Late March - cleaning chemistry

I have let this topic roll around in my head for several weeks now.  A month ago I completely changed my cleaning chemistry so I had to get comfortable with the new chemistry before I could type intelligently on on the topic.  So, I'll describe what I did use for about the last 5 years and I'll describe what I'm using now.  For real, never be afraid to change your mind.  

First some chemistry basics and vocabulary words.  
surfactants - compound that lowers the surface tension of a liquid and lowers the interfacial tension between 2 liquids and a solid, such as dirt in soap enhanced water.  It makes the water more watery, thinner. 
emulsion - a mixture of 2 or more unblendable liquids, like vinegar and oil don't mix but when an emulsifier is added the two come together.  Mayonnaise is an emulsion of oil, lemon and vinegar with an egg yolk emulsifier.  Soap in water emulsifies the dirt molecules and makes it disperse into the water and the water carries the dirt away in a rinse.  Laundry soap does the same thing adding the surfactant to make the water more watery to get into the fibers.  
volatile - evaporates quickly and is easily breathed.  Chemistry finds it's way to the bloodstream easily through the lungs.
disinfectant - applied to nonliving objects to reduce the possibility of infection.
antimicrobial - applied to living tissue to reduce the possibility of infection.
antibacterial - have been proven to act against bacteria.
antiseptic - opposing sepsis, putrefaction or decay by preventing or arresting the growth of microorganisms on living tissue.

Water and agitation/motion do the cleaning.  The water washes and rinses with a swish or a swipe.  Anything added to the water is there only to enhance the water.   The ratio of cleaner to water should be very slight.  Any cleaner added to the water will only be effective is evenly dispersed in the water.    

Imagine water molecules washing along and encountering something grimy.  It takes some time for the water molecules to soak in and break it up.  Time is a key ingredient to the cleaning equation.

So, here's the line ups
chlorine bleach, ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, borax, oxalic acid, oil soap (dish soap etc) you could even throw lemon juice and salt in there as well as a long list of specialty chemicals like triclosan as an antibacterial and dichlorobenzene in air fresheners.

Let's look at what we need to clean away
fluffy dust, fluffy dust left over time with gravity and changes in temperature and moisture making grime, oily hand print type grime, the biologicals being mites and spiders, bacteria, virus, mold and pollen, kitchen spills that often occur outside the kitchen and finally general dirt and pollution in from the outside.  

Most of the biologicals and dust are taken care of with good dusting and vacuuming technique.  Dusting requires only a cloth barely damp with water.  Don't bother with any dusting aid chemistry.  If your furniture warrants it, wipe it down once or twice a year with wood furniture oil.  That's it.  Dusting is all tool and technique and a slight bit of water.  Why waste money, time and added chemical exposure using anything but water?

So that realistically leaves grime, bacteria, virus and mold, kitchen spills and mud in from outside.  

What you use is of maximum importance, you are bringing these substances into your home and depending on them to keep you safe and to not cause harm nor to waste your time.  The dollars that you spend on these products is also of maximum importance.  Consider them to be dollar votes cast in favor of how these products are manufactured, packaged, shipped, advertised and the health and safety practices of the companies involved.  That is really huge and do not take this for granted nor think it doesn't matter.  Consider how much money manufacturers spend on advertising, packaging and shipping purely to get you to buy the product.  The more you know about a product the better decision you will make, the more mindful your vote.   

Looking back at the line up 
Chlorine - The ways and means of "bleaching" have been around since ancient times, chlorine was first used to bleach textiles in the late 1700 and in photography in early 1800 and as an antiseptic by mid 1800.  The US started using it to purify drinking water and to make PVC pipe (poly vinyl chloride) in early 1900.  It was used as chemical warfare about that same time. It is heavier than air so it collects in poorly ventilated areas and it becomes toxic to humans at only 30 ppm. that's parts per million.  Chlorine at levels used for disinfecting water supplies is safe for humans however other material in the water could react with the chlorine and create by-products that are harmful to human health, such as uric acid or ammonia for instance.   

Ammonia has been used since Roman times in salt form and was first industrially used by the Germans in World War I as an explosive when their supplies were cut off.  It has a lot of industrial uses because it is so far to the "base" side of the pH scale.  It is this extreme that is the basis of it's toxicity and it's cleaning ability.  By raising the pH of the water with ammonia, cells take damage, and eventually organisms die.  It also has the ability to make fats and oils more soluble in water and ammonia being extremely volatile, evaporates quickly and is lighter than air.  Ammonia fumes are harmful to human eyes and respiratory system and digestive tracts when inhaled.   

Both of these chemicals are deadly poisons and have been in our homes and our lives for about 3 or 4 generations now, long enough for the results of long term exposure to low level doses to reveal themselves.  I'm no chemist but I want more alternatives.  These products have terrible side effects if misused and I'm ready to leave 20TH century ideas behind.  Both of these cleaning products kill off bacterials, they do so by poisoning them.  

Hydrogen peroxide is an effective oxidizer, meaning it takes electrons from other substances.  It kills biologicals by chemically burning them.  This leaves much less residue and household strength (3 to 10%) hydrogen peroxide is only mildly harmful if it comes in contact with mucus membranes.  This solution can harm living tissue if left on contact for a prolonged period or with frequent usage. It is an effective bleaching agent and antiseptic given enough time to work.  Recently, there has been a movement away from chlorine and toward hydogen peroxide in waste water management since it's been found to be just as effective as chlorine with notible benefits to downstream operations.  The downside to hydrogen peroxide is that it is rather unstable, meaning it loses it effectiveness when exposed extremes of temperature or light, so it requires storage in the brown bottle.  

The rest of the common cleaning line up are generally nontoxic.  A significant dose of borax could do damage to skin and respiratory tracts, ingestion can lead to vomiting, diarrhea and stomach bleeding.  The main toxicity of oxalic acid is that it damages the kidneys if it ingested by supersaturating urine with calcium oxolate, the mineral most common in kidney stones.  Both borax (found in any number of household scrubs) and oxalic acid (Bar Keepers' Friend) have a bleaching effect, do a great job at scrubbing but require significant rinsing. There is a large family of "salts" baking soda, washing soda, etc, the upside to them being they neutralize the action of acids and bases, the two opposites of the pH scale.  Baking soda neutralizes the acids in our mouths and acts as an antiseptic, it also acts as a deodorant by neutralizing the odor causing chemistry.

So then, the internet is full of information on all of these chemicals, so I won't go on and on.  Up until a month ago, I was using Soft Scrub which is bleach based, common glass cleaner which is ammonia based, vinegar and water mixed to 1/4 vinegar to 3/4 water and I carried Comet scrubbing powder, bleach again, in case of a really tough stain on a tub or sink.  Having the bleach cleaners and ammonia cleaners in the same room made me nervous much less in the same cleaning caddy, but I was really mindful that they never came together on the same cleaning cloth nor on paper towels in the same trash can.  I mixed well about 1 tablespoon of Soft Scrub to 16 oz of water in a squirt bottle and used that to clean tub, tile, kitchen and bath sinks and toilet.  I never used glass cleaner on the bathroom mirror because 1) it's not necessary, I use water or water on a cloth with a small squirt of the soapy water and dry it by hand and 2) I didn't want it near the bleach based cleaner I was using.  Both chemistries are volatile, evaporating quickly and I held my breath if I could smell the bleach as it was.  No way was I going to allow them to mix in the air.  I used glass cleaner mixed about 1/4 cleaner to 3/4 water in a squirt bottle to clean hard floors.  The fact that it evaporates quickly is a bonus when mopping hardwood floors as hard wood hates water.  I also carried Murphy's Oil Soap mixed way down with water, around 1/2 tablespoon per half gallon for tile floors.  Enough soap to assist the water, but not enough to make the floor slippery.  One teaspoon soap per 16 oz water is a rich mixture and good for attacking hand prints on wood work when squirted onto a damp cleaning cloth.  The emulsifying and surfactant properties of just about any soap, hand soap, dish soap, etc are all about the same in my experience and really, it takes very little soap to assist the water to clean up grime, whether it be from hands and feet on woodwork and floors, water and impurities from the air condensing on bathroom walls, kitchen spills from coffee on the wall near the door or grease on the stove top or a sink full of dishes.  Hot water, a little soap (honestly one part dish soap per a hundred parts water is plenty of soap to wash your greasiest dishes, less if you don't cook with meats and oils on occasion) and good timing take care of most cleaning tasks.  The most important aspect of cleaning is to do it often and soon.  Don't let the coffee spills, catsup drips or soap scum built up in the bathroom  set for too long before you wipe it up.  The longer it sits, the more the moisture in each "soil" evaporates, the longer gravity works on the solid molecules left behind, the tighter they adhere to surface that needs to be cleaned, the more it attracts more "dirt".  

I used squirt bottles instead of spray bottles because the more dangerous of the chemicals are already volatile and when you spray with a spray bottle, the chemistry hangs in the air right where you are about to lean into to wipe.  There is no need for the chemistry to even diffuse into the air, it only needs to be applied to the surface to be cleaned or to the cleaning cloth and I usually squirted it onto the cloth.  I was extremely anti-spray bottle since the spray device can be poorly made on cheaper packaging and don't recycle well.  

Now, I use a hydrogen peroxide based commercial cleaner in spray bottles, the oil soap blend I used before and the vinegar water mix both in squirt bottles.  I ditched the Comet for Bar Keepers Friend, so I carry no more bleach nor ammonia and I couldn't be happier.  The manufacturer I buy the hydrogen peroxide based cleaner from has found a way to make the peroxide more stable so it isn't light sensitive but it still must not be frozen.  It comes in a concentrate and is diluted way down for use and is called Envirox 118. It is in use in many hospitals, schools, restaurants and other food service areas.  I'm not sure if there are any household cleaners available based on peroxide yet, I haven't seen any, but the internet has many cleaning websites that champion the use of household peroxide for cleaning and personal care.    Here are a few websites I've found useful.
 http://www.enviroxclean.com/about-us/the-envirox-story/
http://www.mamashealth.com/ has very good cleaning chemistry information
http://greengoeswitheverything.com/   this book is excellent!
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/h/hydrogen-peroxide.htm
next I'll continue with chemistry and discuss other green cleaners and more about my new cleaning style.