Surviving the Middle Class CrashApril 15, 2010

Surviving the Middle Class CrashApril 15, 2010
Non-Toxic Housecleaning, Green Building Products, and Reducing Chemical Exposure
Posted by tempestodimare under Survival, Water, environment, health | Tags: cleaners, environment, non-toxic, non-toxic building materials, non-toxic housecleaning |
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certified community herbalist, April 2010
Drina Brooke,

Even the healthy person can benefit from reducing chemical exposure in their lives. As for the environment, it can only benefit (think of manufacturing processes to save the environment, let alone consumer use). Here is information about how you can cut back chemical exposure in your life, with green housecleaning and maintenance ideas, plus some green building material information too.
As a fully-recovered universal allergic patient (more than twenty-six years of complete health now!) I can personally testify to the power of chemicals over the human body, and over nature itself. Whew, and how! Many among us may not stop to think about it, even believing chemicals to be necessary for such important functions as sterilizing and housecleaning et al. But when just walking down the detergent aisle in the grocery store instantly brings on MS-like symptoms and sitting in a room with curtains, reading the newspapers, or wearing brand new clothes does the same….well, you know that chemicals are much more powerful than we ordinary people would tend to give them credit for. And it really makes you think about it, and hard too. Neurological symptoms, non-functional fatigue, connective tissue break-down, endocrine imbalance, endometriosis, hypothyroidism, reproductive harm, cancer and more can all be offshoots of chemical toxicity. Apparently, according to an article I read years ago in the San Francisco Chronicle, even sea animals such as otters and sea lions are showing signs of mercury and chemical poisoning, walking off-kilter and unable to walk a straight line. (I am happy to say that for more than twenty-six years now, I can inhale exhaust fumes, walk down the detergent aisle and not have one tiny little sign of any symptom at all, I am completely healed!! It can be done, my friends, for anybody else who is suffering with this, there is hope!) But even if you are not universally allergic, to cut down chemicals in your life is no small matter where health is concerned. You just might be sparing your liver, kidneys, immune system, and hormones a lot of grief if you cut back on your toxic chemical exposure. Even connective tissue breaks down in the presence of chemicals. Money will be dumped down the drain as you purchase antioxidant supplements, unless you cut back the exposure to chemical irritants which set off oxidative processes in the first place. For immune system-dysfunction patients (cancer, AIDS, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome to name only a few), cutting back chemicals is an absolute must.

From non-toxic household cleansers to deodorants, shampoos, household paints, non-off-gassing building materials, and more, here are ideas for cutting back on chemical exposure in your life.

Of course, one line of defense against environmental toxins is to eat organically-grown and hormone-free foods. The least expensive way to do this is to grow your own, of course. Trader Joes has organics at almost the same price as their commercially-grown produce. Their naturally-raised, hormone-free and antibiotic-free meats and eggs are not at all expensive, and their RGBH-free milk is very inexpensive. Keeping your foods organic and hormone-free is important to maintaining liver health. And your liver breaks down toxins in your environment. Liver Maintenance: A Keystone to Good Health! (See Christopher Hobbs’s superb book, Natural Therapy for your Liver, for liver maintenance and health regimens).

In Deirdre Imus’s book “Green This!” about non-toxic housecleaning, the author suggests a very effective way which you can unclog the drains in your home, save the environment….and your plumbing bill. It even works with already-clogged drains, while preventing future clogs too. My husband and I have used it in both situations, and it works!

Non-toxic “Draino” and Clog Prevention Routine:

A) For about $3 at the hardware store, you can buy yourself a plastic wand with “teeth” like a serrated knife with very long jags. Use this to clean out your bathroom sink drain, or any other drain prone to catching hairs, food bits et al. Swab out any accumulated matter, clean the wand, disinfect it with vinegar and tea tree oil, then put it away for future use (disposal is recommended by the manufacturers, but saving it will spare the environment, your pocketbook, and save you time from going back to the store). NOTE: The procedure below will usually work even if you can’t fit the plastic wand into your drain. So if you can’t do this step, no worries but it also is better if you can.

B) You now are ready to begin with Deirdre Imus’s non-toxic “Draino”-like formula:

~Pour a pot full of boiling water down the drain, to remove any soap residues

~Pour 3 tablespoons of ordinary baking *soda* down the drain (you can buy a 10lb bag at Costco for about $5)

~Add 1/3 cup white vinegar and pour it down the drain (and watch the fizz reaction! Kids will love it).

~For a clogged drain, let this mixture sit in the drain for at least an hour (a few hours if badly clogged, but it will work if you are patient. Add more formula for a badly-clogged drain. The acids will eat away at any clogging matter, so use extra as needed). For a non-clogged drain which you are cleaning out for future clog prevention, let sit about half an hour.

~Rinse with clear water. You are done! Further, writes Deirdre Imus, if you do this procedure once a month, “you should be clog-free for life”. Yippeee! No plumbers, no hassle, no coughing or asthma attacks, no poisoned fish….nothing! Just freedom and ease. What could be more simple, or more inexpensive? This is even less expensive than Draino, and it works just as well. (NOTE: The acids may discolor brass fixtures, rings fitting around your drain, etc. and darken them).

To polish tarnished copper or brass:

Sprinkle ordinary table salt onto a clean, damp sponge. Add cider vinegar. Rub away…FAST!!! Because if you let the mixture sit on the metal for even more than one second, the copper in particular will clean up so fast that you will end up with spots. Clean spots, but uneven coloring none-the-less. It works that fast! So, rather than advise my childhood procedure of sprinkling the copper itself with salt and pouring on the vinegar, I got wise and started to use the sponge instead. Rub all surfaces evenly, and you should have a beautifully gleaming product within just moments (or minutes, if badly tarnished). This procedure works faster and better for copper than it does for brass. The latter requires some elbow grease, time and patience, but it does work.

Keeping your bathroom tiles clean and mildew-free:

We never once have to clean our bathroom tiles, and they are so shiny that they look brand new, even though we have had them for fifteen years. What is our secret? We wipe the tiles down with a dry towel after showering. Done! No mildew build-up, no detergents, no nothing. Easy! Just takes getting into the habit, that’s all. Keep the bathroom window open while showering and you will cut back on mildew buildup on your bathroom walls as well.

To disinfect surfaces such as counters, cutting boards, etc Barbara Peterson posted to the Share Ideas section of this website (check there for more ideas too!) :

“You can use vinegar and hydrogen peroxide to disinfect your kitchen counters, produce and even your cutting boards. All you need is three percent hydrogen peroxide, the type you buy at the drug store, vinegar (white or apple cider), and two clean sprayers, like the kind you use to mist plants. Fill each sprayer separately, one with peroxide and the other with vinegar (don’t mix them together in one bottle – that makes peracetic acid, which isn’t safe and can give you a bad chemical burn). Spritz the item you want to disinfect, first with hydrogen peroxide and then with vinegar, then rinse off under running water. University tests show that this technique killed more potentially lethal bacteria, including Salmonella, Shigella, and even E. coli, than chlorine bleach or any commercially available kitchen cleaner.” (C. Gupta)

(http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2006/04/05/
super_disinfectant_spray_using_peroxide_vinegar.htm)

Of course, the old trick of mixing vinegar with water and spraying it on to mirrors and glass, is well known. It works so beautifully and smells nice in the end. I remember doing this when helping a friend prepare her home for sale. We used vinegar in a pail of water, a squeegee, and a towel to wipe up any remaining streaks or drips after using the squeegee. We did find some streaks from using the vinegar, but when using the towel to wipe up the still-damp residue, these disappeared completely. In fact, the windows looked so shiny and beautiful, that we couldn’t tell there was any glass there. The sheen far surpassed any Windex or other commercial product I have seen. And the technique worked so rapidly, that what took hours truly only took minutes! It was painless, fast and easy to do. And satisfying to see the result!

Here is a recipe for vinegar-based window cleanser which will not streak, plus articles for further green household cleaning products which you can make yourself, how to store your clothes mothball-free, and more : http://www.care2.com/greenliving/how-to-clean-with-vinegar.html#

Barbara Peterson also posted the following suggestion for non-toxic laundry washing:

“I have been using the following combination of white vinegar, salt, and baking soda to wash my clothes in the washing machine, and I have to admit, it works better than the laundry detergent I was using. The clothes smell fresh, and don’t have an artificial scent! They also come out of the dryer much softer, so I don’t have to use any fabric softener. Certain chemicals in detergents and fabric softeners give me a rash, and this natural alternative works out beautifully for me. I love it, and I’m sure you will too. You can’t get any more environmentally friendly than this:

1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup baking soda

Just place your clothes in the machine, turn on the water, and add your ingredients. You will notice the difference in the first load.”

Yet another one of Barbara’s tips is the use of salt in septic systems:

1.http://www.uaf.edu/ces/faculty/seifert/pdf_nuaf/septicsys.pdf
“…The document addresses high concentrations of salts from water softeners, and interestingly enough, the fact that most commercial laundry detergents contain a large amount of salt. Therefore, I believe that eliminating the other harmful additives in normal laundry detergent and using a more simplified and natural approach will work out better in the long run. IMHO.”

Barbara, you are so handy and resourceful as usual. Thank you!

In Deirdre Imus’s “Green This!” book mentioned above, she has lovely ideas such as putting essential oils into heat vents (using cotton balls as carrier, but careful about fire hazards!) so as to inhale the fragrances as the heater runs. The other “plus” to this which she does not mention, is that essential oils are secreted by plants to protect themselves from microbes, viruses, bacteria, and pests: In other words, using essential oils in your home heating ducts can actually kill off some dust mites, aiding asthma patients and just plain lending a very pleasant ambience to your home. Some essential oils will be stronger than others, and each tends to target different bacteria/viruses, but they all will work on some level as effective anti-microbials. Tea tree oil and citrus oils are particularly effective.

Try also adding essential oils to vinegar-and-water mixes which you use for household cleaning. Not only will the solution smell beautifully pleasant, but it will have added antimicrobial power as well. Most effective anti-microbials: Try thyme oil, oregano oil, tea tree and citrus oils as above, either singly or in combination. For pure pleasure: Adding lavender oil will yield such a beautifully pleasant scent! Mix rose with citrus oils and you will bask in heaven as you come home. Clove oil in your heat vents? Ahh, nice. Essential oils are available at your local healthfood store for about $10 per bottle. You only need one or two drops per cup to make tea, and only a few more drops per quart of cleaning solution, so don’t be fooled by the small bottles you buy for that price: These oils will last you a long time. Essential oils are very powerful! Keep out of reach of children and infants. One ounce of pennyroyal oil can kill. Do not buy this oil. (Most other essential oils are safe but still very strong).

Here is a website with recipes for green housecleaning formulas which you can easily and inexpensively make yourself, while sparing the environment, your lungs and your childrens’. There also are some proactive Earth Day things you can do : www.womenandenvironment.org

Of course, non-toxic and very effective (don’t be surprised!) household detergents, dish soap, laundry detergents, hand soaps, shampoos, et al are available from your healthfood store grocer.

Did you know that fluoride is more poisonous than lead (according to Naturopathic Doctor Linda Rector-Page, in her Healthy Healing book). In fact, more than eight countries in Asia, Europe and Australia have banned fluoride as a toxin. That it strengthens bones and teeth is only a partial truth. It does, in the short run, but in the long run also makes them hard and brittle. That’s why bone fractures in the elderly have been tracked to fluoride consumption. As a nerve toxin, it inhibits learning and cognitive function, and has been proven to reduce IQ in children, to help learning disabilities along (there are multiple causes for all of the above matters, FYI and no one single culprit is solely responsible. That fluoride figures heavily into the equation, however, has even been reported to Congress by the Environmental Protection Agency, and ignored by Congress, writes Rector-Page). Well-well….so how about fluoride-free toothpaste! I particularly love the Weleda brand toothpastes (at healthfood stores) but most of these are an acquired taste. The Weleda Plant Toothpaste comes the most close of all of their products to tasting like mint-flavored toothpastes. Their Pink Toothpaste is excellent for firming up loose gums (thanks to the myrrh content) but is an acquired taste. Their Calendula toothpaste is very good for gums too, as is their salt toothpaste. Give them a try! My dentist was wow’d at the difference in my gums, after using the pink toothpaste for only one week! Weleda’s products are so good because their herbs are of such high quality.

Try campaigning with your local officials and Water Board for fluoride-free water. Write well-researched letters to your editor and post to blogs. To learn lots more about fluoride and its health impact as a quintessentially American “human experiment”, read Paul Pitchford’s excellent chapter about this in his book titled Healing with Whole Foods, an excellent education about nutrition in an east-meets-west paradigm. Superb!

Very important: Don’t forget about aluminum-free deodorants too! Did you know that aluminum has been linked to Alzheimer’s, certain forms of cancer, and is a neurotoxin? Well why not avoid it? In fact, while we are on the subject, consider buying alum-free baking powder too. You can get this at Trader Joes or your healthfood store. Last but not least, ditch your aluminum pots and pans, and replace them with teflon-free stainless steel. Teflon has been linked to some forms of cancer too. Avoid it!

PVC’s from plastics leach into foods and water: Avoid bottled water, and buy filtered water from specialty stores and Whole Foods instead (if you do not have a home water filter). Resist the temptation to wrap your microwavable foods in plastic wrap. Instead, uncover the foods, remove them from any plastic trays, and use your earthenware dishes instead. It is better to avoid nuking your food to begin with, but never use plastic wraps or trays when heating up your food either. To avoid purchasing food which has been pre-wrapped, purchase bulk produce from the local Farmer’s Market or from your healthfood store grocer. Or, grow it yourself, which is the most fun anyway!

Give A Hoot, Don’t Pollute (the groundwater): Use organic fertilizers and pesticides (such as ladybugs to munch aphids on your roses. Buy a cup of these sweet little bugs from your local nursery and you will be amazed at how clean your roses are! Not only do these adorable little creatures eat the bugs, but they eat their eggs too. That is better than any commercial chemical could ever do, without any harm to the environment! Children will love this too, win-win!) Why kill “weeds” such as dandelions on your lawn? Did you know that dandelions are among the most-used liver cleansing herbs on the market? Kids love to blow the seed pods and watch them fly away, too. What fun! Mow them down if you don’t like them, but for heaven’s sake don’t dump harsh chemicals onto your lawn or spray them, and pollute the groundwater in the process. Use organic soil fertilizers instead of Miracle Gro and the ground water will thank you (and so will your plants, if you get the right product. We use a topsoil available in bulk from a specialty vendor, which combines chicken manure, redwood and mushroom composts and man, those flowers go crazy and every trace of foliage disease just disappears!) If you garden organically, you are sparing the ground water from pollution, while also helping to save the bees, which are dying largely as a result of pesticide use (watch for my upcoming article about this).

The Austin Air Airstar 5C air purifier is quiet, and will remove much more than just pollens and dust from your air at home. It is designed for chemically sensitive patients, so it will actually remove chemicals from the air at home. This is particularly good for asthma patients, but also for cancer, chemical sensitivity and other patients too. Or just for anybody looking to improve home air quality.

Multi-Pure water filters will remove an exhaustively long list of chemicals, heavy metals, MTBE, plus chloramine from your drinking water and the end result tastes excellent. Alas, it does not remove fluoride. Other than that, it removes almost everything, with 95% being the very lowest amount of substances removed from the water! www.multipure.com Consider a filter for your shower too. In Earl Mindell’s Vitamin Bible, the nutritionist/pharmacist author writes that “if there are chlorinated solvents or pesticides in your water, they can be absorbed through the skin and are volatile. Taking a fifteen minute shower can be as toxic as drinking eight glasses of contaminated water!” Don’t forget that trihalomethanes, formed by the bonding of chlorine with other chemicals in the water, have been linked to cancer. Richard Shames, MD and nationally-renowned thyroid authority, writes that chlorine in the waters inhibits thyroid function, contributing to our mass epidemic of hypothyroidism: www.thyroidpower.com Water filters are just darned important to our health, and a good one is a must. A Brita filter will not do the trick, even if it is a start for removing chlorine. But it will not remove heavy metals, MTBE, industrial solvents, pesticides, herbicides and any long number of chemicals which somehow make it into our ground water. Health is wealth! A water filter is a good purchase. And I am not even making one cent in profit as I write this article!

Here is where you can find out which fish you eat are lowest in mercury: http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/guide.asp

Find out here about getting your highly toxic, cancer and multiple sclerosis-connected, mercury-containing dental fillings replaced in a *safe!!* way (without “detoxification becoming retoxification”, as Hal Huggins DDS MS puts it): www.drhuggins.com

To improve indoor air quality, obtain green building materials and non-toxic house paints, and for further links and info, read on:

Many home building materials, such as plywood, particle board, compressed woods, and tape strips used to hold down vinyl flooring et al, contain formaldehyde. This causes tissue irritation (red and inflamed/watering eyes, irritated nasal passages, and the like) and connective tissue break-down. Worse yet, formaldehyde has been linked to cancer. And it can off-gas for several years! Alternative materials are available, such as wheat grass board to replace materials used for building cabinets (but it’s not strong enough to use for structural support, such as plywood). It smells gently like fresh-mown grass when new, reduces landfill, and works well enough that a quality-oriented carpenter I know is happy to use it in his cabinet-building, and know that he is delivering a good product to his clients.

For further information, see the excellent book called “Non-toxic, Natural and Earthwise” by Debra Lynn Dadd. Contains green building and home maintenance information.

Here is an absolutely excellent list of environmentally safe products, for the eco-conscious healthy individual and chemically sensitive patient alike: www.aehf.com/mfgdesc.html

For building materials, paints and paint fume blockers specifically designed to protect the universally allergic patient (and healthy patients cutting down their chemical burden), see American Formulating and Manufacturing or AFM and talk to their chemist Jay, who knows chemical sensitivity very well, and the impacts of chemicals on the body. The “fume blocker” is this company’s “Clear Seal” product, which is painted over already-existing paint (or offgassing glues, plywood, etc) and which seals out the offgassing fumes. To note, it may discolor your paints somewhat, turning them a shade more to the yellow side, but it also will protect your body from toxic exposure: www.afmsafecoat.com/

To estimate how many chemicals are in your own body, and for practical instructions on how to cut them down in your own home environment, see the very well-researched What’s In You On-line body burden assessment

Here is Dr. Leo Galland’s excellent article (one of three in this series) titled “Living Safely in a Polluted World: Your Home Should be a Haven”. Here, Dr. Galland recommends some very simple pollution-reducing tips, such as removing your shoes before entering the home: Dust from outdoors can either carry chemical toxins, or some chemicals also will cling to dust even if it is not contaminated to begin with. Keeping moisture down in your home reduces environmental mold exposure. And much more: https://www.healthy.net/scr/column.aspx?ColumnId=5&Id=59

Commonweal Center in Bolinas, CA also has excellent and extensively-researched information about environmental and body burden toxins: www.commonweal.org/

Finally, electromagnetic waves have been found to contribute to brain and other cancers, to affect learning ability, and may even contribute to autism. Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, a German pioneer physician practicing in Seattle, explains in this linked audio-lecture that peptides (protein chains) bind to DNA in the brain, thereby contributing to all of the above. See here: http://survivingthemiddleclasscrash.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/electromagnetic-waves-may-be-responsible-for-adhd-autism-ms-and-more/

HOORAY!!!! As of the moment of this writing, it was announced that Congress has passed legislation just today, April 15th, to greatly improve consumer protection against chemical poisoning! Oh my god, it’s about time they looked out for the well-being of the people. Read more here: http://www.saferchemicals.org/2010/04/landmark-chemical-legislation-introduced-to-protect-the-health-of-american-families.html

A Sante, to your good health! And please spread word. PS Dear Reader, do you have any green housecleaning or home maintenance and building tips for us? Please post below! Thank you so much.