companies need to start using safer cleaning products

Read the complete story for personal experiences that illustrate the benefits of green cleaners.
--pws

excerpts from http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/09/30/clean_goes_green/

Now, the Boston public schools are transforming themselves into greener houses of learning. Earlier this month, the superintendent unfurled an ecological manifesto, reiterating the switchover in 135 buildings, completed last year, to what officials believe are safer alternatives for day-in day-out cleaning.

"Boston public schools will provide and use more environmentally friendly effective cleaning products, which will greatly help those with asthma and allergies," Superintendent Carol Johnson declared.

Though not as sexy as fighting acid rain, global warming, or the desecration of rain forests, the environmental movement is turning its attention to indoor pollution, warning of dangers that may lurk in cleaning products used on living room furniture, in toilet bowls, and on desktops.

Yet advocates cite studies that allege possible links, from exposure on the job or at home, between some cleaning-product ingredients and fertility problems, birth defects, asthma, allergies, and other ailments.

It represents an offshoot of the green building trend and an emergent alliance between labor leaders and environmentalists fighting so workers won't suck in dangerous fumes. It's an effort to reduce childhood asthma, which the Boston Urban Asthma Coalition calls the number one chronic condition treated in the city's public schools.

It's also a nexus between personal health and planetary well-being, as those cleaning products suspected of causing bodily harm might also endanger bodies of water after being flushed down the drain - another charge the industry disputes.