One of the primary active ingredients in most household and commercial cleaning products is a surfactant. A surfactant makes water wetter. Wetter water spreads across and wets surfaces better, to make cleaning easier.

For decades, common surfactants have been derived from petroleum, a non-renewable and toxic resource. One of these is nonylphenol ethoxylate (NPE), and then there is the whole class of alkylphenol ethoxylate surfactants (APEs). Use of these chemicals is severely restricted in virtually all western nations except America. An enlightening analysis of their potentially adverse affects on the environment and the human body can be ordered from the Washington Toxics Coalition.

So why do many cleaning product manufacturers in America still insist on using NPE and APEs even though they don’t use them in other western countries? Because they’re cheap!

There are alternatives. Cleaning products that use plant-based surfactants, for example. Plant-based surfactants are made primarily from renewable resources such as coconuts, corn and oranges and have a much better health, safety and environmental profile.

optionsforlife cleaning products, used properly, clean as well as conventional products 95% of the time and do so without harmful ingredients that may be found in conventional cleaners: