INDOOR AIR QUALITY, Is your indoor air hazardous?

Turns out our indoor home air is toxic, in fact full of many pollutants. Well you probably already knew that, it seems that all we hear about these days is how THIS IS BAD FOR US and THAT IS BAD FOR US! Right? Well you're not alone, it gets a bit overwhelming.

3 EASY STEPS TOWARDS A TOXIC FREE HOME

I started my natural living journey about 10 years ago, after the birth of my second child and also an 8 month stint with chronic hives that even affected my respiratory system. So, like many of you I've ditched toxic cleaners, threw out my Teflon pans and began looking for ways to clean up my home air. It's a journey and like all journeys it happens slowly over time. It's all about just trying to make informed decisions and avoiding toxic ingredients as much as we can.

So what next? Here are the top 3 things I do and how they help?

  • BURN BEESWAX CANDLES

  • DITCH SYNTHETIC FRAGRANCES

  • STOCK UP ON HOUSEPLANTS

1) This is an obvious one...BEESWAX CANDLES and for many reasons.

First off they're a pure and natural wax, NOT made of toxic ingredients like Paraffin (which is a bi-product of the petroleum industry) Are there other non-toxic waxes? Yes, but you really need to do your research because as it turns out most are cut with paraffin. For me I have a very sensitive system that does not tolerate toxic substances. I cannot imagine being a candle maker,  working with the large amounts of wax that I do and having it be with any other kind. Working with and burning beeswax is really a joy!

Did you know that lit flames release negative ions. Not only do negative ions clean the air, protecting against germs but they also increase the flow of oxygen to the brain. One report that I found studying the variety of different candle waxes and negative ions concluded that lit flames release negative ions but Beeswax does so in an unusual quantity. There's a lot of information about negative ions and which ways of adding them to your home are the best. Like anything I believe that the answer is not just one thing but many small things working together.

On these cold Winter days I like to light and candle in the morning and let it burn all day long. Try these lovely long burning pillars for doing just that.

2) Say NO TO SYNTHETIC FRAGRANCES

They contain 100's of chemicals and are major hormone disrupters. You'll find these in candles, room sprays, cosmetics, detergents and more. The vast majority are made from petrochemicals and contain phthalates, which are a definite no no if you're trying to live a natural life.

This one is hard, because they're in everything. I bet you'll find out like me that as you remove as many of these from your life that you can, you'll end up not being able to tolerate them at all. I can barely walk down the laundry detergent isle now. The good news is, there are really more and more options that have only plant derived scents now. It does certainly make it easy, but like all things always read the label. I see a growing number of All Natural products that contain shockingly high levels of these substances.

Fun fact is that when I was starting this journey I began making soaps. In the beginning of me selling soap, I had a lot of requests for very strongly scented soaps. All of my soaps only contained essential oils. So I tried using a synthetic fragrance  (not fully understanding the toxicity at the time) Guess what, people loved that Honey Almond Soap, in fact if was one of my best sellers. However, I hated making it because it gave me immediate headaches. I removed it from my product line and really developed the essence of the type of items I made from there. I decided to only make products for people like me, people with sensitive skin and sensitive respiratory systems. That became the best thing I ever did...for me and my customers! Before I knew it, my soaps  and candles had a cult following of people just like me, needing truly ALL NATURAL products.

If you're struggling on knowing what to do, try unscented. That's what I always do, if I want something scented I only use plant based scents (like essential oils). Try my aromatherapy candle sampler set  for some great plant based scents.

3) HEAD TO THE PLANT STORE

Heck even double up on the ones you already have. Turns out plants significantly improve air quality. I have many different types of houseplants but I really like the simple SPIDER PLANT (pictured above), mainly because it puts up with massive amounts of neglect from me but also because NASA tests showed it to remove around 90% of the potentially cancer-causing chemical formaldehyde from the air. It's suggested that 15-20 per household can make a big impact. Yes, you read that right 15-20 plants per household. So it looks like it's okay to become a crazy plant lady after all. Now, the hard part...keeping them alive!

Well, that wraps up of a rather short list of some easy adjustments you can make. There are too numerous of toxic substances in our homes to cover and also too numerous of things to list that help combat them. So get reading and see what helps you. We're all different and our bodies handle things all so differently, I'm super sensitive but you may not be. I will say that I've had many customers tell me how they didn't realize things bothered them until they quit using them...food for thought! Again, this is a journey and journeys can seem overwhelming to do in a day so just stay the coarse. It gets easier as you go along.

 

 

 

 


Erinn Boitano
Erinn Boitano

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