Healthy Living Space

Home Sweet Home. Home should be a refuge, a safe and comforting environment to return to at the end of the day, a place to sit back, relax and rejuvenate. Unfortunately, your home may no longer be as safe as you think. Indoor air can be much more polluted than outdoor air, even in large cities, due to the combination of the increasing use of plastic and synthetic building materials most of which release undetectable, dangerous fumes and the airtightness of modern buildings which prevents these fumes from escaping. Many older homes or offices, especially those built prior to 1950, have been decorated with paint that contains up to fifty percent lead and have been constructed with asbestos in the walls. Health is also jeopardized by electropollution from the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) produced all around us by power lines, wiring, computers and appliances.

A growing number of people have been stricken with illnesses from environmental causes, including multiple, often severe, chemical sensitivities. For them, the importance of a healthy home is crucial since even a very small amount of a common chemical can set off a severe reaction. These reactions are an early warning that everyone needs to seriously reassess the mounting and synergistic effects of the thousands of chemicals and pollutants in the environment.

Chemical sensitivities are the product of an immune system weakened by cumulative overexposure to toxins in the indoor and outdoor environment. The symptoms are numerous: allergies, fatigue, headaches, depression, memory loss, confusion, asthma, skin irritations, nausea, dizziness, respiratory problems, fever, chills and eye inflammations. Unfortunately, these symptoms are often vague, sporadic and changeable, and so are easily dismissed as psychosomatic, especially since physicians are not trained to recognize chemical sensitivities and environmental illness.

Although not everyone reacts to pollutants in the same manner-some become seriously ill while others seem unaffected-a healthy, safe home makes good sense. Society is still learning about the cumulative effects of chemical and electrical overexposure, but researchers have established that sensitivities are symptoms of a damaged immune system. Once sensitivities develop, very minute amounts of many chemicals can trigger a reaction.

Every aspect of daily life affects health and well-being, including air, light, drinking water, food, electricity, personal care products, cleaning products, furnishings, building materials and living environment. This section suggests and outlines simple measures that you can take to effectively reduce or eliminate the pollutants in your life and turn your home into a healthy living space.

Although it would be impossible to create an environment that is completely non-toxic in today's world, every little bit helps. Taking good care of your immediate surroundings not only benefits you and your family, but lends to a greater cause your neighborhood, your city, your country, your planet.