We Are Poisoning Ourselves

I was flipping through TV channels yesterday and came across a channel that I think was called "Treehugger TV." I have never watched that channel before and really did not even know that it existed. The program that caught my attention featured short stories about different things that are affecting our lives and the environment. The story that I watched from start to finish followed the founders of Seventh Generation.

Seventh Generation is a company that "is committed to becoming the world's most trusted brand of authentic, safe, and environmentally-responsible products for a healthy home." In other words, they make products that are environmentally friendly. They are most known for the cleaning products they make, but they also make diapers, napkins, tissue and feminine care products that are all natural.

The TV show followed the founders for a day. One of them was carrying around a meter that measures the amount of volatile organic chemicals in the air. He measured the level outside as they were driving to their first stop. I don't remember the exact level, but outside was higher than in the car. They next went into a dog groomer and the levels of VOCs inside were higher than outside. They then went to a dry cleaner and the level inside that business was off the charts. The owner was so surprised that he invited them to his house to measure the level there. Before going there they stopped off at a nail salon and the levels there were also very high. The reading really spiked when they opened a bottle of nail polish.

At the dry cleaner owners house the levels were much lower than anywhere else they had been, except for the car. They then decided to use some of the household cleaners he had on hand. The sprayed one of the cleaning products on the kitchen counter and the reading spiked very high. It also took it a while to drop back down to the normal reading. They then sprayed some of their Seventh Generation cleaning product on the counter and the reading did not move at all.

This show was very informative. I did not realize how much more harmful our indoor environments were than our outdoor environments are. Outdoor pollution does not seem to be the thing we should be worrying about the most. We are all indoors much more than we are outside nowadays, so we should really be concerned with the cleaners and other products that we use in our homes and businesses.

Common sense tells me that we have a sense of smell so that we can tell the difference between things that are dangerous to us and things that are good for us. It is a primal sense that helps us lead a safe life. We know that we are attracted to the smell of foods because we must eat to survive. We find certain types of smells bad because something about them is harmful to us. Most of the cleaning products we use now have some sort of lemon or other pleasant scent added to them to mask their real smell. This is very deceiving. Most of these products would have a horrible smell if they were not masked by the lemon scent. That tells me that the chemicals in the product are dangerous and should not be used indoors.

I would love to switch to products like those made by Seventh Generation. I just need to convince The Queen that they work as well as the traditional cleaners. I have my work cut out for me.