Child Alert: Chemical-Free Cleaning

North Shore Magazine (Feb-Mar, 2005)
Helen Hardisty

What you don't know, won't hurt you, right? Wrong in this case, particularly if you have children, pets or asthma/allergy/cancer sufferers (to name a few) in your home, or because you simply don't wish to bring toxic chemicals into your environment.

With indoor air 3 to 70 times more polluted than outdoor air, it's time to look seriously at what cleaning products we use.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has formally acknowledged that children need extra protection from cancer-causing chemicals and have said that gene-harming chemicals that cause cancer are up to 65 times more potent when exposures occur during childhood.  Babies and toddlers have 10 times greater cancer risk than adults when exposed to certain chemicals, in part because relative to their size, children eat, drink and breathe more than adults.  More imporantly, their metabolism is very different from ours.  The main organ for detoxification is the liver, and the livers in infants are quite sluggish, so small amounts of harmful pollutants are likely to affect children more than adults.

Oncologists recommend pople with cancer stay away from anything but natural cleaning products, and warn us to be cautious of "environmentally friendly" labels.  With no regulations and no necessity to list ingredients, many so-called environmentally friendly products contain very harmful pollutants.  It makes a lot of sense to use pure and natural products made of botanical soaps, baking soda, vinegar, tee tree oil, lemon juice, and lavender, especially if they are effective!

Here on the North Shore we are exceptionally lucky to have Alicia Sokolowski and her team at AspenClean, a natural home cleaning service. Using chemical-free products and techniques, this team seems to have everything going for it. First of all, customers are thrilled with the results; even stubborn challenges are easily met.  Secondly, the non-toxic products mean, for instance, that people who used to experience headaches after other agencies had cleaned their houses, now don't; that new Mothers with babies know they can stay at home safely while the cleaning is being done, and so on.  Check out the veriety of testimonials on their excellent web site www.aspenclean.com One of the employees, an asthma sufferer who needed to use her inhalator twice a day, has been able to reduce that to once every few weeks.  All the employees say they are in better health.  The job is still physically demanding, but they are less tired at the end of a day, and their hands are in better shape from gentle products.

So we have products that work and are safe, we have satisfied customers and employees, now what about price?  And that's good new too - prices are very competitive with other cleaning companies, and a wide range of services are available.  Service is offered from Lions Bay to Deep Cove, plus the greater Vancouver area.

One of the products the team uses is super-absorbent microfiber cloths.  Whereas cotton pushes dirt, microfiber absrobs it.  With a range of cloths for windows, dusting, bath, kitchen and general purpose, these hypoallergenic and quick drying cloths have been so much in demand by customers, that they are now for sale at The Vitamin House in Dundarave and Healthworks in Edgemont Village.

A Sweetheart Deal

Give your sweetheart the gift of a clean house.  Buy her a gift certificate on-line and she will receive a free rose and will be entered into a draw to win $100 worth of free dry cleaning at Carousel Cleaners.  A special deal covers both the practical and the romantic - a perfect Valentine's solution.  Visit www.aspenclean.com  or phone: 604 925-9900.