Do you need bleach to disinfect?
September 27, 2009 by Jennifer Chait
Filed under Green Living
NO! Not only is bleach extremely harmful for the planet, but bleach can contribute to a toxic home. Worst of all, bleach is extremely dangerious for humans. Not to mention; do we really want to grow super crazy unstoppable germs? Nope, I sure don’t but when you use disinfectants and bleach that’s what you’re doing. You do not need bleach in your world to get things clean and even sanitized and disinfected.
Clean and disinfect with zero bleach:
Did you know that the Environmental Protection Agency actually recognizes soap and hot water as a legitimate disinfectant? They do. However, for hot water and soap to do its job you must clean well. To disinfect hands use hot soapy water and wash for about two minutes. To clean surfaces in your home well with hot water and soap read the following…
For basic cleaning a spray of white distilled vinegar followed by a 3% peroxide spray will disinfect.
Tea tree essential oil, pine essential oil, and lavender essential oil are all said to have natural disinfecting qualities you can add drops directly into say a toilet, or make up a spray of water and essential oil to spray on surfaces. To learn more about making your own homemade cleaners read; 25 Safe, Non-toxic, Homemade Cleaning Supplies.
[image via stock.xchng]
Hello,
I found you looking for articles on what to buy organic. Ordinarily we buy everything organic, but we’re experiencing a budget shift and have to make some decisions. Then I saw your article on household cleaners.
We don’t use bleach in our home, and peroxide is dangerous too when undiluted. We’ve been just using castille soap and baking soda. It seems to get the job done. BUT, you’ve brought up a topic near and dear to my heart, or you could say it’s the bane of my existence.
I love swimming. And I really love swimming with my daughter. But 4 years ago when our friends started taking their kids to swimming pools, I found myself totally grossed out at the idea of soaking my tiny little wonderful in chlorine, bromine et al. But I really wish there was another way. I mean, I know there are ozone pools, but ozone is toxic too, just in a different way. And even ozone pools have to have chlorine in them, and often they’re the ones with the largest chlorine gas (read: breathing it instead of marinating in it) problems. I wish more public pools used salt water or UV, but in Vancouver BC, so far they’re either private or outdoors when we’d be swimming in the oceans or lakes instead.
So my questions to put out in the world, does anybody out there feel the same as I do? How do you deal with being the mean Mama who doesn’t let their kid go to indoor swimming lessons and public pool birthday parties?
Thanks for your input,
Brenda