Ever So Tweetly

    follow me on Twitter

    Saturday, January 26, 2008

    Fear Factor: A Free "Healthy" E-Book Review

    The Clorox Website has a free download on their site that I think we can all use, especially moms of younger children. From Heidi Murkoff, the writer of "What to Expect When You're Expecting", comes a new guide for keeping your family safe and healthy.

    I'll vote it a good little book, if a bit repetitive; 'Wash stuff' & 'wipe things down' being an ongoing theme. I would, however, change a few things.

    Now, I'd toss all the bits that say to use bleach, as I'm not only against harsh chemicals that can ruin the environment, eats trough your flesh, can cause severe illness, respiratory irritation, and have been linked to severe depression, {reference}, but I'm also not for using or promoting a chemical in my home that was used to kill soldiers. I wouldn't use a product containing mustard gas in my house either, even if it turned every inanimate object it touched to platinum and diamonds. Some risks just aren't worth taking.

    What to use instead? Hydrogen Peroxide. All natural, non-toxic, used as a germ-killing compound for hospitals. Heck, your body's white blood cells create the stuff to use against attacking bacteria, viruses, and even cancer. Wow, a disinfectant and antibacterial agent that is made in our own bodies to protect us? That's definitely good enough for my counter tops and toilet! *smile*

    I would also toss anything mentioning antibacterial anything. Most stuff that says "antibacterial" or "germicidal" includes Triclosan/Rgasan/Microban/Biofresh (all the same thing under different names), a pesticide that acts like an antibiotic, stays on your skin, and has been linked to cancer in more ways than one. It has also been found to cause, mouth ulcers, gum damage, and mutations in bacteria, amongst other things {reference}, {reference}. Why would you want to risk your family's health and society at large by contributing to creating a super-germ? I'm not a big fan of deadly pandemics, and I'm pretty sure you aren't either.

    Want an antibacterial wipe? Buy a tub of diaper wipes and dump about 2 cups of pure grain alcohol (Everclear) in the container. Squish it a few times to saturate all of the wipes, and you not only have a handy, non-toxic wipe that kills germs, you also have a neat thing to take camping and wipe down with after a day in the woods to prevent the weeping itchypox (poison ivy/sumac, whatever).

    Don't like alcohol around the kids? Buy some super-strength, food grade, hydrogen peroxide at the health food store instead. Remove all the wipes from their container and, keeping them together in their neat stack, twist and squeeze all the "juice" out of them into a cup. Add about 1/4 cup of the concentrated peroxide and mix well. Toss the wipes back into the container and lift up the wipes about 3/4 down to pour a bit of the new mix onto them. Lift & pour again at the center, and again at the 3/4 mark. Dump the remaining liquid onto the top of the wipes and push them down and let rise a few times to fully saturate.

    She also mentions washing things in hot water. Sure, that's all fine and good for wasting energy, but simply adding a double dose of "Oxy Clean" type powder to the wash will kill the germs without running up your electric bill. Can you guess what that powder is when it hits water? Yep, Hydrogen Peroxide! *grin*

    A tip to go with one of hers: Before you pop that sponge into the microwave to kill the germs, make sure it is good and wet (might want to put it in a bowl first too, to contain drippy wetness while it's in there). If it's not really wet, like dripping, you may end up with a case of sponge flambe' on your hands before the 30 seconds are up.

    Other than that, it's a fabulous little book.

    5 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    I use hydrogen peroxide after I brush my teeth, I rebrush with it.

    Unknown said...

    Hey, I popped over (From witchypoo's site, I think) and I love your blog. I need to read back and catch up, but I like this post... especially the part at the end about vaccines. Have you done other posts about vaccines? I'd love to hear any thoughts you have about them.

    Anonymous said...

    Hydrogen peroxide is my new best friend. I've used it not only for cleaning the bathroom, but for cleaning my ears during this nasty sinus infection I've been suffering. I agree, bleach is toxic. Unfortunately my husband still uses it to wash our whites.

    Kim said...

    The info about Hydrogen Peroxide was interesting. I wonder if I can use it to mop my tile floors instead of bleach?

    TheyDHD said...

    Psychicgeek, Have you been noticing your teeth are whiter since you started this? Do you use food grade HP?

    Hyphen Mama, Welcome here and thanks for visiting. I don't think I've done a lot of posts about vaccines, but I do have strong feelings about them, for many reasons. Mayhaps I'll do a post about that Gardasil garbage they're trying to push on people sometime.

    Dana J. Tuszke, Thanks for visiting. It may take a bit of convincing, but I bet you can get your hubby to switch over! *grin* Good luck.

    Kim, absolutely you can use it to mop your floors instead of bleach! Thing is, in the right strengths using a regular mop, the gallon or so most people would use would cost too much IMO. Suggestion: get a clorox wet mop, open up the bottle it comes with, rinse it out really well, refill it with HP, snd reload into the mop, then use it to go over the floor once for sanitization after you are done getting the mess up with your regular, preferred method. Bonus: you can use heavy-duty paper towels instead of the expensive replacement pads and save money. *grin*