I don’t mean to sound seditious here, but I have a rebellious plan to
combat the ills that many corporations are perpetrating in the name of
fighting grime and germs.
My main gripe is about the environmental
pollutants from cleaning and personal care products that we wash down
our drains and into our water systems, resulting in situations like the
chemical triclosan (a pesticide added to many products as an antibacterial agent) being found in dolphins.
So the simple plan is to encourage everyone to use baking soda in any of
these 51 applications. Besides showing kindness to aquatic life, we can
also protect ourselves from the array of toxins in household cleaning
products. Conventional cleansers can expose us to multiple chemicals
linked to asthma, cancer, and other documented health problems.
Baking soda also makes a perfect
stand-in for many personal care products, which are adding their own
twist to the toxic tangle of pollutants and personal health (mainly in
the form of synthetic fragrance (and it’s almost all synthetic), sodium laurel sulfate, and parabens).
So
exactly how does baking soda fit into my scheme to make the world a
better place? Baking soda, aka sodium bicarbonate, helps regulate
pH—keeping a substance neither too acidic nor too alkaline. When baking
soda comes in contact with either an acidic or an alkaline substance,
it’s natural effect is to neutralize that pH.
Beyond that, baking soda
has the ability to retard further changes in the pH balance, known as
buffering. This dual capability of neutralizing and buffering allows
baking soda to do things such as neutralize acidic odors (like in the
refrigerator) as well as maintain neutral pH (like in your laundry
water, which helps boost your detergent’s power).
It’s a simple
reaction, but one that has far-reaching effects for a number of cleaning
and deodorizing tasks. And so without further ado, I’ll remove my
scientist cap, put on my rebellious housekeeper’s cap, and get this
folk-wisdom revolution rolling…
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