Healthy Air, Healthy Home

Jamie: 00:00:01

Welcome to Thoughts from the Crawl Space, a podcast where our goal as home inspection experts is to support and serve our community.

Whether you're a homeowner, home buyer, real estate agent, or investor, we believe everyone deserves solutions to their homeownership challenges and inspiration along the way. Your path to success starts here. Welcome back to another episode of Thoughts from the Crawl Space.

Today we are going to talk about air quality in your house. Not necessarily mold, but toxic chemicals in air fresheners. How many of you have air fresheners out there? Raise your hands.

Well, if you're driving, keep one hand on the wheel at least. But air fresheners are advertised to all of us as the cure. All right, whether it's Febreze, that's not necessarily a plug in, but it's.

It's an air freshener, right? They remove all this toxicity from your home and odors and so forth. But do they really?

Air fresheners are seemingly everywhere in today's society, including the workplace. Public restrooms, which not a bad idea in there, right? Schools, homes, automobiles, you always have those little things dangling from the mirror.

At least they used to. I don't know, that's not real common as much anymore. But they're still out there.

And while they're called air fresheners, the term is somewhat misleading. Contrary to how it appears, air fresheners don't actually improve the air quality by removing impurities.

Some air freshener products claim they do just that, but when asked for data to back up their claim, they can't do it. So surprise, surprise, right? Misleading advertising. And then are they ever held accountable? Maybe not really.

And that's a topic we could discuss on another episode about accountability and all that for large corporations. But I think most of us are familiar with outdoor pollution. We hear about it all the time. Ozone, smog, clouds of chemicals floating through the air.

If you live next to any kind of major factory, you're typically going to see stuff like that. But did you know that your indoor air is likely more toxic than outdoor air?

And let's talk about some of the things and why common household products like air fresheners, cleaning products, personal care products, and even furniture contribute significantly to the air quality in your home, along with other sources like appliances, radon, building materials, and of course, outdoor sources come in. You always know when that one neighbors burning and he's burning trash. Well, everybody smells it, right?

So that's definitely a pollutant coming from the outside in. But we're going to talk today more about the indoor air quality in your home and why it's there and what you can do about it. So let's dive in.

First of all, one of the reasons this is such an issue is people spend about 90% of their life indoors. That's probably the number one factor right there. There's probably always been to a degree some kind of indoor air pollution.

But past generations spend a lot more time outside. We don't do that. We like our air conditioned comfort. We like to, especially if we live in the north.

Who wants to go outside in the winter, might as well stay inside, right? And then it gets hot in the summer and we're not used to roughing it at all.

So we got to be indoors and with the air conditioning on when it's above 75 degrees. And so all that time inside contributes to the amount of time that you are exposed to toxicity in your home.

If we were to speak to radon gas only, which I brought up just a little bit ago, radon levels are based on or the way they come up with these diagrams and these charts of your risk factors based on the fact that you're in your house a lot. One simple solution is open your windows.

If you don't have air conditioning or a central heating and cooling system, you're going to tend to open your windows a lot more because that's your only choice unless you have a window air conditioner. But all those things air out your house and you know, to the degree the outdoor air is good, it's going to help your indoor air quality as well.

So let's speak specifically about air fresheners.

Air fresheners are a source of indoor air pollution, either directly emitted or they cause the formation of numerous substances that negative are associated with negative health. Now we're going to talk about some words associated with that. They're hard to spell, much less say.

But you'll get the point of what's going on with these air fresheners. And primarily I'm talking about the kind you either sprinkle on your carpet to cover up Fido's odors or plug in.

And plug ins are a huge thing that we see in inspections. We smell them, we hate them.

Let's just say that many times we've come out of an inspection with a headache because of these plugins, just because they're so prominent and the seller wants the house to smell good for any potential buyer or a home inspector for that matter. Now are they covering something up or do they just like the smell of something? Well, that's debatable Sometimes it's both.

But here's some of the chemicals found in these plugins, these air fresheners. First of all, these all kind of fall under the same category of volatile organic compounds. Organic, not meaning good. All right, VOCs for short.

Volatile organic compounds, Benzene, formaldehyde, toluene, phthalates, and more. For example, formaldehyde is a known carcinogen. It has been measured at high levels in furniture and in air fresheners.

Levels were found to be even higher when air quality was measured during simultaneous use of multiple scented products, for example, cleaning products, air fresheners, perfume. Did you know you're spraying toxicity on your body? Ladies, especially men sometimes as well.

So you're contributing to your own indoor air quality problems. Levels obviously will go up when you have multiple things going on at once.

So high concentrations of VOCs have been measured in the emissions from numerous air freshener types, including spray sprays, plug ins, solids, and more. So think of those antiperspirants you put on. You ever read the ingredient list on those things? Tons of chemicals in those.

So you're rubbing that right on your body. Some indoor air pollutants associated with air fresheners aren't substances emitted directly from the freshener.

For example, primary ingredients mix with ozone, which is a common indoor and outdoor pollutant, and create new substances which are called secondary pollutants. You've heard of secondhand smoke. This is kind of secondary pollutants.

So your air fresheners and all that mix with what's already there and make an even worse type of air. Okay. Some secondary pollutants associated with air fresheners include, again, formaldehyde, acetyhyde, acetone, picric acid and methyl vinyl ketone.

Now, obviously, I'm reading these. I don't have these in my memory bank. But these secondary pollutants are also concerns for human health.

Where else might you find formaldehyde besides air fresheners?

Well, laminate, flooring, furniture, especially the cheaper stuff that you might get from China, the stuff that's pressed wood, that has a lot of glues and things like that, and not all natural hard furniture. If you're going to get furniture, if you can afford it, get the good stuff from a local place that uses all wood.

Now, can you get it from shellacs and stains and all that? Yes, you can get it from there, too. So it's everywhere. Formaldehyde does kind of have a shelf life.

In other words, if you move into a house and you have all new everything, you're Going to smell like a new house. Well, that new house smell. Smell is off. Gassing of the chemicals a lot of times. Formaldehyde.

Now, some builders will go to products they say don't contain formaldehyde, and that may be true. There's some out there.

But just like when we went away from sugar and they all said sugar free, well, now they have chemicals in it that's worse than sugar. And so it could be the same for your building materials. So be careful what you're putting in your house intentionally.

And definitely with flooring, furniture, air fresheners and that kind of thing. Let's backtrack a little bit. Ingredients. Have you ever taken a look at air freshener packaging for any packaging? Right.

You think you're buying something off the shelf that would be good maybe to eat. And you ever look at the packaging and all the chemicals in there? The list of ingredients is a mile long, and it's a freaking cupcake.

All right, so how can you have all that in a cupcake? Well, you just can if you mix chemicals, right? And so that's what's happening in all cases, whether it's a air freshener or food or whatever.

If a lot of times in this packaging, you're going to see vague terms like fragrance or odor eliminator. In many cases, there's no ingredients lifted, listed whatsoever.

It's kind of like on food packaging, when they say citric acid, do you really know what citric acid is? Or quote, natural flavors, which can be a euphemism for msg.

So these packaging, these companies are very adept at trying to get around laws and rules about what's in their product. And so it's up to you as the consumer to figure that out and only use what you need to use.

So companies are legally allowed to keep free fragrance ingredients confidential because they're deemed trade secrets by the U.S. food and Drug Administration. On a little side note, why do we have one administration that regulates food and drugs when they can be easily combined and most of the time are.

It seems like that's a conflict of interest. Trade secrets exempts them from requirements about listing ingredients. In other words, oh, how did you make that awesome perfume?

Well, they don't have to list the ingredients in there. Someone would go copy them.

So they get around having to disclose what's actually in there by that confidentiality that they get from this trade secret or this patent that they have on that chemical.

So that's why you have a problem really trying to find out what's going on that's just why air freshener packaging contains little to no information about what's truly inside the product, a lack of fragrance ingredient disclosure and is problematic because numerous substances known to be found within fragrances, like those listed before, like we talked about before, and some we're going to talk about in a little bit, can be in it without listing it on the label, it is impossible for consumers to know what substances they might be exposed to. So isn't that encouraging if it says fragrance or odor eliminator? That's vague for literally could be anything.

So we're going to talk toward the end of this about what you can do to combat this. Basically don't buy it at all as your best combat. But here's some ingredients of concern. Again, we're going to get a little.

I don't know if you've had a vocabulary lesson for a while, but here are some chemicals that are in what you might see listed as sick synthetic fragrance ingredients, other air freshener ingredients, or secondary pollutants. Dichlorobenzene. It's a voc that may impair lung function.

Impairment of lung function is of special concern for those who have asthma or other respiratory illnesses, especially children. As with all of these contents, they're going to most prominently affect pregnant women and children and those that have weakened immune systems.

And I think with a lot of the toxins that are injected into children and through all just terrible food choices or medical procedures that don't need to be done, they're going to be susceptible. They have a weakened immune system already and these toxic substances can just contribute to that even more. So dichlorobenzene.

Acaldehyde is a probable carcinogen. Benzene a known carcinogen, and developmental and reproductive toxin.

Probably at no point in history has there been more of a problem with folks conceiving when they want to have a child. Well, these are all reproductive toxins that will affect hormones and affect that part of your anatomy or that the hormones associated with that.

Here's another one. D is spelled D L I M O N E N E D Lamone associated with kin. Excuse me, skin and eye irritation.

This substance is a sensitizer, which means it's likely to increase the odds of a future allergic reaction. Notes. A lot of these have to do with asthma and allergies. All right, formaldehyde. We beat that one to death so far. Parabens.

Parabens are linked to breast cancer and effects associated with hormone disruption.

These are all in fragrances, folks, Whether it's perfume or A plug in phthalates associated with effects from endocrine disruption, including damage to the female reproductive system, birth defects and lower sper sperm counts. Again associated with the reproductive system. So think about all that next time you go buying perfume or plugging things into your walls.

Styrene is associated with cancer and neurotoxicity. Tollene linked to developmental and reproductive toxicity. There's three already that link to reproductive toxicity.

Xylene linked to the effects of central nervous system depression, like headache, dizziness depression and impaired short term memory. Beautiful stuff. VOCs. Just in general, this is a broader category. Substances that readily become vapors or gases. We talked about off gassing.

That's that new car or new house smell that's off gassing. Those are VOCs. Because a wide range of substances are known as VOCs. The associated health impacts span a wide range.

Numerous VOCs are known to be toxic. Some of the other substances on this list are VOCs. And we're not going to cover the whole list. We'll be here all day.

But think about those substances that we just talked about that are all in under the label of fragrance Odor eliminator.

They don't have to say what it is, but all it is is carcinogens known to be linked to breast cancer, reproductive harm, allergies, asthma, cancer, and then the list goes on. It's, it's disgusting what they can get away with. So this has been pretty negative. Let's talk about some alternatives.

What can you do in your house to make it smell good and have less of an effect on your health in a negative way? So here's some tips for choosing a safer, fresher indoor air air freshener. If that's the way you want to go.

Obviously open your windows is a pretty good way to start. Well, what if you live next to a pig farm? Well, that might be a problem. So remove convention number one, remove conventional air fresheners.

We know it might be tough to hear, but removing air fresheners and other fragrances like I didn't bring this one up. Candles and cleaners. This will leave your home not only more pleasant for friends and family, but also healthier. Candles are. People love candles.

They smell awesome. How do you think you're getting that smell? How does your candle smell? Like a pine tree. Right? That's chemicals and a lot of the ones we just listed.

So candles are a big one that I didn't touch on because it's not thought of as much. Number two, get to the source of the stink. Why do you have air Fresheners to begin with, probably because something stinks, right?

So get to the source. If there's an unpleasant odor in the home, you feel you need to cover up, get to the source of it. Baking soda is a safe way to absorb odors.

For years folks have put baking soda in your refrigerator. Now you're going to put an air freshener in there normally, but if it works in the fridge, it'll work other places. So use baking soda.

You can leave small bowls of it around the house for a few days. It's great in garbage cans, bags and other areas where it's needed. So you got to clean.

You can't just cover up stink in a house, you've got to clean it out.

When we do any kind of odor control in a house, let's say they have, oh, a cat smell in the house or whatever, you can't just use a product to kill that odor. You've got to remove the source and then you can kill the smell, but you've got to remove the source. Practice using safer scents.

If you've got to the source of any odor issue and you still want fragrance in your home, here's some tips.

This can include essential oil, home sprayers, beeswax candles, scented using essential oils, or simmer pots for fruits, herbs and spices where the ingredients are fully disclosed. You can see that on the back of them. It's a little pack you put especially around fall or Thanksgiving time.

Folks like to use that to make their house smell. Holiday ish, for lack of a better word. Right? Well, those ingredients are actually listed on the back because they're actual real things.

And so you know, stir those in with water, steam it and it makes your house smell great. Much better than a plug in air freshener. So number one, remove the crap that's in your home.

Number two, get to the source of the stink and clean it properly. Three, use safer scents such as essential oils and things that go with that.

Another one, properly ventilate your appliances to avoid lingering food smells and exposure to particulate matter. If you can't vent to the outdoor, install a reaction, a recirculating appliance fan. Or how about a filter in the house air cleaner.

Those work Those like a 99.9% efficiency rate on on getting out toxins. So properly ventilate your appliances, surround yourself with greenery. And this is a big one, air filtering plants.

Number one, you got greenery in the house.

Number two, air filtering plants like spider plant, golden pothos and the snake plant and the peace lily can Improve indoor air quality as those plants literally filter the air naturally. And another advantage to what I found to these kind of plants is they don't take much water or care, they're hard to kill. And so go for some plants.

Instead of air fresheners, use a number six, use a vacuum with a HEPA filter to suck up settled particles to avoid recirculate in the air. Most of these vacuums you see advertised, they recirculate an astounding amount of junk.

You think you're vacuuming and you are getting the big chunks, but it comes out the bag because it's not a HEPA filter and settles in the air and basically just recirculating it all the time. A lot of these VOCs and fragrances and all that, they get into the furniture.

Even if you take the fresheners out every time you sit on that couch, poof, it comes back out of the couch. So some things to think about, and I've mentioned this one before. Number seven, open the windows.

On good outdoor air quality days, open the windows to bring in fresh air. Do it in the winter too, just for a few minutes. It's going to improve it. You won't die of cold in a few minutes. This one seems obvious.

Number eight, keep things clean, regularly clean. The usual culprits of stink. Think of toilets, appliances and areas used by pets and prevent these odors before they start.

Nine, be wary of quote, all natural or green unquote claims on air fresheners. All natural is another euphemism for we got a ton of chemicals in this thing and we don't have to tell you what they are.

We just make you feel better because you think you're buying an all natural product and you're not. So these marketing tactics have no legal or regulatory status. So remember to dig deeper to ensure the product is truly safe.

And finally, let's talk about public paces. Public places, excuse me, like workplaces and schools.

Garner support by sharing information about artificial fragrances, contribution to indoor air pollution, use articles, use podcasts like this, do your research so you know what you're talking about and strive to improve the air quality in schools. Put a snake plant in every room, take out any air fresheners. I get it.

Fifth, sixth, seventh graders, they can stink and they can smell up a classroom because you don't know where they're coming from and hormones and all that stuff. But you can improve it. You can use essential oils, you can open windows. You can do natural things like plants and things like that.

So this is a lot to digest. If you've been struggling health wise, you can't put your finger on it that that might be a place to look. I'm not a doctor.

I'm not going to begin to diagnose what your problem is. But if you have any of these, if they're affecting your health, they're affecting your kids health.

They're constantly sick, they're sneezing, they're wheezing. The doctor can't tell you what's wrong. Think about your indoor air quality. Are you using things that could contribute negatively to their health?

Thanks for listening and watching everybody. Please share this episode. You are our marketing department so the more you share it, give us a five star review on this.

We just want to provide information that will help you in your home, living there, buying it, building it, whatever. So thanks again. We'll talk to you later. Thank you for listening.

This week you can catch up on the latest episode of the Thoughts from the Crawl Space podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. For more information about go Key Inspection services go to goldkeyinspect.com.

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