When we look back in twenty years time, we’ll see the use of cleaning products the same way we look back at the use of arsenic now. It never ceases to amaze me how chemicals, treated with gloves, body suits and breathing apparatus in factories are suddenly safe when they appear in food and the products we use. Nothing has changed with them only simply the quantity we are ingesting. And cumulatively, there is no long term study carried out about ingesting, breathing or absorbing small amounts of chemicals everyday.

Even trying to design a study to research the long term affects of using a particular chemical would be complicated and subject to so many variables it may not be possible. But I believe people have a gut instinct when it comes to these things and instinctively know when something is bad for us.

The problem is that we have been lulled into a false sense of security. Regulators, those government departments that are meant to protect us but instead are too busy generating paperwork for small businesses, have green lighted the use of many of these chemicals with NO checks, audits or research. Take glyphosate use on crops or the use of fluoride in water as two simple examples.

Hand Soap
Hand Soap

Research out today and published in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine studied 6,000 people over 20 years. It found women in particular suffered health problems after long term use of cleaning products.

The lung function in women using these products daily or working as cleaners had declined to that of someone who had smoked daily for 20 years. The researchers advised that such products be avoided and replaced with simple water and microfiber cloths.

“When you think of inhaling small particles from cleaning agents that are meant for cleaning the floor and not your lungs, maybe it is not so surprising after all,” said Oistein Svanes , a doctoral student who led the study.

“The take home message of this study is that in the long run cleaning chemicals very likely cause rather substantial damage to your lungs,” she added.

“These chemicals are usually unnecessary; microfibre cloths and water are more than enough for most purposes.”

The easiest thing you can do to protect yourself is forget about regulatory agencies protecting you. They do nothing of the sort. Instead, read the labels. READ THE LABELS!

If a product contains ingredients you do not understand, leave it behind you. It is one of the most simple rules in life to follow. There is no requirement for foods to have long lists of strange sounding ingredients, other than for the purpose of profit. There is no reason to have forty ingredients on a cleaner that you spray on the floor and on which baby crawls around on. There is no need for heavy metals to be included in your body sprays, shampoos, body wash or any other personal item. I can’t emphasise it enough – READ THE LABEL!

Pay no attention to fancy marketing slogans. Pay no heed to declarations on the label such as ‘Declared safe by…’ , ‘As used by… ‘, ‘Natural’, ‘nothing added’, ‘simply…’

Instead, turn the product over and scan the ingredients. If within 2 seconds you do not understand them, put it back!

 

 

Source: https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1164/rccm.201706-1311OC

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