dirty little secret: indoor air quality

The air inside your home is more polluted than the air outside.

It’s true. It’s 2-5 times more polluted than what’s outside. Plus, you’ve got a bunch of pesticides soaking in all that bad air. That’s a potentially dangerous mix. You country dwellers aren’t off the hook – this applies to you, too.

How did this happen? A brief history lesson:

We used to live in drafty homes where the air could more freely circulate, keeping homes breezier and healthier. But after World War II, we started sealing our homes up nice and airtight – air conditioning had become more popular and energy efficiency became an issue (it’s the whole “you can’t run the air with the windows open” thing).

At the same time, a whole bunch of chemicals came onto the market – chemicals that were used to make many products for our homes and our bodies.

Some of these chemicals are used in many common cleaning products and are so toxic you can't even put it in your garbage or down the toilet.  You have to dispose of them the way you dispose of paint and used motor oil.

Plastics were the new hot thing and soon they were everywhere. There was a boom in manufacturing and a boom in buying. Hey, the war was over, people felt optimistic, and they had money to spend again. And spend they did. Unfortunately all the stuff they bought led to overly cluttered homes, a trend that holds true to this day.

We’re sealed up – spending 90% of our time indoors – and practically suffocating under stuff. Home sweet home is certainly not the breezy, healthy place it used to be. Instead it’s a vacuum-sealed hotbed of toxins, causing all sorts of health issues. Asthma rates, for example, have soared – more than 20 million people are affected. The same goes for allergies, chemical sensitivities, and even cancer rates. As we sealed up, we became unhealthy.

The line where your home ends and you begin is more blurry than ever. We believe a home is more than just a box: it’s sort of a second skin. It could be a third skin if you’re counting clothes. So why would you clean your tub with harsh chemicals and then soak in it?

The Solution:

Call us lazy, but we’re all about having the most impact with the least amount of effort. Start by getting those toxic cleaning products out of your home. It’s a small change that can make a big difference.

But, while you may think it’s green to throw away all our toxic cleaning supplies into the trash and start fresh, think first about how you dispose of them. By tossing them into the trash, you’re actually improperly disposing of household hazardous waste, which could end up leaking into our waterways. Instead, use up what you have and buy green the next time you stock up on cleaning supplies.  Or contact your council to learn how to best dispose of household hazardous waste in your area.