Green & Clean

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) A cleaning woman who was trying to light a cigarette inside her car instead ignited fumes from cleaning products and caused an explosion that blew out the vehicle’s windows and sun roof, police said. The woman, whose name wasn’t released, suffered first- and second-degree burns on her face, arms and neck and was treated at a local hospital.

“It was just a freak accident,” Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin said.

“We got a flash, a vapor-type flash,” Godwin said. Dana Swift, a dental assistant at Memphis Periodontal Group across the street from the blast, said she heard a loud boom and rushed outside to see what happened.

“We didn’t know what happened. We are located right by a railroad track so we thought the train might have hit something,” Swift said.

Dr. David Shainberg, a physician with offices across the street from the blast, went to the parking lot after he heard the explosion. He saw a woman beside the car who had what appeared to be an injured arm and soot marks on her face.

“She was walking and talking, but she was physically upset,” he said. Authorities blocked off streets surrounding the parking lot, and many people who work in the area were on lunch break when the explosion occurred and couldn’t get back to their offices for a while, Citadel Memphis Radio Group switchboard operator Rita Martinez said.

I’ve previously provided posts regarding indoor air quality and how it is affected by the chemicals in conventional cleaning products.  I personally don’t want to fill my home or my customers’ homes with the same fumes that ignited this woman on fire.  If you don’t have the time to make your own green cleaning products there are now a variety of eco friendly cleaning products available on the same isle as the chemical cleaners are and they work just as good if not better.  Need proof..check out my flickr album.

by Lylah M. Alphonse

I try to watch what my kids watch, which means that the commercials I sit through are geared mostly either to kids (Toys! Games! Candy!) or to moms (Body wash! Convenience foods! Cleaning products!). Or, I should say, “moms,” because really, a commercial pitched to directly me, and most of the working moms I know, would involve wine and sleep.

The commercials for cleaning products bug me the most, because they just seem completely unrealistic. I mean, really — who takes time away from their work-life juggle to wipe down an already pristine living room? I’m looking at you, makers of a certain multi-surface cleaner, the commercial for which caught my eye the other morning. A woman, in a glass cage filled with already-clean kitchen appliances and cabinets, quips that she doesn’t have time to clean because she has to go pick up her kids, but is able to wipe up a few smudges and smears without having to use several different cleaners. After she’s done, the place looks exactly the same, but she looks tired and relieved.

I don’t know about you, but my housework workload would not be significantly reduced by not having to switch cleaning products while dusting my bookshelves. For one thing, my bookshelves are too cluttered for me to see the actual shelving and, for another, who’s going to scrutinize my bookshelves besides my mom, who gave up on my cleaning decades ago?

I guess I just don’t relate to these commercials. Who are these women? I do not have snow-white carpets throughout my home and, if I did, I would not smile and sigh ruefully when my child spills a glass of grape juice upon it, because who lets their preschoolers wander through the house with open, breakable glasses of anything, let alone something that stains?

I do not vacuum a perfect pattern into my carpets — I vacuum to stop dog-hair tumbleweeds from forming, and to pick up crumbs that are so big my toddler would try to snack on them if I didn’t get to them first. My bathroom is not bigger than my living room; it is not filled with dainty accessories, and I have never looked around it in smiling satisfaction while leaning against my mop. I do not gracefully traipse down the stairs, in a cute little dress with matching purse and perfect lipstick and high heels, to go walk the dog. I never stop on my way out the door to inhale the perfumed air of my home.

Here’s my reality: My dog gets pushed out the partway open door so that my neighbors don’t catch a glimpse of me looking the way I do in the morning, while I sniff the air to make sure I’ve gotten him out into the yard on time. My carpets are hardwood, and any actual carpeting in my house needs more than a spray can of cleaner to make them look like new again.

If you want me to buy your products, you’re going to need to come up with a commercial that shows me how they really work. Take a harried mom — I’d prefer you use a dad, but I’m not completely unrealistic; with certain wonderful exceptions, women still do the bulk of the housework. So, take a busy working mom who can’t afford a cleaning service, and show me how your amazing product will make the kitchen full of dirty dishes, the mountain of laundry, the crunchy carpeting, the pile of mismatched shoes in the entry way, and the smudged windows all be magically clean by the time she gets home in the evening.

That’s a commercial I’d be happy to watch. And I might even buy your product.

Lylah M. Alphonse writes about juggling career and parenthood at The 36-Hour Day and Work It, Mom!, is the Child Caring columnist for Boston.com/Moms, and blogs at Write. Edit. Repeat.

Queen of Clean — Clean Your Counters Naturally!

The Pledge® Multi Surface Duster promises to make dusting the easiest household chore you’ll do.  It has a 360° fluffy all-around duster that they claim makes dusting even easier by grabbing and trapping fibers of the duster pick up dust and the allergens found in dust from dust mites and pet dander. WVEC news put it to the test by inviting a housewife and mother to use and evaluate the Duster.  Click here to watch the video and see what they found.

Proctor & Gamble has launched their new laundry product  “Tide Basic”.  This new formula will sell for 20 percent less than its counter part and will lack all the extras of conventional Tide.  Based of the 63 year old formula, Tide Basic boasts “Big Value, Basic Clean, in an attempt to attract buyers scaling down on spending and purchasing cheaper or store brand cleaners.  Tide Basic doesn’t have any whiteners, brighteners, or stain removers but it says you will still get a good clean.

The company should be cautious  because the lower-cost product could hurt them more than help them in this economy. Tide Basic could hurt profitability because more people may switch from the premium Tide to Tide Basic.

I personally won’t use Tide Basic because i use natural laundry detergent, and make my cleaning supplies i use at home, but for those of you who have tried it, let us all know if you were pleased with the results.

In my quest to promote green living and green cleaning, I come across a lot of people who do not like the idea of cleaning their homes with natural cleaning products. This could be commercial brands such as Simple Green, or home made cleaners with vinegar and baking soda.  Many people still feel that their house’s aren’t  cleaned and disinfected unless they smell bleach or the lemon scent of Pine Sol.   Please leave a comment and let me know which types of cleaners you prefer.

I have a list of cleaning recipe’s if you want to try to make your cleaning products at home

Ever wonder why so many people oppose chemical cleaning products? Here are some reasons why you may wish to switch to natural cleaning products in your home.

How Do You Pronounce That?

Do you know how to pronounce the ingredients on the cleaning products? Do you know what they mean? Do you know that those ingredients can be dangerous or even toxic? I’m here to explain and give examples of these items.

When you enter any store, can you smell the cleaning aisle aisles away? Those products are sealed yet they still emit all the chemicals into the air through the plastic. Now let’s look at our homes.

There is a meter that measures the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in our homes. Average home has 50 ppb. Here are some examples of products that make the meter jump:

Pledge has 273 ppb (parts per billion), ingredients such as silicones, butane gas and propane are found in this product. Yet if you look at the ingredients, you won’t find any on the can. There are no ingredients listed. Companies are not required to list any ingredients.
Johnson and Johnson baby bathing products have an ingredient called Quanterium-15, which is a form of formaldehyde when water is added. Funeral homes use ½ the embalming fluid (formaldehyde) they did years ago. It takes a body longer to decompose due to the high levels of formaldehyde.

Clorox wipes come with more than 1,000 ppb. Ingredients dimethyl benzyl ammonia chloride .145% and dimethyl ethyl benzyl ammonia chloride are more pesticides, more danger and chemicals.

Lysol disinfecting spray has around 1,200 parts per MILLION not billion or 1,000 times higher then the Clorox wipes.

Lysol anti-bacterial action spray contains 79% enthanol, not just any ethanol but denatured ethanol. Also, ingredient alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride which is a pesticide. Doesn’t the commercial suggest spraying this around our children and their toys that they place in their mouths?

Here are some of the ingredient names that are dangerous: parabens (butyl-, ethyl-, methyl-, propylparaben), sodium laurel sulfate (SLS), sodium fluoride, propylene glycol, padimente-O, octyl-methoxycinnamate, D&C colors, FD&C colors, formaldehyde (embalming fluid) or fragrance, just to name a few. You can go to http://www.scorecard.org/health-effects/ and see a list of ingredients. It prints 19 pages of ingredients that cause cancer aka carcinogens.

After injuries, cancer is now the leading cause of death in children between the ages of 5 and 9. Wow, that is terrible. Especially since most can be avoided.

Childhood asthma has jumped by 400%. Why so high and so fast? It’s the air we breathe. We take over 24,000 breathes a day. Wouldn’t you want those breathes to be clean? I know I would and it all starts in the home.

It’s bad enough the food we eat is over processed and vegetables are filled with pesticides that now after many years of consistent use of cleaning products we have a higher risk of cancer and chronic illnesses. I watched a t.v. show about the benefits of seaweed. He said that the government is not looking to cure any disease or illness. They are looking to make these chronic illnesses treated by drugs.

Chances are after reading this you are even more concerned then you were before about the products you bring in your home. What can you do? You could make your own products using some of these recipe’s.  These recipe’s are very effective, are environmentally safe, and  are less expensive then store brands.  Or if your fortunate enough to be able to hire out, you could hire a green cleaning service.
Just make sure you can pronounce the words and you know what they can do before you use them. Check ingredients on products saying Natural or Sensitive, you might be surprised.