Solution to Toxic Chemicals in Your Home

Submitted by Sarvasri on Mon, 05/07/2012 - 23:53

Toxic Chemicals in Your Home, and a Simple Solution

It's rather remarkable, and sad, that household products today are laden with toxic and potentially cancer causing chemicals. And worse, you don't know which ones are hiding the chemicals. You probably don't even understand the names of the chemicals or have any idea how toxic they are and how they affect you and your family.

Many chemicals allowed here in the U.S. are banned in other countries. Many products don't even list their ingredients. But they do have warnings:

“May be fatal or cause permanent damage.”
“Causes severe burns which may not be immediately painful or visible.”
“Will penetrate skin and attack underlying tissues and bone.”
Production workers might receive a notice: “Suspected of damaging the unborn child.” (i.e. birth defects)
Some products are labeled: "Fatal if swallowed" or "Fatal if inhaled".

To learn about toxic the chemicals in your household products, visit the Environmental Working Group: http://www.ewg.org/
Especially see their Hall of Shame: http://www.ewg.org/cleaners/hallofshame/

They're developing a toxic chemicals guide (coming Fall 2012), but overall, they don't provide any good solutions other than avoid buying the really toxic, dangerous stuff.

Simple Solutions

One fairly obvious solution is to shop at natural food stores. They usually do a good job of screening products for toxic health effects. But not always. You just can't be sure. Yet, there's an even better solution that's practically free, if you're willing to invest a few minutes. Here's the concept...

As you probably know, enzymes have tremendous effects, whether it's digesting your food, cleaning your laundry, or 4000 other known reactions. The key principle is that enzymes CATALYZE reactions, making them react MILLIONS of times faster than they would otherwise. This gives some insight into why incorporating more high-enzyme raw foods in your diet helps so much with healing.

From WikiPedia:

"Like all catalysts, enzymes work by lowering the activation energy (E_a) for a reaction, thus dramatically increasing the rate of the reaction. As a result, products are formed faster and reactions reach their equilibrium state more rapidly. Most enzyme reaction rates are millions of times faster than those of comparable un-catalyzed reactions. As with all catalysts, enzymes are not consumed by the reactions they catalyze, nor do they alter the equilibrium of these reactions."

If you're scientifically inclined you might want to visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzyme

The cool thing here is that enzymes can make extraordinary cleaning products, products you can MAKE YOURSELF at home easily. We no longer buy harsh cleaning products. Enzymes that we make at home clean our shower better than any commercial products we've ever tried. We use them for cleaning practically everything. In fact, we use them for lots of things at home.

Eco-Enzymes / Garbage Enzymes

They're called eco-enzymes or garbage enzymes. You simply take fruit and veggie wastes that you would ordinarily throw away or compost and turn them into an enzyme factory. It's really easy. The only drawback is that it takes time. But after your first batch, when you start running low, just start a new batch. Plus, at common dilutions they last a long, long time. It is a technology developed by a pioneering farmer and alternative practitioner in Thailand’s organic movement, Dr. Rosukon Poompanvong. At the end of this blog I have some links for more info.

Here's the formula

1 part sugar, preferably a dark brown sugar or even cheap agricultural molasses from any farm supply, which is what we use.
3 parts waste fruit and/or fruit peels, veggie leftovers, especially peels, or spoiled grains or flours. No meat, dairy, or oils.
10 parts water.

Fruit peel enzymes work really great, but the star for cleaning drains is made from brown rice flour. You can mix all kinds of food wastes together. It all works. But the fruit and fruit peel enzymes have a nicer finished smell. All are okay after processing is complete. Put in a 1-5 gallon plastic container, but don't let pressure build up. Keep the top a tiny bit loose or open momentarily daily for the first few weeks. Let ferment until completely stopped, generally a few weeks to 3 months. Then drain off the liquid.

Uses

Eco Enzymes can be used for all kinds of amazing things. Here's some uses followed by common dilution ratios.
Not only will you save money on toxic commercial products, but you avoid the dangers. We haven't personally tried all these uses, but we have tried many of them and we found it works. Enzymes do have remarkable effects as the wikipedia article describes.

Turn your kitchen waste into DIY natural household products with multiple uses

Natural household cleaners, air purification, deodorizer, insecticide, pesticide, detergent, body care, car care, organic fertilizer, and more.
Reduce Pollution (Wastes can release methane gas that traps 21x more heat than CO2) Admittedly, our tiny contribution won't help much.
Purify Air: Increase oxygen levels, remove odors, clear toxic chemicals from smoke and car exhaust, clear chemical residues in household products. Spray around animal and pet pens to reduce odors.
Natural Pesticides: Reduces mosquitoes, flies, rats, cockroaches, etc.
Anti-bacterial and Anti-virus: Natural antiseptic for homes.
Prevents Drainpipe Blockage: Disintegrates residues accumulated in pipes, basins, cleans toilet bowls.

Dilution Ratios

Enzyme for fertilizer, 1:100 / 500 / 1000
Enzyme for insecticide, 1:1000
Enzyme for pesticide, 1:100 (spray around animal pens)
For anti odor / air re-freshener: 1:200
As plant hormone to get more flowers and fruits: 1:500x.
Enzymes when diluted can often make the effects more powerful because they disperse more, affect larger areas.
For Shampoo, Dishwashing Detergent: add half teaspoon of enzyme in shampoo (1 teaspoon for 500cc; 1 tablespoon for 1 quart) to enhance the nutrients and reduce chemical side effects.
To clean pipes of fat clogs and other blockages, 1:200

Actually the "insecticide" and "pesticide" dilution doesn't kill anything, it just makes bad bugs run away. Eco enzymes are harmless. Plus, they seem to have a dramatic affects on soils and soil fertility. Some of the photos I saw on the net were remarkable.

I've actually given you pretty much all you need to know to make your own eco-enzymes, but here's some web sites with extra info to get you started:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Garbage-Enzyme-Multipurpose-Uses-amp-Safer-and/

http://www.o3enzyme.com/enzymeproduction.htm

Video: http://wn.com/Make_your_own_DIY_Eco-Enzyme

Although there are naysayers (who appear not to have actually made or used eco enzymes) our experience with them has been completely positive. The naysayers claim the product is just a vinegar, and therefore is no better than ordinary vinegar for cleaning or disinfecting. But our experience has been otherwise. If you don't want to make your own eco enzymes, at least be aware of the value of enzymes when you shop. Still, it could be a fun family project, and no harm done.

Sarvasri's blog
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JohnMoore

Tue, 07/10/2012 - 07:34

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Solution to Toxic Chemicals in Your Home

Toxic Chemicals in Your Home, and a Simple Solution

Simple Solutions

From WikiPedia:

Eco-Enzymes / Garbage Enzymes

Here's the formula

Uses

Dilution Ratios

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