After cleaning houses for over 20 years, I really wish I knew what I know now when my mom and I first started working using such awful cleaning products, that were doing such awful things to our bodies. A new, independent, 20-year research study reveals a sobering fact: cleaning your home with common, well-known grocery store products made with ammonia, chlorine bleach, and other dangerous chemicals significantly damages lung tissue in women. In fact, the study showed that cleaning with such products as little as once per week over time was as damaging to respiratory health as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years! Yes my mom was a smoker for most of her life, before she finally decided she should quit this past November.
By now, just about everyone knows the dangers of smoking cigarettes. Among their many hazards include depleted lung capacity—the result of damage to the tender internal tissues of the respiratory system. Lung capacity is important because it is a marker of overall health and fitness. The body depends on the lungs’ life-giving ability to oxygenate blood and expel carbon dioxide—the waste product of metabolism.
Decreased lung capacity can lead to obvious declines in fitness, but since the body is so dependent on oxygen exchange, whole systems of the body can be compromised when the lungs become even partially debilitated.
Shockingly, the ECRHS III study concluded that women who used home cleaning products at least once per week saw the same reduction in lung capacity as those who smoked a pack a day over the same period. According to the authors, “Women cleaning at home or working as occupational cleaners had accelerated decline in lung function, suggesting that exposures related to cleaning activities may constitute a risk to long-term respiratory health.”
Study researchers originally suspected that products delivered through a spray or mist would prove more dangerous than those applied as a liquid, gel, or wipe. Surprisingly, the study found no significant difference between cleaner delivery types. The implication is that the chemicals in liquid cleaners become just as available for inhalation through evaporation as those used in sprays. In their conclusions, the researchers stated, “one could hypothesize that long-term exposure to airway irritants such as ammonia and bleach used when cleaning at home could cause fibrotic or other interstitial changes in the lung tissue, thereby leading to accelerated decline of FVC (forced vital capacity).”
When chemical agents like ammonia, chlorine bleach, quaternary disinfectants, and other dangerous compounds are regularly inhaled into the sensitive tissues of the lungs, it makes sense that the long-term consequence would be serious respiratory problems. “It is biologically plausible,” the researchers wrote, “that exposure to cleaning chemicals could result in accelerated lung function decline and chronic airway obstruction; low-grade inflammation over many years could possibly lead to persistent damage to the airways, alternatively, persistent damage could result from continued exposure after onset of cleaning-related asthma.” They added that it is already well documented that, “airway irritants such as ammonia and bleach” cause “fibrotic” changes to the delicate lung tissue, essentially scarring the lungs.
Simply stated, regular exposure to the toxins within the home never allow the respiratory system an opportunity to heal, creating a condition where internal damage accumulates. Dr. Cecile Svanes, a professor at the University of Bergen and senior author of the study said, “We feared that such chemicals, by steadily causing a little damage to the airways day after day, year after year, might accelerate the rate of lung function decline that occurs with age.”
What the Study Means for You
For most women who try to keep a clean, safe home, the results of the ECRHS III study is an imperative call to action.
If you haven’t already, rid your home of the cleaning products that contain ammonia, quaternary disinfectants, chlorine bleach, and other dangerous chemicals! What kind of products use such ingredients? Most all home cleaning products including disinfectants, bathroom cleaners, toilet cleaners, shower and tub cleaners, scrubs, stain removers, floor cleaners, degreasers, window and glass cleaners, and surface cleaners.
Though the research results have gained some immediate public interest online and in the general news media, it is up to you to not only take care of your own home, but to warn friends, family, and neighbors of the very real consequences of using these conventional home cleaning products.
Please let me tell you our current situation... My mom has been in three different hospitals in two and half months, in the ICU. She has been diagnosed with emphysema and severe lung disease. A collapsed lung, pneumonia and Flu A and Flu B... She has to be on a ventilator, and chest tubes to drain the mucus and crap that is filling up her lung. They had to give her a tracheotomy and a feeding tube. Shes severely anemic and malnutrition. I can go on... All of this caused from not only her smoking, but all of the sh*tty cleaners we were using over all of those years! Right before she ended up in the hospital I found this company that only sells products for your home that are safe. No chemicals that kill you. They are so safe, they don't even require safety caps. If your children get a hold of them, you do not need to worry. My mom has a really long road ahead of her, she is only 56 years old. She has two awesome grandchildren that love her so much and need someone like her in their lives. Please think about the products you are currently using in your home. Is it worth saving a few bucks to continue using them? I know for me its not...
Only Melaleuca Offers a Solution
For more than three decades, Melaleuca scientists have formulated cleaning products that perform the household chores required of them without reliance on the cheap, available, and now documented-as-dangerous chemicals cited in the ECRHS III study. Our EcoSense line has taken a firm stance on ingredients like ammonia, quaternary disinfectants, chlorine bleach, and other dangerous chemicals. We don’t use them! We never have and never will!
This is why our cleaning products are so safe, no child safety caps are required.
What’s more, EcoSense products are proven to perform. They clean as well or better than the competitive products that use dangerous ingredients. They provide a clean that is far greater than water alone could ever provide. And their advanced formulas clean better than other supposed “green” products by measurable margins. There is a reason Melaleuca has been the leader in safer-for-your-home cleaners for more than a generation.
I have been a member with Melaleuca since October and I can not be happier with everything Ive use so far. The fact that I know my home is safer just because I switched where I am buying my products makes me feel more at ease. They offer yearly memberships for just $1/ year. but I gladly paid $19 for the year. They yearly membership is refundable up to four months after signing up and I can cancel my membership at any time without penalty. Everything I buy has a 90 day, empty bottle money back guarantee. Which for me says allot about how confident they are in their products. Plus they offer a program called Learn to Earn, where I can watch short videos to earn loyalty dollars, $100 to spend towards anything I want in their store. They only requirements for the membership is to spend a minimum of 35 product points per month. (Product points are assigned to every product depending on their worth, its not based on price) Which is not hard for me to reach every month, because I am buying things I was already buying at Walmart anyway. Laundry soap, cleaners, bath and body needs, snacks, vitamins, even essential oils.
If you want to see if you are currently purchasing products that you can be buying from Melaleuca, go here and qualify for up to a 50% discount.
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