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How Unseen Toxins in Your Home Can Affect Your Family's Health by Dani Veracity
Your home might not be the safe haven you think it is, according to Barry Jones, author of Home, Sweet
Toxic Home. While you eat, while you watch television and even while you sleep, your body is under siege
from airborne biological and chemical pollutants. However, once you understand the toxins and their risks,
there are steps you can take to get rid of them, as Jones explained in his lecture at the First Annual Arizona
Choices Exposition in Tucson, Ariz. Jones separates home pollutants into three basic categories, the first of
which consists of small, airborne particles. Lint, dust mites, human skin, pet dander -- these toxins are more
dangerous than they sound. Why? Their small size enables them to travel into the lungs, where they lodge
themselves, too deep to be coughed up.
To make matters worse, pollutants from the next category -- the "biologicals," such as bacteria and viruses --
attach themselves to these airborne particles, increasing the likelihood of lung infections. Mold is also part of
this second category and, despite popular belief, mold is common even in dry climates because indoor
humidity may be high even if outdoor humidity is low, says Jones.
The third category of pollutants is perhaps the most ironic, as many consumers bring these toxins into their
homes themselves. It's true: Many of the products believed to improve the look and scent of homes can
actually harm the people living there. Jones told a disturbing story about how spray-can cleaning products
and other microbial cleaners made a four-year-old boy exhibit behavioral problems, which then completely
disappeared after pure oxygen treatment.
Of course, this brings up the question of whether these household-cleaning products might at least partially
cause ADHD and other learning and behavioral disorders. Unfortunately, these cleaners aren't the only
consumer products containing chemicals. Fabric dryer sheets actually put petroleum and potentially
dangerous artificial fragrances on clothes, and air fresheners also contain these fragrances, which may
interfere with hormone communication systems. Read the labels, Jones advised, and beware that anything
ending in "-cide" is a long-lasting chemical.
Jones also pointed out that the new carpet in your home or workplace might be making you sick because of
the glue used to put it down. This substance, which he calls "yellow death," contains the human carcinogen
benzene and the neurotoxin xylene -- one of the unhealthiest chemical combinations you can be exposed to.
Jones felt the health dangers of home toxins firsthand during the 1980s, an experience that prompted him to
write Home, Sweet Toxic Home and start the Tucson-based Home Environment Center, which specializes in
making homes safer. After moving into a townhouse in 1985, he began losing weight, catching frequent
colds, experiencing numbness and tingling in his extremities, erupting in rashes from head to toe and having
digestion problems. "I was convinced I was going to die and not know why," he told us.
Not knowing why he was so sick was what frightened him most, so he went to the famous Nevada Clinic for
answers. After they discovered that he was allergic to a number of chemicals and foods, Jones went back to
Tucson and paid two PhDs to test his home for toxins. They found nothing. Nevertheless, he sold the
townhouse and found the root of his health problems by accident while moving. In the back of a cabinet in the
master bathroom, he found toilet-cleaning crystals that had been off-gassing chlorine. In other words, he had
been breathing potentially carcinogenic chlorine gas every night as he slept in the master bedroom. When
he told the two professors who had earlier tested the home and found no chemicals, they told him that they
had not tested for chlorine and also remarked that, given what he had been inhaling, he was lucky that that
he wasn't sicker.
On this note, showers also present a little-known -- yet very high -- risk of chlorine exposure through
inhalation of chlorine gas released from hot water treated with the potential carcinogen. Jones suggests
buying a shower filter, though he cautions, "Nothing takes everything out, but filters take enough out to
reduce risk." Furthermore, as Jones's own experience shows, off-gassed chemicals pose a very real danger
to human beings. In fact, antimony and other chemicals released from flame-retardant crib mattresses may
be the cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also known as crib death. According to Dr. Sprock,
who first discovered this, the solution is to use a polyethylene sheet to wrap the crib mattress, which yielded
zero crib deaths in 100,000 live births, according to ongoing research.
Rental properties, such as apartments, pose an especially high risk of pollutants for inhabitants, according to
Jones. Some may have a mold problem, which is something that you should look for the first time you look at
a potential new apartment or rented home. Due to the close living space in apartment houses, you also have
to beware of your neighbor's activities, which may pollute your apartment through air transfer, even if you
have your own heating and cooling systems. One way to counteract this problem is to buy an air filter.
If you suspect your home or apartment is making you sick, you need to act now before home toxins cause
you long-term health problems. For practical solutions to indoor pollution, contact the Home Environment
Center for help at 1-888-612-5798.
Date: 1/28/06
Author: Dani Veracity
Source: www.NewsTarget.com
Toxic Home. While you eat, while you watch television and even while you sleep, your body is under siege
from airborne biological and chemical pollutants. However, once you understand the toxins and their risks,
there are steps you can take to get rid of them, as Jones explained in his lecture at the First Annual Arizona
Choices Exposition in Tucson, Ariz. Jones separates home pollutants into three basic categories, the first of
which consists of small, airborne particles. Lint, dust mites, human skin, pet dander -- these toxins are more
dangerous than they sound. Why? Their small size enables them to travel into the lungs, where they lodge
themselves, too deep to be coughed up.
To make matters worse, pollutants from the next category -- the "biologicals," such as bacteria and viruses --
attach themselves to these airborne particles, increasing the likelihood of lung infections. Mold is also part of
this second category and, despite popular belief, mold is common even in dry climates because indoor
humidity may be high even if outdoor humidity is low, says Jones.
The third category of pollutants is perhaps the most ironic, as many consumers bring these toxins into their
homes themselves. It's true: Many of the products believed to improve the look and scent of homes can
actually harm the people living there. Jones told a disturbing story about how spray-can cleaning products
and other microbial cleaners made a four-year-old boy exhibit behavioral problems, which then completely
disappeared after pure oxygen treatment.
Of course, this brings up the question of whether these household-cleaning products might at least partially
cause ADHD and other learning and behavioral disorders. Unfortunately, these cleaners aren't the only
consumer products containing chemicals. Fabric dryer sheets actually put petroleum and potentially
dangerous artificial fragrances on clothes, and air fresheners also contain these fragrances, which may
interfere with hormone communication systems. Read the labels, Jones advised, and beware that anything
ending in "-cide" is a long-lasting chemical.
Jones also pointed out that the new carpet in your home or workplace might be making you sick because of
the glue used to put it down. This substance, which he calls "yellow death," contains the human carcinogen
benzene and the neurotoxin xylene -- one of the unhealthiest chemical combinations you can be exposed to.
Jones felt the health dangers of home toxins firsthand during the 1980s, an experience that prompted him to
write Home, Sweet Toxic Home and start the Tucson-based Home Environment Center, which specializes in
making homes safer. After moving into a townhouse in 1985, he began losing weight, catching frequent
colds, experiencing numbness and tingling in his extremities, erupting in rashes from head to toe and having
digestion problems. "I was convinced I was going to die and not know why," he told us.
Not knowing why he was so sick was what frightened him most, so he went to the famous Nevada Clinic for
answers. After they discovered that he was allergic to a number of chemicals and foods, Jones went back to
Tucson and paid two PhDs to test his home for toxins. They found nothing. Nevertheless, he sold the
townhouse and found the root of his health problems by accident while moving. In the back of a cabinet in the
master bathroom, he found toilet-cleaning crystals that had been off-gassing chlorine. In other words, he had
been breathing potentially carcinogenic chlorine gas every night as he slept in the master bedroom. When
he told the two professors who had earlier tested the home and found no chemicals, they told him that they
had not tested for chlorine and also remarked that, given what he had been inhaling, he was lucky that that
he wasn't sicker.
On this note, showers also present a little-known -- yet very high -- risk of chlorine exposure through
inhalation of chlorine gas released from hot water treated with the potential carcinogen. Jones suggests
buying a shower filter, though he cautions, "Nothing takes everything out, but filters take enough out to
reduce risk." Furthermore, as Jones's own experience shows, off-gassed chemicals pose a very real danger
to human beings. In fact, antimony and other chemicals released from flame-retardant crib mattresses may
be the cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also known as crib death. According to Dr. Sprock,
who first discovered this, the solution is to use a polyethylene sheet to wrap the crib mattress, which yielded
zero crib deaths in 100,000 live births, according to ongoing research.
Rental properties, such as apartments, pose an especially high risk of pollutants for inhabitants, according to
Jones. Some may have a mold problem, which is something that you should look for the first time you look at
a potential new apartment or rented home. Due to the close living space in apartment houses, you also have
to beware of your neighbor's activities, which may pollute your apartment through air transfer, even if you
have your own heating and cooling systems. One way to counteract this problem is to buy an air filter.
If you suspect your home or apartment is making you sick, you need to act now before home toxins cause
you long-term health problems. For practical solutions to indoor pollution, contact the Home Environment
Center for help at 1-888-612-5798.
Date: 1/28/06
Author: Dani Veracity
Source: www.NewsTarget.com