How Toxic Is Your Home?

excerpted from Home Safe Home
(New York: Tarcher/Penguin, April 2005)

by Debra Lynn Dadd

Your house or apartment is probably full of everyday products made from materials and substances that cause cancer, birth defects, and changes in genetic structure, and that weaken the immune system, leaving your body vulnerable to many kinds of diseases and infections. A multitude of common symptoms can be related to exposure to household toxics--headaches, depression, even ordinary flu symptoms might not be flu at all, but a pesticide poisoning or a reaction to your furniture polish...

Let's take a quick mental tour of the typical American home, where you consider yourself and other members of your household to be safe from the dangers of the outside world...Check those items you might find in each room to see how safe you really are from household health hazards.

Living Room

alcoholic beverages artificial light carpet/upholstery shampoo electromagnetic fields ionization-type smoke detectors fireplace furniture/floor polish gas heater houseplants kerosene heater particleboard furniture spot remover synthetic wall-to-wall carpet tobacco smoke urea-formaldehyde foam insulation woodstove

Kitchen

aluminum cookware ammonia/all-purpose cleaners canned food chlorinated scouring powder chocolate and coffee dishwasher detergent dishwashing liquid drain cleaners dried fruits fish and seafood gas appliances insecticides microwave ovens nonstick cookware oven cleaner particleboard cabinets plastic clock plastic drinking glasses plastic food wrap and storage containers plastic lighting fixtures plastic telephone processed foods rat and mouse killers silver polish and other metal cleaners store-bought water in plastic bottles supermarket eggs supermarket meat supermarket milk supermarket produce tap water vitamin and mineral supplements

Bathroom

Bedroom

Laundry Room

Home Office

How did you do? Are there lots of checkmarks? Every one of the items on this list poses a health hazard--either by immediate poisoning or by slowly breaking down your health over a long period of time. Fortunately, there is a safe, nontoxic alternative for each of these products. And remember, using these alternatives also will help improve the environment.

To learn about toxics in your home and safe alternatives
buy and read Home Safe Home