1. Earth Friendly Products position on Anti-bacterial products
2. The Issue of Biodegradability
3. The Chlorine Issue
4. Natural vs Synthetic washing/cleaning products 
5. The Problem with Stnthetic Cleaning Products

1. Our Position on Anti-bacterial Products

Over the past several years, the number of household cleaning products that tout antibacterial qualities has sky-rocketed, significantly helping many companies improve their bottom lines. At Earth Friendly Products we questioned whether such products belonged in our product line, however after careful consideration of the issues, we have chosen NOT to sell such products.

The world is teeming with bacteria. The bacteria which get all the attention are the bad, pathogenic ones. But not all bacteria cause disease; many are even beneficial for us and the environment:

• The soil is full of free-living bacteria which help with biodegradation.

• Our bodies are hosts to beneficial as well as some pathogenic bacteria (called normal flora). The “good” bacteria competes with the “bad” bacteria, thereby keeping them in check.

• Some normal flora produce essential elements (e.g. the gut flora produces vitamin K).

• Almost 10% of human body weight. Each square centimeter of skin has an average of 100,000 organisms while 50% of the content of the colon is made up of bacteria.

According to The Medical Post, the AMA’s council on scientific affairs issued a report in June,2000 after a year-long study, recommending that antimicrobials for which acquired resistance has been demonstrated in bacteria not be used in consumer products “unless data emerge to conclusively show that such resistance has no impact on public health and that such products are effective in preventing infection. The AMA House of Delegates adopted the council’s recommendations at its June, 2000 meeting.

The report focused on ingredients called the anilides (e.g. triclocarban), the bis-phenols (e.g. triclosan), the quaternary ammonium compounds (e.g. cetylpyridium chloride) and the bigualides (e.g. chlorhexidine). These ingredients are commonly used in topical over-the-counter antimicrobial consumer products such as soaps and lotions.

“Published reports on acquired resistance to these antimicrobial agents, coupled with their increased use in consumer products, suggest a change may be occurring in the microbial flora of the home, specifically through the selection of resistant organisms,” the report said. “Additionally, the possibility that the selection of organisms resistant to antimicrobials such as triclosan and chlorhexidine also may predispose these organisms to resistance against therapeutic antibiotics is troubling.”

According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), one of the manageable causes of antimicrobial resistance is “overuse and misuse of antimicrobial agents in humans, food animals, agriculture and consumer products.”

Use of antibacterial products is problematic because:

• Improper use of the products (e.g. not washing long enough) is not eliminating the bacteria; instead, the surviving bacteria are strong and will mutate to avoid the antibacterial ingredient, creating super-bacteria (super-germs) that are antibiotic resistant. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has strongly recommended that use of anti-bacterial cleaning solutions be discontinued because bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics.

• While most of the resistant bacteria do not cause harm to us, their resistance traits are often transferable to other, harmful bacteria with which they come into contact. The reservoirs of resistant genes in our environment increase with each use of antibiotics.

• We are eliminating good bacteria, too. Bacterial-based septic systems are negatively impacted. When these antibiotics are released into the waste stream, they are also causing problems in the environment where good bacteria carry out a myriad of functions, including biodegradation.

• The antibacterial ingredient in soaps causes significant skin irritation.

• The antibacterial ingredient has no effect on viruses, and may actually help them grow/multiply by reducing bacterial competition.

• The antimicrobial agent triclosan is a strong inhibitor of an enzyme present in many microorganisms. “This enzyme is also potentially important as a target for new antibiotics, raising concerns that the use of triclosan may make these drugs ineffective,” according to Dr. Joseph Mercola, D.O.

• A recent study in Italy found that exposure to bacteria is essential for development of an infant’s immune system. Dr. Stuart Levy, a microbiologist at Tufts University, states that a baby must be exposed to germs during its first year in order to develop antibodies needed to fight infection later in life.”

According to Dr. Eli N. Perencevich of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, “research has shown that the actual action of washing is the most important thing when it comes to removing bacteria from the hands, and there is no scientific evidence that adding compounds like triclosan to household soaps prevents infections.”

Sources:

The Antibiotic Paradox: How Miracle Drugs Are Destroying the Miracle:

Stuart B. Levy, M.D. Harper Collins Corporation: New York, New York. 1992

The issue of biodegradability is of utmost importance when considering a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. The delicate balance of interactions among all of earth's organisms must be maintained for the earth to remain inhabitable. Biodegradation is a critical element of these interactions. Yet, our society has developed lifestyles and industrial processes that disrupt and/or circumvent this balance, threatening the ecosystems.

To be biodegradable, a compound, chemical or product must be capable of being decomposed (degraded or transformed) into simpler components by enzymes, bacteria, other living organisms (flora or fauna) or the elements (earth, sun, water and air). Biodegradability connotes being used as a nutrient source by some organism (especially soil or water microflora) within the ecosphere.

Biodegradability is measured as follows:

a. Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD): The amount of dissolved oxygen consumed by biological processes breaking down organic matter.

b. Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD): Measure of the total amount of oxygen required to oxidize a substance.

c. If the BOD is similar to, or a significant percentage of the COD (typically 60% or more within 28 days), then it can be stated that the substance is used efficiently as a fuel source by the relevant organism and is biodegradable according to a strict definition.

Biological decomposition/degradation of organic material can also be measured in stages:

a. Primary: the main characteristic(s) of a substance, or original action, no longer exists (e.g. soap has lost its cleaning ability) after being broken down by microorganisms.

b. Intermediate: chemical degradation has begun and intermediate chemicals are formed in the process.

c. Complete: complete chemical degradation where the product is further broken down into simple elements (e.g. sodium, potassium, etc.)

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) measures ready biodegradability. Their standard is that a detergent must have undergone 80% primary degradation within 19 days. This test is conducted in a laboratory with a water purification installation, with sufficient oxygen, at 20&Mac176;C and no contact with other substances. It should be noted that this test may not reflect actual biodegradability in the natural environment under real conditions due to temperature variations, oxygen content variations and additional substances that might cause different interactions with the product. However, it is a standardized measure used to compare the environmental impact of one product against another.

Earth Friendly Products meet or exceed the OECD and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommendations for ready biodegradability.

Chlorine is a toxic yellow-green gas that is one of today's most heavily used chemical agents because of its corrosive nature. It rarely occurs in nature and is manufactured by passing an electrical current through salt water or melted salt. The current splits the salt molecules apart and creates chlorine.

Chlorine is used as an ingredient in household cleaners and in the process of making and bleaching paper. It is also found in scouring powders, laundry bleach, dishwasher detergent and basin/tub/tile cleaners.

Chlorine is listed as a hazardous air pollutant in the 1990 Clean Air Act, and is on the EPA's Community Right-to-Know list. It is the chemical most frequently involved in household poisonings in the United States and in industrial injuries/deaths.

Aside from the danger of irritating/damaging your lungs by breathing in the fumes of cleaners containing chlorine, it can also damage the skin, eyes and other membranes. People with heart conditions or chronic respiratory problems (asthma, emphysema) are particularly at risk.

Chlorine also reacts readily with organic substances in the environment to create other hazardous compounds, such as:

• Furans,

• Trihalomethanes/chloroform,

• Organochlorines/dioxins

Studies have shown a direct link between dioxin exposure and human cancer, reproductive disorders among adults, deformities and developmental problems in children and immune system breakdowns. Other studies have found that chlorine is an endocrine toxicant, gastrointestinal/liver toxicant, kidney toxicant, and neurotoxin.

All washing and cleaning agents are made up of the following four basic components:

1. Wash-active substances (anionic, non-ionic or cationic surface-active substances, surfactants, solvents, detergents or tensides). These substances:

a. Reduce the surface tension between the water and the fabrics so that the water can penetrate the fabric better.

b. Remove fat or dirt that is dissolved in fat, and then dissolve it in water.

c. Keep the dirt in solution, so that it will not be re-deposited on the fabric.

Synthetic wash-active substances, however, negatively impact water-dwelling organisms. These substances do not biodegrade quickly and produce intermediate toxic compounds during the degradation process.

Natural cleaning agents, vegetable- or sugar-based, are non-toxic, and degrade quickly and completely without generating intermediate toxic compounds.

2. Water softeners/builders:

a. Add calcium-binding ingredients to the cleaning/washing

agent because calcium-rich (hard) water can upset the

washing process, requires greater concentrations of wash-

active substances and damages washing machine components.

b. Attach themselves to the calcium and remove it from the

process.

Phosphates are the most common and problematic of the water

softeners, causing eutrophication. Although many synthetic washing/cleaning agents do not contain phosphates, the phosphate-substitutes they use are toxic. Natural cleaning/washing agents do not contain phosphates, nor do they contain toxic substitutes.

3. Bleaches:

a. Counteract the yellowing/graying that occurs when washing whites.

b. Remove colored stains (e.g. coffee, tea, wine, grass).

The most commonly used bleaches in synthetic cleaning/washing agents are chlorine bleach and perborates:

• Perborates release boron into the water environment, which, in excess, is damaging to aquatic plants. In addition, perborate’s mild antiseptic properties may be damaging to water purification systems. However, boron is found naturally in various compounds in the environment without causing harm, and it is generally non-toxic for humans in elemental form.

• Chlorine bleach is extremely toxic to humans and the environment. See the discussion regarding the Problems with Chlorine below for more details.

Natural cleaning/washing products do not use chlorine, and use perborate sparingly as bleaching agents. They generally use hydrogen peroxide, enzymes and other bleaches that are not harmful.

4. Additives (optical brighteners, sulfates, colorings/fragrances, bleach activators/stabilizers)

a. Optical brighteners make the wash appear whiter than it really is by means of an optical effect. Optical brighteners are transformed into a higher energy state by invisible ultraviolet light. They emit a light blue glow, and attach themselves to the fabric, thereby masking the natural yellowing effect; the fabric is seen by the human eye as being white.

Synthetic, petrochemical optical brighteners are difficult to break down, both in water purification systems and in rivers and lakes. They may cause allergic reactions in people. They also cause mutations in bacteria that inhibit biodegradability, and are toxic to aquatic life.

a. Natural, plant-based optical brighteners are biodegradable and non-toxic.

b. Sulfates are merely inexpensive filler. When released into the environment, they can make our fresh water more brackish, and can form corrosive sulfur derivatives.

Natural cleaning/washing products generally use little or no sulfates. However, sodium sulfate, which is a safe food additive, is used occasionally.

c. Colorings/dyes/fragrances are added to make products more attractive and influence purchasing behavior.

Synthetic colorings/dyes/fragrances often contain heavy metals, which are a burden on the environment.

Natural washing/cleaning products should not contain synthetic colorings/dyes/fragrances. Fragrances should be from essential oils (e.g. cedar, almond, citrus). Dyes should be natural, food grade colorings, if added at all.

d. Activators/stabilizers, usually the chemicals EDTA, NTA or TAED, are added to synthetic detergents to prevent bleach from activating below 60 degrees centigrade. EDTA, NTA and TAED are quite harmful to the environment and enter the food chain. Natural detergents usually do not contain bleach activators/stabilizers.

Natural cleaning and washing products have been used for 4,500 years, beginning with the Sumerians of Mesopotamia, continuing with the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, and through the Middle Ages, Renaissance and modern times. The manufacture, use and disposal of natural cleaning/washing products have very little negative impact on our health and environment.

Synthetic, petroleum-based cleaning/washing agents were invented in the late 19th century, but came into wide use in the 1950s. These agents (surfactants, solvents, bleaches, builders/water softeners, enzymes, optical brighteners) are aggressive, versatile and work effectively under a wide variety of conditions (e.g. colder water). Manufacture, use and disposal of synthetic (petroleum-based) cleaning/washing agents causes the following problems:

• Ozone depletion/global warming

• Air pollution/indoor air pollution:

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are released from many cleaners, which pollute the air we breathe. Propellants may also be used contributing to smog. Acid rain is created as rainwater absorbs the pollutants.

• contamination of groundwater, aquifers, streams, rivers, lakes, seas, oceans:

“…ground water pollution has myriad sources and can be found just about anywhere. Industrial waste and landfill leakage are only a part of the problem. Faulty septic tanks, solvents from household cleaners and degreasers, septic tank cleaners, and nutrients from detergents and sewage all release diffuse, but highly toxic, contaminants…”

Tons of liquid cleaners alone are washed down US drains annually. These toxic chemicals often find their way into streams, lakes, and even drinking water supplies. Contamination is a particularly important safety issue in areas with a high water table.

• Eutrophication:

Phosphates encourage the growth of massive algae blooms, which in turn kill aquatic animal life by depriving it of oxygen.

• soil contamination:

Acid rain, improper disposal of hazardous wastes and pesticides are contaminating the soil.

• ecosystem imbalances/loss of habitat/loss of biodiversity:

Rather than biodegrading, some cleaning/washing agents accumulate

in the ecosystems and can reach levels lethal to fish and other

organisms, including humans. This, in turn, upsets the delicate

balance in the ecosystems.

• resource depletion:

Oil is a limited resource and should be used sparingly.

• acute and/or chronic toxicity for humans:

Studies have shown that many synthetic chemicals are carcinogenic, cardiovascular/blood toxicants, developmental toxicants, endocrine toxicants, gastrointestinal/liver toxicants, immunotoxicants, kidney toxicants, musculoskeletal toxicants, neurotoxicants, reproductive toxicants, respiratory toxicants and skin/sense organ toxicants.

“…many chemicals used in household products are volatile…they can cause damage to the lungs or other organs as they are taken into the bloodstream. Because indoor pollutants are not as easily dispersed or diluted as outdoor pollutants, concentrations of toxic chemicals may be greater indoors than outdoors. Peak concentrations of 20 toxic compounds – some linked with cancer and birth defects – were 200-500 times higher inside…(EPA study). Besides the immediate dangers of these products (poisoning, severe skin and eye irritation, dizziness, headaches), the long-term effects include chronic respiratory problems, multiple chemical sensitivities, reproductive damage and endocrine disruption, and even cancer.

The New York Times reported that “cancer rates have continued to increase every year since 1970. Brain cancer is up 40% in 20 years. Toxic chemicals are largely to blame.”

A 15-year study in Oregon, comparing housewives who work outside the home with women who did not, found that the death rate from cancer in the women who stayed at home was twice that of women who stayed worked. The study suggests that chronic exposure to cleaning products played a role.

According to the 1998 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC), more than 227,000 incidents reported to U.S. poison control centers were related to household cleaning products.

Children are especially sensitive to chemical exposure/bombardment. Their bodies and immune systems are not fully developed. Children absorb a greater proportion of many substances and engage in more hand-to-mouth activity; therefore they are affected by even small amounts of toxins.

Children are also most likely to ingest and be poisoned by household cleaning products:

• More than 2 million accidental poisonings are reported each year, with more than 52.7% involving children under age six, according to the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

• Unintentional poisoning from household chemicals and medicines kill about 30 children per year, and prompt more than 1 million calls to the nation’s poison control centers per the CPSC.

“The innocuous act of eating off plates washed in conventional detergents is potentially harmful due to detergent residues contaminating the food.”

Clearly, to lead a healthy lifestyle, we must move away from synthetic cleaning/washing agents and toward the natural choices.