Book Review: Green This! Greening Your Cleaning

Green This! Greening Your Cleaning by Deidre Imus (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007)

The good
Green This! is an excellent primer on toxins in the home. The book begins with Deidre Imus's own commitment to reducing her toxic burden and then presents the facts behind such topics as indoor air pollution and health problems caused by environmental toxins in the home. green This! then takes a room-by-room approach to cleaning, providing green alternative to cleaning the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living areas, and the laundry room.

The book is punctuated by brief but interesting (and hair-raising) "toxic interruptions" in which Deidre Imus presents facts about chemicals in everyday products. For example, she warns readers about phenol, "a known mutagen and suspected carcinogen":

Oral exposure to large amounts of phenol has been linked to anorexia, reduced fetal body weight, abnormal development, and growth retardation.

Phenol can also interfere with the ability of the blood to carry oxygen and cause bronchitis to develop. . . Despite these perils, phenols are used in many different consumer products: throat lozenges, ointments, ear and nose drops, and mouthwashes. Household cleaners that may contain phenols include disinfectants and all=purpose cleaners, furniture polishes and waxes, metal polishes and cleaners, and laundry detergents.

The resources section at the end of the book provides a glossary of terms used in the book, places to purchase green cleaning products, a glossary of chemicals found in conventional cleaning products, tips on reading labels, and a note on sources of more information on the issues raised by the book.

100% of the author's profits from the book benefit the family's Cattle Ranch for Kids with Cancer.


The (potentially) bad
The book isn't written for the do-it-yourselfer, in that there are relatively few recipes for environmentally friendly cleaning products you can make at home, and you may already know of some of these recipes--for example, using salt, warm water, and lemon juice to clean copper and brass. Instead of providing recipes for cleaning everything in the home, Imus offers a resources section at the back of the book that lists companies that manufacture green cleaning products--including, of course, her own company.

A few reviewers at Amazon.com have found the book to be preachy, but I found myself nodding along with Imus's concerns. Sure, there were a few moments where I felt Imus was a bit brusque (e.g., on microwave ovens: "I don't approve of them, but if you have one and inist on using it. . ."). If you're already on board with the green movement and you can overlook these occasional scoldings, your reaction likely will be similar to mine: when there's good information to be had in a book, the author's celebrity (and accompanying occasional arrogance) means little to me.


Book-buying advice
Put aside any hard feelings you may have toward Imus's family (she's married to the former shock jock Don Imus), and purchase the book for yourself or for friends and family. Consider it an investment in your health or theirs.

Purchase at Amazon.com.

Purchase at independent bookseller Powells.com (e-books also available at this link).

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