Is your house killing you? From cleaners and solvents to carpet and paint, you may be bringing lethal doses of poison directly into your living space, exposing you, your kids, and your pets to toxins that can impact your quality of life.

Remember your mother telling you to take your shoes and boots off when coming into the house? It was usually right after my mom stripped, mopped, and waxed the floors, (I don’t even want to know what chemicals were in those ingredients!) something that may be foreign to us today. She didn’t want me tracking in ‘dirt’ on her freshly-cleaned floor or rug.

Well, keep in mind, what you bring into the house on your shoes may not always be ‘dirt.’ Taking your shoes off at the door will also control those small particles of pesticides, workplace chemicals, and ‘pet-related’ wastes that love to absorb or stick to your carpet’s fibers or blend into the flooring. I realize most adults don’t eat their carpet fibers, but your (little) kids and your pets love flavored fibers that they just can’t find anywhere else. And, when you get on the floor to play with them (your kids or your pets), you continue to ‘spread the joy’ on your clothing, into your washing machine, into your closet, well, you get the idea.

How about toxins in your kitchen? No, not your cooking, per se, but what you use for cooking.  Some non-stick linings in pans and on utensils can break down and flake with age and get into your food. One study found that pre-heating pans or having flakes from these non-stick materials drop into the stove’s drip pan can cause temperatures that actually break down the material into toxic gases! I am not suggesting these materials are not OK to use. I am stating that you want your cooking utensils and containers to be in good condition and not left to simply ‘bake’ on the burner.

Do you live in an old house with lead paint? Perhaps you live in an area where radon gas is abundant, seeping through the ground and into the low spots of your house. If you live in Western NY for example, you live in one of the highest radon gas areas in the US. A home radon test kit is not expensive and it’s a great starting point for learning about it and its carcinogenic (cancer-causing) effects.

Installing new carpet or flooring? Painting your rooms in your house? Have excellent ventilation to reduce exposures to those aromas caused by the glues or sealants. If you smell it, you breathe it! 

Carbon monoxide is a silent killer, caused by incomplete combustion of woods and other fuels used in primary or supplemental heating. Clog the vent and you’ll sleep right to your death.

A little common sense can go a long way to keep these killers out of your house so you can, indeed, stay safe at home.