Moments after my first attempt to get pregnant, I totally freaked out. I wasn’t nervous about the idea of being knocked up (whee!). Instead, I was worried because my home suddenly seemed overwhelmingly toxic, filled with chemicals that might harm my growing baby, her father, and me. Peeling paint above us. Bleach-scrub residue on our counters, sink, and tub. The plastic in my water bottle. The water in my water bottle. Roach bait. I spun around and around. How had I not noticed this before?
Google didn’t ease my anxiety—there I learned that less than 5 percent of the more than 80,000 chemicals introduced in the United States since World War II have been tested for their effects on human health and development—but a close friend did. She suggested that I take baby steps to make what’s inside my home as pure as the organic apples and pears in my fruit bowl. My anxiety ebbed as I swapped my most toxic home products for more natural versions. Pretty soon I’d replaced everything from my vinyl shower curtain to my bedding, and I’d written a book—The Complete Organic Pregnancy—with that friend, Deirdre Dolan. Since then, I’ve been guiding families (including my own, which now includes an organic 2-year-old), friends, and total strangers through similar transformations.
To give you the same advantage, here’s a cheat sheet to the most toxic zones around your home and how to detox them. If you feel overwhelmed, start small, says David O. Carpenter, MD, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany, State University of New York:
“It’s only reasonable to do what you can to reduce exposure without compromising your whole standard of life.”
Here are some of the most toxic areas in your home:
Additional reporting by Brittani Tingle.
By Alexandra Zissu
Related Links:
Comments (44)
Hello Health Staff,
Do those detox pads that you wear on your feet at night actually detox your body from toxic materials?
And, if so, how do they work?
I’ve read that toxic materials such, as metals, appear on the pads after they have been worn overnight.
What types of toxins are they removing from your body?
If they do not work, how would one rid themselves toxins that have accumulated in their bodies for years from their body safely?
Thanks much for your answer and your time.
Nice Site!
http://google.com
Dear Health Nuts,
The answer to this “Most Toxic Places IN Your Home” article being “Your Lawn” seems a bit odd, since a lawn isn’t often considered to be INside a home, and IN fact most normal people thINk that a lawn is something that is outside of/surrounds a home… You guys should try to get it right next time..
For all of the readers who are also disappointed with this lame answer, the correct answer should be the kitchen counter.. Studies have shown that the bacterial count per square inch of the average kitchen counter/sink area is almost 25x worse than the typical bathroom. So remember kids, always use a metal cuttingboard instead of that g-nasty counter!..
sincerely, Jonny Lauw
I think one of the most toxic places in an african home like where icome from is under the bed.This is aplace where almost every thing will be found ranging from paints that had been used some 2years ago to anything that you would want to think about.If iwant to keep my shoes for example the best place is under the bed.So you can imagine how untidy it is.
In a society that has such a lack of class, manners and ability to express itself, I am disgusted that you can not refer to your impregnation in words other than “knocked up”. Try the dictionary or a physician!!!!!
In reference to the complaint about “IN”–come on, can you give them a little license? Many people consider their backyard an extension of the house, especially now more than ever as they make “living room” atmospheres outside. My kids run in and out of the house all summer. It makes perfect sense to me. If you want her to be explicit and say “in and around your home” or “in your living spaces” , then I think you’re being a bit nit-picky. Also, the kitchen counter comment only feeds the fear created by the media and consumer products companies that we need to disinfect our environment. Soap and water, with a clean, sterile sponge (put it in the dishwasher) will clean the bacteria from your counters. For that matter, put your cutting board in the dishwasher and have separate cutting boards for foods that you serve raw, and meats. As a matter of fact, anyone with granite counters are told they cannot use those disinfecting products–just plain old soap and water. Also, the risk from bacteria in MOST cases (of course it could be very serious) is probably a day of diarrhea, compared to living with Parkinson’s or dying of leukemia.
Before posting this comment, I had to Google Alexandra Zissu to find out more about an author who would refer to her pregnancy as being “knocked up” in a professional publication. I can’t believe this got past her editors (very poor judgment on their part), but all I can say is that she lost me as a reader with her style of writing. Whee!
Will someone who has used those footpads to rid the body of toxins please comment?
On the “foot pad” question – no, they do not work. The reason the pads change color is because of an oxidizing agent (like iron or some compound thereof) that, when moistened, will oxidize – just like leaving your gardening trowel out in the rain for a week. Rust! The pads are likely designed to be used in a certain order, each pad having less of that oxidizing agent in it, leaving the user feeling reassured that since the pads aren’t dark anymore, all of those heavy metals, etc. MUST be gone from the body. If you’re concerned about chemicals and “bad stuff” in general building up in your body, signs seem to point to drinking enough water and getting some form of regular exercise. Your body should take care of the rest for you :)
P.S. About the “knocked up” choice of words – I think the writer forgot she wasn’t submitting something to her personal blog. As a writer myself, usage of such a term puts my back up, too.
People who are this paranoid should not have children.
The words being knocked up is not that offensive. Some people are just too sensitive. Get over it.
The term “knocked up” has been use as a degrogitive form of speech. Something that wasn’t suppose to happen or found out. It seems some people don’t know where or how to use certain words and use them loosly. It’s not about being too sensitive or getting over it. It’s is about expressing yourself correctly. Unless perhaps that really is her feelings about her pregnacy. People are too loose with their words and don’t really know the impact of what they say. They then expect others to get over it. We as people, will always be accountable for what we say and to whom we say them to. Think about how we speak to one another. Maybe that is why some of our relationsahips aren’t as good as we’ed like them to be. Something to think about.
I thought that was a good point about the lawn. My niece had a serious allergic reaction from the chemicals that were used to treat the lawn. I agree about the kitchen counter too. That has to be the worst place and not just because of preparing raw meat. People leave their things like book bags and purses on the counter and there’s no telling where those have been. I was never paranoid UNTIL i had kids!
Merry, I was never paranoid UNTIL I had kids. Somehow, realizing that I’m responsible for the well being of other human beings (and a bout of food poisoning) changed me.
para que veas de jeiji
Thank you for the insight! I’ve kept dry-cleaned items in their bags and I guess I should air them out before putting them in the closet now. I have learned a couple other things and I appreciate it.
I’ve had many sinus infections and once was considered auto-immune. Now I rinse my sinuses with a Neti-pot and haven’t suffered anymore and no-longer diagnosed as auto-immune!!!
By showing a few toxic things in and around the home and workplace, might help others health. I continually look for information that “opens my eyes” so that my family and I will not become ill for living with conveniences (such as a green lawn) or bad purchases (such as wrong paint).
I am so pleased thqat the regular man in the street is finally getting warned about chemicals . HOWEVER how do we stop the use and sale of toxic products? Why is the government encourging flouride in the water and fire retardent in mattresses and baby clothes. I am one of those people already poisoned by chemicals with a diagnosis of multiple chemical sensitivites environmental ilness , chronic fatigue and much more. How do we get a movement to stop all this on a world basis . Yes I am invested in all those toxic things but we as a people should try to save the planet and all its biology and stop the profiting from poisons.
Anyone reading this with any clout Please help us all. daliya
First, this isn’t an article being published in a medical journal folks. I’m sure the writer must have been going for a more informal/personal style that would cause her readers to feel at ease with her, as a close friend would. I would suggest that negative comments regarding her writing style are a waste of time and server space. While I’m rather picky about grammer in general, I would rather read an informal and humorous article on this subject than a stuffy or rigid one that put’s me to sleep. Please, let’s keep comments on the actual subject of articles, not writing style.
Oh, and please notice she indicated that she was TRYING to get pregnant. DUH!
Since being “knocked up” is foreign slang I had no idea what the author was talking about. Plain English would be informative rather than an opinion/attitude oriented remark. I am turned off to the future of this feature of a magazine I used to enjoy.
How about going vegetarian folks? most of the germs and bacteria on the kitchen counter come from raw meat….
Re the article – I don’t use chemicals on my lawn, and in this day I don’t know how anyone cannot know to clean their counter after putting meat or eggs on it. And maybe just a little bit of “dirt” is OK. I have a friend who eats so perfectly that he has a hard time eating in a regular restaurant without getting sick to his stomach. I told him I don’t want to be that delicate. Although we want to reduce our chemical exposure, I think overcleanliness helps makes us weak (I am not a dirty housekeeper, to be clear).
I was also taken a bit aback at the knocked up reference but it wasn’t so offensive that I would not come back to this site. :)
I didn’t think there was anything real about those foot pads – I am not convinced about us all needing to remove the “toxins” from our bodies. I mostly agree with Lisa above.
Btw, it’s grammar not grammer. I am still annoyed and surprised by the lack of spelling and grammar skills in this country (US) every day, and it will only get worse. The internet and texting has blown the lid off any belief that we know how to spell or put together a written sentence, hasn’t it? It’s pitiful! (And I’m not talking about the shorthand of “r u” and such.) I feel like a dinosaur in my office when I point these things out or just fix them myself, and I work in Quality Assurance!
From the acclaimed PREHUMOUS (as opposed to Posthumous) UNPOETIC POEMS, iUniverse, 2005
MOTHERS DAY
Today the restaurants are blocked up,
Full of women who’ve been knocked up.
It is a dirty world full of bacteria, viruses, parasites, irradation, radiation and many shades (by dose)of toxic chemicals.
A bacteria, for example, does not make a pathogen be. We have them on our skin, in our lungs and nose, within our gut, and places we dont know. The ones in yogurt are good for us, the ones from swollen food tins/cans are not. Even water is toxic and lethal in too large a dose per unit time.
My point is deal with the known concerns learned from experince and research. The focus areas listed are great. Think of pathogens, not “bacteria”. Put the high risk concerns first ….. does the flaking ceiling paint have lead or not?
So, is there really a way to “correctly” express oneself? I thought that was individualistic.
All you, fair poster, do in judging this writer on their use of ‘knocked up’ is show your narrow, controlling view of the world.
Different strokes for different folks and different expressions, last I checked, are not transgressions.
I am amazed that those of us over 65 managed to survive this long and enjoy good health. We got dirty, played in the creek, wore no helmets or seat belts,went to school despite bad weather. I hope we are not getting so “disinfected” and over-protected that the first new strain of germ kills us all. Wash your hands and relax. Stress kills more people than germs and chemicals anyway.
Many, not all, chemistries have multi-purpose functions.
If you swallow them or apply them to your skin they are called medicines.
If you spray or spread them on your lawn or garden they are called chemicals. Some even call them poisions.
One examle: There is a chemical that is used as a lawn fungicide and also as a medicine to get rid of toenail fungus. Same chemical molecule in both uses.
Let yourself be guided by scientific facts.
Hey all you vegetarians out there.
Eat more Jello.
It’s made from animal protein!!
Here, here, Judy, well except for the seatbelt part. Lighten up people…but buckle up, too.
I’m with Judy. My brother and I (as well as all my cousins’ uncles’ n aunts), grew up gettin dirty, waerin clothes from the dry cleaners, eating happy meals, and playing on the lawn. For pity’s sake I used to help my mother do dishes and clean(how terrible I was exposed to dish detergent and spic and span hehe!) and I hardly got sick as a child. If you keep your home clean, keep chemicals away from toddlers, and teach them not to drink anything outside of the fridge, why do you need to be so picky? We survived just fine so won’t our kids? Organic schmorganic, I’m gonna just enjoy my life!
Good grief! I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and we never worried about any of these things. My mom kept the house clean but with two young kids, it wasn’t pristine. We played endlessly on the lawns and in the dirt, food was thawed outside the fridge, we didn’t always wash our hands, and we were rarely sick. What’s with all this paranoia about germs? How on earth did we ever survive? I’ve been made more ill from healthcare and medications than germs.
The problem from lawns is only going to get worse. Most of the lawn services use illegal/criminal labor that is too stupid to read warning labels or have any common sense. It used to be more of a problem with home owners not knowing but now even those who apply toxic chemicals every day are uninformed. Every day applicators are over applying in our yeards and spraying or spreading wet or dry law chemicals into the drives, sidewalks, and streets that end up in our drinking water supply. The same happens with the criminal labor who are so damn stuipd or just don’t give a damn and wash paint containers and equipment where the run off goes into our untreated storm drains then to our drinking water supply.
Interesting, how one phrase “knocked up” can offend readers so intently that it completely distracts them from the content and purpose of the article. Such insistance that we and the writer learn proper grammer has kept you from learning how to improve the quality of your environment and share thoughts, concepts, and ideas that are beneficial to the topic. Knowledge has been truly been lost, but not upon the author.
I’m with the people who grew up in a less-obsessed era, yet we all turned out healthy and fine.
I played in the dirt, was exposed to household cleaning chemicals, and while my mother kept a clean house –in fact she had better habits than most people I know today — she was neither obsessed nor negligent. If there was a bit of dust and dirt under the bed of the guest room and we were crawling around under there, oh well!
And guess what? It BUILDS a child’s immune system against such things, rather than harming it. By keeping a child protected you are not even giving them a chance to build their own system against ordinary allergens.
For pity’s sake, my old Edwardian house as a child even had lead paint and asbestos on the ironing board! We all grew up just fine, with above-average intelligence and strong healthy bodies with no allergies or sicknesses whatsoever.
People today are overly concerned with protecting their children, and then a few years later are wondering why most of the population have terrible allergies and no fight-resources against anything.
I too grew up in the 50s and 60s and rolled on the lawn and ran through the sprinklers with only non-spf lotion to help me tan. And tobacco use was considered a harmless (if annoying) recreation; we sent cigarettes in care packages to our servicemen in Korea. My dad, who loved us, smoked a pack a day and filled our kitchen with smoke before the rest of us were up for breakfast.
I am alive and well, like all those others who wrote in. But my dad suffered his first of three debilitating strokes at 59 and died before he saw me married. My mother who never smoked a cigarette in her life and never worked outside the home died of small cell lung cancer–the kind the doctors told us “only smokers get.” What we didn’t know in the 50s and 60s did kill us. But now we know more about the chemicals around us, and if we are smart, we will continue to find less toxic ways to live in the world. It is just ignorant and arrogant to cling to our old ways and ignore new information when it becomes available.
G.B, I don’t disagree that new information is to be taken onboard. But what I can’t stand is when people take that pendulum-swing *too far* in the other direction. There is no doubt that on the one end of the spectrum there is “ignorance and arrogance.” But on the other end is the equally redundant obsession with protection from EVERYTHING.
I know people who deprive their children of the simple and very fundamental joys of owning a pet, because they think the very act of introducing one into the home of a toddler will cause lifelong dander allergies. Quite the opposite — getting one’s child around animals, people, and the world in general, is going to BUILD his immune system.
THIS is the kind of ridiculous, over-cooked obsession I’m referring to. Not ignorance about cigarette smoke or proven toxins. But the general paranoia that causes people to be morons in the OTHER direction….it cuts both ways.
I’m reading this article not so much for the germ content or knocked up reference, but for the toxic products we use to clean, which are apparently more harmful than the bacteria themselves. I’m a child of the 70’s and feel the same as the ones of the 50’s and 60’s. However, with young kids now, there seems to be a higher incidence of food and other allergies. Perhaps it’s a product of our “ultra clean” environments that we’ve produced. Or, perhaps it’s a product of the chemicals we expose ourselves to. With a possibility that it’s the latter, that is why I have read more about going green. I don’t want my babies inhaling chlorine fumes. But, I immerse them in the public pools where they smell of chlorine till bath time. Ironic, huh?
I’m all about going green for the environment and for my kids. But, I don’t think it’s about creating sterile environments. We obsess over these things for our children, but forget that the obesity and diabetes rates in children is increasing at an alarming rate. The children in this generation will not live as long as previous ones . They will more likely die of these diseases than of an infection. I think instead of worrying about sterilization of the home for our kids, more emphasis should be put on the risk of poor diets, inactivity, and sexual diseases.
Less “screen time” (computer, TV, and videogames) and more outside time (I guess just avoid the pesticide ridden grass). That will improve quality of life more than anything written in this most toxic article-in my opinion
the toxic artical is way out of line yes there r chamcilas nearly everywere but like if they dont no wat it is wat will they do when there older say whats that??? so yes keep it away but dont let them grow up without it
Last time I checked my lawn was not in my home, but outside. Maybe it’s just me.
“knocked-up” was not a good choice of words, but last time I checked, we consider a “house” the dwelling in which we live and a “home” as a more inclusive term relating to the environs in which we live/love/grow, so I cannot find fault with this wording in the article. I’m also annoyed that I even felt the need to comment about a non-issue, but there we are.
I bought the toxic cleaning foot pads and they have no order in which to use them , no numbers at all. you can begin with any pad you want .
The footpads were analyszed on NPR All things considered Aug 18th 2008. The newest craze in consumer health is adhesive pads filled with “detox” herbs that supposedly suck toxins out of the bottom of our feet while we sleep.
An analysis at a California laboratory shows no significant difference between used and unused pads.
Go to NPR and under search put in foot pad analysis and you can listen to the full piece for more information
Honestly- I dropped a little jaw when she said “knocked up.” but at the same time I was pleased that she said it, as I gagged earlier when she said the P word. Since we’re all being so sensitive, lets please be sensitive to people like me who have a strange but genuine fear of the P word, and many many other terms and realities of the condition.
No, I’m not young and immature. I have a 2 year old… Been through it. Does not make my phobia any less real.
:D
I wish more articles would toss that filthy, medical, fear inducing word.
I’m with “Deep”. We should eat more of the contaminated raw meat spinach, tomatoes and peanuts.
Actually the most toxic place in a home us usually the granite countertop. NASA did a study that found 100.000 bacteria per gram of stone (living and reproducing inside the stone). That would put billions of billions of bacteria plus any found on the exterior of the stone, and like the one poster said, you aren’t supposed to use sanitizing products on granite (etches and stains).
Then there is the toxic heavy metal content of granite countertops. Hushed up by the stone industry for many decades except for a few studies on on commericial granite (like in court houses and public buildings).
One sample was tested a few weeks ago using XRF, on a sample of a Bordeaux granite countertop that was removed from a home last year. The machine found 10,260 ppm of Thallium, along with a dozen other heavy metals. Almost all commom granite countertop materials have from five to twenty heavy metals present.
http://forum.solidsurfacealliance.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=177
And researchers are saying that as much as 5% of all granite materials will have serious Radon emissions along with small radiation exposures.
Hands down, the granite countertop is the most toxic product in most homes.