Jennifer MARTINE threw a party Thursday night, and her guests brought food, wine -- and empty spray bottles.
Using vinegar, baking soda, essential oils and castile soap, they spent the evening making batches of natural household cleaners. Martine, 28, is one of more than 100 women who've signed up to host so-called green cleaning parties across the country this spring, part of a nationwide campaign led by Women’s Voices for the Earth, a nonprofit group based in Missoula, Mont.
Martine's interest in green cleaning stemmed from reading that mopping agents might harm her new puppy -- and coming home one day to find that her husband had passed out while cleaning their unventilated bathroom. He had been using a combination of products and had hit his head as he fell to the floor. He was just coming to when Martine, a food photographer, returned home to San Francisco.
"It was really scary," she said. Her husband, Tyler, suffered no other problems, but the incident had at least one lasting effect. "I definitely don't buy those strong cleaners anymore," Martine said.
Like her, a growing number of Americans are seeking so-called green cleaners -- products made with natural, nontoxic, biodegradable ingredients. Few consumers may be going the straight DIY route, but sales of natural cleaning products totaled $105 million during the last 12 months, up 23% over the previous 12 months, according to SPINS, a Schaumburg, Ill.-based market research and consulting firm for the natural products industry.
Such cleaners make a variety of claims. Some promise that they contain natural (instead of synthetic) agents, break down quickly in the environment or pose less of a toxic threat to humans and ecosystems than do traditional cleaners. Others say they're concentrated, packaged in recycled or recyclable materials, have never been tested on animals or are free of specific chemicals, such as petroleum distillates, phthalates, phosphates or CFCs. (Never mind that CFCs, proved to deplete the Earth's ozone layer, have been banned for decades.)
Many of them also typically eschew known asthma triggers, common in many household cleaners, such as chlorine bleach and ammonia. Studies of people who work with cleaning products for a living have indeed suggested a link between conventional cleaners and an increased risk of asthma and skin irritation. So-called green cleaners rely on ingredients such as hydrogen peroxide to kill germs and remove stains, as well as citric acid and alkyl polyglucoside, a coconut-based detergent, to break down grease and dirt.
