As the saying goes: we are products of our environment.  Aside from our workplace, our homes are our chief environments and we have much more influence at home than at work when it comes to the quality of the environment.  Did you know that the quality of the air in your home environment might be just as polluted if not more than the air outside?  “But there’s no car traffic inside my home!  How could my home air be polluted?!” you may ask?  Turns out air pollution, indoor or out, comes from a few different sources (yes, including cars) and the ones I’d like to focus on right now are the ones that can have a negative impact on our home environments specifically.  Daily choices we make about personal care and cleaning products have huge influence on the quality and health of our home environment.  And if we are products of our environment (which we’ve already established) then you’re going to want to read on, dear reader!

Allow me to pivot slightly, and please, bear with me.  I’m going to say it: the coronavirus hype is real.  I resisted what I interpreted as mass hysteria at first, partially because the media coverage I’ve seen (and the public response I’ve witnessed) makes it sound like Covid 19 (the disease caused by coronavirus) is the plague and therefore a death sentence for any and all.  Gratuitous face-masks aside, this flu-adjacent virus is scariest for the people whose health is poorest.  And while the fear of disease is real and true, the attention on coronavirus begs us to consider how so many people have fallen into poor health in the first place.  My concern is not only how to curb the spread of the virus from person to person, but also how to fortify people so that their immune systems can best serve them and their wellbeing.  The fact of the matter is that Covid 19 is just another permutation of a legacy of infectious disease that preys on the immunocompromised (and sometimes even people Western medicine would deem ‘healthy.’).  And the reason so many people are susceptible to illness extends beyond how many fruits or vegetables they’re getting. 

So, what does coronavirus have to do with home air pollution?  A LOT.  Unwittingly, we invite harmful chemicals into our home environment that can compound over time and negatively impact our body’s resilience to infection and disease.  

According to the Environmental Working Group, “the air inside our homes is 2 to 5 times more polluted than the air outside.”  Read that again.  Air pollution, inside the home or out, can lead to things as minorly annoying as respiratory frustrations and as serious as cancer.  The environment in which our bodies exist is determined by more factors than just the air we breathe, but for the purposes of this piece, we’ll narrow our focus to home air quality since for many people it’s not even on their radar.  And because it’s an element of our environment that we can positively influence as soon as you’re finished reading this!

A big area of concern for home air pollution is volatile organic compounds (VOC), which sneak into our homes via household cleaners, personal care products and even carpet.  Not only can we absorb yucky stuff through the skin, but we can breathe it in as well.  Some particles are so small that they lodge deep in the lungs and are virtually impossible to remove.

To get a sense of how in-the-dark we can be about the quality of air in our homes, consider these sources of VOCs in the home: 

• Cleaners
• Air fresheners
• Pesticides
• Carpets
• Gas stoves
• Hair spray
• Rubbing alcohol
• Nail polish & remover
• Fragrances

Not sure what products to choose and which to eliminate?  Refer to this list of VOCs to avoid:

• Acetone (found in some nail polish removers & furniture polish)
• Butanal (found in some things that burn, like cigarettes & stoves & candles)
• Carbon Disulfide (found in chlorinated tap water)
• Dichlorobenzene (found in mothballs)
• Ethanol (found in glass cleaner, dishwashing detergent, & laundry detergent)
• Formaldehyde (found in molded plastics & finishing products)
• Terpenes (found in soaps & laundry detergents)
• Toluene (found in paints)
• Methylene Chloride (found in paint removers, aerosol solvents, antibiotics & vitamins)

When shopping for household cleaners and air fresheners:

• Look for products with the Green Seal, Ecologo, or EPA Safer Choice qualifications
• No fragrance
• No triclosan & quaternary ammonium compounds
• No ammonia
• No chlorine bleach
• No hydrochloric acid
• No phosphoric acid
• No sodium or potassium hydrochloride
• No phthalates
• No synthetic musks

The impacts of VOCs include:

• Eye irritation
• Dizziness
• Respiratory distress
• Fatigue
• Asthma attacks
• Liver, kidney, central nervous system damage
• Cancer

Unfortunately, in our modern world, we cannot completely & totally protect against the presence of VOCs.  But, we can make smarter decisions about the products we buy, in addition to checking the quality of our home air.  When it comes to air quality, open your windows!  Allow fresh air to circulate throughout your home, especially as temperatures rise and you feel the urge to purge and clean after the hibernation of winter.  If your home has central air, make sure your HVAC system is checked for efficiency.  Clean the filter monthly, and replace every three months.  When choosing a filter for the HVAC system, the American Lung Association recommends one with a MERV rating of 10 or greater.  When using the HVAC system, be sure to adjust the fan to ON, instead of AUTO, to keep air circulating.  If you don’t have central air, invest in a high quality HEPA filter for the rooms in which you spend the most time (think: the bedroom, living areas, and kitchen).

While VOCs are worrisome for their compromises to our immune system, other chemicals known as endocrine-disruptors also make their way into our home and, over time, interrupt our body’s ability to properly produce certain hormones.  Hormones are chemical messengers that tell our body’s systems to perform certain functions (or to not).  Endocrine-disrupting chemicals can either flip our hormone production onto overdrive or stop it short.  Some even mimic the effects of human hormones, as is the case with BPA (found in some plastics) which can confuse the body into believing it’s actually estrogen.  In addition to BPA, consider avoiding and eliminating when possible the following:

• Atrazine: a pesticide used in the growth of corn crops in the US, which then makes its way into our drinking water.  Avoid it by investing in a quality water filter.
• Perchlorate: rocket fuel.  Seriously!  It’s unavoidably in our food supply, but we can remove it from our drinking supply by, again, water filtration.  For this chemical, reverse osmosis is necessary to remove it from the drinking water from your faucet.
• Lead: we know to be wary of old paint that might contain lead, but it can also show up in our drinking water.  SEE A PATTERN?? DON’T DRINK STRAIGHT TAP WATER.
• Arsenic: it has crept into our food supply and our water supply.  While we can’t filter it out of food, we can choose water filters that filter it out.
• Mercury:  Sorry, sushi lovers.  It’s readily detectable in lots of fish.  To avoid it, opt for wild salmon and farmed trout.
• Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs): These guys are so disruptive that they’ve been linked to a host of problems like decreased sperm quality, kidney & thyroid disease, & high cholesterol, among others.  Remember teflon?  It falls into this category.  So skip the non-stick pans.

I know reading this might incite some anxiety.  I get it!  But, I also know it can inspire action.  And it’s in action where our real power lies, not knowledge.  This information is readily available!  Google it!  But it’s useless until we turn it into action.  My hope is that, in the midst of coronavirus/Covid 19, that you, dear reader, will feel motivated anew to reexamine the state of affairs in your own home to make sure you are supporting your wellbeing and immune system as best you can.  Small actions compound.  Little choices matter.  Get a water filter (I swear by Berkey) or install a reverse osmosis system.  Eat organic whenever possible.  Choose less-toxic & non-toxic cleaning products for your home.  Get your HVAC checked, or invest in some HEPA air filters if you don’t have central air.  Take action, and feel the powerful effects of remembering how much agency you have in the quality of your life and health.  Last but not least, this is a worldwide group effort.  We are all responsible for our own wellbeing, and part of that responsibility comes from the fact that our wellbeing (or lack thereof) affects the people with whom we come into contact.  And that is abundantly clear right now, in the midst of the coronavirus scare.  Act accordingly.