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. 
Carpet
Safer synthetic carpet?
We need to replace the carpet on our stairs. The rest of the house has wood floors, but I prefer padding on the stairs for safety. Wool isn't in the budget. Are there safer synthetics? Where does one buy them and what questions do I need to ask? Thanks so much!
Wool Carpeting
Hi Debra,
We are considering buying wool carpeting for our upstairs to replace very old synthetic carpet (looks about 30+ years old and we know there is lead in this house from testing we have done). I know you will say the best choice is to put in hardwood floors, but the floors are in very bad shape and would cost a fortune, and we are concerned about noise level since the third floor tends to echo throughout the house.
So, carpeting it must be. Yet we cannot afford Earthweave carpeting. I have found some discount wool carpeting in our price range. The customer service rep assured me that all their carpets meet or exceed the Carpet and Rug Institute Green Label standards, but that most carpet does contain mothproofing chemicals.
So.. my question is, given that the most non-toxic choices are out of our price range, what choice would be less toxic to our infant and ourselves: new synthetic carpet, wool carpet with mothproofing, or leaving the old synthetic carpet which may contain lead dust?
My intuition is the wool carpeting with mothproofing, but I'd like your opinion.
Thanks!
I would probably go with the wool carpeting. See if you can find out what type of mothproofing was used before you buy the carpet. There are different types with varying toxicity.
Carpets
My daughter had rugs installed in the basement of her new home. I am so worried about my grandchildren (1 yr. and 3 yrs. old) playing down there. There is a strong odor. Is there anything that can be done 'after the fact'? Do I need to find out the specs of the rug, first?
I am running my Austin Air Healthmate HEPA air purifier down there now.
Thank you so much!
Cindy
You can apply AFM Carpet Seal. This is a clear odorless sealant that seals in the carpet odors.
How do I remove glued-down tack strips under carpet?
HELP PLEASE?! I wish to remove the very old, dust laden carpets located in the front stairwell. I lifted up a corner and see that there are wooden tack strips that are glued down VERY VERY tightly. I tried to pry one up and it was absolutely impossible. I would greatly appreciate any tips on a safe product which I can use to remove these wooden strips that are holding the carpets down. (and any tips on how to remove these wooden tack strips safely?) The stairs are made of some type of 1950's/60's style - a type of stone, which appears as many mixed mottled colours(difficult to describe). Thank you!
Readers, any suggestions?
How to handle toxic carpet installation?
I bought wool carpet for one room of a new house. However, I did not pay attention to the installation, and after it was done there was an unpleasant and suspicious smell. I got headaches, head pressures and stinging eyes and nose when anywhere around the area. The house has an open floor plan, so the toxic stuff disperses. So far I have had two rather weak ionizers in there, and have left doors and windows open around the house. There are three possible culprits: One is the carpet itself. A remnant I have smells bad. It is wool, but clearly there are toxic substances on it and behind it. Then there is the pad, which is recycled pieces of foam that the installer told me would have outgassed long ago. But I wonder what they stuck the pieces together with? Nothing friendly, I'm sure. Then there is the glue, which probably has a host of toxins, including formaldehyde. Short of tearing everything out and starting over (major $$$) I would like to find a way of taking care of this to make my house fully inhabitable! I saw a set of products on the internet that included a shampoo and two sealants to prevent outgassing. I would like feedback to see if anyone has used a similar product and whether it was successful. Right now the whole house is being affected. I want a green house, and this is way far in the other direction! Any suggestions?
If the product you are referring to is AFM Carpet Seal, I used that product about 25 years ago and it worked really well to block the fumes from the carpet. You could try this, but the other alternative would be to somehow enclose the area and heat it to speed up the outgassing of the chemicals.
Odor remaining after carpet removal
My wife and I recently bought a cheap area rug from Target. We learned you get what you pay for!!
For about two weeks, there was a rubbery odor that I now know (after doing a lot of reading on your website) was probably the off-gassing from the backing of the carpet. My son had trouble sleeping and lots of congestion.
We got rid of the carpet a few days ago, but now the problem is that the smell has actually gotten worse. It's like the chemical has seeped into the 50 year old wooden floor. I've scrubbed it with Murphy's Oil Soap and another hardwood floor cleaner, left the windows open, and nothing seems to help.
Any ideas about how to get rid of the smell? It is actually overpowering - especially at night when the heat kicks on. We are new to learning all about the toxic chemicals all around us in our house - but becoming quick converts! Greg in CT
I was about to write for you to use heat to release the odor, then I read that the odor is worse at night when the heat kicks on. That's actually a good sign.
I suggest that you turn on the heat to the highest setting, then everyone leave the house for the day. When you come back, open the windows and air out the house. You may need to do this a few times, but heat should handle it. The heat is causing the fumes to be released from the flooring.
How can I breathe healthy indoor air in an office building that is being renovated with toxic products?
I have a dilemma that I would like your opinion on and hopefully other readers have run into this issue as well. I'm a web designer and work in an office 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and recently learned that they are going to be renovating the floor where I work. Technically this is leased office space by the US government, so it is not a government-owned and operated building, but the agency I work with does have somewhat of a say in how the buildings are renovated. I am a contractor on-site and have gone through channels to try and shed some light on the decision making process, but have been told that the renovations are being carried out to OSHA and EPA standards and that they are doing nothing wrong in their choices of renovation materials. Which basically means I have no say in the air I breathe.
In the elevator lobby of my floor they have already completed new wallpaper covering and the smell is unbearable. The chlorine offgassing is so strong I have to hold my breath when I walk through the area. They have started ventilating the space which has made it much better in there, but I am deeply concerned about being around this nasty stuff 40 hours a week. They are redoing carpeting and wallpaper and in areas where there are cabinets, they are replacing them with your typical MDF, which I can already tell has plenty of formaldehyde from the smell that they emit.
Has anyone run into this issue in their place of work? How have you handled this? I have been told by my immediate supervisor (from my company, who is a contractor of the government) that any further action I take is without their support (this is of course after I went through the appropriate agency contact, in which response I've mentioned in the first paragraph). Since it appears that I can't stop the renovation from happening and convincing them to choose less toxic materials (which is what my original goal was), are there any measures I can take to ensure the air I'm breathing won't endanger my health? Air purification? VOC removal?
I suffer from mild asthma and am somewhat sensitive with allergies, mainly seasonal, but I do get headaches and dizziness when smelling the offgassing of the vinyl wallpaper. Any suggestions and similar experiences are much appreciated!
Erik
This is why I work at home!
I understand your concern and encourage you to do whatever you can to protect your body from these toxic chemicals. I'm not sure they "are not doing anything wrong" but apparently what they are doing meets current laws, which are inadequate.
Many years ago I worked in a toxic office doing temp work, and I just brought a big air filter and put it on my desk. It was in a large open room, I didn't have a private office. It created enough of a "cloud" of clean air that I managed to work there for a couple of weeks. And other workers would come hang out at my desk during breaks because they felt better in my cloud of clean air.
If it were me, I would find a way to not be in the building while they are doing the renovations and for some time afterwards. If you can't work something out with them, I think it's better to find another job than make your health worse and then have to take the time and expense to recover. Since you are a web designer, will they let you work at home?
Many people, like me, have home-based businesses. Many web designers work from home. Maybe it's time to rethink how you work and put a healthy work environment as the number one priority and see how you can make money around that. That was the decision I made more than twenty years ago and it's worked out very well for me.
