Is Your Home Toxic?

Many families today are not aware of the ever constant barrage of dangerous pollutants they are subjecting themselves to, on a daily basis. This ever-present pollution is in the form of exhaust fumes & chemical exposure including nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, benzene and many more toxic airborne pollutants.

A study conducted by the Australian CSIRO found that the more people live in a home the more pollutants they create and are personally exposed to. This is due to more people moving around the home stirring up dust, coughing, sneezing, breathing, and generally doing a lot more gas cooking. For example did you know that cooking with gas creates much higher levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide & nitrogen dioxide than cooking with electric or induction style cooking?

This CSIRO study found that the levels of potentially harmful particles, which were created over a 24-hour period while indoors, were in many cases higher than what experts recommend people may be exposed to when outdoors for a similar period. Also during the colder winter months, when most people tend to lock their window and doors up more than they would in warmer summer months the levels of airborne particle pollutants were often 400% higher; and that’s just from cooking alone.

An interesting point to keep in mind is that older homes have more gaps & so ventilation is better, allowing pollutants more chance of escaping out of the home. Compared to newer homes that are more energy efficient and airtight. This might be a benefit from one point of view but from an air quality standpoint it’s really a disadvantage, as more of the indoor air pollutants, namely the volatile gases such as formaldehyde & benzene are trapped inside the home, where they can affect our wellbeing.

Here are 8 handy tips & hints on how you can help minimise your exposure to pollutants:

1. When cooking, always ensure you turn on the exhaust fan at a fairly high setting

2. Always keep at least one window in your home slightly open. This will allow an exchange of indoor to outdoor air & vice versa

3. Clean the filters in your central heating system or any other filter style air cleaners. This is a major contributor because most people often have these in a dirty state for way to long, which can be very detrimental.

4. If you have an attached garage with just a door separating the indoor’s, never start your car & leave the connecting door open.

5. End ensure your are not storing household paints, solvent or any garden pesticides etc. as these can often leach out and the resultant fumes are extremely dangerous, especially for younger children.

6. Try to minimize the amount of wood pressed style furniture (e.g. melamine kitchen cupboards) these are high in formaldehyde and often leach out for years. Personally I brought my new kitchen from Germany. Did you know the Australian style of kitchen building is banned in Germany? All cut edges must be fully lined & sealed, thus eliminating leakage of the deadly formaldehyde. It cost a bit more but at least I know its safe and my kids are not exposed to all these unknown chemical fumes.

7. When using any bathroom type of cleaners, (e.g., exit mould, grout cleaners and the like always open lots of windows, until the smell dissipates.

8. Another alarming fact you may not have realised most of the furniture you have has most likely been scotch guarded. Now the chemicals that are used for this purpose are absolutely toxic. It may keep your couch or dining chairs looking newer for longer but it makes my blood go cold just thinking of the constant exposure to the ever-present fumes and gasses that are constantly emitted all day everyday. How do you feel now about lying down for an afternoon nap on that nice leather couch of yours? That’s probably why I had all the symptoms of chronic fatigue for about 10 years in my younger days My naturopath tells me it may take up to 10 years (especially in new homes) before the harmful effects of all these household poisons are no longer damaging to our health. The only way I know to avoid these pollutants, without moving out of home, or going to live in a bush hut is to get yourself an air Purifier/Filter. For the past 18 months I have tested and researched many styles and types of air filters and have found one that my family and I have agreed is probably one of the best on the markets. It’s called LightAir IonFlow 50, with patented Swedish technology and award winning design; it looks so cool you would never know it was an Air filter.