Can We Trust Commercial Products?
One way people try to be more eco-minded is with household cleaners and personal care products. Without a chemistry degree and knowledge of how chemical compounds react and affect the human body, I find it difficult to know the difference between greenwashing products that throw around buzz words like "natural" and "eco", and truly non-toxic products. I am a diligent product ingredient reader, but I may not know what sodium chloride, laurel glucoside, sodium laureth sulfate, ethylene oxide and 1,4-dioxane are. They may or may not have toxic effects on humans, but I cannot trust that they are safe, or assume that they are dangerous, if they are listed in product ingredients.
In case you are wondering, sodium chloride (salt) and laurel glucoside (a surfactant from coconut oil and sugar) are fine, but ethylene oxide, sodium laureth sulfate and 1,4-dioxane, which can be found in soaps, are not fine. But I did not know this without doing some reading because I only studied chemistry until grade ten. How many people do this before they go shopping and grab dish soap or shampoo off the shelves? I am, therefore, electing to learn how to make my own products rather than reading about each and every ingredient in the commercial ingredients I purchase.
Is the Eco Movement Uninformed About Basic Chemistry?
The pushback is coming in the form of "science defenders" who feel the need to point out chemicals are not bad, and that everything is made of chemicals. If we make our own cleaning products from vinegar, salt, or baking soda we are idiots because these too are just chemicals. Chemicals and chemical compounds are natural because they are a part of everything and naturally occurring. How silly of people to make natural cleaners that are really just chemical compounds.
I think the issue is when green-minded people speak of wanting to avoid nasty, carcinogenic or hormone disrupting compounds but speak of avoiding nebulous "chemicals". We are not trying to avoid using chemicals. We do not trust the corporate world to have our best interests in mind when they make their products. They use stabilizers to maintain the consistency of their product over time so it does not separate or degrade. They use fragrances to make their product more appealing to consumers. However, it is often these very ingredients that are toxic.
For example, sodium laureth sulfate makes products foam (surfactant), which is a quality that we like in our shampoos, toothpastes and soaps. However, sodium laureth sulfate is also a known human carcinogen. Let me repeat that, a known human carcinogen in toothpaste that we may ingest! Even sodium lauryl sulfate, which is not contaminated with impurities during the manufacturing process as is sodium laureth sulfate, but may be an irritant, is found in natural commercial toothpastes.
|Sodium lauryl sulfate in "natural" toothpaste.|
Chemicals Do Not Equal Bad
But chemicals are not bad. That is like a classic syllogism of deductive reasoning: sodium laureth sulfate is a chemical compound and a carcinogen, therefore chemicals are carcinogens. I hope that people are more intelligent than falling into the trap of chemicals equal bad.
That is why I am gradually eliminating commercially produced household products from my home. Not because they are "chemicals".
Do you make your own cleaners and personal care products?