Shelly wrote:
I would appreciate if you might be able to suggest a good source of info. that a non scientific person like myself could understand. Shelly
I'll see if I can find anything that adds to the Logen book. If you're up for it, making your own soap is one way to go.
Do I understand that the Orange TKO I use could also be a stress to the environment? I use for laundry stains and in lighter concentrations for cleaning mirrors, counters, floors...It's concentrated, but expensive so I try not to use a lot of it anyway.
Generally, I consider citrus oil harvested (and purified) from the fruit itself to be okay, depending on how it is used. I'd rather not use d-limonene that is derived from petroleum products (they may be the same end product, but the citrus oil processed from citrus peels is a by-product of food production). D-limonene is a terpene, so it isn't something I would want for heavy skin or respiratory exposure. I would guess that d-limonene biodegrades okay in the way that most people on this forum use it, but I don't believe it is good to have it in the surface water. I'm not sure how it fares in current municipal water treatment systems or in septic systems. As to biodegradability, it appears that it is, but not as fast as it could be. (That may explain in part its extended efficacy in fire ant mound treatments.) Still, I'll take d-limonene over most petro-solvents for situations where it is needed.
One other thing for those that do extractions from citrus peels is that it would be best to use organic citrus. It is not unusual for conventional citrus to be treated with synthetic fungicides, and I would not be surprised if a gross extraction pulls those into the extract along with the d-limonene. (I think the purification process for commercial orange oil products removes those to some extent.) The prospect of fungicide use on conventional citrus also should give pause to those people who dunk their lemon slices into their iced tea at restaurants...
Also, if you don't mind I have a few other questions for you. Do you know anything about products called Orange Glo. I did get an MSDS sheet from them, but since I don't know anything about the "chemicals" I can't determine if they are harmful or not. The MSDS lists Cold pressed orange oil 30% and Dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid triethanolamine salt 5-10%?
I would prefer to avoid anything that has a benzene structure -- it usually is pretty non-biodegradable and it invariably is a petroleum derivative. So, the dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid would not darken my cleaning cabinet. As for the TEA salt, TEA is poorly degradable, is harmful in aquatic environments, and, according to my latest information, is an experimental carcinogen. If someone has more current toxicity information, by all means post it. The practice of masking nasty ingredients by mixing them with nice orange oil really annoys me.
Also what is in club soda that makes it better than plain old water for cleaning?
As I understand it, the sodium citrate in club soda softens the water, which can enhance its cleaning power. Also, if you're using soda that still has good carbonation, the fizz helps float particles to the surface (which also is one of the chief benefits of using grocery strength hydrogen peroxide on cuts). There may be other reasons that club soda works better that aren't occurring to me at the moment.