Deidre Imus' Clean Green House

The book I quoted above is the subject of this lens, although it's really about a whole lot more. The book is "Green This, Volume One" by Deirdre Imus. In the book, Ms Imus dares to question something most of us take for granted: Is the way we clean our houses and ourselves killing us?

My interest in this subject is more than passing. My mother died of complications arising from breast cancer. Like many women, she survived two rounds with the disease, but didn't have the strength to win round three. She was 62.

That seemed awfully young to me, so her premature passing planted the question in my mind as to what my fate might be. Would I be dead at her age? Was death by cancer inevitable, or could we do something about it? If genetic shortcomings cannot be changed, what about lifestyle factors?

No, I didn't change my life immediately, but as time passed, some things began to add up. One of the moments of clarity I had was when my friend Amy started a green regimen in her house. I couldn't see the point until she showed me what's in the stuff we use to clean our houses, and how it's made. Her point was that there are alternatives, that there are better ways of scrubbing the bath and brushing our teeth than we were brought up understanding.

No-one deliberately sets out to add heavy metals or carcinogens to their body. Most of us are simply unthinking about it, blissfully unaware that the simple act of washing the dishes or cleaning the bathroom is adding to the toxin load our bodies must deal with.

Like you, I learned about cleaning the house from my mother. She went to the supermarket, and along with food and drink, loaded up the cart with all that gunk from the cleaning aisle. There was clothes-washing detergent in a big colourful box with big colourful printing (that smelled like nothing on earth), the bathroom stuff (that smelled just as awful) and my favourite, the window cleaner, that blue junk in a clear spray bottle (that would make you high if you sniffed.)

What Ms Imus does is to dissect these standard household items, telling us just why they smell so horrid, and why the ingredients are doing us damage, spray by spray. By deconstructing the incomplete and misleading labels of everyday cleaners, she shows how potentially rotten they are.

But much more importantly, we find out that there are alternatives, that we can redress the tyranny of the petrochemicals, and make small changes to make a big difference.

After taking us on a tour of what we're dumping into our houses and our bodies, there's good news. After the horror of the truth, the reprieve - Ms Imus gives us ideas on how to clean up our cleaning act. There are recipes for cleaning agents and ideas of better ways to scrub the shower. It's not riveting reading (as much as the early eye-popping chapters) but the book is a great resource.

What's my point in all this? Simple. When I saw what Amy was doing at her house I wanted in. Like me, she wasn't into making vinegar-based cleaners from scratch. Neither was she interested in boiling her shirts in starch, or going without makeup. She wanted to improve the baseline toxicity in her life - not move back to the 14th century.

After some research and asking around, she found a company that makes precisely the kinds of household products Ms Imus advocates. This company was founded in the mid-eighties with the idea that people would eventually come back to the idea that natural is best, that the best of nature and scientific method can keep our houses and bodies clean without harm.

Now I am proud to say that I sell their products. In fact, more importantly, I use and love their products. My experiences with them have been nothing but first-class, and in individual cases, life-changing. I'm more than a salesman, I'm an advocate.

Perhaps you are interested too? No pressure, no gimicky sales stuff. Email me, and I'll show you what I do. Who knows, it might change your life too.

tim_reedman@yahoo.com