Maintaining a healthy home is about more than just you and your family, it’s also about the people who work in your home as well. Both housekeepers and house-painters are affected by the chemicals in the products used on our homes – and they usually suffer the worst of it. While we may never have to smell the strong toxic chemicals or suffer from the dizziness and headaches associated with conventional paints and cleaning products, the people who work on our homes certainly do, and it’s affecting their health and their livelihood. Joseph Avelar, owner of Avelar Quality Painting who uses New Living’s NO VOC paints for his jobs, says that “Just because we are painters and we’re around paint all day doesn’t mean we like the smell or the health hazards that come with it.”
Since 1989 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has found that for painters there is “sufficient evidence for the carcinogenicity of occupational exposure…” The occupation of painter is one of the few jobs that is listed by the IARC as having an occupational risk for cancer. Painters are also at a high risk for skin irritations, headaches, and can develop problems with their nervous system. The chemicals in paint can cause respiratory illnesses that lead to a build up of fluid in the lungs and chronic bronchitis. Further, VOCs in paints (and related paint products such as thinners) can cause liver and stomach damage to painters. The effect that doing their job and making money to support themselves and their families has on their health is a travesty, particularly because it doesn’t have to be that way.
For housekeepers, house cleaners, and maids, there are high rates of illness among them and their children. House cleaners typically suffer from high rates of asthma and other respiratory problems because of the toxic chemicals in the cleaning products they use. Cleaning workers suffer from more heart attacks and early death due to motor neuron diseases than any other profession. They’re also at risk for cancer and frequently experience chemical burns and skin irritations associated with cleaning products. The chemicals involved in the work housekeeper’s do also affects the health of their children. Woman cleaning workers are twice as likely as other female workers to suffer from pre-term delivery and stillbirths while male workers have an increased risk of children who are born with birth defects and down syndrome. Although we may not have to smell or deal with the chemicals that are used to clean our homes directly, those who do face imposing and irreversible problems when it comes to their health.
We should always strive to provide a safe environment for everyone in our lives, including those who work for us. For our painters, we can always make sure we buy paints that have no VOCs – they’re non-toxic, have a low odor, and don’t contain harmful chemicals. For those who clean our homes and spend their days directly inhaling toxic chemical fumes, we should purchase green cleaning products made from natural ingredients and that either have a natural scent or no scent at all. All of these products are provisions we can take now – allowing us to be healthy and caring employers that provide a safe and ultimately happy environment for those who help us out so much in our daily lives.
As the committee hearing and debate goes on this summer over the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010 even more information has come out about the links between the chemicals in our homes and the danger it poses to our health. This serves as an urgent reminder that consumers need the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010 to help protect them.
In mid-June, multiple national news outlets reported on a new study published by Environmental Health Perspectives that found further links connecting PBDEs – a common chemical used as a flame retardants in carpets, mattresses, couches, and electronics - to problems with the thyroid hormone in pregnant women. The study, which looked at 270 pregnant women, found that women with higher levels of PBDEs in their bodies had lower levels of the thyroid stimulating hormone in their bodies by anywhere from 10.9 to 18.7%. These levels meet the definition for sub-clinical hyperthyroidism – indicating an early stage of thyroid malfunction. When the thyroid malfunctions (know as clinical hyperthyroidism) pregnant woman can possibly have children with birth defects, suffer from in-uterine growth problems, experience miscarriages, or have stillbirths.
What’s most shocking about the study, researchers note, is that the levels of PBDEs that were tested in women and caused sub-clinical hyperthyroidism is fairly typical among American women. These are risk that most American woman – who are exposed to products like conventional mattresses, carpets, foam couches, and electronics – face. This is due in large part to antiquated flame retardant regulations, most companies refusal to use non-toxic alternatives in products that we use, and poor regulation of toxic chemicals by federal agencies. Matthew S. Tejada, the executive director of Air Alliance Houston*, believes that these types of discoveries about how our home environment effects our health aren’t going to end. He says “On the health perspective, the horror story is only going to get worse. The deeper we dig as more research is done, we are only going to find [out] more about the nasty impacts of what we buy.”
As more studies like this one are released and as we discover more about the dangerous chemicals in products we use everyday, it’s becoming increasingly clear that we need regulations to protect us as consumers so that we don’t have to live in fear. The Safe Chemicals Act can protect us and it’s something we need NOW. Tejada says “For decades we just let these chemicals go totally unregulated. The way food and medicine are regulated is [good], but the regulatory structure formed by the EPA is so weak that it’s effectively not regulated.” The Safe Chemicals Act is a strong start towards something that has enormous potential to help us as consumers find safe products for our family and ourselves, helping to ensure that we are protected from chemicals like PBDEs. Click here to send a letter to congress and find out more about what you can do to support the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010.
If you’re wondering what to do now though, the best way to protect yourself is by researching what’s in the products in your home and making smart decisions by choosing non-toxic alternatives that we are sure are safe for our homes and our families.
Wondering what New Living is all about? Want to know exactly what the terms “non-toxic” and “natural” mean? Then check out this video where customers and our owner, Jeff Kaplan, explains exactly why we sell healthy, non-toxic, and green products. I would write about it here but it’s probably just easier to watch the video:
Anyone who has ever painted a room with conventional paint knows that the smell of paint is terrible. Typically, you have to wear a mask, can’t stay in the room for a few days, and may even feel dizzy or get a headache. This is because conventional paints are filled with harmful chemicals known as VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which emit toxic chemicals into your home (even after the paint dries) and can be detrimental to your health. One of the worst chemicals in conventional paints is also one that is used by morticians to preserve the dead: formaldehyde.
Although safe to use on the recently deceased, formaldehyde can effect the health of adults and children in a variety of negative ways. Multiple studies have found links between the use of paint and childhood cancers. A University of California study found a significant association between rooms painted and an increase in leukemia by 65 percent. Furthermore, mothers who used paint during pregnancy were three-times as likely to have a child with acute lymphobalstic leukemia. There have been several other studies that have uncovered links and associations between formaldehyde and cancers among adults. Studies of paint workers have revealed that they are at a higher risk for cancer of the bladder, lungs, pancreas, liver, and stomach because of their exposure to formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals in paint.
The formaldehyde in paints has also been linked to skin irritations, eye irritations, bronchitis, and can cause problems in the central nervous system. The U.S. National Cancer Instituted found in a 2009 study that the longer funeral workers spent embalming bodies with formaldehyde the more likely they were to to develop certain types of cancer – particularly those who were involved in embalming for more than 20 years. Formaldehyde can also trigger asthma – a condition which has increased nearly 600% since 1980.
To keep yourself and your home from smelling like the dead and causing health problems that could put you six feet under, it’s important you look at the label of all the paints that you buy to see how much formaldehyde it contains. While formaldehyde is federally regulated, many paint companies still carry it at “safe” levels – even though medical evidence suggest the safest level of formaldehyde is none. Read the labels of the paints you purchase, buy paints that don’t contain any VOCs (typically called No VOCs or Zero VOCs), and make sure that the colorants put into the paint don’t contain any VOC. No VOC paints not only are absent of formaldehyde, but they don’t have any other Volatile Organic Compounds making them safe to use! Most who use them say there is very little smell and never feel dizzy or develop the headaches that they once did with conventional paints. Using non-toxic No VOC paints will help you stay away from formaldehyde in your home and in your body for a very long time.
As part of our ongoing New Living Talks series we have another fascinating speaker, Steven Deutser of Park Lane Builders and Park Lane Healthy Homes, to discuss “Nursing Your Home Back to Health: Understanding Your Home, Your Health, and Indoor Air Quality.” Deutser, a home builder and healthy home auditor, explains the relationship between energy efficiency and health. He also explains why our homes are integrated systems where indoor air quality is dependent on how our homes are built, what they are built with, what products we choose to put in our homes, and how we act in our homes.
In the first clip Deutser answers the question “What is a Healthy Home?” In the second clip he gives us a tour of the Park Lane/New Living “healthy playhouse” in the New Living Store. In the third video you’ll see Deutser’s full talk.
Steven Deutser answers the question “What is a Healthy Home?”
Steven Deutser gives us a tour of the Park Lane/New Living Playhouse
Steven Deutser’s full talk “Nursing Your Home Back to Health: Understanding Your Home, Your Health, and Indoor Air Quality”
Steven Deutser is the owner of Park Lane Healthy Homes. Through Park Lane, he conducts home energy audits where he assess both the energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and homeowner practices to determine the health of your home. Check out the Park Lane Healthy Homes website or come see the New Living playhouse at New Living to learn all about what makes a home healthy and what products you can use to make your home healthier.
Keep a lookout for more in our New Living Talks series here throughout the summer.
Americans spend about 90% of their time indoors. Over the coming months, as red ozone days are sure to come, and the heat index in Houston gets to 100+ degrees, we are warned to stay inside. However, even without going outside, poor air quality can still be a problem. Indoor air quality is effected by many of the everyday products you use in your home such as cleaning supplies, paint, furniture, mattresses, and building materials. There are many healthier alternatives to these items that parents can use such as bleach-free dishwashing soap, no-voc paint, and organic mattresses. Improving indoor air quality can have a positive effect on children and adults suffering from asthma and allergies. New Living and the American Lung Association are teaming up for a short session on improving indoor air quality in your family’s home. There will be helpful hints as well as new green home products that are accessible and affordable for the everyday consumer.
Additionally, childcare and refreshments will be provided.
All attendees will be entered in to win free NOVOC non-toxic paint for one room in any color and a kit of non-toxic home cleaning supplies.
