Preparing your Home to Reduce Neurotoxins
Preparing your Home to Reduce Neurotoxins
We know that creating a safe and clean environment is a priority for families, but sometimes it’s not so easy to know what are the right actions to take. To make things simple for you, at Healthybaby we have created a guide to “Refreshing your Nest”, based on the science and knowledge from our partners at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), and the Neurological health Foundation (NHF).
Here are our favorite tips for clearing your space of neurotoxins to ensure the best environment for fertility and safe beginnings for baby! We’ve gathered seven tips from our team of experts to to R.E.F.R.E.S.H your home:
- Reduce chemical exposure from your products
- Enrich and protect your environment
- Filter your water
- Reuse and buy second hand items to prevent the release of VOCs
- Ease into transforming your space
- Swap out plastic
- HEPA filters
REDUCE: “Reduce” is often associated with reducing consumption. While reducing how many things we bring into our lives is an important segment of building a green household, we want to take this direction a step further by encouraging you and your family to reduce the things that contain the most toxins. What exactly are those toxins and what do they do?
Environmental toxins include carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and allergens. Unfortunately, these lurk in a large percentage of products on the market and their effects aren’t always obvious. However, overtime these toxic substances build up in our bodies and manifest in different health issues from asthma to infertility.
One easy way to reduce your exposure to disruptive ingredients is check your family’s cleaning and personal care products in the EWG Skin Deep and Cleaners Database to see where your products stack up against the strictest health standards.
ENRICH: Having a “green and clean” home has many meanings. But we want to make sure we take the clean part seriously and only wash away what’s actually harmful. Overcleaning with antibacterial and harsh products can do more harm than good to our microbiome. Bacteria is essential to our health. That’s why we want to enrich our gut by protecting it from harsh environments. One way is to change your antibacterial soap to one with pre and probiotics.
You can also enrich your environment by introducing air purifying plants to your home. Plus, the act of planting and repotting exposes your skin to soil which also feed your biome.
FILTER: Blocking contaminants from entering your system in the first place is a great way to reduce your toxic exposure. The two best areas to filter are air and water. To find the best water filter for your home use the EWG tap water database and water filter guide at ewg.com.
REUSE: Buying second hand or reusing existing items is a great way to reduce the VOCs in your home. VOC’s are Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids. VOCs include a variety of chemicals, some of which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects. VOCs are emitted by a wide array of products numbering in the thousands. Brand new products often give off VOCs for months in your home. Getting second hand items is a smart way to reduce the VOCs in your home, and has the bonus advantage of saving you some money too!
EASE: We know there’s a lot of things to do to make your home green, but we want to let you know you have to ease into it. No one expects you to toss all your products, buy an air and water filter and vow to never buy anything new! Prioritize based on what is right for your family and your home.
SWAP: If you can, swap plastic for glass, metal or ceramic whenever possible. These materials do not leech. Plus they are more easily recycled than plastics!
HEPA: These are high-efficiency particulate air filters, and HEPA is a designation used to describe those that are able to trap 99.97 percent of particles that are 0.3 microns. Air pollution isn’t just car exhaust or factory smoke. Dust mites, mold spores (a known neurotoxin), pollen, and pet dander in the air inside your home can cause a number of health problems such as allergies or asthma. Using HEPA filters in your air purifier and even your vacuum cleaner can trap these pollutants and may help bring relief to these and other common conditions.