Make Cleaning Eco-Friendly: Less Anti-Bacterial Cleaning

Now, I am not advocating slovenliness or living in filth by any means. However, we can get a little too obsessed with cleanliness. We forget that hot soapy water will clean most things perfectly well. When we want to use something more 'technical' than soapy water we usually do not actually need very much of it. Those chemicals to target bacteria and viruses can really be overkill.

Of course I want to visit clean hospitals where every effort to reduce the chance for infections has been made. In that sort of environment I would expect strong disinfectants and anti-bacterial cleaners to be used regularly. However, even when they are we have proved time and time again that the bacteria, fungi and other micro-organisms are never truly gone. What does not destroy them, makes them stronger!

This is why 'super-bugs' are so prevalent. One bacteria mutates to avoid our anti-bacterial agents and then is able to breed at an astonishing rate as its competitors have been wiped out and we have no way of removing it. If we use less harsh Eco cleaners we remove some bacteria but not all. We don't give them the motivation to keep mutating into stronger and more resilient strains.

At least when we come into contact with these ordinary common bacteria our bodies are familiar with them. On the whole we can live with them, already having built up a degree of immunity through familiarisation. Meet a new 'superbug' however and our bodies do not know what they're dealing with. Subsequently we get much more serious illnesses related to them.

It is widely accepted that respiratory illnesses, asthma and allergies have increased exponentially over the last century, particularly amongst children in the developed world. We have a double barrel of causes. On the one hand we encounter fewer small stable levels of bacteria, so when we do meet some we respond negatively. Secondly, our respiratory tracts and skin are constantly bombarded by chemical residues as our homes become more polluted than the streets, purely because of all those cleaning products.

The media is awash with 'swine flu' panic fever at the moment. But, what are we advised to do to combat this threat - wash our hands with running water and soap! Simple! We do not need to bleach every surface in our homes or annihilate every micro-organism we meet - simply wash our hands regularly.

Eco friendly cleaning is primarily about removing dirt not trying to sterilise the planet. We should remember to focus our green cleaning on this one task. Of course certain things need to be 100% disinfected but most don't. Even if you do disinfect your floor so your toddler can happily eat his dinner from it, did you disinfect your shoes? Your feet? Make cleaning Eco friendly, do not be afraid of the world even if it is full of microbes!