LET’S STOP POISONING OUR CHILDREN
Are you concerned about the air your child breathes? It may shock you to know that, according to an EPA Report to Congress on Indoor Air and the subcommittee hearings on the Indoor Air Quality Act of 1989, indoor air pollution is one of the nation’s most important environmental health problems. According to the EPA, most homes have airborne concentrations of hazardous and toxic chemical that are two to five times higher indoors than outdoors. In one five year study, the EPA reported that a number of homes had chemical levels that were seventy times higher inside the home than outside.
One reason chemical concentrations are so high in some homes is that cleaning products and some personal care products release toxic vapors into the air when they are used — and even when they are stored. This process is called out gassing.
It’s alarming that indoor air is so full of chemical vapors because most children spend twelve to twenty hours a day in their homes. Physiologically, children are more vulnerable to toxic vapors than adults because of their higher metabolic rate. But, adult are far from safe with these toxins.
Most poisonings happen slowly, over a long period of time, by daily exposure to toxins in the air, and toxic chemicals that come into contact with the skin. Household products are among the most toxic substances we encounter daily. In one study conducted by the EPA & the American Cancer Association over a fifteen-year period, women who worked at home had a 54% higher death rate from cancer than women who had jobs away from the home. The study concluded that the increased death rate in the women was due to daily exposure to the hazardous chemicals found in ordinary household products.
Our point is this—why are these lethal products in your home at all? Probably because you didn’t realize how dangerous they can be. You probably weren’t aware that there are products on the market that are effective, much safer, and more economical than grocery store brands. The fact is, by using safer household products, you would no longer be taking unnecessary chances with your children or yourself.
We think it’s important to say that household cleaning and personal care products are not the only source of chemicals in your home. As you have seen, however, they are some of the most toxic and deadly. Fortunately, they are also the easiest to replace.
We hope that you will take this information as a wake-up call and take the necessary steps to remove the toxins from your home. Your children are at the highest risk. Make your home a safe haven for them and teach them to do the same so that future generations will be better informed and at less risk.
Don’t take our word for it, check some of these sites;
Learn About Chemicals Around Your House is interactive, fun and very informative for adults too!
Be sure to read page 2 of this article from American Family Physician. It gives some interesting statistics about the most commonly ingested poisons by children less than six years of age.
The article The 10 Most Dangerous Toxins in Your Household lists the 10 toxins and where they might be found in your home. This article was published in the September-October 1998 issue of E/The Environmental Magazine.
SOURCES:
Shirley Camper Soman, Let’s Stop Destroying Our Children, Hawthorn Books, 1974
Debra Lynn Dadd, The nontoxic Home & Office, Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1992
Dadd, Nontoxic home & Office
Accident Facts, National Safety Council, 1993
Nancy Sokol Green, Poisoning Our Children, Noble Press, 1991
Carolyn Rueben, Warning: Your Home May Be Hazardous to Your Health, EastWest Magazine 19, No 7, July 1989
Judith Berns, The Cosmetic Cover-Up, Human Ecologist 43, Fall 1989
Green, Poisoning Our Children
Joyce Schoemaker, Ph. D. ,& Charity Vitale, Ph. D. ,Healthy Homes, Healthy Kids, Island Press, 1991
Sincerely,
www.TriCountyMoms.com
