Your Indoor Air Quality and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

Did you know indoor air is often more polluted than outdoor air?

It certainly makes sense as the air in your home is essentially trapped. Activities such as cooking and cleaning, introduces toxins while dust has very few places to go. It simply gets trapped in your house.

Your indoor air quality and multiple chemical sensitivities
Exposure to common chemicals can leave you feeling quite ill

In addition to the air quality, some have adverse reactions to synthetic chemicals.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is a controversial topic. Many times in my life I have been mocked for experiencing reactions to what others see as nothing.

Simple actions such as sprinkling carpet powder or cleaning with bleach leaves me feeling quite ill. Powders make me itch uncontrollably, shortens my breath, sets off migraine, makes me dizzy and makes my throat sore and dry. Bleach leaves me with chemical pneumonia. I once had to take a week off of work when we did a spring cleaning and I ended up sick in bed with chemical pneumonia.

A trip to Bath and Body Works or Yankee Candle always left me running for the door. The sheer exposure to all of the fragrances made me burn, itch and lose my breath before migraine would set in.

Even fragrances cat litter affects my sinuses and lungs.

While some people can tolerate such chemicals, others cannot. And either way, these substances are toxic to the air and your body, even if you do not have reaction to them.

While some people can tolerate such chemicals, others cannot. And either way, these substances are toxic to the air and your body, even if you do not have reaction to them.

This is one reason to choose natural, nontoxic cleaning and personal care items.

Toxins are everywhere. Especially inside your house. Very few think of this and think pollution is only outside. However, because we introduce pollution into our homes where it becomes trapped inside the walls, the pollution is often actually higher than outside.

Here are a few tips for living a less toxic life:

• Take your shoes off when entering the house
• Houseplants
• Dust with a microfiber cloth that will capture the dust instead of displacing it
• Wash bedding often and vacuum furniture and carpets
• Remove carpeting and opt for wood flooring
• Use soy candles with cotton wicks instead of paraffin with lead core wicks
• Burn beeswax candles to clean the air (coming soon from Wise Oak Soapery)
• Use Himalayan salt lamps
• Activated charcoal
• Ventilation (open windows and air conditioning) and air purifiers
• Diffuse essential oils
• Keep pets groomed
• Use non-toxic cleaners
• Cook using oils with higher smoke points

I could go on and on about this topic but I will stop here. Take some time to consider what you can do to help improve the air quality of your home.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. What are some things you do to improve the air quality?

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