Go down the laundry aisle at your local supermarket and bottle after bottle of detergent will evoke images of open fields, spring flowers or even a tropical fruit fiesta. Despite the lovely pictures, we all know there’s really nothing natural about these chemically-ridden liquids and powders.
The scary part is that cleaning products are not legally required to list their ingredients, so there’s no exact way to find out what’s being used on our clothing or what’s being washed into the waterways. However, we do know that there are a slew of chemicals in detergent that are as toxic as they are difficult to pronounce.
The Environmental Protection Agency found that ingredients in bleach, such as sodium hypochlorite, dichloro-isocyanurate and nitrogen-trichloride, “can form hazardous gases” and “may form toxic gas” and is “a threat to human health,” respectively. The agency also found that alkylphenol ethoxylates, the chemical found in fabric softener, has “high toxicity to aquatic organisms, and may be endocrine disruptors (compounds that adversely affect the endocrine system that controls metabolism, reproduction, and growth).”
MORE: Which Is Better, Hand Dryers or Paper Towels?
It’s completely unnecessary for these harmful chemicals to be a part of our laundry routine, especially since there are plenty of eco-friendly detergents on the market.
And if you have the time, you can even make it yourself. DIY laundry detergent only requires three ingredients: washing soda, borax and bar soap. This blog post from The Simple Dollar breaks down the process step by step; it explains that the homemade soap removes stains just as effectively as name-brand detergents and saves money as well.
“Using my homemade stuff, I spend $8.15 for the detergent over the course of the year,” the author explains. “Using Tide with Bleach Alternative, I spend $73.23 over the course of a year. Using my homemade detergent instead saves me $65.08 a year. Plus, it was fun to make.”
TreeHugger recently featured zero-waste blogger Lauren Singer of Trash is for Tossers, who just started her own company, The Simply Co. and a Kickstarter campaign to make her three-ingredient, handmade, organic and vegan laundry powder available to the masses.
“There are over 85,000 industrial chemicals out there and the majority of ones that are in use today have never even been tested for safety,” Singer says in the video below. “In fact, cleaning product manufacturers aren’t even legally required to list their ingredients on their packaging, so we really have no clue what’s in them.”
So while it’s important to have clean clothes, for the sake of our health and the planet’s health, let’s all try to wash them more responsibly.
[ph]
DON’T MISS: This Small Change to Toilet Paper Will Reduce Its Big Environmental Impact
Tag: toxic chemicals
The Latest Reason Not to Smoke: It’s Bad for the Environment
Here’s the good news: Surveys show that cigarette smoking rates in the U.S. are at an all-time low.
And now the very bad news: About 20 percent of Americans smoke, with experts saying that this rate has plateaued. “Smoking is still the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States and has been for decades,” CNN writes.
To drive this point home even further, a recent report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found that 14 million major medical conditions in the country are smoking-related. As Reuters reports, these illnesses include 4.3 million cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 2.3 million heart attacks, 1.8 million cases of diabetes, 1.1 million strokes and over a million cases of smoking-related cancers. (The report doesn’t even mention the ridiculously expensive healthcare costs associated with these illnesses.)
MORE: 5 Very Simple, Practical Things You Can Do to Curb Climate Change
Cigarettes can be so addictive that many smokers don’t even care about their health (or even the health of second-hand smokers). However, many smokers probably don’t realize the environmental devastation caused by cigarettes and the tobacco industry.
Here’s why smoking should be considered not just a health concern, but a major environmental one as well.
WIDESPREAD LITTER
How many of us have seen someone mindlessly flick a finished cigarette onto the sidewalk? Even though it’s illegal to litter, these mostly plastic, non-biodegradable cigarette butts seem to be only exception. In fact, cigarette tips are the most commonly littered item in the U.S. and around the world — an estimated 4.5 trillion tips are tossed worldwide per year. Discarded butts wind up in parks, beaches (they account for 28 percent of sand litter worldwide) and public roads, plus they wash up in waterways where the chemically toxic tips contaminate the water supply and/or get eaten by unsuspecting aquatic creatures. Cleanup is also a very expensive problem: In 2009, San Francisco spent about $10 million on tobacco litter.
ALL THOSE INNOCENT TREES
A smoker might contend, “Well, I don’t litter.” But that doesn’t take away from all the trees that are chopped down for this guilty nicotine fix. TreeHugger makes several salient points:
— In Africa, around 5 percent of all deforestation is caused by tobacco. In Malawi, where the ancient dry forests of the miombo highlands are particularly under threat, tobacco accounts for 20 percent of deforestation.
— Each year nearly 600 million trees are destroyed to provide fuel to dry tobacco. Put another way — one tree is destroyed for every 300 cigarettes.
— Globally, tobacco curing requires 11.4 million tons of solid wood annually.
— Tobacco is a sensitive plant prone to many diseases. It therefore requires huge chemical inputs: up to 16 applications of pesticide are recommended during one three-month growing period. Aldrin and Dieldrin, and DDT are among the chemicals used. Methyl bromide, widely used as a fumigant in developing countries, contributes significantly to ozone depletion.
— As well as being hazardous to users, chemicals may run off into water courses, contaminating local water supplies. There are also concerns about high levels of pesticide use leading to the development of resistance in mosquitoes and flies, making the control of diseases such as malaria more difficult.
— Tobacco is particularly potassium-hungry, absorbing up to six times as much as other crops, leaving soil in poor condition for essential food and cash crops.
— Modern cigarette manufacturing machines use more than six kilometers of paper per hour.
The best solution for both you and the planet? Quitting. But of course, that’s much easier said than done. Some companies are developing biodegradable butts and many cities and some states have smoking bans in private and public spaces and diligently fine litterers.
Tobacco Control (an international journal covering tobacco use) suggests a deposit-return scheme similar to recycling cans and bottles where smokers can collect money for cigarette tips. The organization also urges tobacco control and environmental activists “to work together to hold the global cigarette industry accountable for the toxic mess they’ve caused.”
If you are a smoker and would like to curb your own cigarette litter, you can send your butts to TerraCycle for it to be recycled.
DON’T MISS: 6 Common Environmental Culprits That Need Regulation
California’s New Law on Flame Retardants Could Change the Furniture Industry for the Better
While California’s official plastic bag ban might have gotten the most media attention lately, a different bill from the Golden State could have a much bigger environmental and health impact on the whole country.
The Guardian reports that starting Jan. 1, the state will require furniture manufacturers to label consumer products containing flame-retardant chemicals — a change that could alter the entire furniture industry and literally change how we sit (for the better).
In case you didn’t know, the upholstered furniture in our homes, schools, businesses and hospitals are potentially toxic and dangerous. Why? Due to a well-intentioned but ultimately misguided rule called TB-117 which California enacted in the 1970s (that unfortunately trickled down to furniture manufacturers nationwide), our beloved couches are very likely stuffed with flame-retardant filling.
MORE: What Happens When a 13-Year-Old Girl Takes on an Oil Company?
What’s not good about that? Well, the National Resources Defense Council (NDRC) calls it a “classic example of a stupid use of a chemical: they are ineffective in preventing furniture fires and are linked to serious health effects.” This includes lower birth weight, reduced IQ (similar to lead poisoning), hyperactivity, poorer coordination, reduced fertility, birth defects, hormonal changes and cancer, the Green Health Policy Institute warns.
As the video below illustrates, these chemicals seep out through couch coverings, mix with the air and get into our bodies and the environment. Young children are particularly vulnerable to exposure because they crawl and tend to put things from the floor into their mouth. Additionally, not only are these couches still incredibly flammable, the chemicals in them can make fires even more toxic by forming deadly gases and soot.
And don’t think you’re safe if you don’t live in California. Most couches purchased outside of the state also contain high levels of many different kinds of retardants, meaning most Americans are exposed. According to the NDRC, “Americans carry much higher levels of these chemicals in their bodies than anyone else in the world and California children contain some of the highest levels ever measured.” (Check this link here to learn how to check if your furniture has flame-retardant materials)
ALSO: You’ll Never Believe What Those Popular Silicon Bracelets Can Do
The Guardian reports that while environmentalists and health advocates have been trying to fight TB-117 since it came out, the chemical industry has successfully pushed back their efforts through lobbying tactics for several decades. It wasn’t until 2012 when the Chicago Tribune ran exposés on flame retardant furniture foams that any serious legal efforts were made. (Last year, California lawmakers amended the outdated law, requiring that covers were flame resistant, rather than its filling.)
That’s why the new measure, Senate Bill 1019 (signed on Sept. 30 by Gov. Jerry Brown), is a big step forward to safer furniture, better health and cleaner air. While furniture makers can still technically create products with chemically laden material, they are now forced to indicate so on a label if they want to sell it in California. And since California has such a large share of the market, it’s likely that manufacturers will adapt this new rule for other states, too. Meaning that this law has the potential to affect citizens nationwide, not just Californians.
Hopefully, we’ll see toxic furniture phased out for good.
[ph]
DON’T MISS: Why Those Red Party Cups Are Also Big Red Flags
Can Rain Solve West Virginia’s Tap Water Problem?
West Virginia’s toxic chemical spill last month left hundreds of thousands without clean water for weeks. Although state officials declared that the tap water is once again usable, residents are understandably wary of contaminants. There’s still the bottled water option but that comes with an economic and environmental price. In, Kanawha Valley, however, some residents have come up with a cost-and-environmentally friendly solution: rainwater.
“It’s sort of primitive,” Charleston resident Lori Magana told the Charleston Daily Mail. “The rain barrel is hooked up to my downspout and it has a faucet. After many trials, I figured out the best way to take a seven-gallon jug from Walmart and carry it inside.”
MORE: Just As This West Virginia Town Ran Out of Clean Water, Something Miraculous Happened
Magana’s part of the Facebook group Charleston Rain Catchers, that now has more than 200 members and counting. The group shares tips the best ways to harvest rain water, and advice like what’s the best and most affordable rain receptacles (pickle or soy sauce barrels). The wall is also updated with information on often free rainwater harvesting workshops. These West Virginians are showing that even during environmental disasters, a sustainable solution can be as easy as looking to the sky.
Just As This West Virginia Town Ran Out of Clean Water, Something Miraculous Happened
The community of Clendenin, West Virginia, was hard hit by the state’s recent toxic chemical spill. Local water sources were undrinkable and their bottled supplies, stockpiled at a local church, were running low. But just as their rations dwindled, something miraculous happened: Three volunteers from East Rockaway, New York, pulled up in a van with 227 cases of bottled water — nearly 100 gallons . As Good News Network reports, high school senior Angela Sarro, her father Frank, and Angela’s teacher Don Poland drove 537 miles in 12 hours through a couple of snowstorms to deliver the badly needed supplies. The Rockaway trio was inspired to act by the kindness of volunteers who delivered food and water to their town after Superstorm Sandy hit. Clendenin local Leslie Jennings Young posted on Poland’s Facebook page, “So many benefited from your kindness and generosity. We were blessed beyond words by your actions! God bless all of you! We too, will Pay It Forward!!” So watch out for Clendenin volunteers the next time a disaster hits.
MORE: How 40 pounds of leftover broccoli sparked a farm-friendly innovation