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Household Cleaner Risks

Toxic cleaners have been linked with causing or worsening asthma, reproductive and developmental toxicity and cancer. When shopping for cleaning products, it’s important not to get influenced by the product packaging as lots of brands claim to be natural or green. The proof is in the ingredient list! It can be tricky to understand what to look out for, but here are a few major ones that we should be cautious of.

  1. Fragrance – this term often hides a multitude of synthetic chemicals and if they’re not disclosed, we don’t know how toxic they are. Certain phthalates (artificial fragrances) have been linked to hormone disruption, reproductive health issues and cancer.
  2. Bleach (sodium hypochlorite) and Ammonia (ammonium hydroxide) – these give off toxic fumes which irritate the eyes, lungs, nose, throat and skin and may even cause burns and death.
  3. Formaldehyde and 1,4-Dioxane – these have been designated as a probable or known human carcinogens.
  4. Ionic and non-ionic surfactants (eg sodium lauryl (laureth) sulphate and cocomidopropyl betaine (cocamide DEA, coco-betaine…) – these are lung, eye and skin irritants.

If you want to dig deep on this subject, we recommend the following resources:

Invitation to Health

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Invitation to Health

Invitation to Health is an integrative health clinic based on the Central Coast of NSW.

We are exposed to at least 140,000 chemicals, more than 30,000 of them in high volumes. We don't know how most of these chemicals individually affect our bodies and we have even less information on how they interact with each other or with medications we use. These chemicals are in your food and water, on your food, in the cleaning and skin care products you use and in your furnishings and household items.
“Your body hears everything your mind says” Naomi Judd

We are a medical centre based in Wyoming, near Gosford on the Central Coast, with onsite GPs, integrative doctors and complementary therapists to support your health.

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