his Q&A blog is open for all to participate. Feel free to ask your own questions and answer questions posted by others. I know all of you have a wealth of information and experience on healthy living and you are welcome to share it here. 
General Household
Safe Gymnatics Mat
Hello!
I was looking into getting my daughter a mat to practice her gymnastics on. I was concerned about the vinyl and plastic coatings and off gassing of the foams they often use. Do you know of anyone who makes a safe, truly non-toxic sturdy mat?
Thank you!
You might try taping together some SoftTiles. Contact them and see if they have any suggestions.
Charcoal as odor- and moisture-remover in bathrooms
I recently read in a magazine a tip to help with odors and moisture: put some charcoal in a coffee can, attach the lid and punch holes in the coffee can, and place in a damp area.
My questions are: Is there a difference in the typical charcoal you can purchase? Is there a specific type one should use for this function? Is it effective? Is it safe (for children--no touching of course, but ok for breathing?)?
I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with using this as a desiccant in bathrooms.
Thanks for your help!
Readers, any experience with this?
Buy "Made in the USA"
A friend of mine sent me an email with no source that commented on Diane Sawyer's special report "Made in America," which aired last fall. It's an interesting piece of investigative work.
They removed ALL items from a typical, middle class family's home that were not made in the USA. There was hardly anything left besides the kitchen sink; literally. During the special they showed truckloads of items - USA made - being brought in to replace everything and talked about how to find these items and the difference in price etc.
It was interesting that Diane said if every American spent just $64 more than normal on USA made items this year, it would create something like 200,000 new jobs!
The email I received was asking that we all look on the bottom of every product for "Made in China" or "PRC" and choose products made in the USA instead.
There's an interesting map on the "Made in America" website that lists companies making products in each state. There are not many listed in comparison to how many there are. Many of my Debra's List websites make products in America and I've noted them with an icon.
For more products Made in the USA, check out these websites. The products are not necessarily nontoxic, but there is a great reduction in shipping pollution and buying American supports our own economy at home,
Budget-friendly bedding options without flame retardants
I'm trying to rid my house of flame retardant-treated polyester filled bedding, pillows, mattress pads, etc. I'm very frustrated that the only options I can find are extremely expensive. While I feel it is important to switch to bedding without these toxic chemicals, I don't have it in my budget to spend several hundred dollars on a single mattress pad. Do you or anyone out there know of any sites or stores that offer wool, cotton or other material untreated with flame retardants that won't break the budget? Maybe someone should open a web store that specializes in affordable eco-friendly products. Currently, it seems "going green" is only for the rich...
Hoping for a good night's sleep!
Thanks!
Readers, any suggestions?
I haven't checked prices recently.
Design For The Environment Label- US EPA
I came across the EPA's website Design For The Environment Label and was wondering what your thoughts were on the products they have listed? Thanks for your advice!
The EPA's Design for the Environment program allows manufacturers to put the DfE label on household and commercial products, such as cleaners and detergents, that meet stringent criteria for human and environmental health.
Their Alternatives Assessments Program helps industries choose safer chemicals by providing an in-depth comparison of potential human health and environmental impacts of the chemicals they currently use or plan to use. For situations in which safer chemicals have yet to be identified as viable substitutes, their Best Practices Program shows workers how to protect themselves and their communities' health by using chemicals safely and minimizing exposures.
List of products approved to carry the DfE seal
One good thing about this program is that the manufacturers are required to submit the complete product formulation information. All ingredients are reviewed to ensure that the potential environmental and human health effects of prod ucts and ingredients are accurately and adequately identified. Applicants must report all ingredients intentionally added to the formulation, regardless of percentage. This is important because current law does not require disclosing to the public all ingredients of many hazardous products, such as cleaning products, which makes them difficult to evaluate. So seeing this seal, you know that all the ingredients have been considered.
I did spend some time looking for the standards they use when evaluating these ingredients. I went to DfE's Standard and Criteria for Safer Chemical Ingredients expecting to find maybe a list of acceptable chemicals, and what I found were documents with a lot of references to other documents and requirements for toxicity tests.
Just from this quick look it appears to me that the difference between their approach and my personal approach is that I'm looking for products that clearly have tried-and-true safe ingredients, like soap, for example. It appears at first glance that what this program is looking for is products made with safer industrial chemicals.
I took a look at their list of approved cleaning products and it contained some products I agree with and others I don't. It looks to me like the major motivation of this program is to get the major manufacturers to make less toxic products. My motivation is to find the least toxic products for consumers to use. That's why my list contains products like organically-grown bio-based cleaning products and not cleaning products with industrial chemicals that are less toxic. The EPA program is a step in the right direction, but I can see from looking at their list of approved cleaning products that their criteria is not as stringent as mine.
I would say for sure the products with this seal are less toxic than average products in their class. I'm also sure they are not the least toxic available.
Non-Toxic Home *BUYING*
Hi Debra,
We are going to be looking into buying a house soon, for the very first time. I want to go beyond the basic assessments done when purchasing a house to make sure it's as non toxic as possible, prior to any remodeling on our parts. I wonder if you can point me in a good direction or a past post on this website, or a website with this information.
Additionally, if this hasn't been covered here, what are some key points on purchasing a less toxic home? What should we look for? What should we have tested/inspected? I know, for example, that a lot of older homes have lead issues, but they also, according to some, have fresher air due to better circulation of outside air b/c of their leaky windows. thoughts? I want to go in eyes wide open, rather than having to do a lot of costly clean up after the fact. Building isn't an option right now, b/c we likely won't be here longer than 3-4 years. Thank you so much for helping us start this journey and Happy New Year!
The subject of buying a nontoxic home is quite thoroughly covered in chapter 17 of my book Home Safe Home.
You specifically mentioned lead.I know here in Florida, the seller needs to disclose the presence of lead, that may be true in other places as well. You should also ask about asbestos in an older home.
You will, of course, want to have the home inspected by a standard home inspector, but they will not look for toxics issues. One of the things I do as a consultant is look at homes before people buy them, and I am available to go anywhere in the world to do this. You may be able to find someone locally who does this as well.
If you have questions as you are looking, you can also call me on the phone for a paid consultation.
Antimicrobial Toilet Seats
Hello,
We want to purchase a wooden toilet seat, but most of them are antimicrobial. I understand this is because wood is porous and thus can harbor bacteria. Is this safe? If we can find one that isn't do you think it's possible to keep a wooden toilet seat sanitary enough using natural cleansers like vinegar or the like? Also, we like the look of wood, but maybe because of the stuff they add to wood in general, plastic is a safer choice?
Thanks very much.
I ran into the same thing, wanting to replace our wooden toilet seat because there was a problem with the hardware.
We did find a wooden toilet seat without antimicrobial at...it was either Lowe's or Home Depot, don't remember. But we ended up just getting new screws and washers for the old one.
I think it's entirely safe to use a wooden toilet seat without an antimicrobial. We've had wooden toilet seats for years with no problems.
rowenta steam irons
Dear Debra,
I so much appreciate all the work you do to help us out. I have MCS and need to buy a new iron. I know you like your 20 year old Rowenta. Looking at reviews of the newish Rowenta's, I am disappointed to find that they have problems -- like leaking, electric cord burning out and things like that. Also, they are plastic except the soleplate.
So I was looking on ebay for a used Rowenta that has already been offgassed. There are many to choose from. If you don't mind telling us, what model number is yours, or what should I look for in a used Rowenta. What wattage is your iron?
If I buy it used, would it be offgassed, or would it continue to smell when the plastic is heated up? I found some classic irons -- all metal except the handle. But they all had non-stick coating on the soleplate.
Also, some of the new ones have platinium soleplates. Is that any kind of problem for MCS?
Thank you very much for your help,
Debbie in NM
My Rowenta iron is Model DA-33.6, 1200 W.
Mine is plastic, but a hard plastic that is all gassed out. No nonstick finish on the soleplate.
I don't see a problem with a platinum soleplate.
Bedbugs Living in a Computer Screen (Second Hand)
Can bedbugs live in a second hand computer screen? My son works for the city. He would like to replace our ancient computer screen, with a more recent model (used/second hand one). He is able to bring home, to recycle, a nicer computer screen - as each day the city picks up items (furniture, computers, etc.), which are discarded, by the citizens of this suburb, and they are then picked up by recycling companies. He has seen perfectly good computer screens. I AM PARANOID THAT THERE MAY BE BEDBUGS IN THE COMPUTER SCREEN!!! Is this possible? Thank you!!
I did a bit of searching, but couldn't find anything specific about computer screens. There have been cautions about bedbugs in laptop computers. Also apparently you can kill bedbugs by heating the item to 120 degrees.
If it's really important to you to have this computer screen, you could put it in a plastic bag for a few days before bringing it in your house and see if any bedbugs emerge.
I'm not a bedbug expert, but that makes sense to me.
Fix for Mold in House Plant Soil
Hi Debra,
I've been researching how to improve the air in my house, and one of the things I've been researching lately is various types of house plants that can help clean the air (from the NASA study). When searching this site, I read that some were concerned about mold in the plant soil becoming its own air contaminant. In my research, I found a replication study of the original NASA study that stated that you should use "[s]everal centimeters of small washed gravel ... to cover the surface of pot plants when large numbers of plants are kept in the home ... to reduce the exposed area of damp potting soil which encourages the growth of molds (fungi)" (Houseplants, Indoor Air Pollutants, and Allergic Reactions by Wolverton, 1986, abstract and p. 7). Although, people with allergies would probably want to do this with all plants, regardless of the number, and would probably want to start with only one or two.
I hope this helps some people!
-Adica
