Interior Designers in the OC: The Safe Home of the 21st Century
Because Americans spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors, it is crucial to make the home environment as safe as possible. Indoor pollutants have proliferated in recent years, often because modern construction techniques and furnishing manufacturers utilize hazardous materials or because consumers do not know enough about the products they buy to make informed choices.
But safe nontoxic alternatives exist for nearly every real need around the home, and the search for them may help consumers distinguish between what they really do need, and what may be “luxuries” that could compromise their families’ health.
Even the furnishings of the typical American home can be harmful. Fabrics that are labeled “wrinkle-resistant” are usually treated with a formaldehyde resin. These include no-iron sheets and bedding, curtains, sleep wear — any woven fabric, but especially polyester/cotton blends, marketed as “permanent press” or “easy care.”
More modern furniture is made of pressed wood products that emit formaldehyde and other chemicals. Carpeting is usually made of synthetic fibers that have been treated with pesticides and fungicide. Many office carpets emit a chemical called 4-phenylcyclohexene, an inadvertent additive to the latex backing used in more commercial and home carpets, which is thought to be one of the chemicals responsible for “sick” office buildings.
It seems that we must educate ourselves about what we bring into our homes whether to clean or as a finished product. The more we know, the better prepared we will be to make choices that will support the health and well-being of our families as well as the health of our planet.
