We recently replaced our gas stove with an electric range. As an asthmatic I am forever discovering new dangers to my sensitive airways, and gas stoves are one of them. Secure in this knowledge (and driven by a recent annoucment by our power company that natural gas prices were about to double, triple or worse at the end of the month), we headed off to the appliance store to make our purchase. After settling on a ceramic topped self-cleaning model, we waited patiently for it to be shipped.
While we waited, I ran across an article on Wired by Patrick Di Justo about the oven cleaner, Easy-Off. A bit tongue in cheek (my favorite part was when he referenced Brad Pitt’s lines in the movie Fight Club when his character explains what happens when one mixes lye with animal fat - the “animal” being “human”), the article is sobering.
I steer clear off all airbourne cleaning products, aerosal or pump spray. If particles float like the misty London fog (also something of which one shouldn’t inhale too much), I can’t have anything to do with it. My husband, who is an chemical engineer, admits that much of what we use to clean our homes is not good for us to breath and shouldn’t even come in contact with our skin for prolonged periods of time. Easy-off certainly makes this list.
After reading about the dangers of commercial oven cleaning products, I was thrilled to finally have my new self-cleaning oven installed. What person wouldn’t want an applaince that cleaned itself? If only children did that then all would be right in the world of motherhood.
However, on the very first page of the range’s instruction manual (and how many of us really read the instructions unless we absolutely can’t figure how to work something without doing so?) was this charming message:
DANGER! You can be killed or seriously injured if you don’t immediately follow instructions.
And immediately I did, flipping to the self-cleaning instructions where I found even more dire information.
The health of some birds is extremely sensitive to the fumes given off during the Self-cleaning cycle. Exposure may result in death to certain birds.
And what of asthmatics, their husbands and any small children who might be about? It didn’t say, but it did remind me of something my husband had mentioned to me about teflon pans which if they are allowed to heat up without any food or liquid being placed in them first will give off fumes that can kill any birds anywhere in your home. Talk about canaries in coal mines.
So what can a girl do to keep her oven clean? Aside from not using it at all? Baking soda and water. Or invest in one of the many green lines of cleaning products that can increasing by found in most stores.
I am going with baking soda myself but am interested to know what other methods are out that work. Care to share?
