Is Your Home Making You ILL?

Many of us are exposed to healththreatening levels of pollution within our own walls. Here’s how to freshen up!

How you clean and care for your home is very much connected with your wellness and your ability to maintain a healthy immune system,” says natural health and wellbeing expert Janey Lee Grace, who advises on reducing toxins in the home in The Cancer Revolution; The Future of Cancer Care.

“Many cleaning agents contain carcinogens and/or hormone-disrupting chemicals that can cause respiratory problems, lowered immunity and low-level fatigue. Laundry products can also be a skin irritant and lead to allergies,” says Janey. Up to 100 different synthetic chemicals can be used to create the “parfum” or fragrance in a product, including those you use on your body.

It is thought that around 100,000 different synthetic chemicals are used in products in our homes. These, plus the many possible combinations of them, leave us in a veritable toxic fog.

Take control by using more natural eco brands around the home and on your body, which use plant-based surfactants (the compounds which remove dirt from laundry or skin). Make up a cleaning kit of a microfibre cloth, lemons, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, knowing you are helping to keep those damaging toxins at bay.

Eco-friendly laundry balls, “eco eggs” or “soap nuts” are the way forward for clothes and household linen and work out vastly less expensive per wash, too. They work in different ways to interact with water to clean items without the use of harsh chemicals, additionally removing the need for fabric softener. Janey suggests adding a tablespoonful of white vinegar to the fabric softener compartment to soften items such as towels. Treat stains with bicarbonate of soda beforehand.

Another Janey tip is to use steam cleaners. “You can transform curtains, carpets, furnishings, even cupboards and surfaces with a few hours’ therapeutic blasting. A great way to kill bugs without using chemicals.” ● The Cancer Revolution; The Future of Cancer Care (£19.99) is a guide to integrating complementary and conventional treatments, with strategies to improve quality of life and prospects. WWW.THECANCERREVOLUTION.CO.UK