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Gallery: Your House Is Killing You. Here's How To Stop It

Posted 11.13.12 at 10:00 am 2 Comments

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Fabric

Flickr user jinkazamah

Toxins
Upholstered furniture is loaded with flame retardant chemicals, handy when your candle tips over near the fabric, but not so nice when it comes to health effects. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), the technical name for these retardants, leak slowly into the air and attach to surrounding materials, from dust bunnies to your clothes. PBDEs accumulate in your body over time and are thought to disrupt hormone function and be toxic to the immune system.

Solution
To lower your exposure, try buying from furniture companies like Furnature and Viesso that are almost completely toxin-free, from the glue holding the wood together to the cushion fabric.

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Read the article: Your House Is Killing You. Here Are 7 Ways To Stop It

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2 Comments

Link to this comment

lnwolf41

11/13/12 at 4:13 pm

lnwolf41
So unless you are building your house from scratch, you need to renovate, which takes money. Also the main reason for the air quality is that houses today are sealed enviorments, so the change over of fresh air is very small, which allows for the toxins to build up.
This article never mentioned the price tag for all the better products, if your going to give out options provide all the info. Just a simple example polyurothane "oil base" very durable but takes 3 days to cure normally 2 coates. "water base" cures in just 2 hours no voc's, needs at least 10 coates to equal 1 coate of oil base.this is not common knowledge.

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Air Advice for Homes

11/16/12 at 1:06 am

You can test your home for airborne chemicals and particles by asking your HVAC contractor for an AirAdvice for Homes test. Go to www.airadviceforhomes.com, click on Homeowners in the menu bar, and select Find an IAQ Expert.