I ran out of liquid hand soap today. I use the liquid kind for two main reasons: 1) it's a little more hygienic than bar soap when you have many little hands to wash and 2) it's easy for the kids to use the pumps themselves. I have always bought soap in bulk, and refilled my many hand pumps with it.
However, I was beginning to feel uncomfortable using this bulk version. It is an anti-bacterial soap, containing triclosan. "Triclosan creates a known carcinogen, dioxin, as a by-product. Dioxin causes skin disorders and liver problems, and impairs reproductive functions and the immune system (to name a few effects)." (Lindsay Coulter, David Suzuki Foundation). Not the kind of thing I want to keep putting into my system or my children's.
When I finished the large refill jug this last time, I threw it out, knowing that I was starting this green challenge, and figuring I could find a recipe for home made hand soap fairly easily when the time came.
Well, today was the day. I reached under the kitchen sink for the refill jug, and remembered that I didn't have any.
Off to the computer I trotted. A quick Internet search brought me back to the Queen of Green (Lindsay Coulter) on the David Suzuki Foundation's website (http://www.davidsuzuki.org/publications/finding-solutions/e-version/2009/get-off-the-antibacterial-crazy-train/index.php) I have several other of her recipes for cleaning products, and really like them, so figured that hand soap would be a cinch.
And it is. I have all the ingredients and quickly mixed them up. The new hand soap does not have the creaminess to it that the other one does. In fact, it's more like diluted dish soap. But it cleans my hands, smells good, and doesn't have any chemical nasties in it. The next batch I make, I will adjust the castille soap to water ratio to see if I can get a "thicker" soap, but that's just personal preference.
No comments:
Post a Comment