Headache? Achy joints? Runny nose? Itchy eyes? You’re probably thinking you’ve got a cold. It might just be that your indoor air quality stinks – literally.

Indoor air quality can be a LOT more polluted than the air outside. That’s bad news for those of us who live inside – which, I think, is everyone reading this post.

⇒ In addition to making us feel like we’ve got a cold, polluted indoor air can zap our energy and turn us into cranky grumps.

⇒ If you have asthma or another respiratory illness, poor indoor air quality will make them worse.

⇒ Lousy indoor air quality can even contribute to cancers caused by exposure to the toxic chemicals that pollute the air we breathe when we’re inside.

Because indoor air quality causes so many health problems, I’ve teamed up with the smart folks at HomeLab to make it easier for you to figure out what’s actually in the air you’re breathing at home and how you can create a Healthy Home.

Indoor Air Pollution Sources

The HomeLab Healthy Home Program to Create a Non-Toxic Home

HomeLab was started by Nate Bellino.

After working in energy efficiency for over a decade, Nate realized that the air inside our homes was pervasively bad.

His wife battled cancer twice and his daughter has asthma. When trying to create a healthy home for his family, he found trying to remove toxins and pollutants exceedingly difficult.

He started HomeLab so that more people could easily create a healthy home on any budget.

Nate’s ingenious Healthy Home Program is designed to help you make sure that the air you’re breathing is actually worth breathing!

Step 1 – Identify – First and foremost, you need to know what’s in the air you’re breathing. Once you sign up for HomeLab, you’ll get a monitor that will give you vital readings that show you what invisible toxins and pollutants are lurking in your home’s air. (NOTE: You can sign up for a Healthy Home Program for less than $10/month.)

Step 2 – Monitor – Once you know what’s in your air, you can use the monitor together with the HomeLab smart phone app to view toxin levels so you’ll know at any given time where problems exist and whether you need to act.

Step 3 – Take Action – HomeLab’s team of “Home Doctors” – experts with deep knowledge and experience working on indoor air quality – will prescribe the most effective ways for you specifically to create a healthy home that is right for you. They always start with no-cost activities that are surprisingly simple, some of which can remove up to 40% of the toxins and pollutants found in your home’s indoor air.

Step 4 – Continue to Monitor – “Our monitoring service places an effective shield against incoming pollution,” reports Nate. “We remotely observe your air quality monitor and notify you of critical spikes or alarming trends, proactively providing solutions and partnering with you until we kick pollution to the curb.”

Doesn’t that sound like a good idea?!

“Air quality is ever fluctuating in a home,” says Nate. “Different seasons, outdoor pollution events, different rooms all contribute to spikes. We start people off with simple activities and continue guiding them in creating a non-toxic home.”

Once you’ve got a handle on your home, you can continue to use the app as a sort of air quality watchdog.

Free eBook!

If you want to learn more about indoor air and how yours might be polluted, at least get a copy of HomeLab’s Free Healthy Home eBook.

Here’s what’s in it:

√ A list of the most common forms of toxins and pollutants
√ A description of how different products we have at home add to indoor air pollution
√ Common products and services to avoid
√ A step-by-step process for creating a healthy, non-toxic home
√ Recommendations for apartments and rentals

Here’s the link to get your free copy.

25% Discount for the Big Green Purse Community

As a special bonus for the Big Green Purse community, HomeLab is offering you an 25% discount off either the start-up or the premium package. You can check out the advantages of each one right here.

By the way, now is the perfect time to monitor your indoor air. Most of us have either closed our windows tight against the cold weather or , if you live in the south, buttoned your house up to keep air conditioned in.

Either way, the air could be stagnating a bit, which might actually make indoor air pollution worse.

Why not see what’s in your air, and take steps to fix it?

You’ll feel better and stay healthier, right away and in the long term, too.

DISCLOSURE: We’re partnering with Home Lab because we know how important it is to breathe clean indoor air. We will earn a small commission if you sign up for the Healthy Home Program, but we’d recommend Home Lab regardless because we want you to be well. Thanks!

The post You Don’t Have a Cold. Your Indoor Air Quality Stinks. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Chances are great that our daughters will pass on to our grandchildren some of the same chemical molecules they inherited from us. The estimated age by which a daughter will purge 99 percent of the inherited chemical varies depending on the chemical. It will take a day to excrete the phthalate plasticizers that soften up cosmetics, paint and plastics, but a year to dump mercury. Our daughters will be at least teenagers but perhaps senior citizens before they’re rid of the common flame retardants and stain-proofing chemicals we pass along. They would be 166 years old before they’re free of their inherited lead.

Meanwhile, their own body burden continues to increase. According to EWG’s test results, chemicals that persist in the body were found at higher levels in mothers than daughters, showing how chemicals can build up in the body over a lifetime. Mothers had an average of 1.5 to 5.2 times more pollution than their daughters for lead, methyl mercury, brominated flame retardants, and the Teflon- and Scotchgard-related perfluorochemicals PFOA and PFOS.

The EWG study, which was done on four mothers and their daughters, found that each of the eight women’s blood or urine was contaminated with an average of 35 consumer product ingredients, including flame retardants, plasticizers, and stain-proof coatings. These mixtures of compounds found in furniture, cosmetics, fabrics, and other consumer goods, have never been tested for safety. The mothers and daughters in this study join 64 other people tested in six EWG biomonitoring programs conducted between 2000 and 2006. In total, EWG biomonitoring has found 455 different pollutants, pesticides, and industrial chemicals in the bodies or cord blood of 72 different people — including 10 newborn babies with an average of 200 chemicals in each child.

“EPA studies show that children from birth to age two are 10 times more sensitive to cancer-causing chemicals than adults,” said Jane Houlihan, EWG’s vice president for research. “Scientists have found that chemicals’ toxic effects can be passed down for four generations, by causing permanent genetic changes that can be inherited. A stew of toxic chemicals is not the legacy mothers want to hand down to their children.”

We monitor the pollution in our air, our water, and even our fish. Isn’t it time we started paying attention to the pollution in our bodies?

Related Post: What’s in YOUR body, Mom?

The post A Mother’s Day Question: What Do You Have in Common with Your Daughter…or Your Own Mother? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

For example:

Breast Cancer – Industrial chemicals that act like the hormones estrogen and progesterone may be adding to a woman’s breast cancer risk.

Heart Disease – Air pollution, exposure to arsenic, lead and mercury, and of course cigarette smoking and second-hand smoke make us more susceptible to heart disease.

Endometriosis – Endometriosis affects 1 out of 10 women in the U.S. Some contaminants that may increase our risk for this condition include dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs) and radiation.

Diabetes – A recent study showed that chronic exposure to Bisphenol A, a chemical found in some plastics and food can linings, causes insulin resistance in laboratory animals, leading to Type II diabetes. Other studies showed that exposure to organochlorines (which may be found in pesticides) may also lead to diabetes.

To download the entire kit, as well as some great tips for action at home and in your community, visit the Women’s Health and Environment website.

The post On Earth Day, Think About Your Health appeared first on Big Green Purse.