Home Sick Home

When it's cold outside, a cozy home is sublime. But for indoor allergy
sufferers, this comfort can morph into a miserable sneezy nightmare.
Fortunately, there are ways to create a breath-easy home environment.

By Lisa James

From September, 2005

Very few people would argue with the notion that a home should be a friendly, inviting, welcoming place for family, friends and visitors alike. But at its most basic, a home is also our shelter and our sanctuary, the place where you can keep the hazards and hassles of the outside world far away.
Sadly, though, pollution is one danger you can’t evade simply by shutting your front door.

Contaminated air within the home can be up to 10 times as dirty as outdoor air. Meanwhile, water can carry pollutants that include lead leached from old pipes and even unmetabolized medications that meander into groundwater supplies from septic wastewater facilities. It’s a sobering thought, isn’t it?
Protecting your home-based ecosystem from toxins requires a multi-layered approach, from finding greener ways to clean house to raising your voice in the political arena where larger environmental issues are decided. But one basic way of cutting interior pollution involves filtering your water and air to reduce at least some of the incoming junk.

Bodies Burdened

Some folks live near such large, obvious sources of pollution that no one is too surprised when their health suffers as a result. But the problem faced by most Americans is a lot more subtle, which makes it a lot more insidious: The steady drop, drop, drop of tiny toxin amounts quietly accumulating within the body day by day, year by year.

“We are exposed to levels of chemicals far higher than our bodies were ever designed to withstand,” says Dr. Paula Baillie-Hamilton, environmental health authority and author of Toxic Overload (Avery/Penguin). “We know that the average person’s body burden of chemicals tends to increase throughout their lifetime.” That’s how small quantities of individual contaminants can brew up into what Baillie-Hamilton calls “toxic chemical cocktails” consisting of not just a dozen or so chemicals but hundreds—perhaps even thousands—of them, often interacting in ways that we don’t entirely yet understand.

So where do toxins in the average home come from? Try looking at the stuff you use to keep structural wood from rotting or wood furniture shiny. Think about the gases given off by carpeting and curtain fabrics. Consider the solvents in paints and glues, the pesticides in bug sprays, the dirt-lifting substances in detergents…the list goes on and on.

Trouble on Tap

No one is saying that the water which flows from your kitchen faucet is pure poison, but traces of toxins have been found in nearly every public water supply across the globe. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental watchdog group, found arsenic, pesticides and rocket fuel (along with a variety of germs) in drinking water from 19 US cities. What’s worse is that many of the most dangerous contaminants aren’t going away anytime soon; some compounds can take years, if not decades, to degrade into relatively harmless substances.

Part of the problem lies in the leaky, corrosion-encrusted pipes that can be found in older houses and apartment buildings. For example, 20% of all American homes are contaminated with lead, sometimes from peeling lead-based paint but also from antiquated plumbing systems. However, a lot of what shows up in tap water comes from other sources, including industrial pollution, chemically fertilized lawns and farmland, and storm runoff that picks up street residue as it swirls down the drains. Municipal water treatment facilities do not eliminate these toxins but merely remove visible sediment and use chlorine to kill bacteria (most of it, anyway).

One way to help keep your water clean is to avoid contributing to groundwater pollution. Maintain your lawn organically. Take antifreeze, motor oil and car batteries to your local garage for recycling and find out if your locality has special pollutant collection days for leftover solvents, paint and other hazardous items. As the old adage goes, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

Drink to Your Health

Once you’ve helped your community by not adding to the pollution problem, it’s time to help ensure your own family’s health by checking out a home water filtration system. While no filter can strain out every noxious substance, a well-maintained system can provide yet another line of defense against both toxins and germs, as well as improve your water’s taste and odor.

Filtration setups vary greatly and include tabletop pitchers, faucet and showerhead attachments, under-sink models and point-of-entry systems connected to the main water line. (If you’re not handy, getting professional help with installing the larger systems would be a good idea.) The technologies used also vary:

* Carbon filtration. This is the type found in pitchers and faucet-mounted systems; relatively inexpensive and easy to install.
* Distillation. Water is boiled to remove contaminants then condensed; some systems can use a lot of energy and need to be cleaned regularly to avoid scale buildup.
* Reverse osmosis. Uses a semi-permeable membrane to trap contaminants; often used in under-sink systems.
* Ultraviolet light. Inactivates microbes, but does not remove contaminants; requires constant electricity and regular bulb changes.

Water filters should not be confused with water softening systems, which reduce scale buildup within pipes by removing such healthy, naturally occurring minerals as calcium, magnesium or potassium. Softeners are not designed to remove contaminants.

And what about bottled water, you may ask? Actually, it’s not always safer than tap water: The NRDC tested 103 brands and found that roughly a third contained varying levels of bacteria and chemicals. Filtered water is cheaper than bottled, too.

Any filtration system requires regular maintenance, especially changing the filter cartridge according to the manufacturer-supplied schedule—some setups come equipped with a cartridge-life indicator. Trying to push a filter past its useful life is a false saving; you risk even more contaminants entering your water supply or having the water simply stop flowing at a certain point. Except for showerhead units, don’t run hot water through tap-mounted filters to avoid damaging internal components. And don’t be alarmed if your filtered water is occasionally clouded by the presence of tiny air bubbles, which are harmless.

Something in the Air

If sneezing and wheezing are often heard in your home, poor indoor air quality may be at least partly to blame. In addition to the usual culprits—pollen, pet dander, dust—symptoms of allergies and asthma have been linked to diesel soot, especially in inner cities; formaldehyde, found in fiberboard, glues, paints, carpet backings and drapery fabric; and smog, which forms when sun and heat act on stagnant, exhaust-polluted air.

While upper respiratory allergies can create miserable discomfort, asthma can be downright hazardous, especially to children: It is the third most common cause of hospitalizations among those aged 15 or younger and causes 14 million lost school days each year. What’s more, asthma rates are rising rapidly, up 160% between 1980 and 1996 among kids under age four.

“The real issue,” explains Paula Baillie-Hamilton, “is the fact that our increased exposure to modern artificial chemicals, in combination with an increasingly nutrient-deficient diet, appears to be damaging the health of the immune system by making it hypersensitive and over-reactive to substances it could previously tolerate. Research studies show that the greater the air pollution, the higher the level of hospital admissions for asthma.”

Breathing Easier

Air filtration can help clean up your indoor atmosphere, especially if someone in your family suffers from breathing difficulties (in addition to such standard anti-allergy measures as keeping pets out of bedrooms, washing bedding in hot water to kill dust mites, using dust-trapping vacuum cleaners and going with bare floors instead of carpets). Like water filters, air filters come in several   different varieties:

* Electrostatic. Uses electrical charges to lock onto and deactivate contaminants. Some systems add an ultraviolet light element, which is believed to help fight both molds and bacteria.
* Gas phase. Removes cooking odors and noxious fumes coming from paint and construction materials, but does not eliminate particulate matter.
* Mechanical. Uses a special screen to trap airborne junk; the best-known type is a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter.

Electrostatic filters create ozone, which can be helpful in small quantities by inactivating carbon monoxide, a dangerous gas found in car exhaust and other sources. However, large amounts of ozone can be hazardous over extended periods of time; if you decide to install this kind of a system, be sure to purchase a model that doesn’t emit excessive ozone.

Filtration does not address all possible airborne hazards, most notably asbestos, used as insulation in some older houses; radon, a radioactive gas naturally present in some parts of the country; and spikes in carbon monoxide levels that can result from improperly vented garage exhaust or malfunctions in such gas-fuel appliances as stoves or heaters (detectors can warn you of potentially dangerous radon and carbon monoxide accumulations). Any of these problems requires immediate attention from a qualified professional. What’s more, air filters cannot remove excess moisture, which encourages growth of mold (a major allergy-attack trigger). To dry out air you’ll need a dehumidifier; basements tend to be particularly problematic.

Clean air and water should be givens, but in a polluted world that isn’t always the case. Filtration can help your home be more of a safe haven for you and your family.