular soap and water — no need for “antibacterial” soap. Wipe down showers after each use to prevent mold and mildew.
- Forgo air fresheners: Air fresheners are unnecessary and potentially harmful. They only disguise odors, while pumping a bunch of potentially toxic chemicals into the air. Open a window, run a fan, and try to identify and clean up the real source of the smell. A box of baking soda is another safe way to eliminate odor.
Your Floors and Furniture:
- Sweep and vacuum frequently to remove dust, which often harbors household toxins.
- Mop with a dilute vinegar solution (e.g., ¼ cup vinegar in 1 quart of water).
- Try a microfiber mop to remove dust and dirt efficiently while using smaller amounts of both water and cleaning supplies.
- Dust with a soft or microfiber cloth and skip dusting sprays.
- Clean spills promptly so they are more easily removed with less toxic products.
Could be hard to avoid these 7 cleaning ingredients, but you should try
Friday, March 26th, 2010A few weeks ago I stood in the cleaning aisle wondering what to get. Since I’m a die-hard label reader, I grabbed some containers and turned them around so I could assess the ingredients.
On one, there was no ingredient list – at all. On another, I could see what exactly 1.2% of the ingredients were. The other 98.8% were listed as “other ingredients.” So much for informing the consumer.
Why so incomplete? Because currently the government only requires manufacturers to list a very few ingredients on product labels – mainly pesticides – which is, of course, only part of the environmental health story when it comes to the chemicals in your cleaning products.
So what’s an eco-healthy shopper supposed to do when the label tells you so little? And no, “safe for your family and your pets when used as directed” doesn’t qualify as useful information.
Ingredients just got a little easier to find
Not surprisingly, manufacturers of cleaning supplies are increasingly aware of us label readers. And business being business, they don’t want to lose us – even if they have to show me a full ingredient list. Which is exactly what they plan to do – sorta.
Starting in January, 2010, industry groups began making more ingredient information available to consumers – but not in the aisle (where it counts). They’re calling it the Consumer Product Ingredient Communication Initiative. It covers four product categories: air fresheners, automotive care, household cleaners, and floor polishes.
What it means to you
If you want a full ingredient list for a specific product, you can get it online or on the phone. An improvement to be sure. What you still can’t do is make an informed decision while shopping (unless you’ve got a smart phone and are prepared to spend some time hunting info down while shopping).
Once you know what’s inside, skip these 7 ingredients
While having an ingredient list somewhere is surely better than not having one at all, interpreting it is a different story. Which is why EWG Senior Scientist Rebecca Sutton put together this list of top ingredients of concern – so you can avoid them (good luck pronouncing them):
- 2-butoxyethanol (or ethylene glycol monobutyl ether) and other glycol ethers. 2-butoxyethanol is a widely-used cleaning solvent that: causes anemia by damaging red blood cells, creates air pollution that exceeds workplace limits, is linked to impaired fertility and reproductive and developmental toxicity, and (just to really make the case) EPA considers it a possible human carcinogen.
- Alkylphenol ethoxylates. These detergent-like chemicals break down into alkylphenols, potent hormone disruptors widely detected in people and the environment. The E.U. and Canada have banned them in cleaning supplies. The U.S. (surprise!) has not. Some common ones are: nonyl- and octylphenol ethoxylates, or non- and octoxynols.
- Dye. Companies often hide chemical information behind this word; when it’s this unknown, it’s safer to skip it altogether.
- Ethanolamines. These pH-stabilizers can cause otherwise healthy people to develop asthma. Some studies show that certain ethanolamines are carcinogenic or neurotoxic. Common ones to look out for are: mono-, di-, and tri-ethanolamine.
- Fragrance. These mystery mixtures can contain hundreds of untested chemicals, including toxic ingredients like phthalates and synthetic musks – both hormone disruptors. Fragrances are also among the top five allergens in the world.
- Pine or citrus oil. You may associate these smells with clean, but we recommend you don’t use cleaning supplies that contain them on smoggy or high ozone days, when compounds in the oils can react with ozone in the air to form carcinogenic formaldehyde.
- Quaternary ammonium compounds (aka “quats”). These common antibacterial cleaning ingredients can cause otherwise healthy people to develop asthma. Overuse of quats may lead to development of bacteria resistant to these and other germ-killing chemicals. Look out for these: alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (ADBAC), benzalkonium chloride, and didecyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride.
Beware incomplete information
Vague terms like “preservative” or “surfactant” don’t really tell you what chemicals are in your cleaning supplies. This new “communication initiative” specifically allows fragrances, dyes, and preservatives to be identified by their functional names – in other words, the ingredient list will say just that: dyes, fragrances, and preservatives. Not thinking that qualifies as transparency – you?
What about the “greener” products, do they list ingredients?
We expect better labeling from safer products, and many deliver (and have for a while). A standout is Seventh Generation – they emphasize transparency and share full ingredient lists on their products (bless them) and their web site (complete with explanations for those of us who scratch their head when they see words like protease and oleic acid.
There oughta be a law…
US Representative Steve Israel (D-NY) and US Senator Al Franken (D-MN) are working on that. Last year they introduced bills in Congress – both called the Household Product Labeling Act - to require makers of household cleaners and other products to disclose their ingredients on the labels – a big step further than this voluntary industry campaign.
By Lisa Frack with EWG Senior Scientist Rebecca Sutton/enviroblog
Environmentally friendly Restrooms
Saturday, March 13th, 2010If there is one place in your office that we would recommend you to start implementing your environmentally friendly workplace vision, that would be RESTROOMS. As an undisputable source of disease restrooms are also one of the main environmental hazards. Conventional cleaners use on average 4 different types of environmentally hazardous chemicals in the restrooms for which COGO Building Maintenance offers environmentally friendly substitutes: (more…)