CLEANING WITHOUT CHEMICALS
(Page 2 of 3)
June/July 1997
By Lisa Degliantoni
Clean House, Clean Planet
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Clean House, Clean Planet is full of scientific research outlining which cleaning products are harmful and why we should worry about the cleaning agents we use.
Does this mean that all cleaning agents are dangerous? Not necessarily, but, Clean House, Clean Planet warns, "Many chemicals have been registered with the EPA based on falsified research. Companies are often motivated by profit and not by a concern for public health. It is easy to make a study say what you want it to say—and nobody can tell the difference." For example, Logan says that two major chemical testing laboratories—Industrial Bio-Test (in 1983) and Craven Labs (in 1992)—have been found guilty of falsifying research used to support the registration of chemicals with the EPA.
Dangers of Challenging Chemical Companies
Since she is not only offering the public reasons to stop using popular cleaning products but also offering recipes for alternative cleaners, Logan is anxious to see how chemical companies will react. She remembers the trouble that David Steinmen, author and science writer, got into when he published Diet for a Poisoned Planet (Harmony Books, 1990).
In the December 12, 1995 issue of the Village Voice, Steinman claims that Ketchum PR, one of the world' s largest public relations firms, tried to head off the publication of his book. According to the article, Ketchum "had a legal firm write letters to Steinman and his publisher threatening the book:" After those attempts failed Ketchum "obtained the itinerary of Steinman' s publicity appearances, and tried to knock him off talk shows."Steinman' s book showed how pervasive pesticide residues, chemical contaminants and other toxins are in the environment. Although Clean House, Clean Planet focuses mainly on solutions and recipes for nontoxic cleaning, scientific research throughout the book illustrates the dangers of cleaning chemicals and the companies that push them into household products. Logan wonders if she will find herself in the same boat as Steinmen when her book hits the market.
