EcoStilleto for the modern woman!

What does EcoStilleto.com say about green cleaning? 

“http://www.shaklee.net/greendaytoday/gc_yourhome1

June 26 2008

We think a lot about greener cleaning, mainly because it seems like a no-brainer that if you’re going to take baby steps to make your life more environmentally friendly, the best place to start is in your home. Conventional cleaners contain chemicals that make the indoor air of the typical American home on a typical cleaning day more polluted than the outdoor air of our most polluted cities. And this is according to the EPA, which, we might remind you, is not the most alarmist organization on the planet.

And though there’s fabulous laundry soap and dishwashing detergent and general home cleaners and even waterless, chem-free car wash, there’s not one company that’s been doing the whole kit and kaboodle so well, and for so long, as Shaklee.

They’ve been making sustainably produced, organic, biodegradeable household cleaners since 1960, and have sold them door-to-door as part of a vaguely hippie Tupperware cleaning revolution ever since.

Today, although there still is a slightly cultish vibe to the people who use and sell their products (probably because they just work so darn well), you can get Shaklee online. And though “membership” these days means you type in your info rather than commit to inviting a Shaklee representative in to your living room for yerba mate, it’s still incentivized with a pretty hefty discount.

With that said, their bestselling Get Clean Starter Kit (Oprah loves it; hence the “bestselling”) is $167 for non-members. This investment in home cleaning products seems like a lot until you break it down and realize that the kit includes 27 pieces which average out to just over $6 per. That includes things you use a lot of, like Basic H2 Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate, Dish Wash soap, Fresh Laundry HE Concentrate (which comes in fragrance-free for truly sensitive souls), as well as things you might not go through so fast, like Scour Off Heavy-Duty Paste (tile, kitchen sinks, really grubby pans) and spray bottles (a one-time buy). Plus, the Shaklee folks say their products are so super concentrated and effective, you’d have to spend $3,400 to get the equivalent, and they’ve got studies to prove it. And (drum-roll here) they offer a money back guarantee.

Cost-comparisons aside, here’s what you’re paying to not get: 108 additional pounds of landfill waste (every bottle is recyclable), 248 pounds of greenhouse gases (no chemicals, natch), VOCs, kerosene, hydrochloric acid, petroleum distillates, ammonia, formaldehyde, and a host of other icky chemicals that despite what some billion-dollar commercial will tell you really don’t clean anything any better than their natural counterparts, which had been used for generations until the chemical industry realized the goldmine they had in the dirt-phobic American consumer.   ”

“What saves 248 pounds of greenhouse gases and cleans your house better than Alice?”

http://www.shaklee.net/greendaytoday/gc_yourhome1

 

May is National Asthma Awareness Month

May is National Asthma Awareness Month Do your part to educate others about this important issue !

In 1998, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that asthma increased 75% from 1980-1994 and in 2007, the EPA reported that an average of one out of every 13 school-age children suffers from asthma.* In fact, “asthma has become the most common serious disease of childhood, and there are at least several well-designed epidemiologic studies that have documented a strong link between use of domestic and industrial cleaning products and risk of asthma,” says Dr. John Spengler, Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation, Department of Environmental Health at Harvard University. “When reviewing the rapid increases of asthma rates in America, it is critical to recognize the link between pollution and human health, including chemical and biological pollutants in indoor environments.”

To help raise awareness around the asthma epidemic, Shaklee has teamed up with Harris Interactive ,January 2008, to survey more than 1,000 American moms about their perceptions of home cleaners and their safety.

Key results from the Harris Poll are as follows:

•	81% of moms believe that their household cleaning products can trigger asthma in children and adults

“Moms already know household cleaners can be hazardous if swallowed or spilled directly on your skin, but most don’t make the connection that when these products are used as directed on floors, sinks and tubs, their families are exposed 24 hours a day.” – Jane Houlihan, VP for Research at Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C.

•	38% of moms even agree that the air inside their homes is more toxic than the air outside

A person who spends 15 minutes cleaning scale off shower walls could inhale 3 times the “acute one-hour exposure limit” for glycol ether-containing products set by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.Shaklee Get Clean Scour Off™ Heavy Duty Paste gently removes stains and is great for cleaning tubs, ovens, sinks, and tiles.

•	88% of moms agree that household cleaning products can be harmful to you and your family’s health

With its incredibly powerful formula, Shaklee Get Clean Basic H2 Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate dominates grease, grime, and dirt 1,000 different ways. Basic H2and Get Clean products offer cleaning choices that are non-toxic, hypoallergenic, free of volatile organic cleaning compounds, and free of harmful fumes.

•	94% of surveyed moms would discontinue use of their favorite household cleaning products if they learned that they might be harmful to their families’ health. However, 35% believe that their children have developed skin rashes from the chemicals in cleaning agents used at home.

Shaklee Get Clean Fresh Laundry Liquid Concentrate, HE Compatible is a two-for-one non-toxic and hypoallergenic concentrate that outperforms leading detergents and big-name stain removers.

•	41% of moms admitted that they don’t know what types of ingredients are in the cleaning products they currently use

Shaklee Get Clean Soft Fabric Fragrance-Free Dryer Sheets use vegetable-based softeners on biodegradable sheets – you can throw the whole thing in the recycling bin when your load is done !

•	91% of moms report that they would use non-toxic cleaning products if they knew they really worked

 To purchase products please go to www.shaklee.net/greendaytoday/gc_yourhome1

 

* Centers For Disease Control. Surveillance for Asthma, United States, 1960-1995, MMWR. 1998; 47 (SS-1)