It’s a common misconception that you don’t need to worry about the air you breathe unless you’re outside. Smog, carbon monoxide, ozone, and polluting particles sometimes make it difficult to breathe outdoors. However, the air INSIDE our homes can be even more dangerous to breathe. That’s because the chemicals we use in our homes can build up and pollute our indoor air. People spend more than 90% of their time inside rather than out, so if our indoor air is polluted, it can pose a real threat to our health. That’s why we’ve teamed up with EcoExperts.com to offer you these 5 smart and easy ways to improve indoor air quality.

Improve Indoor Air Quality 5 Smart Ways

1)Keep your floors clean.

Surprised by this one? Think about it. Whatever you’ve walked through before you came into your home you’re bringing right along with you. Allergens and toxic chemicals can accumulate along with household dust and normal dirt.

⇒Keep floors clean first and foremost by putting a door mat outside and inside the door so it is easy to trap loose dirt before you even come in your home.

⇒Leave your shoes at the door so you don’t track all that pollution everywhere in the house. This is especially true if you have carpeting or area rugs, as the dirt and dust can get embedded in carpeting fibers.

⇒Vacuum weekly, using a vacuum with strong suction power and rotating bushes to raise pollutants up and out of the carpet where they can be easily sucked up.

⇒Use a microfiber mop to sweep up on hard floors and tile. Depending on how much traffic you have going through your home, or if you have outdoor pets coming inside, you may need to do this daily.

2)Reduce home humidity.

A cool home may be comfortable, but if it’s too cool and damp, it will breed mold and mildew.

⇒Keep the humidity level inside your home between 30% and 50%.

⇒In basements and below ground family rooms, use a dehumidifier to pull excess moisture out of the air.

⇒In bathrooms, turn on ceiling fans when taking a shower, and let the fan run 20 minutes afterwards to do its job.

3)Test for radon.

One of the most fatal of indoor toxins, radon is a colorless, odorless gas that has become a leading cause of lung cancer worldwide. This poisonous gas is common to all kinds of soil and seeps up into basements and homes without basements, then persists when air circulation doesn’t vent the gas to the outside. Even granite countertops have been found to emit radon.

Fortunately, testing for the presence of radon is inexpensive. service providers like Eco Experts can conduct the test, determine whether you’re in danger, and help remediate the problem before you get sick.

4)Use non-toxic household cleansers; avoid synthetic perfumes and fragrances; don’t smoke. 

Many cleansers contain “VOCs,” volatile organic compounds that are known carcinogens. Commercial “air fresheners”  probably contain phthalates, which are known to trigger asthma, headaches, nausea and worse. The dangers with “second hand smoke” are well-documented and almost as significant as if someone were smoking rather than inhaling someone else’s cigarette smoke.

Most home cleaning can be accomplished using a simple solution of fragrance-free liquid soap, some baking soda, and warm water.

For a more fragrant interior, simmer a pot of popourri on the stove, open windows to let in fresh air, and remove rotting food and pet waste if it has not been cleaned up.

Don’t Miss: 16 Causes of Indoor Air Pollution

If you must smoke, go outside and stand far away from any open windows or doors to prevent the smoke from getting inside.

5)Vent kitchen ranges, chimneys, wood stoves, and fireplace inserts.

Prevent carbon monoxide and other byproducts of gas and wood combustion from building up in your home. Use the stove fan when cooking and make sure your chimney is clean and allowing dirty smoke and air to escape up the chimney rather than into your home.

Keep a carbon monoxide detector in good working order to avoid deadly build-up of this lethal gas.

Take a look at : Indoor Plants for Air Purification

By the way, take many of these same steps if you work in an office. And make sure whether at home or at work, you get outside frequently. Going in and out will both help you clear your lungs and help promote air exchange between bad air and good (or at least, not quite so bad).

The post Improve Indoor Air Quality 5 Smart Ways appeared first on Big Green Purse.

How clean is the air you breathe?

Because you don’t see smog inside your home, you might think your air is pretty clean. You’d sure want it to be, since you spend 90% of your time indoors, either in your home or at work. But in fact, indoor air can be two-five times more polluted than outdoor air.

Why? One reason is that 25% of outdoor pollution can still get indoors.

But more importantly, many common items we use in our homes actually pollute our indoor air.

Because indoor air doesn’t circulate as much as the air outside, it can stagnate, and the pollutants inside can concentrate.

Fortunately, there’s a LOT you can do to reduce indoor air pollution. We’ve partnered with AirFilterBuy.com to bring you this two-part series on indoor air pollution causes and what you can do right now, and affordably, to clean up your air.

HOW INDOOR AIR POLLUTION MAKES YOU SICK

The chemicals in indoor air pollution can have any or all of the following effects:

Irritation – Did you ever get itchy eyes or a scratchy throat after using an air “freshener” or home “cleaning” product? Most common cleansers contain powerful chemicals that we shouldn’t be inhaling.

Headache, Fatigue, Nausea, Dizziness – Those same chemicals can give you an annoying headache, make you feel inexplicably tired or dizzy, and even give you an upset stomach.

Shortness of Breath – You might also feel shortness of breath, not something that’s pleasant at all.

Trouble Concentrating – If you’ve got a headache or feel sick to your stomach, or just have an uneasy feeling, it will be hard to concentrate on what you have to do.

Allergic Reactions, Sinus Congestion, Coughing & Sneezing – If you already suffer from allergies or are prone to sinus infections, these can get worse when you breathe in polluted air.

INDOOR AIR POLLUTION CAUSES

Here are 16 surprising sources of air pollution inside your home. Let’s start with the no-brainers first:

1) Second-hand Smoke – If you are still smoking inside your home, at the very least, please go outside. The smoke you exhale along with the smoke that comes from a burning cigarette is full of all kinds of carcinogens that can get into the lungs and blood vessels of people who are in a room with smokers, even if they’re not smoking themselves.

2) Pesticides – Do you use pesticides when you spot ants or spiders or other bugs? Insecticides contain toxic chemicals designed to kill a pest upon contact. But if you inhales them, they can make you sick, too.

3) Mold – Mold crops up in lots of places in your home: damp showers and bathrooms, around leaky faucets, behind a wall that might have water damage, around the drain of a washing machine or dehumidifier. You’ll recognize it by the black stuff that looks like soot, or the grey or pale green spots you see on a wall, ceiling or floor.

Now, here are some other sources:

4) Your Pet Cat and/or Dog – I’m really sorry to report that dander and hair from Fido or Felix can pollute the air you breathe – but they can.

5) Fireplaces, Gas Stoves, Cars & Trucks – Both fireplaces and gas stoves can give off carbon monoxide. This is a tricky pollutant because you can’t smell it at all – but it is deadly. Your car or truck emits carbon monoxide (as well as carbon dioxide) when they burn gasoline.

6) Furniture in Your Living Room, Kitchen, or Bedroom – Furniture that is made from plywood or pressed wood may contain formaldehyde and glues that “off gas” those chemicals for a long time.

7) Your Beauty Products – I know, they’re supposed to make you beautiful! But make-up, soaps, and shampoos are often made from artificial fragrances and ingredients that contain trace amounts of toxic chemicals. Using one product one time wouldn’t be a problem. But because we use so many different products every day, the burden on your body can increase significantly.

8) Non-Stick Pots & Pans – If you use non-stick cookware, beware. The coating that gives non-stick pots and pans their non-stickiness may contain PFOA, a known carcinogen that goes airborne at high temperatures.

9) Household Cleaners – Most common household cleansers, especially sprays, contain artificial fragrances made from “volatile organic compounds” or VOCs. Depending on your sensitivity, they could cause most of the ill-effects described above. They do for me!

10) Home Computer Printer/Fax Machine – Depending on the equipment you use and your level of sensitivity, the chemicals in printer and fax machine ink could make you feel uncomfortable.

11) Household Paints & Finishes – Common wall paint is a big source of VOCs. Before I switched to non-VOC paint, I would have to leave my home to have it painted, and then wait until it completely aired out before I could move back in.

12) Radon – Radon is an odorless gas that can be extremely toxic, causing lung cancer and even death. It comes from the breakdown of naturally occurring uranium in soil, and gets into your home through cracks in your foundation, spaces in the walls, and even water that gets contaminated when radon gets into tiny cracks in your water pipes.

13) Pillows, Cushions, Bedding – Dust makes your house look dirty. Imagine if you’re breathing the same stuff that’s settling on your coffee table. An ounce of dust can be home to 40,000 dust mites. If you’re allergic, you’ll be miserable.

14) Crumbling Paint & Paint Chips – The paint used in homes built before xx probably contains lead, a powerful neurotoxin that is particularly dangerous for kids and can cause learning disabilities

15) Asbestos Flooring, Shingles, Siding, & Insulation – Asbestos has been widely used in home construction because if resists fire. Unfortunately, asbestos also causes mesothelioma and other cancers.

16) Rotten Food – Food will rot – plain and simple. When it rots in your compost pile, that’s good. When it rots underneath your couch or at the bottom of your trash can, that’s bad. Not only might it stink to high heaven. It might draw ants or roaches or mice or rats, and then you’ll have an even bigger problem to content with than cleaning up the rotten food.

DON’T DESPAIR…

Yes, this is a pretty big list. But for every item on it, there’s a clear and simple solution, and with a couple of exceptions, the solutions cost very little money.

Stay tuned (or jump ahead to “Everything You Need to Know about Indoor Air Pollution,” a very useful infographic produced by AirFilterBuy.com, the sponsors of this post).

The post Indoor Air Pollution Causes: 16 Surprising Things That Pollute The Air in Your House appeared first on Big Green Purse.

But let’s back up a minute, to the original question. How much money do you waste buying plastic every year? I’ve written about why using less plastic matters here. In short, the stuff is made from oil and other toxic chemicals, can make us sick if we’re repeatedly exposed to those chemicals, and wreaks havoc on wildlife and the environment.

If you’ve given up buying bottled water, use your own reusable cloth shopping bag and maybe grow some (or most) of your own food, your automatic response might be: “Almost none. I don’t buy plastic.”

But chances are, you’re still subsidizing the use of a fair amount of plastic, since almost everything anyone buys these days comes either shrink-wrapped, padded in plastic balls or peanuts (yes, polystyrene is a form of plastic), encased in a plastic package of some sort, or wrapped in paper that’s been coated with a plastic film so thin you don’t even notice it.

One area where I’ve become particularly aware of how much plastic I consume is in the bathroom. Even though I don’t use a lot of cosmetics and follow a mostly “natural” hygiene regimen, now that I’m paying attention, I’m appalled at how many of my personal care products come packaged in plastic. I’ve switched to bar soap that’s sold either wrapper free or wrapped in paper, my face cream comes in glass jars, and my hand salve comes in metal tins. I use wash cloths instead of disposable wipes to remove dirt and make-up, and a crystal for deodorant. But my shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, toothpaste, sunscreen, and mouthwash? They’re all packaged in plastic. Ditto for the blush, mascara and lip gloss I apply.

The kicker is, I’m not buying a lot of conventional products. What I buy is always free of parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrances, and triclosan, as well as many other questionnable chemicals I’d rather not put on my body or wash down the drain. Because most of these items come in jars and tubes made from recycled plastic, I used to think that was good enough, since I can easily recycle them in my city’s curbside recycling program.

Beth, whose expertise I admire enormously, has done the research, and she says that, in most cases, the best plastic is no plastic at all, recycled or not. I recommend you read her book yourself to understand why. Let me just say that I’ve been so persuaded by her reporting that I’ve decided to embark on an effort to try many of the plastic-free alternatives she suggests, including several of her make-it-yourself recipes.  (Come back soon to see how her home-made shampoo and conditioner recipes did on my hair.)

At Big Green Purse, we recommend shifting your spending to the safest, greenest products available as the fastest, easiest way to protect yourself and your family while giving manufacturers real marketplace incentives to do better, too. (Read this post about how Beth shifted more than $1,000 to all kinds of great green goods as part of our One in a Million campaign!).

How big an impact can you have, if you just focused on beauty products? According to the YWCA report “Beauty at Any Cost,” five years’ worth of beauty products costs about $6,423 on average. One full year of college tuition and fees at a public in-state college is $6,185! Neither I nor Beth are recommending you stop using any of these products at all. But if you spend over $1,000 a year on personal care products, think of the impact you can have by shifting your spending to products packaged in glass or paper, or by making your own rather than buying so much. Whether you shift a dime or a dollar, you can make a difference.

I hope you’ll read this book, and not just because of what you do in your bathroom. Beth examined her entire lifestyle to figure out where she was using plastic and how she could cut back. The results are incredibly inspiring. “In the years since my plastic awakening,” she writes, “ I’ve gone from personally generating almost four pounds of plastic waste per month to a little over two pounds per year (the average American generates between 88 and 120 pounds per year), and I am continuing the downward trend. While I’ve learned many facts about plastic—how it’s made, which types leach toxic chemicals into our food, why plastic recycling is actually “down- cycling,” and the many ways in which it’s both helpful and harmful—the biggest lessons have been personal rather than factual.”

She acknowledges that “It’s nearly impossible to eliminate plastic from our lives entirely. And, unlike me, you may not even want to try. That’s OK. This isn’t a competition, and I don’t hold myself up as an ideal.”

Here’s what I especially like about Beth’s philosophy:  “The goal is to be aware and responsible,” she says without the least bit of preachiness. “You might find yourself saying, “I know this is plastic and bad for the environment (and for my health), but I really need it or want it right now.” You think about the consequences, weigh your options, and make a decision. Other times, you may say to yourself, “It might be nice to have this, but it just isn’t worth the pollution and health risks. I can do without it.” Perhaps you will set a goal—to reduce your plastic consumption by a certain percentage or keep it under a certain amount per month. Or you might define what constitutes an emergency situation for you, and save plastic for those times. Whatever you do, it will be your choice.” What a great attitude!

JUST FOR FUN!

In addition to all the great background information and straightforward action checklists, Beth provides some surprising insights into the ways she’s had fun going plastic-free. I love her suggestion for a “make your own” iPod cover:

“What do you do when your iPod cover cracks and you need a new one and all you can find to buy are covers made out of plastic or handmade covers from Etsy that just don’t fit your lifestyle and the way you want to use your device? This might seem like a silly concern when the mp3 player itself is made from plastic, but my plastic-free life is not about deprivation but finding creative ways to enjoy the possessions I already have without buying new plastic.

“So one night, when I was supposed to be working on a million other things, I entertained myself by devising my perfect knitted iPod cover, complete with holes for the power cord and headphone jack and openings for viewing the screen and accessing the click wheel. I felt pretty tickled with myself, and even more so a year later when the foam pads on a couple pairs of headphones wore out and I taught myself to crochet in order to make some plastic-free replacements out of wool. I feel a real connection to and appreciation for items I’ve spent hours making myself. I also feel much more motivated to take care of them properly. Whenever I need something new, I check Google first to see if someone has come up with a handmade version or instructions for doing it myself. I’m not always willing to take the time, but when I do, it’s always worth it.”

BUY NOW!

Beth is selling signed copies of her book through her blog to benefit the Plastic Pollution Coalition. Plus, any copies Beth sends out or that are purchased via BuyGreen.com are guaranteed to ship without plastic packaging. Get a copy for yourself, for your friends, and for community leaders who think there’s no way to live without plastic. Beth’s book proves them wrong from the very first page to the last.

The post Want a Plastic-Free Life? Buy This Book ASAP! appeared first on Big Green Purse.