If you thought you left chemicals like hydrochloric acid, ammonia and sulphates back in your school chemistry laboratory, look around your home. Chances are you are surrounded by chemicals as you make your home germ-free. Next time you clean your kitchen or bathroom, take a moment to read the labels of the products you’re using.


Though all of these products are purportedly safe if you follow the proper handling instructions, (not always given on the label) let’s face it—when was the last time you cleaned with a face mask, and the window wide open? If you’re like most people, you have inhaled chemical that could harm your health. Some of the most common chemicals in cleaning products can irritate skin or mucous membranes, such as those that line the nose and throat; others are poisonous when swallowed. Many can cause dizziness, headaches, and nausea if you use them in an unventilated area (such as your bathroom).

For example, both sodium acid sulphate and hydrochloric acid that are found in toilet bowl cleaners can burn the skin; cause vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach burns if swallowed; and result in blindness if it gets into the eyes. Chlorine bleach (sodium hypochlorite) is a lung and eye irritant; ammonia, found in glass-cleaning and other products, irritates the lungs and skin. Mix bleach and ammonia together, and the resulting lethal gas, chloramines, can cause coughing, choking, mild asthmatic symptoms, or more serious respiratory problems after even a brief exposure.

Household cleaners may contain as many as 1000 other ingredients, including fragrances, preservatives, solvents, dyes, and buffering agents. The scary truth is, not many chemical cleaners list their ingredients. They do not require manufacturers to mention exactly what chemicals are being used, nor do they insist on warnings.

You will not find emergency instructions or antidotes on most cleaning products. We urgently need to revise our laws regarding such products.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness
Even if the chemicals are listed and if you’re vigilant about using cleaning products as directed, you still may wonder whether you might be better off vacuuming more often and using products that don’t require you to don the mask when cleaning.

The irony of the modern home: even as we grow more alert to the germs lurking, shelves of stores brim over with cleaning agents that promise the world. Just as we get going in the battle against bugs, new enemies enter the home with chemical overload. So what do we do?

Read carefully
Not many of us bother to read labels for ingredients. If we do, most of us don’t understand what they imply or how seriously the warnings need to be taken.

Studied danger
What’s lurking where?
* Ammonia in glass cleaners: damages eyes and skin, causes choking feeling.
* Phenol in disinfectants and air fresheners: toxic to circulatory and respiratory systems. Burns or peels skin or causes hives, convulsions.
* Formaldehyde in deodorizers and room fresheners: nausea, headache, respiratory irritation.
* Petroleum solvents in floor cleaners: damages mucous membrane.
* Butyl cello solve in window and other cleaners: dangerous for bone marrow, nervous system, kidneys, liver.
* Hydrochloric acid in drain and toilet cleaners: damages skin and eyes, kidneys and liver.
* Bleach in garment bleach: irritates or burns eyes, skin, causes vomiting if ingested.
* Chlorine in dishwasher detergents: poison for child.
* Triclosan in some antibacterial soap: liver damage.

The dangers could crop up if a large surface is cleaned in a small room or even with regular use and exposure. When they tested terpene containing products in the presence of ozone, reactions included small particles with properties like in smog and formaldehyde, a respiratory irritant and carcinogenic to humans.

What you can do
Keep rooms ventilated till some time after cleaning. Don’t store more than the necessary amount of cleaning agents. Stash them in a utility corner, away from the bedroom or kitchen.

What you can do
Make your own cleaners from unscented soap, vinegar or lemon juice and baking soda made into a solution with water. Pick detergents that are based on plant oils rather than petroleum and soaps and cleaners that do not have artificial fragrance.

Some manufacturers prefer natural
Many of us pick up the latest chemical cleanants to keep latest-design floors squeaky clean. Yet, the world is waking up to the wonders of chemical free cleaning. Even some manufacturers of vitrified tiles believe maintenance is going back to basics.

What you can do
Clean tiles regularly with simple soap solution. When you pick up a new product, check with the dealer, read the literature or website, for natural cleaning tips.


Using fewer chemical cleansers doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice cleanliness and sparkle. Natural cleansers, especially citrus-based ones are free of toxic ingredients, pose fewer dangers but retain their ability to dissolve stains and oils. Find out from ‘natural’ or organic produce stores in your city if they keep any chemical-free cleaners. However, if you’re extra-sensitive or very allergic, even natural cleansers may trigger asthma, sinus irritation and similar reactions. In that case go the homemade route. It will be good for your health and your pocket.

Get a safer shine
Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate
Mix baking soda with enough liquid soap to make a paste. Cleans and deodorizes. Great scrub for tiles, kitchen counters and ovens.

Boric acid
Bleaches, disinfects, deodorizes. Just two teaspoons boric powder, an equal amount of vinegar stirred into a liter of water with liquid soap makes an all purpose surface cleaner. Boric powder keeps away cockroaches.

Vinegar
And brown paper is legends. By itself, 1/4 cup white vinegar mixed in a liter of warm water makes a great glass cleaner. Dip newspapers in the solution and rub the glass to get sparkle back into your panes.

Herbal Leaves
Is a good substitute for an organic compound like naphthalene, used commonly as mothballs and washroom deodorizers? Tie dry chilies in handkerchiefs or hang dry herbal leaves in the wardrobe. Or scatter camphor, tied in cloth. It has analgesic, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-viral properties.

Citronella oil
It can be used for mopping the floor. The female mosquito that spreads dengue and plagues off! The American Environmental Protection Agency classifies this insect repellant and anti-fungal plant as a nontoxic bio-pesticide. Do not use directly on the skin of children below the age of seven. Available in new age stores like Good Earth.

AVOID

* Combining different cleaning products. You may inadvertently create a more dangerous chemical.
* Shifting contents from their original containers. You may not know how the chemical will react if the container is made of different material and lose antidote instructions in case of accidental poisoning.
* Using a chemical cleaner on surfaces that can be touched by infants.

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