It would seem that today we have every opportunity to clean up the house without harm to health and beauty. No more washing by hand, ironing with iron irons, rinsing in ice water. But not everything is so simple. During cleaning, cleaning products can harm us.
Both at home and in the office, we somehow deal with cleaning products. The harmful elements contained in them can enter our body, which negatively affects health and appearance. Inflammation, ulcers, and breathing problems may appear.
The skin of the hands and face is especially affected, redness, itching, peeling appear. In addition, “household chemicals” are harmful to internal organs. Under its influence, the condition of the kidneys, lungs and liver worsens, immunity decreases. Not only do we look worse, we also feel worse.
For example, anionic surfactants (surfactants), which are part of cleaning products, act on the stratum corneum of the skin and “wash out” its lipids. With prolonged exposure, surfactants penetrate into the deep layers of the epidermis, destroy cell membranes that are responsible for the production of lipids. As a result, the skin becomes dry and thin.
However, it will not be possible to do without surfactants at all, so you should pay attention to safer products, which include non-ionic and cationic substances. They are less harmful to the skin.
“Tested by time” not only works, but also harms
How to protect yourself from the harmful effects of cleaning products? Often we use the same thing for years, trust unconditionally grandmother’s recipes and do not pay attention to the harm that old remedies cause to health. After all, they usually include bleach and alkaline soap.
Experiments* have shown that alkali destroys the stratum corneum of the skin. Alkaline soap solutions are very dangerous, as well as bleach, or scientifically – sodium hypochlorite. It not only oxidizes everything that is processed with it, but also poisons the skin. Figuratively speaking, it allows the good bacteria living on its surface to “soap”. Products containing sodium hydroxide should be avoided.
Attention! Composition!
Choose softer substances. For example, in order to kill a virus, it is enough to slightly open the protein “box” in which its RNA is hidden (ribonucleic acid is one of the three main macromolecules (along with DNA and proteins).
In the arsenal of science there are quite a few rather “soft” means that can do this. Among them are lactic and citric acids, hydrogen peroxide, soda, non-ionic and cationic surfactants and quaternary ammonium compounds (QAC) based on benzalkonium chloride. They are not so dangerous for the health of the skin and its beneficial microflora. Do not miss staphylococcus or streptococcus, successfully cope with viruses.
Of course, these tools should not be abused. And do not forget to put on gloves, smear your hands with a thick layer of protective cream: this way no chemical irritant will break through to our epidermis.
About the Developer
Ancha Baranova — biologist, specialist in the field of personalized medicine, genetics and human pathophysiology. Expert in functional genomics and systems biology.
* https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26184480/
** https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24581509/