Tips for a Toxic Free Home

You can effect immediate change at home by eliminating toxic chemicals and instilling new healthy traditions that your friends and family can model. From the outside landscape to inside your home, there are some really easy steps you can take to live toxic free.

Make your own Cleaning Products

  • Use common household items like baking soda, vinegar and lemons to make cheap and effective cleaners.
  • Find more easy DIY recipes in our “Green Your Spring Clean” resource or at www.wellnessmama.com

 

FACTS: Pesticides are toxic chemicals for killing insects, rodents, weeds, bacteria and mold. Many solvents and carrying agents in common pesticides cause side effects and can be hazards to health.

Seek Pesticide Free Solutions

  • Prevent pests with good cultural practices – store food in tightly sealed containers, clean-up crumbs and spills, and seal cracks around doors, windowsills and baseboards. Repair drips and holes and get rid of standing water.
  • Use baits and traps instead of sprays, dusts or bombs.
  • Avoid chemical tick and flea collars, flea baths or dips.
  • Consult Earth Easy for more ideas on non-toxic pest control at www.eartheasy.com

FACTS: Pesticides are toxic chemicals for killing insects, rodents, weeds, bacteria and mold. Many solvents and carrying agents in common pesticides cause side effects and can be hazards to health.

 Ditch the Broom, Pick up the Mop

  • Avoid moving harmful dust around with a broom and bust out the mop.
  • Dust with a wet cloth and vacuum your house regularly (with a HEPA-filter vacuum if you can).

FACTS:  Dust carries harmful chemicals that shed off of household furniture, electronics, and other household products like lead pesticides and flame retardants.

Pick your Plastics Carefully

  • Use glass jars or ceramic bowls to store food.
  • Never microwave plastic!
  • Avoid plastics with recycle symbols #3 (PVC), #6 (polystyrene), and #7 (other) which have greater potential to leach toxics and are difficult to recycle.

 

FACTS: Plastic products can contain toxic additives such as phthalates, heavy metals and other compounds which leach out over time. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), known as the poison plastic, is found in plastic products from toys and cookware to shower curtains.

 

  • Leave your Shoes at the Door!
  • Take off your shoes before entering your house to avoid tracking in oils and chemicals from the street outside.
  • Use a door mat to catch dirt at the door.

FACTS:  Shoes can track in toxic chemicals like lawn pesticides, coal tar from a driveway, not to mention anything else on the street…why bring that in your house?

Read your Make-up Ingredients

  • Read the label to avoid chemicals like parabens, sodium laureth sulfate, and oxybenzone.
  • Check the Skin Deep database at www.cosmeticsdatabase.com to find safer products.
  • Use fewer products, and use them less frequently to reduce exposures.

 

FACTS: Personal care products contain a wide variety of chemicals, including some known to be of concern, and many that lack research to prove safety for women’s health. These products are applied directly to our skin where they are easily absorbed into our bodies.

Avoid Lead Exposure

  • Keep children from playing around the edges of the home where old lead paint may be present in the soil.
  • Test the soil for lead if there are plans to grow edible plants in your landscape. Plant kale, sunflowers or mustard plants around your home to suck up some of the lead particles.
  • If you have lead in your house, put a fresh coat of paint over it, or hire a professional who is certified in lead abatement to sand and remove it for you.

FACTS: Lead can be found in house paint, dust and garden soil, especially in any home built before 1978 and is linked to poor brain developmental and other health issues.

 

Fragrance Free, the Way to Be!

  • Eliminate odor – Identify the smell and eliminate or prevent it.
  • Open a window – Ventilating your home with outdoor air has been shown to reduce symptoms associated with asthma, allergies and infections.
  • Reduce odors naturally – avoid air fresheners and set out a bouquet of flowers or simmer herbs or spices on the stove instead. Make your own air spray with water and essential oil.
  • Shop for cleaners, laundry detergents, and personal care products labeled “fragrance-free” Warning: “Unscented” does not always mean fragrance-free!

THE FACTS: Synthetic fragrance can be made up hundreds of chemicals, which companies are legally allowed to keep secret from consumers. Common fragrance chemicals include phthalates (linked to reproductive and developmental harm) and synthetic musks (linked to increased risk of breast cancer).