As an alternative to our standard cleaning service where we use traditional cleaning chemicals, HouseWorks offers The Natural Home, a natural, non-toxic approach to home cleaning. Our clients will receive the trusted HouseWorks 36-Point cleaning without the use of harsh cleaners that can increase indoor pollution and create health problems. The Natural Home service uses all-natural cleaning products formulated with non-toxic ingredients. This reduces the number of toxins in your home creating a safer place for your family and pets to live. And it's naturally good for the environment.

The only safe and truly healthy way to clean your home is with the use of effective cleaning products, equipment and procedures that don't endanger you, your children, your pets or the environment. HouseWorks is committed to the health and well-being of our customers. So we've developed our exclusive, all-natural cleaning service, The NATURAL HOME with you in mind.

More than you might realize! Today's cleaning products are made from an eye-opening number of surprisingly toxic chemicals. When we use these products in our homes, the chemicals they contain can stay suspended in the air for hours or even days after the product has been used and can easily be inhaled. These chemicals also remain behind as residues on surfaces to which the cleaners have been applied. In this way, they can be easily absorbed through any skin that comes into contact with those surfaces. In addition, when chemicals from different cleaners accidentally come into contact with each other, they sometimes react to form new toxic substances. Or this mixing can magnify the potential health effects that are caused by either or both of the chemicals alone. The results of all this chemical chaos can be deadly.

A 15 year study in Oregon, comparing women who didn't work outside the home with women who did, found a 54% higher death rate from cancer in the women who stayed at home. The study suggested that chronic exposure to cleaning products played a role. Each year there are 5 to 10 million household product poisonings reported, mostly of children. With all these chemicals in our homes, it's no wonder that the EPA found the air quality in our homes to be 5 to 10 times more toxic than the air outside and typically contaminated by anywhere between 20 to 150 different pollutants in concentrations 10 to 40 times those outdoors. Much of this pollution comes from petrochemical cleaners.

Unfortunately, the answer is no. Though cleaners are the only household products regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission under the Federal Hazardous Substances Labeling Act, they're not required to reveal their ingredients. These ingredients are considered "trade secrets" and government regulations are designed to protect this proprietary information rather than human health or the environment.

In short, no one but cleaner manufacturers really know exactly what is in these products. The consumer has little to go on beyond the warning labels manufacturers are required to put on their products. Though mandated signal words like DANGER, WARNING and CAUTION give us a very general idea about the overall seriousness of the unknown substances the products contain, they do little more than that. In fact, a New York Poison Control Center study found 85% of product warning labels to be inadequate. Furthermore, these warnings only apply to the immediate health effects a product causes and don't address what really happens when we use these cleaners on a daily basis in our homes.

HouseWorks has partnered with Seaside Naturals, a Connecticut-based company, that offers a line of environmentally safe, all-natural cleaning products. We highly recommend their Simple.Pure.Clean cleaning products to you.

While there are many great companies offering all-natural cleaning products like Seventh Generation, Dierdre Imus, Earth Friendly and others, these companies do not offer the same full range of products that Seaside Naturals offers to completely clean your home. Seaside Naturals will provide one-stop shopping for all your cleaning needs. They also offer a line of safe, all-natural products for baby and personal care.

To find out more about Seaside Naturals products and to order online, please click here.

All-natural, non-toxic cleaning protects our environment by using cleaning solutions that are biodegradable, safe when discharged in water, and packaged and shipped in a way that reduces our impact on landfills and the depletion of natural resources.

Yes! To learn more about other ways you can create a healthier home environment for you, your family, guests and pets, please visit HealtheHouse. Take the HealtheHome Quiz for personalized help identifying and eliminating household risks. They'll tell you what you're doing right and what more you can do to create a healthier home for your family.

Healthy Child Healthy World is dedicated to protecting the health and well being of children from harmful environmental exposures. Their website educates parents with helpful tools like 5 Easy Steps to Lead a Safer, Greener, Healthier Life, First Steps to Healthy Babies and the Healthy Child Times – Newsletter. www.healthychild.org

ANNIE BERTHOLD-BOND is called "The Green Heloise" for her astonishing tips for easy, eco-friendly alternatives to everyday cleaning, cooking and more. www.betterbasics.com