3 Toxic Household Cleaning Supplies and Their Alternatives

Concrete

3 Toxic Household Cleaning Supplies and Their Alternatives

master8 years ago05 mins

Many of the classic household cleaning supplies that were used by our parents and their parents before them are fairly toxic. These days we’re more aware of the hazards, but not always sure of how to avoid them. These are some of the problem cleaning supplies and how you can replace them. It’s often surprisingly simple.
1. Bleach
Bleach is certainly powerful as a cleaner, and there are times when you have little other choice for getting rid of mildew. But for routine cleaning it’s really more power than you need.
Bleach is an irritant. If you’ve used it, you know this already. The fumes are uncomfortable to breathe. They aren’t good for you or for your children. On top of that, the labels even warn you about too much contact with bleach.
Replace with: Lemon juice. For many purposes, lemon juice does a very good job. Natural sunlight is also great at bleaching out certain stains. They aren’t as strong, but for most purposes they’re quite good enough.
2. Ammonia
Ammonia is often used in glass cleaners as well as other surface cleaners. Just as with bleach, the fumes are rather unpleasant, and if you read the label you can see that it’s hazardous.
Replace with: Vinegar. It’s not the most appealing of smells, but the scent dissipates as it dries, and it does a fair job of taking other scents with it. Vinegar works great on glass and other hard surfaces, and can be combined with baking soda for many cleaning chores.
3. Air Fresheners
You may love the way air fresheners smell, but their ingredient list may be enough to drive you out of the house. They may contain chemicals such as 1,4 dichlorobenzene, types of factory machines formaldehyde, naphthalene and other VOCs that can cause respiratory effects. These can be a problem if anyone in the house has asthma or other breathing issues.
Beyond that, they don’t usually actually freshen air. They often deaden cell therapy process development your ability to smell or simply cover up one smell with another.
Replace with: Open windows are ideal, weather permitting. If not, boil some favorite herbs or some apple peels on the stove, or spray vinegar in the air. Any of these will help with household odors.
Since many products don’t list ingredients, your best bet is to avoid cleaning products that say “Caution.” “Danger” or “Warning” on them. These will have some sort of hazardous chemical you should try to keep out of your house as much as possible.
Products with specific environmental benefits listed are better than ones claiming to be green with no claimed benefits at all. If it says biodegradable, does it say how soon? Are there no phosphates in it? If there’s a clear statement of the benefit, there’s more likely to be something to it. “Natural” and “eco-friendly” don’t mean a thing on their own.…

Foundation

Using Gas Detection Equipment As Your Lookout Against Toxic Gases

master8 years ago05 mins

Most people disregard the importance of gas detection devices because they think they can rely on their senses all the time to tell whether there is a leakage of toxic gas in the vicinity. But the compelling thing is that the olfactory sensory faculty of humans is too limited so as to serve this good purpose. For instance, there are a considerable number of gases that are odorless. These gases can invade surrounding air without you knowing it, and the horrifying truth is that they may cause respiratory arrest and death.
Gases are essential part of nature and it is through their presence that life has become possible on earth. But there are instances when certain kinds of gas are not just wanted. Different types of gases have different victor welding supply properties. We are talking about density, molecular weight, fluidity, viscosity, specific gravity, etc. It is due to these differences that distinguishing of one gas from another has become possible.
In many instances, the presence of specific kinds of gases poses risks. Chlorine is an irritant and highly reactive dense gas. Hydrogen is an extremely combustible gaseous matter (note that it combines with oxygen in an exothermic chemical process releasing water as a by-product). Another highly flammable gaseous substance is methane which is commonly found in many appliances at home. Carbon monoxide, though does not cause fire accidents, is extremely toxic and deadly. It so happens that air always contains these gases. But the fact that you are breathing all right now means that the concentrations of these gases where you are in right now are rather negligible. Any potentially toxic gas that invades the ambient air to an intolerable level poses real hazard. And because these unfortunate events happen anywhere – in the office, at home, in a laboratory facility – the installation of gas detection equipment is simply imperative.
The most common gases that may leak inside homes are carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and methane. These gases actually come from different sources such as air conditioning units or heating systems or gas stoves. Hence, it is necessary that home appliances be checked regularly for ceco valves defects and leakages. At the same time, installation of gas monitoring device inside your rooms, especially in areas where sources of toxic gas are present, is just proper. This must be done as a precautionary measure, as we would like to avoid the unthinkable as much as possible.
It is not enough to simply have smoke detectors because they do not indicate the presence of most toxic gases. However, there are smoke detectors that can detect CO in the indoor air. The worst thing about CO is that it is a silent killing gas because it cannot be detected by the human senses, for it is without odor and color. It is an extremely poisonous gas that causes asphyxia and death within minutes.
We are not only after toxic gases because there is a different class of gases which pose another …