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Green Laundry: Getting Techie
The dirt on conventional detergents
Laundry detergents and laundry stain removers frequently contain alkylphenol ethoxylates, or APEs, which are common surfactants. Surfactants, or surface active agents, are chemicals that make surfaces more susceptible to water, allowing cleaners to easily penetrate stains and wash them away. APEs can damage the immune system, and they're suspected hormone disruptors, which means they can mimic hormones in the body that regulate reproduction and development. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has also warned that ethoxylated alcohol surfactants, such as APEs, may be contaminated with carcinogenic 1,4-dioxane, which penetrates skin.
Reasons to avoid chlorine bleach
Chlorine bleach, otherwise known as sodium hypochlorite, is highly caustic and may cause skin irritation and redness. Its fumes can irritate eyes, noses and airways, and it can be fatal if swallowed. According to the EPA, 26,338 children were exposed to or poisoned by household chlorine bleach in 2002. Chlorine also poses a hazard because it can react with other cleaners to form toxic gases. If mixed with cleaners containing ammonia, chlorinated cleaning products form lung-damaging chloramine gases, according to the BBC. Chlorine mixed with acids, such as those in some toilet bowl cleaners, can form toxic chlorine gas, which can damage our airways.
When released to waterways, chlorine bleach can create organochlorines, that can contaminate drinking water. Organochlorines, which are suspected carcinogens as well as reproductive, neurological and immune-system toxins, have also been known to cause developmental disorders, and are some of the most enduring compounds. Once introduced into the environment it can take years, or even decades, for them to break down to less damaging forms.
The scoop on energy efficiency standards
Federal attempts to regulate consumer appliance efficiency started with the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, which established appliance efficiency targets, but did not set efficiency standards.
So, the world waited until January 1, 1994 for the first clothes washer standard to be implemented. Initially, clothes washer efficiency was calculated using the clothes washer "Efficiency Factor," calculated with the following equation: (EF) = C/(ME+HE), where C is the capacity of the washer in cubic feet, ME is the electricity drawn from an outlet by the machine for one wash cycle, and HE is the energy used to heat water for one wash cycle.
On January 1, 2004 the Department of Energy (DOE) changed its method for calculating the standard from EF to "Modified Energy Factor," the calculation of which is (MEF) = C/(ME+HE+DE), where DE is the dryer energy needed to dry a load based on residual moisture content in the clothes and load size. The DOE set the 1994 minimum EF at 1.18 (or the approximate MEF equivalent of 0.8176). This was not changed until 2004, when the calculation switch was implemented. At that time DOE raised the minimum standard MEF for all washers to 1.04, an increase of approximately 27.3 percent increase. To earn an Energy Star qualification, the DOE also required that models achieve an MEF of 1.42. Then, on January 1, 2007, the department again raised the minimum MEF standard to 1.26, a 21.2 percent increase, which is where we stand today. The whole history is available from the DOE's office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (pdf).
Vinegar in the washer?
Why do we recommend adding a cup of vinegar to the wash instead of fabric softeners? Most commercial distilled white vinegars contain 5% acetic acid--that's CH3COOH for anyone scoring at home--and have a pH of about 2.4 (that's on the acidic end of things); most laundry soaps have a pH between 8 and 10 (on the basic end). So the vinegar helps neutralize the pH (neutral water occupies the middle of the pH scale at 7), wash the soap out of the fabrics, leaving just your clothes' fluffy goodness behind. Ahhh.
[by CD]
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