Seriously toxic fumes come from your dryer!

The results from a really interesting study have recently been released from America, looking at the chemicals that come out of dryers when the clothes are washed in a leading brand of washing detergent. They found lots of seriously cancer causing agents in the fumes.

In fact, University of Washington researchers have pinpointed 25 compounds...including seven hazardous air pollutants and two carcinogens…wafting out of dryer vents. 

The study focused on three different scenarios:

• dryer-vent fumes from a load of pre-rinsed organic-cotton towels washed with no products, 
• one washed with a leading brand of scented liquid laundry detergent, 
• and finally one both washed with the detergent and later dried with a leading brand of scented dryer sheets.

The researchers placed a special canister inside the dryer vent to capture the exhaust 15 minutes into each of the three drying cycles. They were able to easily identify a number of hazardous cancer causing chemicals in the scented air of both of the loads that were treated with the laundry products.

This is a real health issue if you use your dryer a lot and also if the room your clothes drier is in is not vented properly. But even if these toxic fumes flow outside, they are pretty bad news for the environment too.

I highly recommend for this reason, and lots of other health reasons, that you consider switching to more natural detergents.

Be careful of the so called natural brands you find in the supermarket - this word is used very
flippantly on many products and often means nothing much.

Good natural brands are Ecover, B_E_E and Eco store.  And also Wendyl Nissan has some great recipes for making your own on her website www.wendylsgreengoddess.co.nz/

And seriously what is the point of those dryer sheets?  They are laden with cheap artificial fragrances.  Put a couple of drops of your favourite essential oil on a handkerchief and throw that in - save a lot of money and better for your health.

(Just a note for us Kiwi's - in America they use a lot of scented dryer sheets and also dry their clothes in dryers much more often than us)

So dry your clothes on your clothes line whenever you can! 

The link below takes you to an article with more information....

http://www.washington.edu/news/articles/scented-laundry-products-emit-hazardous-chemicals-through-dryer-vents