Like me you may have grown up using bleach, and other conventional cleaning products, and never thought about what they contain and the impact they have on the environment. I had a wake up call a few years back and started to research what I was cleaning with. My findings were not encouraging!

Many of the ingredients in everyday cleaning products are responsible for water and air pollution. Some are non-biodegradable and/or toxic chemicals. They pollute the environment, damaging plant and animal life across the planet as well as our own health.

Here are some examples of cleanings products and their impact.

Bleach

The main ingredient in household bleach is Sodium Hypochlorite. It is unstable and highly reactive which means it easily binds with other elements to create new chemicals. In itself it is dangerous, but when mixed with other things it becomes even more problematic.

Bleach causes skin burns, eye damage and asthma. It is also very toxic to aquatic life. By product compounds of bleach are known to cause cancer, and other types of organ and reproductive damage.

There is a reason bleach bottles have warning signs on them and manufactures will tell you to use it “safely” with gloves, and eye protection, in a well ventilated area, where it can’t mix with any other chemicals.

The problem is most of us use bleach to clean dirty areas that do contain a lot of other substances. And how well ventilated are any of our homes? And even if it didn’t cause us any damage it is still harming aquatic life. Maybe we just should not be using it at all.

All purpose cleaner

It can be a bit tricky to narrow down chemicals and their impact because of the diversity in names and composition. For example many all purpose anti-bacterial sprays contain Quaternary Ammonium Compounds (Quats).

“Quats are a group of chemicals used for a variety of purposes, including as preservatives, surfactants, antistatic agents and as active ingredients for disinfectants and sanitizers.” - Chemical Safety Facts

Sadly, they have been linked to asthma and other respiratory problems, developmental and reproductive toxicity as well as skin irritation. Quats also cause similar toxicity and damage to aquatic life and other animals.

Check your cleaning products active ingredients for the following quats:

• Benzalkonium chloride

• Benzethonium chloride

• Alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chlorides (C12-16)

• Alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (C14 60%, C16 30%, C12 5%, C18 5%)

• Alkyl dimethyl ethylbenzyl ammonium chloride (C12-14)

• Alkyl dimethyl ethylbenzyl ammonium chlorides (C12-18)

• Didecyldimethylammonium chloride

• Dioctyldimethylammonium chloride

Air Fresheners

Fragrances and deodorisers can contain a whole host of mysterious chemicals. Legally companies are not required to disclose the true names of the ingredients. This is often due to trade secret law protections.

“The word "fragrance" or "parfum" on the product label represents an undisclosed mixture of various scent chemicals and ingredients…”

- Environmental Working Group

Synonyms of these types of chemicals to look out for are: aroma, fragrance and parfum.

These scent chemicals can sometimes be the most dangerous ingredient in a product. They are volatile compounds and have been shown to cause allergies and immunotoxicity. They are also endocrine disruptors which means they affect, and impair, our natural hormones.

Another huge environmental impact they have comes from being derived from fossil fuels. Yes, many synthetic fragrances are made from petrochemicals! Which as we know is damaging to the earth through it’s extraction but also through the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs indirectly contribute to global warming.

Others

Above was just selection of a few types of chemicals that are contained in most cleaning products. As you can see there are very good reasons to stop buying them and look for alternatives - to the benefit of the environment and our health! Some others problematic chemicals to avoid are:

• Triclosan

• 1,4-Dioxane

• Nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs)

• Phosphates

• Phthalates

• Methylisothiazolinone (MI)

Waterways

When we flush or wash items down the drain in our homes they travel through the sewage system and to a water treatment facility (not everyone has a system like this). Waste water treatment usually involves separation of solids from liquids. Then further filtering and treatment of the water so that it can be released into rivers or oceans.

Unfortunately, water treatment plants are not able to remove all the chemicals we flush down our drains and they still end up in our waterways and oceans.

This is why it is a good idea to start switching to eco-friendly cleaning products.

Next time I will go into more depth on the science of cleaning as a basis for the types of alternatives we can use in our homes and businesses.