This post is contributed by One Drop Founder – Kai Tan.

Yup.

You heard right. Your commercial laundry detergent, hand wash, household cleaners ARE affecting your health.

Just really quietly. Stealthily. And that is what is disturbing.

Have you last studied the ingredient list on the packaging? Have you wondered what the long complex compound names really are? Or entertain the thoughts if the Zesty Lemon or Natural Cherry Blossom “scents” are really from those nature sources?

After all, when you do smell a freshly picked real flower or the real zest from the lemon peel, the fragrance did not punch you fiercely in the face (like that from the cleaners) and leave a heavy cloud moulding over your brain. So what did they put in there really?

One of my favourite information site is http://www.EWG.org.

I’ll leave you to venture through this amazing site and learn more about who they are and what they do. But here are just some of the information that you and I can pull off from this site to begin to empower ourselves as users to understand what marketers of commercial brands may not reveal to us. You may want to click on the image below to enlarge it and surprise yourself with just some of the results collated from studying cleaning agents under the brands of TIDE, DYNAMO, PALMOLIVE, AJAX, CLOROX, LYSOL (these are the ones shown here).

Skin is our largest organ—adults carry some 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) and 22 square feet (2 square meters) of it. (source: national geographic.com). The dermis layer which is hidden under your top layer of epidermis – contains nerve endings, blood vessels, oil glands, and sweat glands. Your skin is one of the means by which your body is constantly helping you to detox and rid materials inadequate for your body, OUT of the body (through the sweat glands).

Yet at the same time, while our skin is also known to protect ; it also is NOT impenetrable . “Your skin is enough of a barrier to keep fluids within your body,” writes Samuel Epstein, MD, and author of Toxic Beauty (BenBella Books, 2009), “but it also readily absorbs many things with which it comes in contact.” Did you realise that clothes washed with chemical-laden laundry detergents often still carry traces of the chemicals on your clothes. So as you wear them, inevitably an opportunity is created for a contact point for the infiltration through the skin.

And beyond the fact that skin can absorb chemicals, is the danger what these chemicals can pose within the body. Many experts agree that absorption through the skin is more dangerous than through the mouth. Substances absorbed into the digestive system go through the kidneys and the liver where enzymes break them down and often detoxify them. Substances absorbed through the skin do not enter into such process. And these chemicals have direct access to the nerves and blood systems.

That was pretty depressing.

Given the toxic-crazy world we live in, it possibly is true that we may never be without exposure. The next best thing we can do is to actively make informed choices around what we decide to use at home that will directly impact ourselves and our loved ones (and we are talking about children, elders and fur-kids!)

Many would already be familiar with the Thieves Essential oil – a blend of Clove, Lemon , Cinnamon, Eucalyptus radiata and Rosemary. The legend was that a group of 15-century thieves were robbing the dead or the sick during a European deadly plague outbreak. When they were caught, they offered to exchange their secret recipe, which had allowed them to commit the robberies without catching the disease, in exchange for leniency. The secret recipe included these very same spice and herbs.

Studies conducted at the Weber State University (Ogden, UT) during 1997 demonstrated the killing power of these amazing oils against airborne micro-organism. The Thieves blend has established its credibility for being highly anti-microbial, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-infectious and antiseptic. And because of these natural properties, Thieves blend was used to formulate a line of safe, green home-use /cleansing products ranging from toothpaste, mouthwash to all-purpose household cleaner.

I’ve cleaned EVERYTHING in my home with the Household cleaner – wash the floor, wash the laundry, wash the dishes, clean out stubborn oven stains etc etc.

Common ratios to use:

• All-purpose cleaner in spray bottle: 1 capful in empty bottle
• Light degreasing: 1 capful to 3 cups (720ml )
• Medium Degreasing: 1 capful to 2 cups water (480ml)
• Heavy degreasing: 1 capful to 1 cup water (240ml)
• Window, glass, floor cleaning: 1 capful to 2-3 litre water
  (add half-cup of white vinegar may enhance the cleansing)

You will have to get over the less than luscious foaming cleaning scene, the cleaning power is brilliant and I personally choose safety and peace of mind over squeakiness! Try it.