Laundry Detergents and Skin

The cleaning agents that we use in our homes should help us clean without harming us. You just can't go on exposing yourself day after day to all massive doses of toxic material. Its effect is cumulative, a little bit from here, a little bit from there and it severely interferes with your attempts to be healthy and disease free. Furthermore we routinely dump all the detergents down the drain into our water sources and then we wonder why we don't have clean water to drink. Most people are unaware of the many less toxic, less expensive and far more effective alternatives to the household cleaners they are using.

Did you know that in this country we buy more detergent than any other product in the grocery store? More than bread, milk, or any other food; detergents also cause more poisoning than any other household product. And if you've ever taken a walk along the coastline and seen all the foamy bubbles washing up with the tide, then you know that all the detergents we dump in the water are ending up in our oceans.

The problem with today's detergents is that many people do not understand that they are no longer just soap. Ordinary soap is harmless and has been used for thousands of years. Today's detergents however are chemical products. The chemicals include foam boosters, perfumes, enzymes, cleaning agents, fillers and brighteners. If even a little of this substance gets in your eye, you can experience severe burns and eye damage. Ingestion of a small amount of detergent causes serious harm to the upper digestive tract. You should be very careful to avoid using detergent the way you would use ordinary soap. Washed in chemical detergents clothes become permeated with artificial perfumes and other residues that are ultimately irritating to the skin and the lungs. Enzyme detergents are often blamed for dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis, attacks of asthma, and flu like symptoms.

Frequently a person experiencing skin problems or even an outbreak of Acme that has been leading an otherwise healthy life, has no idea how what could have caused this outbreak. The answer is frequently attributed to the use of chemically-based laundry detergents. Switching to a biodegradable laundry detergent can have several benefits. At first however it should be noted that clothes may actually appear dirty because the biodegradable natural product will begin to pull out the chemical residues of the commercial detergents from the fabric. After a few washings however the clothes will be clean and bright. But most importantly the consumer will no longer suffer from detergent caused skin allergies.

Citation:

The New Science of Perfect Skin by Daniel Yarosh p115