Would you feel guilty if your toilet was “phantom flushing” or slowly leaking gallons of water a day?

Leak Alertor

We would, and we’d be concerned about the costs on our water bill too.

A Philadelphia-area company feels our pain. The company, nth Solutions, has invented the Leak Alertor to let you know when the water closet is out of control, so you can get in there and fix the flap or that other thinga-majig that makes the toilet behave.

Nth Solutions’ staff has done a lot of research on this topic of wasted water too. They report that at any given time, one in five toilets in the US is leaking. So in the US, where the residential person-to-commode ratio is pretty high, 50 million toilets might be silently leaking.

That info comes from the American Water Works Association, an industry association that is committed to clean, safe water (and a thriving water industry). If it’s true, and we’re guessing the AWWA is in a position to know, you can start to see why you might need a Leak Alertor.

Still, we asked Eric L. Canfield, president of nth Solutions, to give us a little more to go on and he did.

Leaking toilets, he said, are the number one cause of high water bills and the average leaking toilet can waste hundreds of gallons of water a day or enough to fill a couple swimming pools if left to leak away for a year or so.

Yikes, you’d have to take a lot of one-minute showers to pay back that water debt!

But, still, we respectfully prodded Canfield: Wouldn’t I know it if my toilet were leaking? Wouldn’t it wake me up at night with a faint little whiney sound?

No, he said, it wouldn’t necessarily alert you. (But the Leak Alertor would, with a little red light.) Many leaks are silent. Furthermore, he explained, many people with less than perfect hearing might not catch a leaky toilet, and others, who do hear that “phantom flush” misinterpret it and think all is well in water closet land.

And so, Canfield has the solution, a water-conserving, made-in-America solution that’s a bit of a hard sell in these times, but does only cost $19.95: The Leak Alertor, installable in less than a minute, without tools.

Who knew?

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The next time you take a stack of old newspapers to the recycling bin, you might be helping make your home a more comfortable — and efficient — place.

Cellulose Insulation. (Photo: National Association of Certified Home Inspectors)

Cellulose insulation – made from recycled newsprint and other kinds of paper – has emerged as a legitimate choice for homeowners trying to combine environmental consciousness with good business. Like any insulation option, it has its good points and not-so-good ones, but it is something to consider when you decide to make your house a little cozier in the winter and a bit more comfortable in the hotter months.

What makes cellulose an attractive choice to homeowners thinking green?

For starters, you are re-using paper products that might otherwise turn up in landfills, where they decompose and give off greenhouse gases. For another, cellulose requires less embodied energy (the total energy required to transport raw materials, manufacture and distribute the product) than comparable insulation materials.

So, how does that compare to those nice pink rolls of fiberglass insulation, the ones that remain the most popular option?

Fiberglass is cheaper, but it also is difficult to work with and may create some health issues. Cellulose, despite the comforting notion that last year’s Sports section might be this year’s guard against costly energy leaks, isn’t completely green, because chemicals are added to keep all that paper from catching fire, or contributing to a blaze that started elsewhere.

Confused yet? Google “green insulation” for an afternoon, and you probably will be. While some alternatives get better reviews than others, there doesn’t appear to be a consensus as to who’s No. 1. In most cases, it simply depends on who you ask or what part of the equation is more important to you. While most of us would prefer to be green, overall performance and cost are considerations, too.

Insulation is evaluated in terms of thermal resistance, called R-value. That measures resistance to heat flow. The R-value of thermal insulation depends on a variety of factors: Type of material, thickness, and density. The higher the R-value, the more effective the insulation is.

If you combine layers of insulation, the R-value is the sum of the individual values. Keep in mind, however, that compressing insulation diminishes its R-value, so forcing too much into a space is counterproductive.

Simply by reducing the amount of energy required to heat or cool a building, insulation is environmentally friendly. How you go about it can increase (or diminish) the amount of good you are actually doing.

Here’s a quick look at some of the options:

Cellulose: According to the Cellulose Insulation Manufacturers Association, cellulose has the highest level of recycled content in the industry, up to 85 percent. Scrap also can be recovered and recycled on the site of an installation, another plus. Cellulose is a loose-fill product blown into spaces with pneumatic equipment, making it easier to use in hard-to-reach spots. It also provides a tighter fit than rolls and batts, or blankets. And, simply by using a recycled product, you are going a little greener.

Natural Fibers: Ever wondered what happens to leftover material at the blue jean factory? These days, some of it is going into attics and walls. According to manufacturer Bonded Logic, Inc., UltraTouch denim insulation “contains 85% post-industrial recycled natural fibers making it an ideal choice for anyone looking to use a high quality sustainable building material.” Unlike cellulose, it comes in batts, so completely sealing a space can be more problematic. In contrast to fiberglass, however, it doesn’t cause itching or other irritation and is easier to handle. Like cellulose, it also has the green advantage of finding a new use for recycled material.

Polyurethane foam: Doesn’t sound very good, does it? The Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance – yes, there really is such a thing — begs to differ. The organization contends that SPF “is environmentally friendly, contains no formaldehyde or ozone depleting chemicals, saves energy and reduces the use of fossil fuels, thereby reducing global warming gasses. It also assists in providing good indoor air quality, requires less energy to produce than the leading insulation, and reduces the amount of energy required to transport and install it.” After it is applied, the foam expands to fill the space allowed, improving overall protection. One downside: It’s highly toxic during the installation phase, and you’ll probably need to steer clear of the premises for several days after.

Cementitious: Al Gore put Air Krete in his home. The National Audubon Society used it in its building. How can you go wrong? Air, seawater and formaldehyde-free cement are mixed to create this blown-in insulation option, which again serves to make for a tighter fit and a hostile environment for insects and other pests. Its non-flammable nature is a nice feature, too.

Fiberglass: Would the Pink Panther install something dangerous in your house? Even the leading manufacturer, Owens Corning, features pictures on its Web site of average folks installing their own batts of fiberglass insulation…wearing protective clothing, heavy gloves, and a face mask. Hmmm. Fiberglass remains the cheapest and most common form of insulation, but it’s worth considering that packages of the product also carry a cancer warning. Still, according to the American Lung Association, fiberglass insulation “is safe when it is properly installed.” Eye, skin, and throat irritation is common among installers who don’t take proper care.

Whichever way you go, this may be a good time to do it. The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides for a federal tax credit for installing insulation of 30 percent of the purchase price, up to a total credit of $1,500.

Before you jump in, make sure your improvements qualify for the credit. Check out the fine print at energytaxincentives.org. For state and local information, visit dsireusa.org.

Already, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is predicting lower heating bills for the winter of 2009-10, based on lower fuel prices and the anticipation of milder weather. In its Winter Fuels Outlook, the EIA projects average savings of about eight percent per household.

“Heating accounts for 31 percent of the typical home’s energy costs,” Alliance to Save Energy President Kateri Callahan said. “So using energy efficiency measures to lower those heating bills will keep real money in consumers’ pockets. Simply tightening up your home and insulating sufficiently to avoid sending precious warm air ‘out the window,’ for example, can cut yearly heating bills by up to 20 percent.”

For a different look at these and other insulation choices, visit the US Department of Energy.

For another side-by-side comparison, check out a table provided by the Cellulose Insulation Manufacturers Association.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory put together this Insulation Fact Sheet.

Copyright © 2008 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

When it comes to clogged drains, it’s been a struggle to find an effective alternative to the many harsh chemicals that most people rely on to break up trapped debris. But a Houston company has developed a product that is brilliant in its simplicity and has the added benefit of being as green as you can get where brownish goop is involved.

The PermaFLOW Self Cleaning Drain by PF WaterWorks has already won the Best of What’s New Award from Popular Science. It replaces an existing P-trap — that curved section of pipe just below your sink — with an improved version that has been engineered to eliminate the need for secondary maintenance products and procedures such as plunging, caustic drain cleaners and messy drain dis-assembly.

We installed one in about 10 minutes and found it to be easy and effective. The PermaFLOW has a couple of unique characteristics that are hugely helpful. The first is that it is made of clear plastic, which allows you to actually see the problem you have or — more importantly — see the problem that you are about to have. Second, the device includes a swiper that you turn with a knob, which helps you sweep through debris before a major clog can occur.

These are improvements that are “duh” obvious and yet no one else appears to have re-thought the classic P-trap in this innovative way. (PF WaterWorks has a patent on the design).

Created by two serial inventors who are happy to remain behind the scenes, the PermaFLOW has one other critical design detail. “The shape of the plastic generates significant turbulence and actually pushes debris out, so you don’t have any debris settling in the trap area,” says Sanjay Ahuja, vice president of PF WaterWorks.

He also points out that the design works particularly well with low-flow faucets, something that most environmentally-aware consumers eventually get around to installing.

And while we were unabashedly impressed by how well the PermaFLOW works, Ahuja says he gets fan mail and calls for the new product all the time.

“I had a woman who called me from the West Coast and she said, ‘I want to order two more of these. One for me and one for God,’ ” says Ahuja, laughing.

The PermaFlow is available for $29.95 through Amazon.com. You also can buy directly from the PermaFLOW site. Ahuja says Home Depot is rolling it out in select stores and he expects it will be available through most major home improvement retailers by early 2010.

Related video:

View a demonstration of the PermaFLOW:

It sounds like an oxymoron – a car “wash” that uses no water.

But some of the best green ideas turn traditional practices upside down. Bayes High Performance Waterless Wash/Detailer reinvents the car wash by subtracting the water. It’s not a “wash” in the conventional sense and the only water used is that contained within the biodegradable cleaner itself.

When we heard about Bayes, we were quite excited to think that you could save the 25 to 50 or more gallons of fresh water you might otherwise use to scrub off your car’s cape of road dust. (During droughts, we drive dirty, to avoid squandering a natural resource. So this opened up possibilities!)

But we were also skeptical. We feared that the Bayes would not work well. We thought it might be greasy, smeary or difficult to buff. We had tried a different waterless cleaner earlier, only to be disappointed that it a) came in an aerosol can; b) had a noxious smell c) was a petroleum product and d) left streaks. And we had buffed with some of those stiff waxes on the market, an exhausting work out.

The Bayes High Performance Waterless Wash/Detailer relieved us of all of these concerns. It sprayed on without singeing our delicate noses or skin. It buffed off easily with microfiber cloths and left a wonderful shine on the family Honda. It felt clean and green, and we’re happy to be able to recommend this nifty eco-cleaner, which is already endorsed by Hollywood’s go-to greenie, Ed Begley Jr.

What’s more, we were able to commandeer an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old (who owed us some time) to execute this project, and we were comfortable that no adolescents were harmed during this experiment.

Bayes is a biodegradable product that’s safe for teens, adults and the environment. It relies on technology that’s similar to other green cleaners, using biodegradable polymers to encapsulate dirt and whisk it away without scratching the vehicle’s paint. All the ingredients are non-toxic as well as biodegradable, says Mark Cunningham, co-founder of Lab-Clean LLC, which makes the Bayes products in the U.S..

“I really believe this is the future of car washing…look how much water we can save and also eliminate all the toxic runoff from the road grime going into our storm drains,” he says.

Not to mention the shiny results. “You are basically washing and waxing your car, every time you wash,” Cunningham adds.

So skip the driveway bath for your car or truck, or even the local car wash, and go waterless.

Bayes is available at many retailers, and online at many stores or at its own online store for $10 for a 16 ounce bottle or $17 for a 32 ounce bottle. Each 16 ounce bottle should provide four to six vehicle cleanings, and it safely cleans the whole car, including the windows, chrome, vinyl and rubber. Bayes also makes several other eco-sensitive cleaners, for wood, granite, stainless steel, leather and bamboo. They are sold at Ace Hardware stores, Kroger, Sprouts and Harris Teeter groceries and other retailers.

Bayes does have environmentally friendly competitors in the car cleaner sector. Those include a line of car care products called Eco Touch, which makes a waterless wash and other car cleaners such as a dashboard protectant and an upholstery cleaner.

There’s also the G.E.T. Green line of car care products made by Green Earth Technologies. Their green car wash uses water, but is biodegradable. They also offer a wheel cleaner, brake dust shield and tire shine product, all using plant-based and biodegradable ingredients.

We’re actually most intrigued by GET’s new G-Clean line of concentrated cleaners they’re introducing for outdoor cleaning projects, like washing off the deck or driveway or cleaning the house siding. These cleaners, intended for use with pressure washes, use eco-friendly ingredients to get rid of mold, mildew and grease stains without using environment-damaging chlorine bleach. That’s an advance we can get behind, and a story for another day.

Hey kids, got another project for you….

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

‘Tis the time of year for bugs to start bugging us. They may be creepy, or stingers, but most bugs and spiders serve a useful purpose in the environment. There are numerous devices now to help you trap and release wayward insects, indoors and out.

For those who are timid toward spiders and other creepy crawlies in the house, there are several ways to trap them and sent them go their buggy way.

You can find several variation on the “one bug at a time” catcher, such as the Katcha Bug Catcher, right, a small plastic dome placed over a wayward spider or other bug. Slowly close the trap-door, and take the bug outside. It’s $8 from the PETA Catalog, and it’s also available from other Web retailers.

The Spider Catcher, at left, is made in the UK, but you can easily order it from the U.S. It’s a simple idea — a long-handled device with straight, soft bristles at the end that open and then gently close around your eight-legged buddy long enough for you to carry it outside. (Although some might suggest that you leave spiders alone in your house – they eat other bugs). It’s $20. They say it’s gentle enough to pick up a butterfly and leave it unharmed, but we suspect those soft bristles might not be tough enough to grab  a jumbo cockroach.

Gaiam has the battery-free BugZooka, which extends up to 24” for you to suck in an errant bug and release it outside.  It’s $29.

Outdoors, combine cornering wasps with streamlined design using the organic wasp trap, $31.90, at right, created by industrial designer Pernille Vea of Denmark. The pretty trap uses sugar and vinegar, and its funnel-shaped entrance holds wasps inside until you’re ready to release them. (Try to keep the errant bees out, though. You need them in the yard to pollinate.)

If you’re so nature friendly you refuse to swat a mosquito, Gaiam has a pocket-sized Solar Mosquito Guard, at left, which emits a high-frequency wave that keeps mosquitoes at bay.

And if none of these smush-free bug devices suit your fancy, you might go with the tried and true clear plastic bag filled with water hanging from the rail or roof. You see them in the South and all over Mexico. Their effectiveness is a bit of a mystery, but many experts attribute their success to light refraction.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Power bills got you down, and you can’t figure out what you’re doing wrong because you’re trying to do so much right?

The Alliance to Save Energy wants you to realize the most from your efforts to reduce electricity consumption, so they’ve released this checklist for you to consider as you try to trim those galloping electric bills:

1 – If the payoff from your home fleet of energy efficient products doesn’t seem to be reducing your electric bill, ask yourself is it the “dreaded Snackwell effect”? Are you gulping energy in the belief that your more efficient computer, TVs and refrigerator will curb the bill so significantly you no longer have to worry? This phenomenon, akin to dieters indulging on low-calorie foods (like Snackwells) because they estimate that they’re consuming fewer calories overall, could be giving you a false perception of the energy-tightening you’ve done.

2. Have you added big energy users – like a big screen TV that doesn’t carry the Energy Star seal – that are undermining your other energy efficiency actions?  Look at what you’re plugging in around the house.

3 – Have energy rates increased in your area? This could account for why your bill is static despite taking strong steps to cut back.

4 – Are you staying home more in this down economy? Watching movies at home, working from home. All these activities consume electricity.

And we might add…

5 – Keeping those TVs/VCR/DVRs on a power strip, which you turn off during the day, can reduce your household’s consumption of “phantom power”, that small, but cumulative trickle of energy that’s used by electronics that are plugged in, even though they’re not turned on.

For more tips on saving energy at home, see the Alliance’s list of ideas.   www.ase.org/consumers. The Alliance is a coalition of business, government, consumer and advocacy groups, founded in 1977.

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You want to go for it, but after paying for the Iraq War, the bank bailout and the stimulus packages you’re just plain tapped out. A new greener lifestyle with its eco-gadgets, shiny solar panels and breezy wind turbines sounds fun – and costly.

But wait. You don’t have to wait. Sure a lot of the new green foo-fahs are fashionable budget-busters.  But green can also be, well, cheap. In fact, it has its roots in cheap, having been born back when people in caftans tried living together in packs called communes while eating hummus because it was economical and efficient. That was back when lots of people got next to nature, without gadgetry, because, man, it was a beautiful thing. This was before “tree hugger” become a term of derision and students openly doodled rainbows and ecology symbols on their notebooks. Back then in the pre-iStuff period many people also eschewed excessive consumerism (and sometimes clothes, too, but let’s not go there today).

So green, the color of the American dollar notwithstanding, can be cheap, cheap, cheap. And as we re-new our green vows this Earth Day week, let’s count the ways we can penny-pinch a green path.

Let’s go green, for under $100.

The EPA has issued a list of pesticides that will be screened for possibly disrupting the human, as well as animal, endocrine system. The list, released Wednesday, focuses on “endocrine disruptors” which are chemicals that can negatively impact hormones produced by the endocrine system. The system regulates all biological processes in the body – specifically, growth, metabolism and reproduction.

“Gathering this information,” said EPA Adminstrator Lisa P. Jackson, “will help us work with communities and industry to protect Americans from harmful exposure. Endocrine disruptors can cause lifelong health problems, especially for children.”
The endocrine, or hormone, system is found in all mammals, birds and fish. It is made up of glands, hormones that are produced by the glands and receptors in different organs that respond to the hormones.

The EPA will have the makers of 67 pesticide chemicals test their products this summer to see if their chemicals are responsible for disrupting the endocrine systems.

The testing will be done through the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (ESDP) set up by the EPA, which commonly relies on companies to test their own products.

The list of all 67 chemicals can be found here. The EPA stresses that this list is not a definitive collection of known endocrine disruptors. The chemicals selected were chosen because there is a high potential for human exposure through food and water, residential activity or agricultural pesticide application. Many of the chemicals found on the list are present in commonly used lawn treatments, insect sprays, solvents and other household products.

“These pesticide chemicals were picked because we wanted to start with ones that more people might be exposed to,” says EPA spokesperson Suzanne Ackerman. “They were not selected based on which ones are considered most dangerous. We won’t know that until we have them tested.”

Several chemicals on the list, though, have been flagged for health concerns. Atrazine, for instance, has been banned in the European Union. Atrazine is among the most common, if not the most common, herbicide used in the United States.

Other recognizable chemicals on the testing list, include diazinon, malathion, carbaryl and permethrin. Diazinon has been banned for household use in the U.S., but remains available for agricultural use as an insecticide. Permethrins turn up on flea collars for dogs, which some health groups consider too toxic for household use.

Endocrine disruptors work in several ways. Sometimes, the chemical mimics a natural hormone, tricking the body into over-responding to the stimulus. The endocrine disruptor can also block the effects of a hormone from certain receptors. In other cases, the chemical can stimulate or inhibit the endocrine system, causing the overproduction or underproduction of hormones. Sometimes, as in the birth control pill, a chemical intentionally inhibits the endocrine system.

Impaired endocrine function can result in lowered fertility and other health conditions.

The direct connections between human diseases of the endocrine system and the system’s exposure to environmental contaminants, are still not clear, according to the EPA. This is why the establishment of the screening program is considered an important step.
Copyright © 2009 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Spring cleaning happens. It rides in on the warm breezes, beckoning –   not quite as urgently as taxes (which tends to shriek from under a pile of papers) — but insistently just the same.

This year, Seventh Generation, longtime makers of green cleaners and recycled, tree-saving paper towels, wants to help you remake your spring routine with more environmentally responsible cleaners and tools. In partnership with WebMD and Healthy Child Healthy Home they’ve opened a website called WebMD Health eHome where you can poke around a virtual house to get tips on how to use less toxic brews to shine and sanitize the homefront.

If you’re suspicious of a retailer leading you through all this, well, they already thought of that. The ideas that pop up when you click are specific, but generic. Pop open the doors under the kitchen sink, for instance, and you’ll be told that natural cleaners can do just as well as chemical cleaners, and that vinegar can act as an antibacterial and that baking soda makes a good scouring scrub.

That’s some good old-fashioned advice, because both of those simple substances do work well as cleaners.  We can only surmise that Seventh Generation figures you’ll use those ideas, but you’ll still need some of their more olfactorily evolved products, as well, like the grease-cutting Wild Orange and Cedar Spice Kitchen Cleaner advertised on the site. And once you’re better educated about more natural routines, you’ll appreciate that the whole line of Seventh Generation products is made with biodegradable, natural ingredients. (We also like their paper towels, which are 100 percent recycled and 80 percent from post-consumer paper products, about the highest post-consumer content you can find — just don’t use them to wipe counters with, that’s what washrags are for!)

Clearly, the main aim of the website is to win you over to thinking about how to freshen up without relying on the vast inventory of nonbiodegradable, environmentally damaging ingredients that have crept into so many consumer products.

Aside from the virtual home tool, which makes browsing more fun, there are accompanying articles contributed by Healthy Home Healthy Child offering detailed guidance about what to avoid and what to watch for among the cleaners, both green newcomers and conventional ones:

“Look for “green” cleaners that don’t contain chlorine, triclosan, triclocarbon, lye, or ammonia. Choose ones that say “petroleum-free,” “90% biodegradable in 3 days,” or “phosphate-free.”

Dig deeper and you can find out more about why it’s important to go phosphate free — which is relatively easy today, with alternative laundry and dishwasher soaps.

And there are more old-home tricks that pop up. Don’t put that baking soda away — it can scour tubs too — or the vinegar, which can kill mold and mildew, something that mainstream cleaners would have you believe is only possible through their harsher chemical concoctions.

The underlying concept: If you watch out for what you’re pouring into your drains and sinks, you’ll save the outdoor environment, and keep the inside toxic free too.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Meredith Henderson was on a mission, she wanted to make composting available where she lived. But she is among of the one-third of Americans who do not own their own homes.

“I do feel that apartment dwellers are often left out of the green movement because of the fact that their options are limited by their landlord’s willingness to create those options within their buildings,” said 25 year-old Henderson.

While living in Forest Hill in Los Angeles, Henderson attempted to gather signatures on a petition for her landlord to make composting available and got only one signature from her fellow residents. Disappointed with the lack of support, she left that apartment complex and started the Facebook group “Apartment Dwellers Go Green!!”

Henderson, who now lives in Culver City, says that she prefers to use a hand washer for her clothes and then line dry them. She drives a Prius and goes “dumpster diving” for treasures to reduce the build up in the land fills. She stimulates the local economy by purchasing food at the local food market, which cuts down on gas used to drive foods.

From her experiences she has learned that education for apartment dwellers is “just as important as when you are a landowner with more control.”

Shannon Erb is doing her share from her apartment in downtown Whitewater, Wisconsin. She wakes up early to take advantage of natural light and burns candles in the evening. In order to achieve a chemical free environment, she uses green cleaning products and grows indoor plants to purify the air.

“Everything counts to the movement,” said Erb.

Ever wondered what’s in that stuff you use to scrub the sink — the stuff that gets rinsed out into the water supply every time you do your chores?

A lot of people do, evidently — even those who don’t know a polyacrylate from a hypochlorite — and the folks at Clorox appear to be listening. They’ve announced an initiative to make that information (most of it, anyway) available over the course of this year, beginning with the products they promote as Earth-friendly under the Green Works trademark.

In January, the company constructed a new subsection of its “Our Products” information area: Bearing the straightforward title “Product Ingredient Listings,” the page currently lists scores of products bearing such household and commercial brands as 409, Pine-Sol and Liquid-Plumr; that last product, incidentally, has five of its six ingredients in common with regular Clorox bleach (although they’re present in different amounts).

The lists only show chemicals that account for more than one percent of a product by weight, which theoretically allows for “secret ingredients.” And as it currently exists, the site naturally does nothing to help consumers make sense of the chemical names by indicating possible concerns associated with each.

Instead, the site blandly assures visitors that “before Clorox brings any product to market, all ingredients are assessed for factors such as toxicity, sensitization and efficacy to ensure their safety.”

However, customers concerned about what they’re pouring down the drain will be able to cross-index this info with information available elsewhere on the web about chemicals.

The U.S. Health and Human Services’ public Household Products Database, for instance, warns that Clorox’s liquid bleach requires special handling and recommends that uses wear rubber gloves and use eye goggles because the bleach is “CORROSIVE to the eyes ” and may cause “severe irritation or damage to eyes and skin.”

The database does not always address the environmental impact of such cleaning products, though one could presume that corrosive cleaners, unless they biodegrade quickly, can play havoc with fish and wildlife.

To get full details on any household protect, click through to the Materials Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) information on the Household Products Database. Here you’ll discover that while Clorox makes a phethora of products for household cleaning that contain sodium hypochlorite, or bleach; the Oakland-based company also makes cleaners with hydrogen peroxide and other more environmentally friendly ingredients.
Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The sickening effects of atmospheric formaldehyde may have become a hot topic thanks to FEMA trailers after Hurricane Katrina, but the problem is hardly limited to mobile homes. Formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a widespread health concern introduced to buildings through industrial textiles like carpeting and by materials, like plywood, that use certain adhesives.

That doesn’t mean we have to accept living in toxic rooms. Researchers in Korea have measured the extent to which household plants can clean the air, and their discoveries are encouraging.

In a report whose findings are currently circulating online, Kwang Jin Kim of Korea’s National Horticultural Research Institute says that he was able to use plants to remove 80% of the formaldehyde in a room within four hours.

In rooms without the plants, levels decreased naturally by around 7% during a five-hour period.

The team tested unusual configurations of the plants, from setups in which leafy parts were trimmed away to others in which the below-ground portion of the plant was sealed off from the room’s air.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the best performer was an array of complete plants – specifically, the Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina) and Fatsia japonica, an evergreen shrub. Microorganisms in the potting soil contributed to the air-cleaning process, the scientists believe.

Copyright ©2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media