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chemicals in the home
5 Household Toxins You Should Banish from Your Home
To save money, protect your health, and help the environment, give these toxic tenants an eviction notice.
By Leah Zerbe
Topics: healthy home, homemade cleaners
Identify and eject these noxious offenders and replace them with safer alternatives.
RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Cleaning house doesn’t mean nasty chemicals have to pollute your home. Your next home cleaning campaign or daunting do-it-yourself projects can be done without poisoning the air or tainting your local water supply. Most of our safer alternatives will even save you money, too.
Here are five chemical culprits to kick out of your house—and the nontoxic options that should move in instead.
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1. Coal-tar driveway sealant. If you plan to seal your blacktop driveway this spring, avoid coal-tar based sealants. They contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which studies suggest can be carcinogenic, toxic, and mutagenic. When rainwater and other precipitation hit your driveway, the toxic chemicals run off into your yard and into your local drinking water supply. In fact, this situation has been compared to dumping quarts of motor oil right down a storm drain. |
Published on April 22nd, 2009
Last updated on September 9th, 2011
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The comments here are very
The comments here are very useful yet high quality article information is really hard to find. Thanks for sharing this.
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I hope you can continue this
I hope you can continue this type of hard work to this site in future also..Because this blog is really very informative and it helps me lot.
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I have to admit I'm addicted
I have to admit I'm addicted to antibacterial products. Does the regular antibacterial stuff (not soap) that they have everywhere have the same effect? Not sure what's worse, the toxins in that stuff or bacteria from dirty hands when soap and water isn't available...Artikel-Marketing
good topic
No doubt it's really a great article and I felt really great going through your blog post. Great to read more articles from your side.
oil expeller manufacturer
Coal tar sealant is a chemical
Coal tar sealant is a chemical that should be absolutely exiled from the home. Similar to other household hazards like resin, breathing capacities can be compromised greatly; and may eventually contribute to long term, terminal illnesses as well. Replacing these options with gravel and other environmentally friendly materials, not only removes health hazards but also adds a tinge of aesthetic design to the area.
Michael
kdcuk
Plants are an amazing indoor air cleaner
Leave it to Skylab scientists to figure out that good old houseplants are an easy way to remove toxics from indoor air. Learned that and other great info at a Green Living Meetup - which I wrote up in my blog. Have a look:
http://lastgenerationbc.com/2009/11/whats-wrong-with-rita-and-right-with...
hand sanitizers
The alcohol-based hand sanitizers are considered much safer than triclosan-based antibacterial products. However, even some alcohol-based sanitizers can contain harmful ingredients, like artificial fragrances, so it's best to pick unscented.
A ittle more detail, please
Could you please provide specific products we could buy to replace the chemicals mentioned? Not all of us can create our own so it would be nice to know which brands to look for. Thanks.
What about waterless hand sanitzers?
I have to admit I'm addicted to antibacterial products. Does the regular antibacterial stuff (not soap) that they have everywhere have the same effect? Not sure what's worse, the toxins in that stuff or bacteria from dirty hands when soap and water isn't available...