Before you use a fabric softener, please read this!
Most of us do our best to keep our homes and bodies free of toxic chemicals. We clean “green” and we try to eat as much organic as possible. But sometimes we don’t notice that products we use everyday might actually be very harmful to our health.
Take fabric softeners, for example. The mainstream fabric softeners on the market today contain nine known toxic chemicals ranging from Alpha-Terpineol to Pentane.
How do these chemicals get into our bodies? Most of our life is spent in clothes, right? Fabric softeners are designed to stay in the fibers of our clothes and “soften” them so they feel good next to our skin. Our skin is our largest organ and easily and freely absorbs whatever is in direct contact with it. Therefore it only makes sense that the toxic chemicals used to create fabric softeners end up in our clothes which then end up in our skin which then affects our entire body, including our central nervous system. The toxins present in mainstream fabric softeners have been linked to cancer, asthma, allergens, hormone disruption and more.
And no, it’s not just me who has made this connection. The Environmental Working Group has been working on getting the word out, too. Here’s a great blog post they wrote abou the subject back in 2011: http://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2011/11/dont-get-slimed-skip-fabric-softener
What to do? Try pouring ½ cup of white vinegar into your laundry when it’s on the rinse cycle. No, you won’t smell the vinegar, but it will leave your clothes nice and soft.