How to choose natural cleaning products

 Did you know your favorite cleaner could actually be damaging to your health. I was always surprised when I see people still using well known dangerous products, but it occurred to me that not everyone is aware of the harm that these can cause. I only know because I went looking for the answers a few years back when I was trying to overcome PCOS. With pesticides in food, hormones in our water, pollution in our air, I thought at the very least people would be more aware of the toxic overload in our cleaning products, but then I remember it’s very overwhelming to consider changing everything in our lives all at once, the internet provides an overload of information so how does one even sort through it all. As I said a few years back I started to focus on eliminating toxic things  in my life one at a time, including relationships – but that’s a story for another day. I started by looking at my food choices, I learned slowly and over time when to buy organic and when it didn’t matter as much, this was an important distinction because we all know that food, especially organic; can get expensive.

 Environmental Working Group: EWG

That’s when I stumbled across the Environmental Working Groups Website better known as EWG.org. They are a non-profit, non-partisan – meaning not biased, especially toward any particular political group dedicated to helping human health and the environment. I found what they call the Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen List  https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/  they call it Your Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce. What does this have to do with cleaning, well they also independently test cleaning products to see the impact on the human body in terms of their effect on asthma, cancer, reproductive toxicity, allergens & burns/ poisonings and more. You can search more than 2500 products online by name or ingredients. Check out their guide when shopping for cleaning products as well, you an access it here https://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners/ one of the best parts about the EWG  is their verified products, when you see the green circular EWG logo attached you can rest assured these products are entirely safe for use in your home and for your family.

Not all products are Natural – don’t believe everything you read on bottles

Something important to note is that just because one product is approved or has a good score does not mean that the entire  line from the same company will also be approved, so it’s important to look up each product you intend to buy even when they are manufactured by the same company.

The EWG uses a simple A-F rating Scale, A being the safest aka lowest concern and F being the most toxic…aka highest concern, then they also go as far as to tell you why based on each ingredient. I don’t buy any products without first typing the product name into the EWG website database, it’s an easy way to make sure your using the safest products for you and your family.