A shocking quote from a great new book I’ve been reading called Ecoholic Home really jolted me into shifting my cleaning agenda with my home’s carpet. “One researcher said you’d have to vacuum 25 times a week for several weeks to bring the level of contaminants below safety standards”. Yikes!  There’s a shocking statement for anyone that hasn’t started to pay close attention to the health of their carpet. What do I mean by carpet health? Maintaining a regular routine of proper carpet care and here are 3 great tips, mentioned in Super Natural Home, if you’re looking for natural and effective ways to start:

1) If you must buy a new carpet, choose one made of wool.  It’s naturally flame retardant, nontoxic, and non-allergenic, and it deters bacterial growth.

2) Vacuum with a well-sealed, high-quality high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) vacuum cleaner.

3) A good doormat will stop a lot of toxins right at the door. Or, take your shoes off when entering your house.

Thanks to Beth Greer for these tips. I totally agree with the tip regarding a great quality HEPA vacuum cleaner. My Dyson HEPA vacuum has already make a noticed improvement with the air quality in my home. I also learned that dirty shoes can drag in pesticides and unwanted chemicals into your home. A new found reason to have guests remove their shoes and put out door mats.

Air deodorizer are very toxic and should be removed from any cleaning routines (glade plug-ins, fabreeze, etc.), as they simply mask odour and off-gass phthalates into your home. Same goes for traditional carpet cleaners that you sprinkle, leave, then vacuum.  Skip the toxic route and grab your box of baking soda.  Even better <evil smile emerges>, give the box of baking soda to a young child and watch their delight in sprinkling this natural homemade carpet cleaner. Just like the antibacterial cloths that only need water to clean your windows, children can help out because it’s totally natural and safe. My sons love to help sprinkle the baking soda before I begin a deep vacuum of my carpeting. It’s a good idea to test the baking soda on darker carpets in a small test area first. My carpet is white so I’ve never worried about it.  Another tip before you vacuum is to replace toxic carpet spray for stains and go to the pantry to mix a paste of white vinegar and baking soda, work into the carpet with a brush or toothbrush, let paste dry and vacuum.  Two very easy methods to help remove odours, stains, and naturally reduce pollutants in your carpeting.  A huge bonus is you’re not yelling at your kids to get out of the room while you apply the cleaning cocktail or baking powder because it’s safe for them to be exposed to and even help clean with!

My last bit of research on improving the quality of your home’s carpet is the topic of hiring professional steam cleaners. There is nothing like a deep clean with steam that helps eliminate dust mites, allergens, dust, dirt, and chemical contaminants. BUT – with an extra big BUT…it is very difficult to find professional carpet cleaners that are truly non-toxic. I went with the company Citrus-O for many years, but they continually ask if you want the scotch guard extra (which is offering Teflon coating with the highly toxic chemicals PFOAs – a proven carcinogen). Also, I would always have a headache for days after Citrus-O left my house, dry mouth, and very irritated eyes. I haven’t the time to look over the material data sheets on their site, but my reaction says it all to me. If I find a company I can recommend, I’ll write a follow-up article. Over the last year, I’ve borrowed steam cleaners from friends that own them, and filled them with Dr. Bromers liquid soap (or you could use vinegar).  But if you want to hold companies marketing themselves as all-natural carpet cleaning accountable, ask them if they use either of these chemicals to ‘clean’ with: perchloroethylene (nickname is perc) or naphthalene. Suspected to be carcinogens, they are notorious dry cleaning additives known to cause dizziness, fatigue, nausea if inhaled (sound familiar to my symptoms?), kidney and liver damage. Next time you book your carpets to be cleaned, ask the company these questions and please post back to the comments of this article and share the results.

For more information on carpet health, you can read my recent review of the Dyson HEPA filter vacuum at: Dyson Asthma Certified Vacuum Cleaner

I recently had a wonderful phone call with ‘Mama Maven‘, otherwise known as Tanis Frame and like most green minded mamas – an instant connection formed. Tanis’ passion is to empower parents with knowledge and is hired to speak to schools or parent groups and share her quality knowledge with topics like healthy home, baby carrier info and diapering alternatives. She can also be contacted to speak in a smaller, more intimate setting with groups of friends – very cool for a group of ladies joining the new world of parenting.

During our phone call, she suggested additional tips for naturally removing contaminants and improving bedroom air quality and I’m happy I can share. My thanks to Tanis, who with a background in toxicology and children’s environmental health is an amazing resource for information and it’s always fun to learn tips that are inexpensive and easy to source.

Tips to Instantly Improve Household Air Quality

Fresh Air!   Could it be that simple? Inside our home is where many chemicals off-gassing resides, particularly formaldehyde and benzene. Released from furniture, carpets, cleaning products, along with phthalates and flame retardants in bedding and dust, these toxins tend to collect in our homes and the air we breathe.  So get outside and spend time outdoors and bring the fresh air in and open your windows and flush through fresh air. Enjoy the benefits of quick recirculation and refreshing of the air you’re breathing. An instant process to remove odours and think of it as nature’s air freshener. One of the quickest ways to create a toxic environment for children is to spray air fresheners and febreeze in the air. Read more on masking odours with chemicals here.

Bring in Plants! Not only do plants freshen the air we breathe, but also the planet and our indoor spaces. Tanis mentioned a study by Nasa about how plants remove assorted chemicals in different amounts. It is SO interesting!  The common philodendron, spider plant, devil’s ivy, and Boston fern naturally remove formaldehyde from the air.  Peace lilies, chrysanthemums, and gerbera daisies are said to filter out benzene and trichloroethylene.  Mama Maven’s personal favourite is the Snake Plant because it’s not only a top air purifier, it grow quickly, is inexpensive, and it’s very difficult to kill. (Big bonus for parents that don’t have time to manage finicky plants.) Another great plant is the Spider Plant because it hangs out of reach and the “babies” can be rooted in water and planted over the course of the year.

Added note from Suzanne… Certain plants recommended are considered poisonous houseplants so you need to keep up, away from pets and children (e.g. Snake Plant). Here is a list of Poisonous Houseplants from the Blog Houseplant Care Tips **

Added note from Suzanne… I read the Houseplant chapter of Adria Vasil’s latest Ecoholic book, called Ecoholic Home and she agrees with plants improving air purification and recommends “15 leafy creatures in a 2,000 square foot home should do the trick” for encouraging absorption of certain VOCs like formaldehyde and benzene. A great read if you are looking for extensive and quality research on greening and creating a healthier home.

Related Articles:

Tips To Immediately Reduce Toxins Your Bedroom

Polyester PJs and Flame Retardants

Are Cosmetics Killing Us?

A disturbing subject and confusing topic for parents is the toxic sleep environment their children’s mattress or pillows might be creating. I’ve avoided writing this article for many months because I wanted to properly research and frankly, my head couldn’t take any more surprises. I regret procrastinating for so long because once you read this article, you’ll want to make changes.  After spending hours talking with Chelsea, the co-founder of Sleepy Sheep, I have valuable information that can help you determine, rectify, and shop for healthy alternatives if you want your beds to become a truly healthy place where your children, babies, and family can get a restful sleep.

If you are purchasing duvets, mattresses, pillows or simply checking labels on current products in your home, 3 main categories need to be looked at – especially with researching mattresses and pillows! Questions to ask include what materials are used in the production of the ‘outside’ of the product, ‘inside’ of the product and ‘treatment’ of the product – and I don’t mean asking it how they are feeling… <grin>  I mean if the product has been chemically treated.

Outside:

The slippery coating on the outside of a crib mattress could be PVC, otherwise known as vinyl. This coating will off-gas because phthalates and plasticizers have been added to the PVC to make it bendy.  Phthalates are problematic within your baby or child’s bed because they are toxic to human health, can cause reproductive complications (developmentally in boys and fertility in both genders), and cause life-long allergies or asthma problems that begin as babies.

Inside:

What is your mattress, duvet, or pillows filled with? A popular material inside all mattresses, including crib mattresses is polyurethane foam.  Don’t let another long ‘p’ word from the plastics world confuse you. Just think of polyurethane foam as plastic, made with petroleum that is highly flammable. I was having a hard time picturing this material and then I knew how to explain it to parents.  Most or you have received or purchased a Disney licensed foam chair or fold out couch. We’ve had a Pooh Bear chair for years and once had a Sesame Street foldout couch. The foam chairs are fuzzy on the outside, and then you notice the breakdown of yellow chunks coming out the bottom as the foam breaks down… this is polyurethane foam and it’s really disgusting. Not only highly flammable, polyurethane foam off gasses VOCs (volatile organic compounds), especially toluene, formaldehyde which are toxic chemicals found in stinky nail polish.  And with the flammability issue being a problem with fire regulations and the government – question number 3 comes along about what the filling is treated with.

Treatment:

Now that we’ve determined that the filling is flammable, what is it treated with? Besides the chemicals that are already in the filler (polyester, polyurethane foam, etc.) it is now also treated with flame retardants. We are protecting our children from a flammability issue by adding very toxic chemicals to our bed. Our mattresses and pillows are off-gassing us while we sleep. Exposure to flame retardants are so toxic they are a known cause of cancer – just Google brominated flame retardants and ask yourself if these chemicals should be anywhere near a child – especially a baby.  I was shocked to find out from Chelsea that wool is naturally flame retardant and therefore is not subject to chemical flame retardant treatments when it’s used to create mattresses, etc.

I know, I’ve stressed out every parent reading this. If it makes you feel better, I flipped over the queen mattress my younger son has slept on for the last 4 years and everything I’ve just written about was confirmed with reading the mattress tag…polyurethane foam as the only material listed. I also rounded up pillows until I found one with the tag still on it and saw 100% polyester. My nemesis of late – polyester!  Meaning we’ve all had our heads on plastic that has flame retardants in my house!  So trust me that I feel your pain and have equally stressed myself as well.

But all is not doom and gloom since I had several light-bulb moments while talking with Sleepy Sheep’s co-founder yesterday.  Chelsea gave me two very easy and low-cost steps you can make right away that will assist every bed in your home to become a healthier place….without having to budget for a wool mattress (not yet anyway).

Did you know that wool is naturally anti-bacterial, naturally flame resistant (!!), naturally breathable, and a natural allergen prohibitor because it’s a bad host to irritants such as dust mites?  Wool is the superior material used in organic or natural bedding, mattresses, and pillows because of these wonderfully natural properties. I find it so hard to believe that chemical flame retardants could be eliminated in our beds if they simply contained wool, rather than synthetic materials. I loved learning that if Chelsea could recommend one change for a family to improve the ‘health’ of their bed it would be to replace your pillows with wool batting interior. And really, that makes a lot of sense. Think of the hours you spend with your nose and mouth inhaling the material of whatever your pillow is made from. Most pillows are made with polyester fill (plastic) which is not healthy and Sleepy Sheep sells pillows made with wool balls called knops. These are little balls of wool and you can choose your level of fullness and voila ~ you’ve made a very inexpensive change to creating a healthier sleep environment.

Another great insight from Chelsea was that their number one selling product are organic mattress toppers for crib mattresses and adult size mattresses. That tells me that people at some level know how disgusting the inside of a mattress is and want a barrier between their bodies and a traditional mattress.  Check out this awesome tidbit from Chelsea – organic mattress toppers allow airflow around your body and because the interior of the topper contains wool, it’s fibers wick away a person’s sweat, and this moisture actually absorbs toxins that are off-gassing from a traditional mattress and causes the toxins to evaporate. I thought this was cool! The seal between your body and the traditional mattress is not 100% of course, but this alternative is obviously better than continuing to sleep on a mattress that is toxic to your heath. These toppers are a great alternative for parents just not ready to commit to the financial investment of an organic mattress.

When talking about a crib or child’s mattress, I really believe there is no financial compromise with their health. When new parents are spending $500 easily on strollers, I don’t think $250 is expensive for a healthy crib mattress where your baby will spend most of it’s time. Especially for a first baby – I think an organic mattress needs to be at the top of the list for people having baby showers. What better gift for a baby than the gift of health and a truly restful place to sleep.

I have more information that I will save for Part II and III of this series of toxic beds. There is a lot to learn and I encourage you to post comments to this article and share what you discovered once you started reading mattress, pillow, and duvet tags.  Let’s try to get through the information together.

Oh I love this review. Another practical, but cute product was recently introduced to me and I’ve been testing them out for weeks with my kids.  Graze Organic is a new company from California that has put an original spin on reusable sandwich and snack bags.  They’ve created kid-friendly designs (that parents will love too) that are generous in size, made with a strong Velcro seal that should ensure food staying fresh.   My Graze Organic bags have saved me time, money, and gives me a great feeling since I’ve completely eliminated plastic wrap, plastic sandwich bags, and wax paper with getting snacks and lunch ready. These will be a staple with September quickly approaching with back-to-school lunch planning. The obvious use for the bags are for sandwiches but you can eliminate plastic bags and wrap if you start planning alternatives for cut veggies, fruit, and snacks.  The founders of Graze Organic have thought of everything with bags labeled ’sandwich’, ‘fruit’, vegetables’, ’snack’ and the favorite ’surprise!’ My boys think the surprise bag is simply the best thing ever and always have high expectations when this bag is opened at lunch. Check out how fun these prints are! 

I laugh because I’m sure the founders of Graze Organic get asked on a regular basis ‘what are they lined with’?  Well folks ~ that is the point.  There is no lining because that would mean something synthetic is touching your child’s food. These bags are made from 100% organic cotton and they go a step further with printing the illustrations by hand with silk-screen using water based inks. Graze Organic has also found a way to produce their product line with a local footprint – proudly made in the USA.

This September, when your kids are going back-to-school, think about supporting and teaching them ‘litterless’ lunch habits, but also protect them from soft plastic wrap that contains PVC, plasticizers, and chemicals.  There is no longer any excuse to not reuse lunchtime containers. The co-founder Leslie, was lovely enough to walk me through the washing instructions so I can reiterate how easy caring for these bags really is. Only if the bags get really messy (jam sandwich, etc.) the bags should be turned inside out to machine wash. If there are only a few crumbs, just knock those out and machine or hand wash right-side out.  They can be thrown in with Jeans, towels, and other light weight fabrics.  Hey – even I can handle that and I appreciate another avenue to wash lunch time products since my dishwasher is always packed with stainless steel containers and water bottles. I also measured the bags before and after I washed them for the first time – almost no shrinkage which is awesome news for the roomy sandwich bags!

Also, thank you to Heather and Leslie for offering a set of 3 snack/sandwich bags for a back-to-school contest at Mommy Footprint.  They will ship the winner a set of 3 sandwich, veggie & snack or surprise bags. These reusable bags are a wonderful prize for any parent sourcing back-to-school lunch items.  Click on this link and complete the Referral Form to be entered to win. Contest closes August 28/09.

http://mommyfootprint.com/mommyfootprint-referral-form/

Have you heard the buzz about the book called Slow Death By Rubber Duck?  The two authors are leading environmentalists in Canada, Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, and by using their own bodies conduct a 4 day experiment to document how using everyday products known to contain BPA, Phthalates, Teflon, (to name only a few!) and what the effects in their system will be. The experiment could be compared to the Supersize Me documentary, but these results are more shocking because most people know that eating nothing but McDonald’s food is really bad for you.  The results from Slow Death By Rubber Duck might shock you, but because so many of these products are used in the food and products we are in direct contact with, it’s better to learn how to eliminate these chemicals that enter your children and family’s bodies. For example, did you know that newspaper ink contains high enough levels of BPA that can absorb through your skin?  I was surprised by this and many more sources the authors uncover.

Rick and Bruce tested the levels of these 7 chemicals from their experiment: Phthalates, Teflon, Flame Retardants, Mercury, Triclosan (antibacterial), Pesticides, and BPA.  First they attempt to detox their bodies fully from these chemicals, test/document the levels in their blood and urine, then expose themselves to these chemicals through everyday products and food that are known to have high content.  Then they re-test their blood and urine and publish the results. The most shocking part of the experiment for me was not only the high levels in specific chemicals, but also the realization that trying to eliminate levels of chemicals like BPA and Phthalates is impossible. Rick would know better than anyone else (he’s the Executive Director of Environmental Defense for Canada) what to avoid and he consulted with scientists that have been studying these chemicals for years. He could only get the levels of these chemicals low but not at zero because he realized for example if he’s trying to avoid all phthalates though personal care products, the chemical might wind up in milk he drinks because a farmer might use soft tubing containing this chemical to remove milk from a cow. Tracking this and proving it back to the dairy supplier would be impossible. Thinking that your coffee is okay to drink but then realizing the coffee shop selling it has parts of their coffee machine made with polycarbonate plastic – now the coffee contains BPA.  Really, until our Government steps in and bans and controls these chemicals we are faced with a long road with our health chemically polluted. 

 
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