Naturally clean: eco-friendly cleaning: safety is a big reason green products are in demand.(Brief Article)

Environmentally conscious shoppers don't want their families, friends, or pets exposed to harmful substances. But let's face it: Harsh chemicals are found in many of today's popular, older-style cleaning products. Those chemicals invariably come into contact with people, while their bit of pollution to the environment. Fortunately, there are alternatives.

The markets for natural cleaning products has taken off in recent years, with more -- and more environmentally safe -- product offerings now available in enlightened stores. The surge in their popularity shows that an increasing number of consumers are concerned about the potentially dangerous ingredients found in the traditional product category.

Debra Lynn Dadd, author of Home Safe Home (J.P. Tarcher, 1997) and other natural-living titles, says there has been a definite increase in the popularity of natural products since 1982, when she began her career as a consumer advocate.

"I was writing about natural products before the natural products movement," says Dadd, [but] "there weren't a lot of cleaning products we could recommend. Now all that's changed."

MeMe Davis, a health and beauty sales associate for Ellwood Thompson's Natural Market in Richmond, Va., recommends natural cleaning products to customers because she uses them herself. The reason? "You're not ingesting a lot of chemicals," she says. Davis also employs green products in her laundry room. "What you put on your clothes eventually ends up in your body."

Natural cleaning products are finding broad acceptance, Davis notes, as more people become aware that alternatives to Big Soap are safer and just as effective. "They're not just for hippies anymore."

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