Why is it important to clean with natural ingredients?

You’re at the grocery store and you see a cleaner on the cleaning aisle. It looks cute and makes promises of a germ-free environment. You assume it’s safe for use because it’s sold at the store.  Most people assume cleaning products on the grocery store shelf have been tested and are safe for use, but that is simply not true!
Just because a commercial cleaner promises a germ-free environment doesn’t mean there aren’t hidden dangers and other risks associated with its use:
    • Conventional cleaning products contain many endocrine-disrupting chemicals that can wreak havoc on your respiratory system, cellular health, thyroid, adrenal glands, and even mental clarity.
    • Indoor air quality is five to seven times more toxic than outdoor air quality mainly due to conventional cleaners.

Scary facts

    • Children born to women who held cleaning jobs while pregnant have an elevated risk of birth defects, according to a 2010 study by the New York State Department of Health.
      www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20029025
    • Some ingredients found in cleaners may be linked to cancer, reproductive and developmental toxicity, allergies and irritation, burns and poisonings.
      www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners/content/cleaners_and_health
    • According to the U.S. EPA, cleaning products contribute to concentrations of many common pollutants that are two to five times higher inside homes than outside.
      https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/volatile-organic-compounds-impact-indoor-air-quality
    • Studies show that many toxicants invade our bodies. They have been found in blood, urine and breast milk, as well as in the umbilical cord blood of newborns.
      www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/
      www.ewg.org/research/minority-cord-blood-report/executive-summary
    • Nurses who used disinfectants to clean surfaces at least once a week had a 24 percent to 32 percent increased risk of developing lung disease.
      https://www.newsweek.com/cleaning-products-increase-risk-chronic-lung-disease-asthma-663175
      https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-09/elf-nru090817.php
    • Regular use of cleaning sprays can have as much of an impact on health as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, according to this study
      https://www.newsweek.com/impact-cleaning-products-lung-health-bad-20-day-cigarette-habit-study-810277
      http://www.thoracic.org/about/newsroom/press-releases/resources/women-cleaners-lung-function.pdf


Because of the Toxic Substance Control Act, companies did not have to clear even a basic safety review before using a chemical in a consumer product. Instead of requiring chemical manufacturers to demonstrate that their products were safe before they went into use, the law required the government to prove that a substance caused harm in order to control or replace a dangerous chemical. The law has been slightly updated for newly created chemicals, but the 80,000+ chemicals created in the last century are still being used in the marketplace. Yikes.

This post first appeared in the Young Living Training and Education Group