“Non-Toxic All-Purpose Cleaner” is quite a mouthful.
What it means isn’t too hard to guess – or maybe it is.

Soap and detergent have been the universal “all purpose cleaners” since they were invented. They are used to clean our bodies, scrub our utensils, rinse our clothes and even mop the floors – where applicable. What is so special about that?

As for “non-toxic”, we somehow assume that the products we use in daily life are “safe”. We don’t expect to be slow poisoned by our food, our cosmetics or our household cleaners.

Sadly, the reality is very different.

Most cleaners are surfactant-based, and they contain either soap or detergent. While soap is organic in origin and mostly safe, it foams less and refuses to lather at all in hard water, making it an inconvenient universal standard.
Detergent, on the other hand, is laboratory manufactured, and designed to be cheap and versatile. In the process, certain compounds are introduced which are less than friendly to the body.
Any store-bought cleaner is likely to contain at least one of these ingredients –

  • Ammonia – Gives off fumes that irritate the eyes and lung membranes, leading to asthma, blindness, eye inflammation, bronchitis, and respiratory failure.
  • Ethoxylated nonyl phenols (NPEs) – These are called “gender benders”, as they can cause male fish to exhibit female characteristics. Though banned in Europe, these NPEs are still used in the US.
  • SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate)/SLES (Sodium Laureth Sulfate) – SLS, found in most shampoos and body washes, is known to cause irritation in the scalp and skin. When absorbed through skin into the bloodstream, it can act like the female hormone estrogen and cause secondary sexual characteristics. SLES’ effects are milder than SLS, but it cannot be broken down as SLS can, so stays in the body longer.
  • PEG, or polyethylene glycol – while PEG is not dangerous in itself, it can get contaminated by a number of highly toxic and potentially carcinogenic compounds – 1,4-dioxane and ethylene oxide, for example – in the manufacturing process.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Only recently have people grown conscious about the harmful toxins they get exposed to daily, and much research is needed before declaring any product a “safe” one. This research is only undertaken by companies who take a stand on ethics as well as profit, and create products that do their job without unfortunate side effects.

Non-toxic all-purpose cleaners do away with the harmful compounds in most commercial cleaners, and use simple and biodegradable ingredients instead. Most of them are also pH balanced to prevent skin corrosion, but are as efficient as any of the toxin-laden cleaners popular in today’s market.

While most non-toxic all purpose cleaners are laboratory-synthesized, they draw their raw materials from plants – a sustainable source, as opposed to petroleum products. The emphasis is on ensuring that the products do not cause harm to anyone – either to the user in the short term, or our planet in the long term.