Inside and around your home, toxins are lurking. Fortunately there are things you can do to reduce the toxic load. Maybe you can't completely rebuild your house to be green, or relocate to a new neighborhood with less pollution. But a few small changes can make a difference for your household.
In your kitchen, you can go for different cookware. Buying less of some things and more of others for your home can make your environment more healthy and benign. Cutting back on energy use in different areas will save you money and create a lighter ecological footprint.
If you're spraying things around your house or yard, you can cut out the poisons and start spraying healthier ingredients, or just cut it out altogether.
1) Ditch your Teflon. When you're cooking with nonstick pots and pans on high heat, fluoropolymers are released, the Environmental Working Group reports. Compounds like perfluorooctanoic acid are formed and enter your food. PFOA is associated with heart disease and may be a human carcinogen. You can still do nonstick cooking by preseasoning a cast iron frying pan.
2) Cut down on the use of canned foods. Bisphenol A is used to line cans. BPA is toxic and is linked with birth defects.
3) Tweak your tap water. Use a filter on your faucet, or in a jug. Different filtering systems will remove different toxins from your water.
4) Clean with cleaner ingredients. Water and white vinegar cleans a multitude of grimy problems without risking thyroid damage and more toxins in your home.
5) Replace air fresheners and plug-ins that exude chemicals throughout your house.Fill your home with the clean scents that emanate from essential oils heated in diffusers.
6) Save on laundry. Washing your clothes in cold water is cheaper, and will clean all but the filthiest of laundry items. Take items that dry faster than others out of your dryer when they are ready rather than letting the cycle run its course. After some are removed, the rest of the load will dry faster and more economically.
7) Replace bug sprays with soapy water in a spray bottle. This will eliminate the insects' chemical trail which will keep the whole tribe from showing up. This is a great way to avoid being poisoned yourself by the chemical sprays' organophosphates.
8) Replace commercial weed killers with less toxic sprays. Dish washing detergent when combined with white vinegar can kill some weeds for you.
9) Compost your kitchen scraps. You won't crowd the landfills and you're feeding your garden at the same time.
10) Reduce your use of volatile organic compounds when buying paint. VOCs off-gas from many paints and can be the reason for irritation of your eyes, nose and throat. They can cause nausea and headaches as well.
Sources:
"Going Green" at Home. EPA.gov. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
http://www.epa.gov/region3/green/home.html
EVERYDAY POLLUTION SOLUTIONS. EWG.org. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
http://www.ewg.org/research/solutions
70 Easy Ways To Be Just A Little Bit Greener. Retrieved April 28, 2015.Prevention.com
http://www.prevention.com/health/healthy-living/70-easy-ways-green-your-...
Visit Jody's website at http://www.ncubator.ca
Reviewed April 30, 2015
by Michele Blacksberg RN