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Maybe. According to the National Institutes of Health,
- Over 90% of poison exposures happen at home, most of them from household cleaners.
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Ordinary chlorine bleach is the #1 household chemical involved in poisoning.
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Volatile compounds from common cleaners and air fresheners create air pollution 2 to 5 times higher inside than out.
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15 minutes of cleaning scale off shower walls exposes you to three times the “acute one-hour exposure limit” for some dangerous chemicals as set by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
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 Common cleaners release fumes that can increase the risk of kids developing asthma, the most common chronic childhood disease.
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1 in 13 school-aged children has asthma. Rates in children under five have increased more than 160% from 1980 – 1994.
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Children are highly vulnerable to toxic things. Per pound of body weight, children drink more water, eat more food, and breathe more air than adults. In addition, their bodies cannot handle toxics as well as adults can.
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On average, each U.S. home generates more than 20 pounds of household hazardous waste each year. The EPA calls toilet cleaners, tub and tile cleaners, oven cleaners, and bleach hazardous waste.
- Households pollute Earth’s waterways more than industry and agriculture combined.
To find out what’s in your home, go to the National Institutes of Health Library of Medicine Household Products Database. You can search almost any brand of cleaner, find out what’s in it, and uncover its links to health effects. The information may shock you.
Ruth Kneile works with healthy lifestyles as an Independent Shaklee Distributor (www.shaklee.net/friends) and as a tai chi and chi kung teacher in Des Moines
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