Formaldehyde and Styrene added to U.S. list of carcinogens

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services added 12 substances to their list of known human carcinogens, including formaldehyde and styrene, this month.  Styrene is a precurser to the plastic polystyrene, or PS (#6), which is one of the most commonly produced plastics in the world.  Several billion kilograms of the stuff is produced every year.  You may come into contact with this plastic most commonly in those ubiquitus red plastic cups (beer anyone?).  According to the article, the general population’s greatest exposure to styrene is through cigarette smoking.

Formaldehyde is most commonly found in adhesives used in home construction materials (particle board, fiberboard, plywood, laminant flooring), although it’s also used as a preservative in cosmetics like hair straighteners and even in clothing (that nice wrinkle-free collared shirt your husband wears may very well contain it).  While you may not be that concerned about the formaldehyde in your kitchen cabinets or furniture, you should know that it off-gases and is one of the contributors to poor indoor air quality.  An amendment to the Toxic Substances Control Act by President Obama last year would set limits on formaldehyde emissions from composite wood products that will go into effect in 2013.  Until then, you can improve your home’s indoor air quality by ventilating it as much as possible or by cleaning the air with certain indoor plants.

 

 

Growing Fresh Air

I have previously posted how poor indoor air quality can be but how the right plants can help clean and purify your home’s air.  As the weather cools, I’ve been again motivated to examine this great way to keep indoor air clean.

I recently checked out the book How to Grow Fresh Air from the library.  This book is a great resource for anyone interested in learning more about which plants can purify the air of toxins like formaldehyde.  Although I was disappointed to read that the author, Dr. B.C. Wolverton, doesn’t believe that opening your windows more often is a viable solution to poor indoor air quality, I did enjoy his thorough description of the various plants known to purify air of toxins as well as their pictures.  The first third of the book discusses why indoor air quality is poor and why plants can clean it, while the remainder details 50 plants you’ll want to get into your home.  Each plant is covered in two pages, one full-page picture and one page of text describing the plant.  They are organized by those that clean the air the best and are easiest to maintain, making this book super easy to take to your local nursery to assist you in plant shopping.

The best air-cleaning plants are Areca Palm, Lady Palm, Bamboo Palm, Rubber Plant, Dracaena “Janet Craig,”  English Ivy, Dwarf Date Palm, Ficus Alii, Boston Fern, Peace Lily, Corn Plant, and Golden Pothos.  With the help of this book, I just bought a few more plants for my house (including a lady palm and several dracaena) and love the way they look in my home.  Plus I get the peace of mind knowing that they are cleaning the air now that it’s too cool to open the windows regularly.

Plants that clean the air

Indoor air quality is often 2-5 times worse than outdoor air.  One of the best ways to keep your indoor air clean is to open your windows when possible.  But in the cool winter, you can also use plants to freshen indoor air.  Some plants have been found to purify the air of contaminants like formaldehyde.

For cleaner indoor air, NASA research has found that an 1800 square-foot house should have 15-18 of the following plants in six to either inch diameter containers:

• English Ivy
• Spider Plant
• Golden pothos or Devil’s Ivy
• Peace lily
• Chinese evergreen
• Bamboo palm or Reed palm
• Snake plant or Mother-in-law’s tongue
• Heartleaf philodendron
• Selloum philodendron
• Elephant ear philodendron
• Red-edged dracaena
• Cornstalk dracaena
• Janet Craig dracaena
• Warneck dracaena
• Weeping fig
• Gerbera daisy or Barberton daisy
• Pot mom or Florist’s chrysanthemum
• Rubber plant

My 2500 sqaure foot home has one peace lily, four spider plants, and six pothos plants for a total of 11 air cleaning plants.  Looks like I need to double that.

For more, see my post on Cleaner Indoor Air.

Summer air quality

I went to a presentation last night on summer air quality in my city.  Apparently, we have failed federal air standards for the past three years due to our high amounts of ozone (carbon monoxide, lead, particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and other pollutants were in compliance).  Ozone is produced when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) mix with sunlight.  Since sunlight is a crucial ingredient in ozone, most is produced during the summer, and most of that is during peak sun hours.  People that spend time outside during these hours are exposed to more pollution.  This may be contributing to the high rates of asthma we have around here.  I was especially concerned as we frequently exercise outdoors, walking, running, and biking when the sun is out.  And since my children breath 50% more air per pound of body weight than I do, I’m worried about their health. 

Zero VOC paint

We just tried our first zero VOC paint.  The paint base has no VOCs and the colorant is also free of VOCs.  There aren’t many paints on the market that use a no-VOC colorant so I was really excited to try it.  I thought the paint was great.  It covered well and I was happy with its performance.  It does have a bit of an odor but it doesn’t smell like usual paint chemicals.  I was happy enough with it that I’m comfortable recommending it, Natura from Benjamin Moore, on this site.  One of the greatest things about this paint, unlike other truly zero VOC paints, is that you can tint it to any color Benjamin Moore offers.

Low VOC paint

I ran into a neighbor at the local pub over the weekend and mentioned that we had been painting over the weekend.  She said she was going to paint soon too and we started talking about it.  I mentioned that the low-VOC paints we had used were on sale until the end of the month, to which she responded “low VOC??”

I can’t believe that there are still people out there who have never heard of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).  I don’t really expect the average person to have a strong enough chemistry background to understand that a volatile organic compound is anything containing carbon that is under high enough vapor pressure that it vaporizes into the air we breath.  But I am surprised that the average consumer is not very educated and that many people are making poor decisions for their health and the environment not because it’s cost effective or easier but rather out of sheer ignorance.  So I guess that’s where my blog comes in…

Open your windows!

As the weather warms up, I’d like to remind you to open your windows!  Indoor air quality can be very poor and almost always, the air outside is cleaner.  So if it’s a nice day, take the opportunity to open your windows and air out your house.  I have been really diligent about this for the past few months as I worry that our new home is full of VOCs.  For more on this, see my indoor air post.

Uh oh!

After going on and on about how healthy we tried to make our new home, we got some bad news today.  We had a radon test performed by our home inspector.  He placed it in the basement for 48 hours.  The EPA sets the safety level for homes at 4 piC/L.  Our home’s level was 13!  Radon gas is colorless and oderless, and is the second leading cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoking, according to the EPA.  Most radon enters the home from the ground below and surrounding it.   It looks like mitigation is a fairly painless process–it should take less than one day to install some pipes and fans and should cost us less than 1k.  I will post again once we’ve gone through it and I know more.

Have you tested your home?  Anyone gone through mitigation before?  Please comment if you have.  The EPA estimates that radon causes 21,000 cancer deaths each year so if you haven’t had your home tested, maybe you should.  I hear that you can purchase fairly inexpensive kits from Home Depot and Lowes to test for radon yourself (don’t know the accuracy of these) or you can hire a home inspector as we did.

Healthy home

This week we move in to our new home.  We have been waiting for it to be built for months now and are very anxious to get settled.  Posts may be a bit sporadic for the next week or two, and the site may even be down for a bit while our server is moved.

Since people spend a good chunk of their time inside their home, it was really important to us that our home be as healthy as possible.  Especially with winter coming and us not being able to open windows, I was very concerned about VOCs and anything that might off-gas.  Here are some of the health-concious and eco-friendly things we did to our home.  If you’re house-hunting or remodeling or even redecorating, maybe you’ll find some of these ideas inspiring.

• We chose a builder that seemed more environmentally friendly.
• Interior paints were low VOC.  Standard paints can have hundreds of grams of VOCs per liter, which can off-gas for years after the paint dries.  A certified low-VOC paint has 50 grams per liter of VOCs or less.  Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, Restoration Hardware, and Home Depot all offer low-VOC paints.  Some companies even offer a no-VOC paint (Harmony from Sherwin Williams and Freshair from Home Depot).
• All appliances are energy-star rated.
• Had a tankless water heater installed.

Countertops might be a health threat?

Recently, there have been a few articles in the press about granite countertops emitting radon.  Radon is a radioactive gas that is released from the natural stone when the uranium in it decays.  But would this be enough radon to harm the health of the people living in a home with granite countertops?  Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoke and homes are known to trap any radon gas that seeps into them, or in this case, are produced by countertops in them.  I am particularly interested in this because tomorrow my husband and I are picking out the slab of granite that will be used to make countertops in the kitchen of our new home.