[Greenbuilding] Green Cleaners

[Lawrence Lile]

I've become more and more able to notice how irritating commercial soaps
and cleaners are.  Most of them make my eyes water, throat scratch, and
promote asthma.  It's not just me, my whole family has this reaction.

 

The first warning shot was a couch I bought at a garage sale.  I thought
I'd buy a bottle of upholstery cleaner to clean it before bringing it
into my living room.  That stuff had so much weird perfume in it I could
hardly use it.  Then the couch stank so bad I could hardly stand it.
I'd start getting itchy eyes and throat whenever I sat on it.  Several
washings with plain soap and water couldn't take the stuff out.  I
finally threw the couch away.  So much for cleaning.  

 

I discovered the same thing with commercial laundry detergent - so much
perfume I can't stand to sleep in the sheets, and it makes me sick.  Out
went the Grocery store laundry soap, in went the Green products, with no
perfume and really concentrated.  $11 a gallon, but if you do the math,
you use so little that it's the same price as those giant bottles of
mostly water in the grocery store. 

 

Ivory Bar soap is 99 44/100% pure! The other 66/100% is pure allergens!
The bathroom contains Dr. Bronner's, no bar soap in sight.  All One! Bar
Soap None! OK!

 

For years I've cleaned floors with straight ammonia (saved from the old
diazo process blueprint machines) I cut the stuff 20:1.  It's pretty
horrible smelling, and my whole household objects. Strip the hide off a
bear. Maybe not such a good idea. But it was free, and the odor clears
in an hour and nobody feels sick afterwards.  

 

I tried a commercial floor cleaner, and we were treated to a day of
scratchy throats, runny noses and red eyes. What an irritating mess! I
wish I'd left the dirt on the kitchen floor.  My wife, who rarely mops
the floor (that's a MAN'S job in our house!) re-mopped the kitchen with
plain water until the stench cleared.  So much for Ajax floor cleaner.
It definitely is stronger than dirt, I'd rate it about as strong as
Ragweed Pollen, Cat Hair, and Sneezing Powder. 

 

 

How do companies get away with selling this toxic stuff?  Why do we buy
it? You can't even make a decent bicycle without being sued out of
existence <http://www.bicycleman.com/recumbents/bike_e/bike_e.htm> , why
aren't people suing soap mfrs for selling toxic cleaners?  Anybody want
a half a bottle of Ajax floor cleaner cheap? 

 

And a serious question - What do people use to clean their kitchen
floors that preserves indoor air quality and doesn't cost an arm and a
leg?  

 

 

Lawrence Lile, P.E.