Is Your Toilet Bowl Cleaner Killing You?

One of the most dangerous activities you can do in your home is to clean your toilet bowl! Over 10,000 people, many of them children, were poisoned in 2005. The chemical culprits most responsible are the chlorine and hydrochloric acid in most toilet bowl cleaners found on store shelves. These products are even harmful to breathe and can cause serious discomfort and even asthma in you and your children and death to your dog.

The toilet bowl cleaner you use is just one of the many poisons that you use to keep your home "clean". You may use chlorine bleach in your washing machine to make your family's clothes bright, window cleaners that contain ammonia, air fresheners that contain volatile organic compounds (VOC) that have a pleasant odor but give off formaldehyde and other regulated toxic air pollutants in your home's air and automatic dish washing powders can also release chlorine into the air.

We all want a clean home for our family's health and comfort and a welcoming atmosphere for visitors, so must we entirely give up these cleaning aids? No, there are better choices in your store and with the products you currently use, if you make some adjustments to your cleaning regimen:

• If you continue to use the products you have in your home, make your children, pets and anyone else not involved in cleaning go outside your home


• Wear a breathing mask, eye protection, cover your skin and wear heavy gloves as you handle and use the cleaners


• Dispose of all of the cleaners properly when they are depleted. These are toxic chemicals and your city or town likely has toxic chemical disposal sites that will accept them

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