Indoor Air Quality and Green Cleaning

The EPA has ranked indoor air pollution as one of the top 5 environmental risks to public health. Out of the may reasons for this listed on the EPA's website is household cleaning products. This is part of the reason that "green" cleaning products are one of the newest things to hit the market. I use kitchen detergent, laundry detergent and other green cleaning products in my home and have found them to be just as effective as what I used before. How do we know which "green" products to use? Well, you have a couple of choices, either home-mixed cleaners or store bought. To make your own home-mixed cleaners there are many websites and books available to show you how to do this. One of the books I like the best is "Easy Green Living" by Renee Loux. In this book she goes through the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and laundry telling you either home-mixed cleaners that work (and how to make them) or lists out eco-friendly products and where to find them. I really like her book as she makes it very easy to "go green" with your household cleaning. Your other option is to research "green" cleaning products and go with the line you like the best. I use a lot of the Seventh Generation cleaning products, based on what I've read about their company they appear to be very stringent in how they make their products and want to truly make cleaning safe, healthy and non-toxic.

This is a topic that we will cover again in the weeks to come. To learn more about indoor air quality, visit the EPA's Indoor Air Quality website.