A Million Trees

As a woman with asthma I have come to understand the dramatic effects that retail household chemicals have on my breathing.  The excerpt below absolutely floors me.  These cleaners are responsible for so much disease – kids asthma has increased by 160% in recent years.   The EPA states that indoor air pollution is 2 to 5 times greater indoors than outdoors. 

 If you have children – switch to non-toxic cleaners – if you don’t – switch to non-toxic cleaners. 

Being a concerned mother of nearly four, I do care about the wellness of my family and the toxins in my home.  But this concern has taken different action over the past years.  When I had my first baby, I gave cleaning products a great deal of thought and tried to make as many as I could using earth friendly ingredients and recipes I found online.  Then, after the arrival of my second baby, I needed convenience and so I tried some of the green cleaners found at health food stores.  They were expensive so at times I had to just use the chemicals that choke you from the cleaning aisles of grocery stores.  And finally, after my third baby, I needed maximum convenience and minimum price.  So I started to use Clorox wipes, among other things.  (I have to be honest, even though I hate to admit it!  J

 Unfortunately, I was doing more harm than good.  A friend of mine suggested I watch Toxic Brew, a news segment produced by a Canadian news station. After watching this video, the reality of what I was bringing into my home began to dawn on me!

 Note: You can view Toxic Brew online at  http://theglobalsuccessteam.net/

Only a month or so later, I heard of the work of Dr. Doris Rapp, who researches the effects of harmful chemicals on children’s health.  (You can find her books, including Is This Your Child’s World? at www.amazon.com

 In one of her studies, she tested the effect of bleach on six-year-old’s handwriting.  I looked at the printed results, and was amazed at the evidence.  Before a bottle of bleach was opened, students wrote their names fairly well.  Then, with just an opened bottle of bleach in the room and the fumes wafting through the air, the children wrote their names dramatically different.  Some wrote messy, some too small to read, and one even wrote backwards. 

Being the devil’s advocate that I am, I thought: “Well, they just printed up the worst case scenarios.  Certainly it wouldn’t affect my kids this way.”  So, I determined to do the same test at home.  I didn’t tell my kids what I was doing.  I only told them to write as neatly as they could.  They printed their names on a sheet of paper.   Then, I told them to hold up their papers while I wiped the table off with a Clorox wipe.  As soon as it was dry enough, I had them put their papers down and write their names again.  I was shocked!  My daughter’s writing was visibly messier; instead of letters being tight and connected, they were loopy and crooked.  My son was completely distracted by something while he was writing his name!  (This is uncharacteristic of him.  He has no attention difficulties.)  When he realized that he was talking about something else, he stopped mid-sentence and said: “Wait, I’m supposed to be writing my name!?”  The next letter he wrote was upside-down (which my son had never done before).  I took it to the next level and had my children move to another room where there were no Clorox fumes.  They wrote their names again and proved that without being ‘under the influence’ they could write just as neat as the first time.  I could clearly see that the chemicals were affecting both writing ability and focus. 

My children are home-schooled and we do chores every morning before school starts.  Since they have direct exposure to cleaners, I was burdened by thoughts of how the cleaning chemicals were affecting them in other ways.  To make a long story shorter, I promised myself from that time on that I would not subject my children’s minds to danger again, not to mention their lungs and skin. 

And I am very pleased with the alternatives that Shaklee offers!  The Get Clean products are very powerful, environmentally friendly, cost-effective cleaning products that contain no toxic chemicals and no dangerous fumes!  What more was I looking for?  I have totally clean, residue-free dishes; totally clean, irritation-free clothes; and totally clean, fume-free chore time!  I LOVE IT and I want to spread the word so that every mom can give her children the priceless gift of a toxin-free home!

 –Amy K. Jefferson, GA