Why are our products “Safer to the User”?

The cleaning products we sell are the result of a Safer and Superior New Product Standard that has led to more than 160 “green” certified products by major governmental and non-profit organizations worldwide. The Standard is as follows: Safer for the Environment / Safer for Human Contact / Superior Performance / Superior Savings. Each and every product we sell must meet the Safer and Superior New Product Standard, which well exceeds governmental and institutional laws and regulations pertaining to “greener” and “safer” cleaning products. The Standard is meant to ensure that customers do not need to lose in performance and cost when switching to safer and more environmentally friendly cleaning products. We will address the second of the four parts of the Safer and Superior New Product Standard in this post.

Safer for Human Contact – This is our most important criteria. Low to No Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) – Volatile Organic Compounds are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary, room-temperature conditions. Their high vapor pressure results from a low boiling point, which causes large numbers of molecules to evaporate or sublimate from the liquid or solid form of the compound and enter the surrounding air. An example is formaldehyde, with a boiling point of –19 °C (–2 °F), slowly exiting paint and getting into the air. Many VOCs are dangerous to human health or cause harm to the environment. VOCs are numerous, varied, and ubiquitous. They include both man-made and naturally occurring chemical compounds. Most of our products have No VOC Content.  The only VOCs that our products may contain are materials commonly in our diets, like citric acid in a glass of orange juice or red wine, at levels where volatility is of no concern.
Low Toxicity – Toxicity is the degree to which a substance can damage living or non-living organisms. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a substructure of the organism, such as a cell or an organ, such as the liver. A central concept of toxicology is that effects are dose-dependent; even water can lead to water intoxication when taken in too many doses, whereas for even a very toxic substance such as snake venom there is a dose below which there is no detectable toxic effect. Our products contain only materials classified as non-toxic by common industry and government standards, like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Safer Ingredients – Our products are designed after many years and many millions of dollars invested in good chemistry to achieve extremely effective cleaning products while using mush Safer Ingredients.  Our products have been developed in a Partnership with the U.S. EPA’s Design for the Environment Program.  The Design for the Environment Program has identified safer alternative ingredients through partnerships with industry and environmental advocates like us. These safer alternatives are comparable in cost and are readily available. CleanGredients is the result of this collaboration and a U.S. EPA resource for safer ingredients.  For example, we dye many of our products for safer user identification, but we ONLY use dyes that are approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for human consumption.  That’s right, even though our products are meant for cleaning tough stains and soils they contain coloring agents used in beverages in order to lessen the potential adverse effect if accidentally or unintentionally consumed by a small child or disabled adult.

Our products are “Safer to the User“, because they have Low to No Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Low Toxicity, and Safer Ingredients.  With good chemistry we can clean very well without harmful effects on the person doing the cleaning, the people that come into contact with the surfaces or materials being cleaned, or anyone that breathes in the air where the cleaning has taken place or where the products have been exposed to the air and surroundings.