It’s Not an Excuse Anymore — Cleaning Toilets CAN be Hazardous to Your Health
Posted January 31st 2010 and has 1 Comment »
You already know that many cleaning chemicals are toxic, but you may not have realized that common everyday cleaning products can kill.
Case in point: June ‘02 a part-time caretaker of a school in Toronto begins having trouble breathing. An alert co-worker rushes her to the hospital, but her breathing becomes more labored until the point where she becomes unable to breath and falls unconscious. The doctors at the hospital are unable to revive her and she is pronounced dead that same day at the hospital.
The culprit?
She was cleaning one of the schools toilets with bleach and toilet bowl cleaner. Problem was she didn’t’ understand that when the acid in the toilet bowl cleaner is combined with sodium hypochlorite (bleach), it creates a chemical reaction creating the deadly chlorine gas.
It’s an extreme example, but important to point out that you should not ever treat chemicals casually. Specifically you do not ever want to combine bowl cleaner with bleach. If you have these products in your home you should never use them together!
The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) reports toxic chemicals in our home cleaning and personal care products are 3 times more likely to cause cancer than outside pollutants. They also warns toxic chemicals in household cleaners cause women working at home to have a 55% HIGHER cancer risk than women working outside the home. To help prevent this you should always use non-toxic cleaning products.
Have you ever had a problem with cleaning chemicals? Please share in the comments so everyone can be aware and do a better job of protecting themselves and their loved ones.
