Seven Steps Towards an Allergy Free Home

By Debbie Mumm

1. Take your shoes off when you enter your home. Pesticides, pollen

and more can get on your shoes and then be transferred to carpets.

2. Idle your car in the driveway or street if you must. Never idle a car in an attached garage! Fumes can seep into the home. Install a carbon monoxide detector in the closest room to the garage for extra safety precautions.

3. Smokers can smoke outside. Smoke travels through a home, so smoking in one particular room is not a healthy alternative. Chemicals from cigarette smoke can remain in an environment for up to 10 years. Smoking in one room of a house is like asking to swim in the un-chlorinated side of the pool. It just doesn't work that way.

4. Use non-toxic cleaning products instead of chemical brands. Toxic ingredients to avoid are chlorine, ammonia, methylene, chloride, phenol, formaldehyde, cresol, and xylene. The fumes from these products can stay on surfaces for days until you absorb them into your skin or breathe them into your lungs. Toxic cleaning products is the #1 reason children end up in emergency rooms.

5. Never mix household cleaning products. The combination of chlorine bleach with an ammonia cleanser. It will give off a toxic gas that is a severe respiratory irritant.

6. Do not let pets in the bedrooms. All pets have dander…and it can be an allergen. We usually spend 6-8 breathing in the bedroom. Keep the bedroom as allergy-free as possible! An air purifier would be a bonus here. Your body needs a chance to rest without having to fight to breathe at the same time!

7. Cover pillows and mattresses with 100% cotton pillow and bedcovers. They are more breathable and product less allergens than plastic and polyester.

We can't choose when we want to breathe. We have to breathe every minute of the day. Shouldn't we be able to breathe clean air indoors?

If you’d like more Healthy Home Tips, then contact Debbie Mumm at www.healthy-environments.com. Her booklet, 6 Dozen Healthy Home Tips, is now available. It makes a terrific New Parent, or New Home gift! Debbie Mumm lives in Grayslake, IL and has been an Indoor Air Specialist since 1996.

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