Study Finds Dangerous Chemicals In Our Cleaning Products

The Silent Spring Institute has released the first of it's kind study about the ingredients found in numerous cleaning products. They also found that some of the so called "green" products had dangerous chemicals in them. The study was looking for 66 different chemicals that were a health concern. Household cleaners do not have their ingredients listed on their labels.This study may spark the process in getting the government to require the manufacturers to list the ingredients. The ingredients they were concerned with are linked to asthma, cancer and growth hormones. You can see the Channel 5 Boston news report at this link:  http://www.thebostonchannel.com/health/30637634/detail.html

On a separate note, in the comment section of this article, a young woman states she uses vinegar and bleach for cleaning. This sounds like a natural alternative to chemical cleaners, but in reality mixing bleach and vinegar can create a toxic chlorine gas. Someone reading this comment would think the bleach/vinegar mixture would be a great alternative, but in reality they would be creating something very dangerous.

We need to remember that chemicals are dangerous. Mixing bleach with even something as safe as vinegar can create a chemical cocktail. That is why I suggest using natural items from your pantry and using great care so that don't hurt yourself and your family or your pets.

If you would like to read the actual study, you can find it here at http://www.thebostonchannel.com/download/2012/0308/30637602.pdf

And here is a summary of the report: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/download/2012/0308/30637569.pdf

How to Clean a Pot With Caked-On Crud!

It's an all too frequent event when a simple distraction leads you to leave something on the stove for just a few minutes overtime, and nothing looks more daunting in your pile of dishes than that crusty caked mess on the bottom of your favorite pot. However, with these few simple tips, you won't have to leave it soaking for hours. You can remove that grime easily and quickly with some basic products that you have lying around the house. With the techniques I've included in this video, nothing will stop you from keeping your pots spotless.

Breast Cancer Awareness- Small Changes - Big Results

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Check out this video to learn that small changes can make a big difference. And share this video with someone you love.

Fox TV -Living Well With Leslie Reichert, The Cleaning Coach

Cleaning coach Leslie Reichert joined FOX 25 Morning News to talk about how switching to “green cleaning” can not only help the environment, but also keep families and pets safe from hidden toxins and health risks.

Watch this at My Fox Boston

I'm very excited to introduce you to Ava and her business; Ava Anderson Non-Toxic. Ava is a young woman that is changing the way cosmetic business works in the US. Her business has just been nominated as an Emerging Entrepreneur of 2011 by Entrepreneur Magazine! You can go to this link and vote for her company. She was recently highlighted in an article by Eco RI News. Below is the article. Watch a young woman make a difference!

Skin-Product Company Thrives Under Teen CEO
By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

Barrington resident Ava Anderson was one of this year's Clean Water Action/Ocean State Action environmental achievement award winners. (Tim Faulkner/ecoRI news)WARREN — Read the back of the label, not the front. It's a practice most health-concious consumers follow while shopping for food, but not always when buying toothpaste, deodorant and sunscreen.

Ava Anderson Non-Toxic, a skin-care company based locally, is helping broaden the public's label-inspection habits with a simple premise: What goes on your body is just as important as what goes in it.

Trouble is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn't have jurisdiction over personal-care products like it does with food. So companies don't always list every ingredient on their moisturizer or shampoo. In fact, there are some 600 chemicals that qualify as a "proprietary" fragrance or parfum that don't need to be disclosed.

So in 2009, at just 15, Ava Anderson, a Barrington resident and high school student at Moses Brown in Providence, started a for-profit business to educate consumers about the pervasive and harmful chemicals in everyday products — chemicals that if not absorbed by the body eventually wash down the drain and work their way into the environment, drinking water and food supply.

Following in the footsteps of her grandfather Charles Collis, former owner of Princess House, a successful giftware company in Taunton, Mass., Ava adapted the direct sales, party-plan approach to selling personal-care products. The person-to-person model helps deliver an alternative perspective to the feel-good branding from companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Clorox and even Tom's of Maine, companies that sell "trusted" products with unsafe and unhealthy ingredients consumers have dabbed and lathered on their skin for decades. Read more here

Life.Style with Christine Koh

Leslie Cleans Up On FOX News

Here are some of the things we talked about while cleaning up at the FOX News studio. I showed Danielle some of the great new products you can use for greening your cleaning. Some of my favorites are Whatever by BetterLife and Modern Mermaids all purpose cleaner. I also brought my favorite "blue" cloth to clean all the stainless steel and glass. And instead of paper towels, try a Skoy cloth. See cleaning can be fun if you have the right tools!

A visit to Dunia in Maynard, Ma

I was lucky enough to spend the day with Paige from Dunia - an Earth-friendly store for your home, your body and your soul. Dunia is the perfect place to find treasures for yourself or your eco-friends. Stop in frequently as Paige has new items coming in all the time. You can see a sample of her store at www.dunia-ecostore.com but the real fun is experiencing it in person. Trust me, it is worth the trip. Dunia is located in downtown Maynard, which has some other great stores for your shopping experience. Enjoy!

Watch Green Clean TV - A Green Scrub for your kitchen

Follow me in the video above and we will mix up a "green scrub" that you can use in the kitchen. Today we are going to clear off our kitchen counters and scrub* them down. If you ever watch a professional chef, they always start with a clean, clear counter with only the things they will be using left out. Try thinking like a professional and clear off the clutter. Put away things you won't be using during Thanksgiving dinner. Enjoy the video as you are watching the first episode of Green Clean TV! Happy Cleaning!

Peed Off

Imagine my surprise when I got an email from someone saying my "recipe" in the First for Women magazine worked. I wasn't surprised the recipe - an SOS for a pee soaked mattress - actually worked. It was the fact that I didn't know I was quoted in the magazine! I'm not going to repeat poor Carmela Bellocchio's story - you can read about that yourself on page 111 of the October 5 issue. But I will share the recipe! And, as I said to the author- it's guaranteed to work!

Tactic to fight urine stains and smells:

First, flush the area with water. After 5 minutes, use a wet vac or paper towels to soak up the excess liquid. Next, mix up a neutralizing spray of equal parts white vinegar and water to spritz on the mattress. Allow it to dry, then sprinkle baking soda on the spot. Let it sit overnight, then vacuum it up in the morning. The odor will be gone!

One Cool Show! Good Taste! Pittsburgh

I just found this on youtube! I had such fun working with the Hearty Boys and the other celebrity chefs. You can see more at http://tinyurl.com/m5j3r8 This was such a great show! One of the highlights, besides my talk :-), was the cake decorating contest. Picking a winner must have been hard. I would have suggested taste tests :-0 You can see all the different entries at their blog. Real talent! I'm glad I didn't have to clean up after that!

Green 4 My School

After the segment by ABC Channel 5 in Boston, a lot of my readers wanted more information about this great green fundraiser. The blue cloth that David Brown used to clean the glass on TV that day was called an E-Cloth. This cloth can take the place of chemical cleaners and paper towels in your home. It is really wonderful and the fundraiser couldn't be easier. No forms, no door to door selling and no collecting money! Everything you hate about fundraisers has be removed so all you have to do is sell a great GREEN product.

Check out more about the program at www.green4myschool.com or email me for more information. Make your school fundraiser fun and green this year!!

Channel 5 @ the Northbridge Middle School

Look who came to visit the

Middle School!

Green Cleaning can be fun!!

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/19405790/

The kids at the Northbridge Middle School got a great surprise while learning to green clean! Not only did we mix up some great cleaners that they could take home and use in those "nasty" bathroom sinks, but they got their faces on the Channel 5 ABC News!!! See cleaning can be fun!

By the way, the cloth my "little green guy" is using is an E-cloth and David Brown did mention it in this segment. The program is called www.green4myschool.com and if your interested you can contact me for more information! It is a great way to raise money and awareness for your school.

David Brown, from Channel 5 Boston has a green "mailbag" every Sunday morning. Today the question was:

I like the smell of a clean house... but understand that the clean smell that I'm used to is the result of harsh chemicals... any advice on greener cleaning products?

Barbara

Dighton

And guess where David sent her- right here to the Cleaning Coach! Click here to view the link. Welcome Barbara and everyone else trying to take the chemicals out of cleaning. I'm here to help. David's first piece of advice was to buy The Joy of Green Cleaning, which can be downloaded as an ebook. For more tips and ideas see my list on the left for specific catagories or email me with questions.

Another Friday Night!
What a wonderful week. I was lucky enough to be invited back to Whole Foods for another hands-on workshop. I love doing them, because they always turn into mastermind groups. This workshop was a real treat. We had a mom that is a Ovarian Cancer survivor, along with a brand new mom who brought her little one in a back pack. (It’s never too early to start teaching them to clean!). I had a great time and even learned a few more things you can do with baking soda. Did you know if you mixed up baking soda and water into a paste it will clean the burnt on spots on your iron. Another great tip!

Providence decides to Clean Green

Eco-friendly cleaning solutions
Eyewitness News Green Team
Last Edited: Thursday, 20 Nov 2008, 10:46 AM ESTCreated On: Wednesday, 19 Nov 2008, 4:43 PM EST
- Eyewitness News Green Team Reporter Pete Mangione shows you how to help the environment when cleaning your home.
She's been called the Martha Stewart of green cleaning. Green cleaning coach Leslie Reichart started out running her own cleaning business with all the traditional products.
But after becoming sensitive to some of the chemicals, she became concerned and did something about it.
Click here for more information on the Green Cleaning Coach .

"...this is where the cleaning coach comes in..."

Pittsburgh learns how to green their cleaning from the Cleaning Coach!

The Green Cleaning Experience as reported by Channel 22 News

The green cleaning experience
March 31, 2008 6:06 p.m.CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) Leslie Reichert has a one of a kind job that you probably didn't even know existed. She's a green cleaning coach. When she stopped by the 22News studio on Monday she didn't come alone. She had all sorts of products and cleaners to show us just how accessible cleaning with an eye to the environment can be.
Many of these "green" tools focus on minimizing waste and chemical usage. The sponges and towels that fill her shelves can remove grime from dishes and surfaces with out the use of harsh cleaners. In fact, many of the cleaning tools require little more than water to achieve a sparkling surface.
The motivation behind incorporating these items in your cleaning regiment is the fact that they are either reusable or biodegradable. Take the "skoy" towel for example... After about a month of use, this in-between of a paper towel and fabric rag can be buried in your yard to degrade naturally! Just remember to use it with only water or natural products if you plan on leaving it outdoors.
Other products can be thrown in with the laundry when they're dirty: towels, dusters, and mops.
Leslie also has a whole army of green cleaners. From dish soap to odor absorbers, natural products can give you the same result as typical store bought cleaners.
We asked Leslie if one should expect to pay more for green cleaners. Her response was reflected in the labels of her products. Although you may pay more money up front for the product, they will last longer than typical cleaners and the bill balances out. Most of the cleaners are sold in concentrated formulas. Dilution into a reusable spray bottle extends the life of your purchase far beyond that of the "use-straight-out-of-the-bottle" bleach or average cleaner.
For more information on cleaning products and techniques, visit Leslie's Cleaning Website and Store Website. You can also find some natural cleaners in some high end grocery stores.
by Shiri Spear, 22News

Green Cleaning on Boston Channel 5

Just in case you missed Channel 5 News with David Brown, here is the clip of our class!

David Brown from Channel 5 News visits the Back Door

We had a special guest at our last Green Cleaning Class! David Brown from Channel 5 Boston News stopped in to see the newest tools and tips on green cleaning! According to David we should be on tonight's news January 21- at the end of the 11:00 show! If you have a cup of real coffee at 8:00 pm, you'll be up with me at 11:30. If you miss it - we will see if we can get you a link to Channel 5's web site. Happy Cleaning!