misconceptions

[Gerianne]

there are so many misconceptions in this world.
Some people think that a cleaning product has to be strong (toxic) to work....
not true.....

[alice44]

I like to make my own cleaning products.  That way I know what is in them.

[lvstephanie]

there are so many misconceptions in this world.
Some people think that a cleaning product has to be strong (toxic) to work....
not true.....

I guess by "toxic" you mean to humans... It does need to be toxic for the microbes in order to be effective, however. Even the surfactants in a mild soap are toxic to microbes in that it traps them so that they can be washed off.

As for misconceptions there are a few that really annoys me...

The first is that "all natural" is safe / healthy. However if you think about it, the germs that infect you are "all natural" and no one would call those healthy or safe. And I know where this misconception usually comes from (at least from the pharmaceutical end)... Someone will hear of all of the side-effects from using a certain drug to treat their illness, but then for the natural products treating the same thing will claim that there are no side-effect. Actually that is not entirely true... the natural products don't have any reported side-effects because they are not required to record or report any side-effects. Whereas pharmaceutical drugs have to undergo rigorous testing and must report every side-effect that occurred during those trials. Even if only one person in a study of 1000 patients reported getting headaches after taking the product, the regulations require the drug company to report that as a possible side-effect, whether or not there is any causal relationship that can be established between taking the drug and that particular side-effect. Things always look a lot better when you don't have to point out the problems with it.

The other misconception that annoys me is that "chemical free" is healthy / safe. Technically water is a chemical, the oxygen that we breathe is a chemical element, basically everything physical thing is made up of chemicals. So how can anything be "chemical free" and still work?! Usually when they say the product is "chemical free" they just mean that it either doesn't have any man-made chemicals or that it doesn't have any chemicals that are toxic to humans and other large animals (by "large" I mean larger than a single-celled organism).

[msmoneybags48]

There are so many misconceptions about everything.  There are rumors about antibacterial soap, chemical-free does not mean there are not chemicals in it just as toxic free does not mean that it is not toxic.  Whether something is added or subtracted, it still something that makes it an item a person should take precautions in handling that item.  Makes you wonder what is safe.  For instance, you can use all the hand sanitizer you can, but it does not mean you will get sick.  Hand sanitizer reduces the risk of a person getting sick.  The best precaution is avoiding contact with that person who is sick, and there are no guarantees you will still not get sick.  People can be sick and still have no qualms about making you sick.