Dan's Papers - March 7, 2008 - Detoxing Your Home... and Yourself

You'd like to think that when you close your front door, you're closing out the ever-present health threat of environmental toxins. Not so. In fact, one study by the EPA found that an average home's contaminant levels are up to 70 times higher than the nasties you might encounter while outside. Thanks to today's energy-efficient new homes and retrofit upgrades, these toxins are sealed in as much as they're sealed out. Mercifully, the inner environment is under our control, and we can reduce the toxic load in home sweet home.

A TV commercial shows a young mother blasting her toddler's personal space with an aerosol disinfectant - suggesting that the child is better off inhaling synthetic chemicals than dealing with a few germs. In this image we have one of America's great environmental ironies: the drive for cleanliness can plunge an entire household into toxicity. Those chemical products that keep our homes sparkly clean may be staining our very well-being. In fact, one EPA report found that toxic household cleaners are three times more likely to cause cancer than outdoor air pollution.

Non-toxic cleaning solutions abound. Scour your house for all those multi-syllabic chemical concoctions packaged in canisters and aerosol sprays, dispose of them responsibly and replace them with natural alternatives. Dried Chinese soapberry tree fruit can replace laundry detergent; natural essential oils are more effective and delicious-smelling than synthetic air fresheners; and baking soda and vinegar can replace most synthetic surface cleaners. Of course, remember the free, non-toxic, miraculously effective surface cleaner: elbow grease

Perhaps the most underrated household toxicity source may be good ol' H20. Municipal water has been found to contain arsenic, asbestos, pesticides, herbicides, cyanide, mercury and even traces of pharmaceutical drugs - just to name a few contaminants. Now imagine taking a shower, breathing in steam and absorbing water. Add to that brushing teeth, drinking coffee, using ice cubes, cooking pasta and ... well, you get the idea.

Water's ubiquity makes it a particularly insidious purveyor of toxins, especially on Long Island. As if Long Island's legendary aggressive chemical turf management weren't bad enough for groundwater, the state Department of Environmental Conservation recently released a report that found that Methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) - a toxic gasoline additive now banned in New York - was present in the water of 40% of test wells at Long Island gasoline stations.

What to do? One solution is a whole-house water filtration system. By connecting to the house's main water supply, such systems remove toxins from every drop of water you use -from laundry to bath to cooking water.

According to the EPA, a typical home will have detectable levels of up to 12 pesticides ... in the air alone. Exacerbating the indoor air quality problem are Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), harmful gases that rise off common household synthetic materials and products like carpeting, televisions, upholstery, manufactured wood products, cleaners and conventional paints. Radon, an invisible radioactive gas that seeps into houses from underlying soil, presents another toxic health risk while the lethal gas carbon monoxide can also harm health at lower levels.

The simple solution here is to make your air as clean as possible. Address the cause by switching to natural and organic furniture and carpeting; address the symptoms by purchasing a high-quality air purifier that eliminates toxic particles. DIY kits are available to test for radon levels indoors and many carbon monoxide detectors - which are a smart investment in any case - indicate even the slightest presence of the harmful gas.

Finally, take off your shoes when you get home; not only will it keep your house cleaner, but you'll avoid tracking in all those chemicals and toxins on the ground outside. Treat lead paint with extreme caution; take steps to determine if it's in your house, and if it is, remove it carefully. And, of course, the most important way to address toxicity is to turn a critical eye to the foods you eat. Facing harmful toxins that number in the thousands, it will take more than a few tips to restore our world to a state of nature ... but even eliminating one toxin can be a positive start for creating a healthier world, both inside and out.