Wellness Wednesday: Toxins in your home?

How are you doing today?
Are you suffering from headaches, sneezing, wheezing, watery eyes, itchy throat and thinking to yourself, "this isn't allergy season...what gives?"  Well, look no further than your own home or office for the answer!

Many of us have routinely burn scented candles, have a fire in the fireplace, use air fresheners, air diffusers, or are around people that wear cologne or perfume.  All of these items release volatile organic compounds (VOCs).  VOCs are considered pollutants and are toxic at high levels.  Being exposed to too many VOCs, can trigger allergy symptoms and other eye, nose, and throat irritations.

Take a look around your home or office and see how many VOC polluters you find.  The number might surprise you.  Eliminating some of these might provide the relief from allergy symptoms you're looking for!

Another way people are exposed to toxins is through their cleaning and personal care products. There are so many toxins that are in our everyday products that are making us sick.

149 common, home-cleaning chemicals are linked to allergies, birth defects, and cancer (Consumer Product Safety Commission Report 2009).
How many of these poisons are in YOUR home?

Those common, toxic chemicals increase YOUR death rate by 54%
(a 15-year study presented at the Toronto Indoor Air Conference).

You know that good, healthy feeling you get when you've just cleaned house? Sorry to spoil it, but you may have just made your home dirtier.

Think of it this way. You wouldn't let your kids play with toxic
chemicals, so why would you let the baby crawl over a floor that's just been wiped with them? That's much more dangerous than the orange juice that was just there.

How dangerous? Just take a look at these statistics.

Over 90% of poison exposures happen at home.

Common bleach is the #1 household chemical involved
in poisoning.

Organic pollutants, found in many common cleaners and
even air fresheners, are 2 to 5 times higher inside your home than out.

A person who spends 15 minutes cleaning scale off shower walls could inhale three times the "acute one-hour exposure limit" for glycol ether-containing products set by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

Common cleaners give off fumes that have been linked to
increasing the risk of your kids developing asthma, the most common serious chronic childhood disease.

1 in 13 school-aged children has asthma. Rates in children under five have increased more than 160% from 1980 to 1994.

Children are highly vulnerable to chemical toxicants. Pound for pound of body weight, children drink more water, eat more food and breathe more air than adults. The implication of this is that children will have substantially heavier exposures than adults to any toxicants that are present in water, food or air.

If your home is anything like the average U.S. home, you
generate more than 20 pounds of household hazardous waste each year (the EPA designates toilet cleaners, tub and tile cleaners, oven cleaners, and bleach as hazardous waste).

YOUR HOME SHOULD BE THE SAFEST, HEALTHIEST, CLEANEST PLACE IN THE
WHOLE WORLD.

So we've put together some pretty easy things you can do to make your family safer and your home healthier.

And, as it turns out, what's good for your home is good for the earth and everyone else on it, too. So let's make our
homes healthy. Let's clean our hearts out. Let's Get Clean.

1. Get the dirt.
   Educate yourself about what you bring into your home at www.householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov
2. Have a clean-for-all.Put on the gloves and get rid of the nasty stuff in your home. Responsibly, of course. Your local waste collection service has guidelines for proper household hazardous waste disposal, as well as collection sites for things like paint, batteries, and cleaners. Whatever you do, please don't toss this stuff in the garbage.
3. Welcome healthy into your home.Commit to carefully considering everything that crosses your doorstep. Here are some safe, healthy things to have in your home:
   • Fresh air. Open your windows to reduce indoor air pollution.
   • Essential oils. Use these instead of air fresheners.
   • Plants. Besides being nice to look at, they can absorb harmful gases and help clean the air.
   • Organic cotton bedding. Avoid standard bedding treated with chemicals.
   • Floors made of recycled and renewable resources.
   • Healthy paint. That new paint smell can be as nasty as it smells. Choose low VOC paint instead.
   • Cleaners that are truly cleaner. Look for these clean credentials on Get Clean products: non-toxic, natural,
     biodegradable, concentrated, and hypoallergenic.
4. Clean up our collective home.Make the earth healthier for all of us who call it home by using these things in yours:
   • Energy Star-rated appliances. Save money and energy.
   • A low-flush toilet. Replace the largest user of water in your house. Ultra low flushers cut water use by one-fifth.
   • Low-flow showerheads. Same pressure. Less water.
   • Your flicker finger. Turn off lights and appliances when you're not using them.
   • Gray water system. Install one to recycle used household water for your lawn.
   • Tank less water heater. Save money, energy, and space in the broom closet. Use it to store your new
     Get Clean Starter Kit.

This is what I would recommend :

GET CLEAN® STARTER KIT - FRAGRANCE FREE

We believe that health isn't just about what you put in your body, it's about everything around you. We bring you a full line of natural and nontoxic cleaning choices that are Safe for You, Your Home, and Your Planet® called Get Clean®.

No harmful fumes or hazardous chemicals.

Outperforms 20 national leading brands.

You would spend $3400 for ready to use cleaners to get the same amount of clean found in the Get Clean Starter Kit!*

Features Basic H2® Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate - just 1/4 tsp. makes 16oz. of all-purpose cleaner for only 3 cents.

And when you purchase the Get Clean Starter Kit you also make a positive impact on the planet:

Keep 108 pounds of packaging waste from landfills.

Eliminate 248 pounds of greenhouse gas.

* Based on comparing number of uses as set forth on product labels of conventional, ready-to-use cleaners.

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