Have you ever considered what’s in your household cleaning products? What if some of the chemicals used to clean your cabinet, carpet, and bathroom were not tested or approved for human use, would you still use them?
I sat down with a local environmental advocate named Beth Barnes to discuss possibilities for alternate cleaning methods. Beth began making her own, safer cleaning products after reading up on the dangers of household cleaners.
Beth produced some startling research and stated her case for why we need to go green not only in our lifestyle but in cleaning our house as well!
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality in 2007 stated “The average American uses 25 gallons of toxic and hazardous chemicals in their homes per year. Of the 17,000 chemicals found in household cleaners, only 3 out of 10 have been tested for their effects on human health.”
Beth first got involved with environmental and health causes when she became an active member of the Surfrider foundation because “I wanted to see our coastal areas renewed to their formal glory when my Mom was a little girl in Long Beach.”
After nine years she’s still hard at work with Surfrider reconfiguring the breakwater. “That was my entrée into the environmental world. From there I became very interested into the questionable water coming out of our taps and the polluted air my daughters and I were breathing.”
When asked how she became intrigued with the dangers of household cleaning agents and health topics overall Beth cited the book The Hundred Year Lie: How food and medicine are destroying your health by Randall Fitzgerald
Soon after as a gift her daughter gave her a book about how to make her own cleaning agents and the passion grew from there. “At first I thought, this is just too much work to make my own chemical free cleaning agents.” “But as I began to study the dangers of the chemicals inside regular cleaners, they smell good and you think the better it smells the better I’m cleaning. “But there’s a danger lurking underneath that good smell.”
Soon Beth’s mantra became “If only I had known when my daughters were babies!” This past Wednesday was Beth’s inaugural day of introducing her natural cleaning product “YOU AND ME CHEM FREE” at the Marina farmers market on Wednesday. For more information, visit Beth every Wednesday at the Farmer’s Market in Long Beach or email at: [email protected] or call: 562-494-3403.
5 steps for greener/healthier living (Beth Barnes):
1. Buy organic produce locally
2. Use your bike or public transport
3. Seek alternative sources of information on health
(90.7 kpfk, wellness chiropractor, naturopath, homeopath, acupuncturist)
4. Clean Green
5. Reduce the use of Plastics