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Your Home Is The #1 Source Of
Toxic Chemicals
Because we spend 80% to 90% of our time indoors, and most of that
at home, our home is where we are most likely to be exposed to toxic
chemicals. (1) This is especially true for young children, who spend even
more time indoors than adults and older children.
Why are our homes so toxic? In the last two decades - the same
period during which childhood illness has increased - there has been an
alarming increase of toxic chemicals in household products, and for the
first time we have been sealing our homes for energy efficiency. Weather
stripping and caulking do an excellent job of keeping the air you have
heated or cooled inside your home. But the lack of openings for air to
escape also traps chemical air pollutants, resulting in a greater concentration of
pollutants indoors than out. EPA studies found that even in urban
areas with high concentration of toxic chemicals was higher indoors than
outdoors - in some cases ten, twenty, thirty, and even up to seventy times
higher indoors!(2)
In 1987, the
EPA undertook an ambitious program to identify and compare the urgency of
environmental problems. The idea was that, with limited resources, the
agency should be focusing on those pollutants that pose the greatest risk
to society. Among the top hazards were those found indoors, including
exposure to cleaning
products.(3)
Another study, conducted over fifteen-year
period, found that women who worked at home had a 54% higher death rate
from cancer than women who had jobs away from home. The study concluded
that the increased death rate was due to daily exposure to the hazardous
chemicals found in ordinary household products. (4) Obviously, the
children in those homes were exposed to the same chemicals, with even
greater risk for illness.
How Do Toxic
Chemicals Get Into Your Body?
Ingestion - eating or drinking a substance
- is the route of most immediate poisonings that lead to accidental death.
Young children are especially vulnerable to household poisonings through
ingestion. With their natural curiosity, they learn by putting things in
their mouths.
Inhalation -
breathing a substance - is more common, and can be much more harmful
than ingestion. Toxic fumes can be released even when a chemical is
tightly sealed in it's container.
Absorption -
admitting a substance through the skin - is an often unsuspected route of
exposure. It is now known that any chemical which touches the skin can be
absorbed and spread throughout the body. The skin is so absorbent that
nicotine patches and analgesic creams administer medications into the
bloodstream through the skin.
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