Chemicals in your House affecting your Body

In the modern world our everyday life is surrounded by Chemicals and we don't even bother about it. We take these chemicals as an ornament to make our surroundings beautiful and comfortable for us. According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 298 different chemicals in environment that are found in bodies of human beings and these chemicals are also used in consumer products. These chemicals are gradually deposited in our bodies and making us sick. Even if we try to get rid of these chemicals, we can't protect ourselves completely from them as every house in our locality is affected by these chemicals. But we can try to make our house a safer place to live and reduce the health risk.

Here we are listing some common things that we use in our house. Just avoiding these items and using some alternative for them can help us a lot in making us safe.

• Plastic Containers: Most of the households use plastic containers to store food items. Its an unhealthy practice as plastic containers are made using chemicals called phthalates. These phthalates are EDCs (Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals). It means that plastic containers can indirectly affect the function of your endocrine gland. Its better to switch to steel or glass containers.
• Using Plastic containers in Microwave: Its one more very unhealthy practice. Heating plastic can act as a catalyst to leaching chemicals from plastic to your food. Its better to use microwave safe glass containers for heating or cooking in your microwave oven.
• Nonstic Pans: Nonstic coating is made using perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). PFOA has caused cancer in animals in some laboratory tests. Sometimes the nonstic lining of nonstic utensils can chip-off into our food and the results can be extremely harmful. However EPA has not classified PFOA as a carcinogen but its better to remain on safe side. Use may use stainless still utensils to cook your food and use olive oil for the nonstic effect.
• Air Fresheners and Perfumes: These are another chemicals which causes certain fragrances in our rooms and even spray them on our bodies. More than 300 different chemicals are used to create these artificial fragrances. Many of these synthetic scents contain phthalates, which are also linked to reproductive problems. If you want to avoid air fresheners then you can use baking soda and white vinegar, which acts as good odor absorbers. To make your room full of fragrances you can use fresh flowers. In place of perfumes you can use products with natural oils, which are also rich in various natural fragrances.
• Cosmetics: Most of the cosmetics are just chemicals. Try to go for mineral based pigments and natural oils. Avoid synthetic fragrances and chemical compounds. One such chemical "triclosan" is found to disturb hormone regulation of our body.
• Fabric and Upholstery Protection Sprays: We often use shining paints or sprays on our furniture to make it stain proof. These sprays add a layer of plastic to these items. However it makes them stain proof but it costs your health. The plastic coating will be eventually released into environment of your house. So don't fear from stains and clean them using a cloth and traditional cleaning methods. Its better to keep your furniture surface free from toxins like plastic.
• Cleaning Products: In the last point we were discussing about removing stains. When you purchase a cleaning product just check its ingredients listed on it. Most of them use chemical ingredients. If you see phthalates and chemical surfactants in the ingredient list then its harmful. You can use products like baking soda, Borax, soap powder, vinegar, lemon and hot water for cleaning purpose. These products are not toxic like other chemical cleaning products.

This list can be a lot more lengthy if we research each and every product. The motive of this article is to make you aware of what you are using. Just read the ingredients of anything that you purchase for your home. Try to find about the chemical used in these products and whether these chemicals are harmful for your body.

The reality is that you can't throughout all the chemical products used in your house, but at least we can minimize their use.

Natural vs Organic Products

"Natural" term is used by many brands of cosmetic industry just to attract customers but it means nothing to them. Natural term is not monitored by FDA. Instead go for "Organic" which is federally monitored.

Share this article with your loved ones and your neighbors and help yourselves in making your environment chemical free.