Jan. 14, 2008 - The Dangers of Store Bought Cleaners
I became concerned about the ingredients & chemicals in household cleaners just over a year ago. I was about to put my little girls into the tub for a bath and I wondered if I'd rinsed the tub out well enough after cleaning it out earlier with commercial bathroom cleaner. I wondered how much of the cleaner might be in the water I was about to put them in and just had a feeling of unrest about it. I looked at the ingredients listed on my cleaning supplies and thought about the fact that I had absolutely NO idea what any of the listed ingredients actually were! I thought to myself "Shouldn't I know what I'm exposing my children to?" I also was alarmed by all the warnings & cautions. This prompted me to begin researching information on household cleaners and what's in them. Everything I read confirmed that I should be concerned! The following is some of the information I obtained during that research:
The Consumer Product Safety Commission oversees household cleaning products AFTER they appear on store shelves. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has no authority over items before they’re marketed. Manufacturers are not required to subject their products to testing by neutral third parties before selling them. Usually, the only information a consumer has about a product comes from the label. However, there is a lot the labels DO NOT tell us. No law requires that all the ingredients be listed. Inactive or inert ingredients that can make up as much as 90 percent of a product's volume are often not listed. Also, labels don’t have to disclose ingredients' harmful side effects unless they have the potential to occur immediately. They do not tell you about the long term dangers such as: Cancer, asthma, allergies, Liver & Kidney Disease, developmental disorders & neurological disorders, fertility problems, or birth defects. Labels also do not tell you about any environmental effects.
A 1985 Environmental Protective Agency report stated that household cleaners are three times more likely to cause cancer than outdoor air polution! A study done by the Toronto Indoor Air Commission found that, due to increased exposure to household carcinogens, women who work at home have a 55 percent greater chance of developing cancer than women who spend the majority of their time outside of the home! 
There is much more information out there regarding the dangers of household cleaners but this information alone is enough for me. If you are interested in beginning to make your own household cleaning products, try some of the recipes listed here. IF for any reason they don't work well for you try another one! There are lots of safe, natural cleaning recipes!
Happy Cleaning!
