What Is Clean?
12-Jul-2012
Better living through chemistry? Perhaps sometimes, but this adage can be taken too far. To say that all chemical products improve our lives is a misnomer long purported by the companies that sell them.
What is clean? For me, clean means not simply free of dirt, but free of harmful substances. I’m not averse to getting dirty sometimes. In fact, ironically dirt in the natural sense seems pretty clean. What I’m wary of are the substances we’re surrounded with that pose a health risk. That includes all manner of grime that contains germs, but also includes the myriad of toxic chemicals that surround us on a daily basis. To trade one for the other doesn’t get us any closer to truly clean.
I picture each of us landing somewhere on a scale of dirt sensitivity verses chemical sensitivity – an assessment of which we’re willing to tolerate more. If we think of organic sewage on one end of the scale, and nuclear waste on the other; dirt such as soil and chemicals such as baking soda are somewhere near the middle. The questions is – where do you chose to reside on this scale? You could swab your surroundings with a toxic soup and be free of every microorganisms, but at what cost?
There are many examples from the past where chemical substances were mistakenly professed to safely enhance our lives. Lead was added to gasoline to stop the ping in engines; then we realized the price of no pings by discovering the detrimental effects of lead on the development of children. In the 1940’s DDT was sprayed freely to cut down on mosquitoes and other insects; it took decades to become conscious of the harmful consequences to people and wildlife. What substances are we living with today that will be phased out in the future for similar reasons?
At Clean Ethics we strive to create the most effective products possible using exclusively non-toxic ingredients. We realize that there’s a balance to strike on the dirt / chemical scale. Clean is good, but free of toxic substance is part of clean – a critical part.
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