Did you know that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) estimates that indoor air quality is worse than outdoor air even in a big polluted city? It’s so bad in fact, that it’s necessitated the coining of the term “sick building syndrome” which the EPA says 6 out of 10 buildings have. In short, sick building syndrome is basically toxic air in buildings that makes people sick, and which contributes to a whopping $1 billion dollars per year in medical costs!
Why are our homes, workplaces, marketplaces and more so toxic? Because most everything we use in them is toxic: cleaning products, paints, floor finishes, carpets, construction materials; and then on people: perfumes, hair products, lotions and creams, soaps… the list could go on. Don’t worry. We can discuss alternatives to all of these things eventually. Many of them are really pretty easy to replace.
For a young child, all of this toxic out-gassing is particularly harmful. Scientific American Magazine and Bioshield Paint Co report that “a crawling baby inhales the equivalent of four cigarettes a day as a result of out-gassing. No wonder 6.3 million children suffer from asthma”. And according to the EPA, “in 2000 there were nearly 2 million emergency room visits and 500,000 hospitalizations of children due to asthma aggravated by poor indoor air pollution.”
So to be “fanatical” about air quality, about living non-toxic lives, is really not all that fanatical at all. I mean who really wants their baby smoking 4 cigarettes per day?
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