The outbreak of the pandemic has made cleaning an obsession: we have to sterilize the whole house, and even ourselves, several times a day. Let’s be clear: living in a clean and hygienic environment is pleasant, as well as healthy. But the situation is in danger of getting out of hand. To get rid of dirt and bacteria, we unleash an arsenal of bleaches, detergents, disinfectants and soaps that contain very aggressive chemical agents, harmful to us and the environment.
Let’s start with the damage to health. Numerous studies show that repeated exposure to agents contained in detergents is harmful to the body and weakens the immune system. In particular, the health of children is at risk: according to data from the Poison Center of the Milanese hospital Niguarda in the months of March and April 2020, in full emergency, domestic intoxications increased by 65%, with a peak of 135% among children.
Then there is the environment. Water, and all the organisms that live in it, are in grave danger due to petroleum derivatives, surfactants (SLS and SLES on the labels). According to research in the journal Nature, detergents can pollute as much as a car. These are products that we should use wisely, certainly not every day. Altroconsumo, on the other hand, says that every Italian house has 10 to 20 cleaning products: are they really necessary?
The turnover is enormous. Istat data for 2019 show a monthly expenditure of almost 20 euros per family for cleaning and home maintenance products. Expenditure increased dramatically in 2020: Assocasa’s data recorded a strong increase in the sale of disinfectant products (+ 100%) and bleaches (+ 53%) compared to 2019. And for those who buy green products, pay attention to marketing. Whoever wants to use environmentally friendly products must look at the composition and not at the advertising message, which is often deceptive.
How then to keep a clean environment? First, let’s prevent. We air the house, preferably in the morning. When we get home, let’s take off our shoes and change our clothes. We try to keep it tidy to avoid accumulation of hidden dust. Finally, natural products are fine for everyday cleaning, from which we can obtain truly green detergents. Marseille soap combined with water and bicarbonate is good for floors; lemon, salt and vinegar clean dishes, oven, surfaces; coarse salt, baking soda and vinegar are used to free the pipes… There is plenty of fun! The savings, economic and health, are guaranteed.
How to do:
1. Preventing dirt is better than fighting it: when we enter the house we change shoes and clothes
2. Let’s indulge in natural products: baking soda, salt, vinegar and lemon are our allies in domestic cleaning
3. Less is more: we buy few detergents, multipurpose and green
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