So What's Bad About Household Cleaners: Bleach

I suppose I should clarify why I'm wanting to use homemade cleaning products. Beside the obvious, that I'm worried about toxins, I'm also super sensitive to smells, again, whether or not I'm pregnant.  A strongly scented product sets alarms off in my head. If something needs to smell that strongly it can't be good. Its a lame way of reasoning but I've come to find that its true most of the time.

Let's take household bleach for starters. The choice of generations for cleaning & disinfecting all & every thing! What's so bad about bleach?

Well, from what I can find from googling a few pages: EVERYTHING!! Yikes! Now for the most part, I use vinegar in place of where many use bleach but I have been known to get some "real bleach" for my cloth diaper inserts to freshen them up, and soak my toilet brush in the stuff too (I bet I can use vinegar for that as well right?)  I HATE the smell of bleach, and have every exhaust & fan in the house running when I do those bleach soaks. Fortunately, I long since ran out of that bottle & just continued using my vinegar :)

So, about bleach then. The list of 'bad things' contain words like respiratory problems & asthma, chemical burns, skin reactions, headaches, confusion, vision disturbances, hormonal imbalances, reproductive problems, nervous system damage, carcinogens (the cancer causers) dangerous chemical reactions and so on. 

References: Here and here and here and here

Now we've all been warned not to mix bleach with amonia because the fumes can be fatal. But, we should also be aware that our own urine contains quite a bit of amonia and so even cleaning the toilet bowl with bleach can cause a similar toxic fume, maybe not fatal in the sense of a total mixture of bleach & liquid amonia but the fumes from even a small mixture are NOT good for us to be breathing.

Then there are just simple accidents, like children or pets ingesting it, and the fumes are even more damaging to little lungs of babies and pets and especially, the ever sensitive tell-tale warnings of our pet birds. And environmentally damaging as well because every time we use bleach in our sinks, tubs, toilets & washing machines, all that bleach water is carried out into our sewer or septic systems. Ground water, marine life, and other biological disturbances affecting what should be left alone from all these toxins.

So, these are just a few examples of what is not so great about bleach. I'm sure there are many more.

Some bleach alternatives: Well of course, our trusty vinegar can do just about all things that bleach can without being toxic. Here are some great facts about vinegar.  Baking soda gives it a boost as well. And for something like disinfecting, I read here you can try grapefruit seed extract or eucalyptus oil (diluted with water)

Another thing to remember in this obsessive anti-bacterial world is to TAKE IT EASY!! Not all germs & bacteria are bad. The more we over-bleach and use anti-bacterial everything, the worse we are making our immune systems. We are the ones creating the "Super Bugs". We're vaccinated for everything under the sun, wash our hands & children & toys & everything we touch with anti-bacterial stuff so that we don't get a germ but this is not how we fight these bugs, this is how we make them stronger. 

'Nuff said for one day.