New Living Health

Build Clean + New Living

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 16:48:56 +0000

New Living has been partners with Build Clean since our start, together in our mission to extend the right to healthy indoor spaces to everyone. We are proud to announce that we have merged with Build Clean to launch New Living Health. New Living Health will exist as a resource for citizens to become educated on solutions for building healthy indoor spaces.

What do your paint and dead people have in common?

Gershwin Penn — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:13:12 +0000

Formaldehyde!

Anyone who has ever painted a room with conventional paint knows that the smell of paint is terrible. Typically, you have to wear a mask, can’t stay in the room for a few days, and may even feel dizzy or get a headache. This is because conventional paints are filled with harmful chemicals known as VOCs which emit toxic chemicals into your home (even after the paint dries) and can be detrimental to your health. One of the worst chemicals in conventional paints is also one that is used by morticians to preserve the dead, formaldehyde.

Although safe to use on the recently deceased, formaldehyde is know to effect the health of adults and children in a variety of ways. Several studies have found links between the use of paint and childhood leukemia. A University of California study found a significant association between rooms painted and an increase in leukemia – 65 percent. Furthermore, mothers who used paint during pregnancy were three-times as likely to have a child with acute lymphobalstic leukemia. There have been several other studies that have uncovered links and associations between formaldehyde and cancers among adults. Studies of paint workers have revealed that they are at a higher risk for cancer of the bladder, lungs, pancreas, liver, and stomach because of their exposure to formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals in paint.

The formaldehyde in paints has also been linked to skin irritations, eye irritations, bronchitis and can cause problems in the central nervous system. The U.S. National Cancer Instituted found in a 2009 study that the longer funeral workers spent embalming bodies with formaldehyde the more likely they were to to develop certain types of cancer – particularly those who were involved in embalming for more than 20 years. Formaldehyde can also trigger asthma – a condition which has increased nearly 600% since 1980.

To keep yourself home from smelling like the dead, and causing health problems that could put you six feet under, it’s important you look at the label at all paints that you buy to see how much formaldehyde it contains. While it is federally regulated, many paint companies still carry it at “safe” levels – even though medical evidence suggest the safest level is none. Read the labels of the paints you purchase and buy paints that don’t contain any VOC (No VOC) and make sure that the colorants put into the paint don’t contain any VOC. No VOC paints not only are absent of formaldehyde, but they don’t have any other Volatile Organic Compounds making them safe to use! Most who use them say there is very little smell and never feel dizzy or develop the headaches that they once did with conventional paints. Using non-toxic No VOC paints will help you stay away from formaldehyde in your home and in your body for a very very long time.

How many chemicals are in your memory foam mattress?

Gershwin Penn — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:05:48 +0000

Although many of the words on that list may be hard to pronounce, they’re all volatile organic compounds – chemicals – that can be found in your memory foam mattress. These 61 chemicals are emitted in your home as you sleep, dramatically decreasing the quality of your indoor air environment. These chemicals found in conventional memory foam mattresses have been linked to skin irritations, eye irritations, various forms of cancer, developmental problems in children, and respiratory problems. This is because unsafe mattresses emit these toxic chemicals into your bedroom and body – possibly making you sick.

Although manufacturers of memory foam commonly put these chemicals into their mattresses, there is no reason to. While manufacturers put VOCs into your mattress as a flame retardant, there are several coil spring and memory foam mattress companies that do not because there are natural flame-retardants that can be used. Certain mattresses, particularly those that are organic and are made of natural materials, do not have or emit VOCs yet they still meet fire safety requirements.

What’s most infuriating is that there has been research linking certain flame-retardants to cancer since the 1970s in credible peer-reviewed scientific journals, yet both our government and industry refuse to do the right thing and look out for our health. Although some chemicals have been banned over the past few decades – many flame retardants reports Environmental Health Perspectives – there are still many in our mattresses that we either know or suspect have links to a variety of illnesses.

While one can wait for change, as a consumer we have to act now to get these products – which are continually emitting harmful toxins into our homes and bodies – out of our homes and replaced with safer ones. There are numerous safe products (like non-toxic organic or natural memory foam mattresses) on the market currently that offer us protection from these chemicals and peaceful nights of sleep. We deserve to know that we’re safe and that these 61 chemicals are not making their way into our bodies.

*This list is taken from Bader’s Toxic Bedrooms: Your Guide to a Safe Night’s Sleep. He had a popular memory foam mattress tested by an independent laboratory.