I joined one of our teams ,this past week, as they went on their route and I observed. This is mostly a quality control practice to make sure everything is getting handled the way it needs to be in a time frame that's acceptable to the client and the company. However, it also gives me an opportunity to visit with our customers and not only get to know them but also it offers me a chance to educate them on some of the products and methods most people use t clean and then I explain how most of those methods aren't as effective as the average person thinks or as effective as the manufacturers of these products would have us believe.
If you go to any retail store in America and look for a cleaning section, in a very short time you will undoubtedly find yourself in a sea of disposable wet mops, wood polish and disinfectants wrapped in brightly colored packages or bottles. Most of these packages are adorned with spring time meadows, flowers and happy family's, leading one to believe these products belong in a fresh and clean home. The problem is, these products belong no where near your family, especially those with young children.
Parents find themselves in an overwhelming battle between advertisement geared towards their children and exposure to today's "real world". With things like BPA, lead toys, tainted food, strollers malfunctions and the thousands of other hazards children come in contact with everyday, it's no wonder parents are stressed.
Most people know it's important to maintain a clean home and like wise, most parents know that goes double for family's with young children. What most people don't know is that more than half of the cleaners they use ,to sanitize and disinfect, don't work as well or as fast as they have been lead to think. If you turn over that can of lemon scented carcinogens and read the instructions you'll see that the average exposure time for most of these "cleaners" is up to 5 minutes. That means the average kitchen counter top in America would take up to a total of 26 minutes to properly disinfect (working in sections to prevent drying). That's a lot of time considering that's JUST the counter tops, not the stove, not the garbage can not even the sink itself. Further more, a lot of these "cleaners" suggest letting these chemicals dry on the surfaces in your home to sanitize them. Forget about pesticides on your fruit, your putting them in the air you breath and on the surfaces you eat from. Sounds kind of crazy doesn't it?
In 2000, cleaning products were responsible for at least 206,636 (reported) calls to U.S. Poison Control Centers with well over half of those calls being in regards to children. If these products are so bad for us that they have to be listed as a poison and come with a warning label to be sold in the first place...why do we use them so readily? Because most people just don't know. What if I told you that the just fragrances used in products like laundry detergent and room deodorizers have been shown to cause headaches, sneezing and watery eyes in some individuals as well as eliciting allergic or asthmatic reactions in sensitive a-topic individuals. Makes you wonder where that post work headache is really coming from, doesn't it.
Here's the shocker, it's not just children and the elderly that need to worry about these products. Several of these cleaning and deodorizing products utilize alkylphenol ethoxylates (APE's) to do their advertised jobs. The problem lies in the fact that this material has been shown to memic the estrogen hormone and studies have shown APE to lead to increased breast cancer cell production. This is just one of the countless and often unavailable ingredients used to make the products used to clean your home.
We as people aren't the only ones effected by the manufacturing or the use of these products. Production bi-products and waste aside, what happens to the cleaners that get poured down the drain or flushed down the toilet. Most of them get broken down or removed during a filtration process before being sent back into the world's water supply but not every negative element can be eliminated from the water and for that reason there are direct and indirect consequences for the environment by continued use and manufacturing of these and similar products. Why not use a healthier, safer and often times more effective product? Is there such a thing? Friend...I'm here to tell you
GreenClean uses three different methods to clean and sanitize. The first method, a non-toxic 100% biodegradable cleaner is used in areas requiring stain removal and/or odor elimination. Second. steam-vapor is probably the most used method in the GreenClean line-up. We use high pressure high temperature machines capable of killing up to 99.97% of all allergens and pathogens. Now, I know that's the same thing bleach and ammonia based cleaners advertise as well but... steam vapor is nothing more than super heated tap water but thanks to the high temperature and pressure it is capable of disinfecting and sanitizing most surfaces in about 4-10 seconds. Most chemical based cleaners take between 30 seconds and 10 minutes.Steam vapor also uses pressure to remove debris and reach deep into the pours of a surface, something no chemical cleaner can effectively do without damaging the surface itself. The final method utilizes UV-C or ultraviolet light. Ultra violet light is not effective for removing debris but it is highly effective in sanitizing below a visible surface. The light rays penetrate below the surface of materials such as carpet, pillows, bedding , couches and even wood. This property of the UV-C equipment makes it ideal for use around children and allergy/asthma sufferers.
There are healthier , and often times more effective, alternatives to the products of yesteryear so why not use them. Keep you and your family safe by reading the label befre you buy.
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