Chemical Cleaners and Children's Health

Pound for pound of body weight, they breathe and eat more than we do.

Their still developing immune systems might mistakenly treat the toxins in chemical cleaners as naturally occurring enzymes or hormones. And because children are growing and developing so fast, dangerous cell mutations can multiply at a faster rate.

Children are also less capable of detoxifying and excreting chemicals than adults.

Their blood-brain barrier is still porous and allows more chemicals to reach their brains.

Environmental Toxins most harmful to children:

Toxic Cleaning Products

PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) Lead

Air pollutants such as dioxins, VOCs, asbestos

Environmental or tobacco smoke

Pesticides sprayed in the home and on the lawn

Pesticides used in lice shampoos

Pesticides in food and water

Drinking water contaminants

Industrial emissions

Researchers have linked environmental exposures, like chemical cleaners, to a jaw-dropping number of health problems:

Learning disabilities,

Hyperactivity,

Headaches,

Asthma,

Allergies,

Obesity,

Diabetes,

Autism,

Eye damage,

Pediatric cancer,

and even Rheumatoid arthritis.

An infants skin does not develop a barrier to toxins for 2-3 years. Everything also ends up in their mouths.

There is an epidemic rise in the rate of childhood allergies: · seasonal allergies,

· food allergies,

· skin rashes,

· Asthma and other respiratory problems

· The constant exposure to multiple substances in our environment over-stimulates our immune systems.

· That strong immune system of our ancestors have become maladaptive because we are exposed to high concentrations of allergens that were never there before.

· As a result of the overexposure to multiple environmental toxins, our immune systems have become hyperactive even to non-toxins.

· Everyday more chemicals, especially from chemical cleaners, are being introduced into our environment, and we have no real understanding of how they are affecting us.

· The combination of different toxins is far more toxic than one in isolation. So if you consider a child that’s being exposed to mercury, cadmium, PCBs, phthalates, each of those might be in a safe range on its own, or well below the safe level, but all together you can get really acute toxicity.

Learn about Chemical Cleaners that affect Children's Health.

My husband’s Grandfather ingested some pine sol that was stored in a different bottle than supplied by the manufacturer and as a result he mistook the chemicals for a soft drink and took a gulp of it. Luckily there was no acute poisoning but it goes to show that household chemicals need to be stored and labeled properly.

We have an obsession with convenience above all else – our insistence on taking shortcuts, even at our own peril. We want everything both ways all the time. Let’s take proactive measures to ensure the health of our children’s future, starting with Natural Cleaning!