Scratch Windex

[torquill]

The list of cleaning products I can't handle is getting longer. More and more companies are adding ethylene glycol ethers to one or two products in their standard lines -- I can't say "Windex is always okay" anymore. When it's not just two or three products -- when I have to rattle off a bunch or hand a list to people -- it's much less likely to be heeded. Argh.

The list is now:
Formula 409
Clorox Clean-Up
whiteboard cleaner (pretty much any)
Swiffer WetJet
Windex Multi-Surface Cleaner with Vinegar

I also can't handle things like Lysol when I'm on top of them, but the above items can still make me very sick many days after use.

The blue Windex is fine; regular Swiffers are fine. Pine-Sol and Simple Green are always fine. I was going to say that orange cleaners are fine, but just watch someone put ethers in one of those, too.

I may have to start combing MSDS sheets for things I see in the store (in my copious spare time) just to try to catch these things as they crop up. Thank you, Clorox, for putting enough of a liver/CNS-damaging agent in 409 to break my tolerance to all similar compounds.



Edit: Aww, looks like someone on lily took one look at my rant about ethylene ethers in cleaning products and promptly /ignored me totally. Nice to know that there is still a bastion of blind faith to sneer at the very idea of chemical sensitivity, no matter how scientific the approach...

(that would be the inner jackal coming out. that's okay, she doesn't read LJ anyway. snark on.)

Comments

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

My cleaning tends to be "mostly simple green, vinegar and baking soda", but I also have wet swiffers, but not the Jet (hmmm, may actually be an off-brand).

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

There are better cleaners out there -- Whole Foods and some health food stores carry BioKleen, which is much better at grease than Simple Green and disinfects as well, and Trader Joe's has their Trader Zen spray (the only downside is that it smells like lime and cigarette butts). Isopropyl alcohol is a secret weapon against nasty grease, though if I can get my hands on some Everclear, I may use that instead. And I love Bon Ami cleansing powder, which really doesn't scratch things.

The thing to realize, generally, is that water is what cleans things -- anything added to it is usually to a) make the water "wetter", like soap, b) act as an abrasive, or c) disinfect. When you look at it that way, you don't need many things at all.

As for the Swiffer WetJet (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00008MOQA/002-3822790-5690444?v=glance&n=3760901) -- half the pages out there are on that urban legend that it can hurt pets. Which it can't, unless the pets are as compromised as I am; the ether they use in that is much less nasty than what injured me originally.

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I don't have a problem cleaning grease as is...and I do also have bon ami :-)

[emmett-the-sane.livejournal.com]

I have found that whiteboard cleaner (like dry erase pens) gives me a headache. Why can't we go back to nice chalkboards?

Fortunately, I don't have much of a problem with the other cleansers. I've always been a fan of diluted bleach, orange cleaners or the like, though... so maybe it's a matter of exposure.

*hugs*

[packy.livejournal.com]

Bah, most lilyites are closed-minded morons. You're the rare gem. :)

[knaveofhearts.livejournal.com]

The asthmatics in the room would quickly point out how much fun it is to aspirate chalk dust. Can't win 'em all...

As for which cleaners to use, I don't try anything new until I know it won't harm littlemissstoli or luna_torquill.

[(Anonymous)]

The ones under 30-35 would, I suppose. What's interesting is that it used to be that people with respiratory problems complained about dry erase, and preferred chalk for that reason. All the younger friends I have, however, voice the reverse complaint.

[knaveofhearts.livejournal.com]

Mmm. I'm at the extreme upper range of your limit there, but I'm firmly in the dry-erase-trumps-chalk set. Interesting.

Dry erase was a novelty when I was growing up -- only one high-school classroom had it, and it was the computer class filled with VT220s which dealt poorly with chalk dust.