Indoor air pollution is no joke. According to the American Lung Association, "Thehousehold cleaning agents, personal care products, pesticides, paints, hobbyproducts and solvents that make our lives so easy are also sources of hundreds ofpotentially harmful chemicals."The top three toxic trolls lurking in our living spaces?Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a commercial product used to degrease metal and for drycleaning. In your home, it can be found in paints, lacquers, varnishes, printinginks and adhesives. The National Cancer Institute considers Trichloroethylene apotent liver carcinogen.Benzene is a very commonly used solvent and is also present in many common itemsincluding gasoline, inks, oils, paints, plastics and rubber. In addition it isused in the manufacture of detergents, explosives, pharmaceuticals and dyes.Benzene is a known eye and skin irritant and is suspected to contribute tochromosomal aberrations and leukemia.Formaldehyde is in particle board, pressed wood and in formaldehyde foaminsulation (UFFI), which means in most work and home furniture. Formaldehyde is inpaper products treated with UF resins, including waxed papers, face tissues, papertowels and grocery bags, as well as in many household cleaning agents containformaldehyde. Formaldehyde is also present in cigarette smoke. The EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA) now suspects that formaldehyde may cause a rare type ofthroat cancer.We know these chemicals are all around us in our homes, and while wed like to
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decrease the amount of exposure, what, really, can we do about it? Id love to rip
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up my floors and walls, exchange my dumpy sleep sofa and live in a stylish, toxin-free dwelling, preferably next door to George Clooney, but that simply isnt going
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to happen anytime soon (alas). I can, however, work to remove as many of the airpollutants in our home as possible, and the ways in which I can do that arerapidly increasing.Now that were going green(er), I am not spraying down sinks and counters with
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benzene, making do instead with either a nontoxic vinegar solution a la Eco Me, orthe Lotus super oxygenated water (both of which are actually working!), andwashing my floors with the Shark, so I have already decreased our exposure byquite a bit.Paralda HEPA Air PurifierWhat about the air we have regardless? We field-tested an air filter, or rather,the kids did. We live on a busy street; our house has major dust issues and notsimply because I dont -- almost ever -- dust. The filter we tried was high-end --
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the Paralda Alen http://www.alencorp.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Paralda .The kids nicknamed it Allan, and we all fell madly in love. The Alen meets
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Energy Stars standards for energy efficiency, with a lead-free design, a bamboo
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inner core, ionizing HEPA filters and a UV lamp to zap bacteria. Also? It looksquite stylish. So, with Allan chugging tastefully and almost silently in the
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corner, I wanted to make sure that whatever else I add to our householdenvironment is nontoxic and makes our air no less breathable. Thats when I pulled
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out my latest field-testing items: the deliciously scented Fresh Wave products.
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