How Cheap Synthetics Are Harmful To Your Health

When we buy cleaning products for our homes, we really only expect them to do one thing: clean. The truth behind the matter is that many of the general cleaning products you find in most households are toxic, if not potentially fatal. While the list of common ingredients that can cause you harm is frightfully long, some cause only temporary or short term damage, such as skin irritations or breathing problems, while others have been linked to long term and fatal health complications, such as chronic lung problems and cancer. The biggest problem with these ingredients is that they are mostly synthetic and therefore not inherently safe to humans.

Take for example your oven cleaner, drain cleaner or toilette bowl cleaner. These products will all more than likely contain chlorine bleach or ammonia, both of which produce toxic fumes on their own, but become even more dangerous when combined. The damage done to lungs if inhaled can be irreversible, but short term damage can also lead to more acute disorders. Even if you manage to avoid the toxic fumes, there is always the potential threat of spilling these products onto your skin, which can cause burns and skin irritation.

Even products that are seemingly harmless, such as clothing detergent or fabric softener, can have long lasting effects on you and your family. This is even truer if you or a member of your family already suffers some kind of respiratory disorder such as asthma or allergy issues. The most common ingredient that aggravates these disorders, or forms completely new ones, is the scent that companies add to their products. This is on top of the fact that the only reason we now need to use fabric softener is because the laundry detergents cause our clothes to become so uncomfortable. So, in effect by using one toxic product we are now forced to use another to counteract one of its side effects.

General household bleach is also a big problem when it comes to long term health effects. Men exposed to bleach over extended periods for example, have been becoming less and less fertile. There is also some evidence that bleaches, along with other cleaning products, are contributing to increased numbers of male birth defects. Women are not safe from harm either; recent studies have shown that certain ingredients can cause an increase in breast cancer cells when it was tested in a laboratory.

While all of this information is pretty scary for anyone with a conscience, there are steps that can be taken to ensure that you are causing as little an impact on the health of your family, yourself, and even the environment around you. While most cleaners do not list their ingredients directly, those that do are easy to choose between. Look for those that are made of natural plant based ingredients rather than the petroleum based ingredients that cause us so much harm. If you would like to go all the way to the natural side, there are recipes for homemade cleaners out there.