Ever take the time to read the label on your laundry detergent or fabric softener? It looks like a toddler got a hold of a keyboard and randomly typed letters and numbers that make no sense. Yet we blindly fill the washing machine with these chemical- laden liquids and scratch our heads when our children develop asthma or horrible skin conditions. Many of us are unfamiliar with the dangers that are lurking in our laundry rooms. For example, here is a list of ingredients from a leading brand laundry detergent listed on the manufacturer’s website.
Ingredients: water, alcoholethoxy sulfate, linear alkylbenzene sulfonate, propylene glycol , citric acid, sodium hydroxide, borax, ethanolamine, ethanol, alcohol, polyethyleneimine ethoxylate, sodium fatty acids, diquaternium ethoxysulfate, protease , diethylene glycol, laureth-9, alkyldimethylamine oxide, fragrance, amylase, disodium diaminostilbene disulfonate, DTPA captures, sodium formate, calcium formate, polyethylene glycol 4000, mannanase, Liquitint™ Blue, dimethicone
Would you bathe in these ingredients? Of course not! First of all they are toxic. Second of all we’d all walk around looking like blue Smurfs! We shouldn’t try to launder our clothes in them either. Of the 27 ingredients in this particular bottle of detergent, I was able to locate Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) on 13 of them. The MSDS provides valuable information about the hazards and potential risks of chemicals. Each chemical is rated on four components: health, flammability, reactivity, and special concerns. They are rated on a scale from 0 to 4, with 0 being irrelevant, and 4 being extreme. Of the 13 MSDS found, several contained a health rating of 3, several contained a flammability rating of 3, several contained a reactivity rating of 2, and all special ratings were a 0.
Will contact with one of these ingredients one time cause instant death? Probably not, but prolonged exposure to these chemicals can cause long term health concerns. And let’s not forget that they are mixing 27 of these ingredients together! Every ingredient in every detergent or fabric softener has not been tested for compatibility. Don’t forget clothes and bedding, especially children’s pajamas and bedding, are treated with flame retardants. I am sure the powers that be took the time to test all the flame retardants for compatibility with all the laundry detergents and fabric softeners on the market right? Don’t get me started on the toxic effects of the flame retardants. That is the cause of our son’s antimony poisoning and a topic for another day.
Everyone should be aware that if you wash your laundry as recommended by leading manufacturers, you could subsequently wash the same laundry 5 or 6 times without adding any more laundry detergent to the machine and still have a ton of soap in the rinse cycle. So now that you know that your clothes are still dowsed in these chemicals and are rubbing against 95% of your body consistently, skin deterioration should be a concern. Almost all of the MSDS warned against exposure to heat as well so take your clothes, which still contain laundry detergents, and pop them in the dryer because it only heats the air to 200°F-300°F!
The MSDS provide some pretty serious precautionary warnings. For example, one MSDS stated that “Repeated skin exposure can produce local skin destruction, or dermatitis.” What about the powder laundry detergents? How’s this for a warning, “Repeated inhalation of dust can produce varying degree of respiratory irritation or lung damage.” I know I put on a respirator before adding the powder to the machine, don’t you? Here’s one of my favorites, “Explosive hydrogen gas is evolved from contact with steel, other metals.” Wait, isn’t the inside of your washer and dryer stainless steel!?! And my all time favorite, “Can react vigorously with oxidizers.” Cause none of us ever added Oxy Clean and laundry detergent to the same load! Or even this one, “Eye contact can result in corneal damage or blindness.” I always wear my safety goggles when pouring the laundry soap into the machine, don’t you? And don’t forget for those of you who use the laundry detergent pods…that plastic has dissolved into chemical components that are now embedded in your clothing! Who knows what they break down to and how they react with the various products you through in your washer. Don’t even get me started on the number of children who have died from eating them!
While some of this might sound humorous or funny, it is a rather serious issue. We are dowsing our bodies in toxins every time we wear clothes, which for most of us is pretty much all the time. So not only are we causing all kinds of harmful medical conditions but we are also paying an arm and a leg for it as well. Before detoxing our home we spent several thousands of dollars a year on laundry detergents and fabric softeners for our family of ten. In an effort to save money and detox our home we created a laundry soap that is safe and free from toxic chemicals that can cause irreparable damage to your body. Our Clean Mee laundry soap comes in unscented as well as scented options using only pure essential oils. Want to whiten your clothes? We use Extreme Clean, pure sodium peroxide with no fillers or added ingredients and best of all it does not react to any of our ingredients in our laundry soap.
Last but not least, throw away the fabric softeners! In place of your fabric softener add white distilled vinegar to your washing machine. It will not only remove ALL soap residues from your clothes but will also extend the life of your washing machine by cleaning the hoses and eliminating soap from clogging the machine. Still want your laundry to have a scent? Simply take a dry wash cloth and add a few drops of essential oils to it or add the oils directly onto the wet clothes before closing the door to the dryer. (Our favorite is lavender or sage.) Throw the wash cloth into the dryer with your clothes and turn it on. Your clothes will be clean, smell good, and be non-toxic and best of all save you tons of money!
Visit www.bestpinksalt.com to order your non-toxic laundry products.