Here are a few lovely substances one might find in an oven cleaner:

Naphthalene
A white crystalline compound derived from coal tar or petroleum and used in manufacturing dyes, moth repellents, and explosives and as a solvent. Also called tar camphor

Petroleum Distillates
A thick, flammable, yellow-to-black mixture of gaseous, liquid, and solid hydrocarbons that occurs naturally beneath the earth’s surface, can be separated into fractions including natural gas, gasoline, naphtha, kerosene, fuel and lubricating oils, paraffin wax, and asphalt and is used as raw material for a wide variety of derivative products.

Butylcelosolve
Any of four flammable alcohols derived from butanes and used in organic synthesis and as solvents.

Carcinogens -
Substances that increase the risk of neoplasms in humans or animals. Both genotoxic chemicals, which affect DNA directly, and nongenotoxic chemicals, which induce neoplasms by other mechanism, are included.

Ammonia -
A colorless, pungent gas extensively used to manufacture fertilizers and a wide variety of nitrogen-containing organic and inorganic chemicals.

Chlorine -
A highly irritating, greenish-yellow gaseous halogen, capable of combining with nearly all other elements, produced principally by electrolysis of sodium chloride and used widely to purify water, as a disinfectant and bleaching agent, and in the manufacture of many important compounds including chloroform and carbon tetrachloride.

Hydrochloric Acid -
A clear, colorless, fuming, poisonous, highly acidic aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride, HCl, used as a chemical intermediate and in petroleum production, ore reduction, food processing, pickling, and metal cleaning. It is found in the stomach in dilute form.

Organochlorine -
Any of various hydrocarbon pesticides, such as DDT, that contain chlorine.

the above definitions sourced from what’s under YOUR Sink?

What if you could clean off burnt on food in your oven without losing nose hairs in the process?

Allow me to share a green clean nugget, a moment of greenness – just you, me and that darn oven.

Consider trying a green clean scouring paste that smells a little like something between bubble gum and cherry Kool-Aid.

Gentle in that it won’t scratch, but mighty in that it works really well !!

It’s NON-TOXIC and bio-degradable too!

Certainly not something one thinks of as an oven cleaner.

How many folks do you know who believe it needs to be really nasty chemical to get the job done?

Try again.  Pick your very toughest stain or oven and let this alternative scouring paste and a little elbow grease take it on!!

circa 1967self-cleaning flickr image

P.S. there is always a reader who has this oven.  love it

Vinegar left my home smelling a lot like a salad, I happen to like the smell of a salad, but not as a part of my  everyday decor.  I always thought to myself – there has to be a better way.  As I experimented with cleaning products on the market, I found myself still applying way too much determination to my green cleaning efforts, seemingly these products just didn’t work very well either.

When I discovered my organic cleaner, the signature product from a wonderful very established  wellness company. I felt I had finally found something that cleaned beautifully! As a matter of fact it simplified my cleaning tasks dramatically with its ease of use. I was astounded by the mutiple ways this product could be used actually defining multi-use to a new level.

An online discussion thread shared by Sue was very interesting. Sue’s biochemist husband verified the difference between vinegar and this amazing product. Thanks Sue.

Vinegar is a dilute solution of acetic acid, added to water it’s main effect is to lower the pH of water and make it more acid.  As a cleaner, it is not particularly effective except that it dissolves soil, which by the way so does water, and /or makes the pH low enough to distress bacteria on surfaces.

The product I adore is a surfactant. It performs like a detergent to break up soil of various kinds so that they can be washed away.  In addition, because of it’s surfactant properties it will dislodge bacteria trapped in residue on surfaces so they can be washed away.  Also it disrupts the cell wall of bacteria ( which contains lipids ) and makes them very sick or dead.  While we are not clear how it might do on virus’s, it’s fair to say that as effectively as it removes residue from surfaces it stands to say that more virus’s would be washed away than with a less effective cleaner

Our product does everything vinegar does plus WAY  more.  Without the smell of a salad!

Regulations limit us to say that this product is a germicide, this is also true of vinegar, it is utter folklore that make people believe that vinegar is an effective cleaner/germ killer.  In fact, plain old soap will disrupt the germs of any surface.

A reminder of the advertising ploy of anti-bacterial products on the market. Don’t go there.

Note also that all green cleaners are not created equal.

As a matter of fact some are down right harmful.

green beads of clean flickr image credit

How do you celebrate Earth Day?
If you’re not cleaning green – what’s stopping you?

The Topic is Cancer.

I don’t have a personal history with Cancer.  I know it’s in my family at the cousin or relative level but because my family is what it is, I have had no contact with those experiences.

We all have heard that cancer is within us all.  I think about that all the time. Do you?

I  haven’t lost a dear friend to cancer, or a child or a parent.  Yet I have watched, heard, cried and have kept many in my thoughts as they bravely survive

In my work I find once a client is in the machinery of the “c” word, the medical perspective that is – they have little room for alternative solutions.  They are scared out of their minds.  I respect this.  Cancer isn’t something one takes lightly.  Those who have a belief in the value of  high quality nutritional supplements do come to me and we work together to detox their body carefully from all the poisons of chemo and radiation.   We then start slowly rebuilding immunity by offering quality nutrition.

Years and years ago, as a young mom  I remember hearing the word carcinogenic.  I had never heard of that before. The definition of carcinogenic is any substance or agent that tends to produce a cancer.   In my everyday world there were carcinogenic ingredients in just about everything!!  I was shocked and horrified.  Still am.  This is when I began to personally step into a path of choice.  I tried very hard to choose alternative meats, eggs, dairy, cleaning products, personal care and more.

What bothers me the most is why we HAVE to choose.    WHY are products produced that have carcinogenic substances in them in the first place?    This just boggles my mind.

I wish that the billions of dollars raised to support research for a cure for cancer would instead be funelled to the cause.  In my mind the cause of cancer is what we eat, breathe, and put on our bodies.  It’s what we fill our homes with. What if we started over and manufactured clean products?  What if all carcinogenic substances were simply no longer allowed?

We all know that the plastic shopping bags are a  major contribution to pollution.  Stop making them.  Period.  Life still happened before the age of the plastic bag.  We could figure it out.   What if fast food, the single largest contributor to obesity today was outlawed?  A rather out there thought I know.  Is fast food convenient ? Is our life fast paced ?  What if we paused in our fast lives and packed a lunch.  What if high fructose corn syrup was banned?  Like gone.   As a matter of fact HFCS is at the root of such horrific illness if we stopped making it imagine the possibilities?

Are my ideas that off the wall?  Or could it be that simple?

I could go on and on and it would just be my very own personal rant and opinion.

I don’t really know if our world will really look any different in my life time.

I also don’t have all the answers either.

I do know that if you are searching,  just like I was  twenty years ago — it’s all about choices

Where to start?

One place to start is to stitch to less toxic cleaning products.

Check out this helpful  link for household toxic chemical facts and statistics

flickr image credit