A guide to greener cleaning.

When it comes to environmental commitment, all we need is a guide. There are many, many of these guides to chose from, not neglecting E's own contribution to the genre: Green Living: The E Magazine Handbook for Living Lightly on the Earth, which features greener ways to raise babies, heat houses and drive cars (available on Amazon!). But enough about us. Environmental and children's health advocate Deirdre Imus (and wife to the line-crossing former radio host Don Imus) has made her own foray into the world of environmental guides with Green This/Volume One: Greening Your Cleaning (Simon & Schuster, $15.95), a readable, practical how-to book on really ridding your home of toxins.

Not only is the book full of scary stories such as the fact that dishwashers open at the level of kids' mouths, sending "chlorine vapors ... straight into their bodies," but it's chock-full of the kind of useful solutions parents and concerned consumers can use. With five essential products--distilled white vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide and table salt--one can pretty much tackle any task from clearing drains to scouring pans to softening laundry and washing windows. "3. good nontoxic cleaner like white distilled vinegar replaces all your chlorine bleach products," Deirdre told us in a recent interview. The environmental advocate is the real deal--she founded The Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology and launched a line of green products (Greening the Cleaning) and all proceeds from sales of those cleaners and the books are going to help research for kids with cancer.

While Deirdre recognizes that most people won't want to get as heavily invested in chemical research as she has, she said the book's message boils down to this essential: "With cleaning products, it's important that you're not using ingredients that have been listed as possible or known carcinogens, neurotoxins, hormone disruptors, endocrine disruptors and teratogens: no ammonia, no chlorine bleach, no phosphate, no formaldehyde, no benzene, no toluene, no petroleum-based ingredients." The best way to determine the contents? "Look for a deaning product that discloses all the ingredients right on the label;' Deirdre says. "That'll eliminate almost all of the products." Not including hers, of course.--Brita Belli