Naturally Clean: The Seventh Generation Guide to Safe & Healthy, Non-Toxic Cleaning
Compelling evidence links the chemicals in household products to cancer, asthma, allergies, multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome—also known as environmental illness—hormonal disruption, reproductive and developmental disorders, and other conditions. Yet cleaning products are exempt from the full ingredient disclosure on product labels as required for food and personal care products and enter the marketplace with little or no testing for potential health risks. Naturally Clean explains the dangers of traditional cleaners and provides illuminating statistics that illustrate how the chemicals found in almost every home are known or likely to cause a host of serious health problems. The book’s easy-to-understand introduction discusses basic household chemistry, concepts of toxicity and types of toxic exposure, and the difference between natural, organic, and synthetic chemicals. A room-by-room guide provides tips for: • A healthier kitchen
• Keeping your bedrooms safe
About Chicago Maid
Review by Alexandra Grabbe for Naturally Clean: The Seventh Generation Guide to Safe & Healthy, Non-Toxic Cleaning
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Naturally Clean is stock full of useful information about chemicals to avoid in the home. It is truly a must-have for every household, written by the crew at Seventh Generation, people who know their stuff. I now take it along with me when I go shopping and review labels for ingredients with a new-found appreciation for the hazards that are out there on supermarket shelves. I especially appreciate the Resource Guide at the end.
I own a green bed & breakfast and plan to make Naturally Clean part of our new Honeymoon Special. It is the type of book I wish I had owned thirty-five years ago when my children were small. Clean up your act. Get yourself a copy today!
Review by J. J. Carew for Naturally Clean: The Seventh Generation Guide to Safe & Healthy, Non-Toxic Cleaning
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The actual content of the book should be required reading for everyone. People might drive a Prius or a hybrid car but their big tub o’ liquid laundry detergent is made from Petroleum. It’s information like this that makes it a very interesting read.
I do not consider myself a stereotypical super-eco-freak, the kind that wears long flowing caftans and wears Birkenstocks and could generally be considered a modern-day hippie. Because let’s face it; environmentalists do have that as a stereotype regardless of if it’s true or not. I do consider myself a pretty normal person who likes to learn as much as possible about anything that involves my kids. Most people don’t think that cleaning products or lawn fertilizers or driving the minivan that gets 17 miles to the gallon make a big impact on the world. But that is the danger; too many people think that what they do does not matter. This book reminds us that we live on the planet with others and should always remember that.
The only problem with this book is that for the first several chapters, I felt like I was trudging through a textbook. Very informative but very dry. But as the book went along, it seemed to pick up it’s pace and the writing improved, becoming more conversational and easier to read.
This helped educate me a little more about living in a greener world, although much of the stuff I had read in several different places. It is nice to get all the important information in one place, though.
Review by K. Cwynar for Naturally Clean: The Seventh Generation Guide to Safe & Healthy, Non-Toxic Cleaning
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On the plus side, this book provides a great recap regarding the environmental impacts of everyday household products, although the book sometimes reads like a chemistry textbook. The authors cite numerous research examples that demonstrate links between common products we use and their environmental and health effects. They also offer many common sense changes for improving our home’s environment.
My disappointment lies with the author’s evaluations of readily-available cleaning products (which incidentally comes in the final chapter of the book). My past experiences with green cleaning products have been underwhelming at best — performance is clearly lacking. The authors choose to evaluate over 300 products based only on the environmental impacts and specifically state that they did not evaluate cleaning performance — a serious omission in their research. It feels like a job only half done.
Review by wildflowerboy for Naturally Clean: The Seventh Generation Guide to Safe & Healthy, Non-Toxic Cleaning
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When most people think about pollution, they seldom think about indoor pollution, despite the fact that the air we’re breathing inside our homes is often far more toxic than the air outside. This is, of course, because of all the dubious household chemical cleaning products most individuals use in their homes. As the authors of this important book suggest, many of our homes have been turned into test tubes by multinational corporations and their harmful, largely unregulated cleaning products which destroy the environment and endanger our health. Over time, many of these chemicals bioaccumalate in our bodies, causing cancer, asthma, hormone disruption, reproductive problems, developmental disorders, birth defects, and other serious health problems. Fortunately, there is a solution. Do not buy chemical cleaning products!!! As a longtime consumer of natural cleaning products, I can tell you that they clean just as well as their conventional counterparts, but without polluting your body, your landbase, or your local watershed. That said, beware of greenwash. Your best bet is to buy your cleaning products from your neighborhood natural food store, not a grocery store, and remember to always read the labels. When buying household cleaning products, I personally would choose Seventh Generation, Ecover, or Dr. Bronner’s, as they’re all non-toxic, biodegradable, cruelty-free, and very reliable. Thank you Seventh Generation and New Society Publishers for this excellent resource! I hope that many people read it and choose to buy all natural cleaning products!
Review by T. Smith for Naturally Clean: The Seventh Generation Guide to Safe & Healthy, Non-Toxic Cleaning
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I like this book because it does a great job of explaining why we want to use nontoxic products in our home. It contains an enormous number of references and resources to back up the dangers mentioned throughout the book. It opens our eyes to what we are really doing when we buy products off the shelves to use in our home, and this includes ordinary household cleaners. At the same time, the book gives a listing of natural substances we can use to make our own products, and how/why they work. The book covers food safety, indoor air quality, eliminating causes of sick buildings (mold, etc), human health and safety, as well as damage to the environment when we put commonly used commercial products down the drain. All parents should read this book.