Clean is Green

By Green Home Living's Editors Lawrence Comras and Sue Moore

Cleanliness is next to Godliness. But the Devil's in the details, or more than likely, in the cleaning products themselves. Indeed, when we use certain name brand, industrial, mainstream cleaners in our homes, we could be doing the opposite of protecting our health. Rather than warding off disease and infection, we could be inviting it. Why? Because many of the familiar, off the shelf cleaners contain a host of dangerous chemicals, and despite their popularity, they actually can make us sick. Each time we use them we risk the health of ourselves, our family, and our environment.

Many common household cleaners contain ammonia, chlorine, and formaldehyde. You do not need these chemicals to keep a clean home. In fact, you need them out of your home. They are a prime cause of health problems, not to mention atmospheric ozone loss. They can cause irritations of the skin, eyes, nose, throat, and respiratory system, as well as other forms of inflammation, and nausea and vomiting. Many are linked with neurological, liver and kidney damage, blindness, asthma, and cancer. Again, you do not need this evil triumvirate to maintain a perfectly clean home.

What you do need is this issue of Green Living Magazine. We've pulled together the latest and best information on practical, fun ways to clean green. Yes, it's true that we are inundated with an ungodly amount of toxic chemicals in our lives. But fortunately, we can achieve a Godly level of cleanliness, which is both hygienic as well as aesthetically pleasing, without using any of these hazardous household cleaners and disinfectants. We can either make our own household cleaners and disinfectants from a variety of common, less toxic household ingredients, or we can purchase less toxic versions. In addition to making our environment safer, most of these less toxic alternatives will also save us money.

We hope you enjoy - and put to good use - the articles we've included in our first issue. To us, Green is Clean. By starting at home, we can begin to get a handle on the more general issues we face trying to clean up our whole environment.