Finding eco-friendly décor items is the way to go when trying to make your home look beautiful, not to mention clean! With so many chemicals and toxins being used to make your furniture, you’re doing the right thing for your health by looking into eco-friendly furnishings and decorations that are made to be “green” and as environmentally friendly as possible.
But one area we all tend to forget about is our floors. We focus so much on the couches, cushions, sofas, love seats, tables, and chairs that we fail to realize that a lot of the health hazards in the home may be coming from the floors…
The Dangers of Carpet
Carpeting is something that you’ll find in almost every home around the country. There will always be parts of the home that will contain hardwood or laminated floors – usually the most frequented parts of the house – but the bedrooms will often be covered with soft carpet. There’s just something wonderful about putting your feet on warm carpet on a cold morning!
But could that carpet be poisoning you in the long run?
Source: www.memetics.com
Carpeting companies are producing new materials every year, and it looks like the new materials used to make carpets can actually be dangerous. They release volatile organic compounds – or VOCs – into the air, and you and your family inhale those VOCs every time you’re in the same room as those carpets. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that some of the chemicals found in carpets can be extremely hazardous, and can cause all kinds of problems:
- Some of the chemicals used in the carpets are known cancer-causers (carcinogens)
- Some chemicals can cause abnormal growth of fetuses in pregnant women
- Some chemicals have been known to cause nerve damage and hallucinations
- Some of the chemicals in carpets can cause respiratory problems
Have you ever noticed how walking into a room where carpet has been freshly laid often makes you feel light-headed or a bit sick to your stomach? It’s all thanks to the chemicals that are used to make the carpets.
To make things worse, more chemicals are used in the carpeting process. Chemicals make up the glue that holds the carpet to the floor, and there are chemicals used in the material that prevents carpets from being stained. The chemicals that make your carpet flame-retardant are very toxic, and many carpets use strong chemicals to moth-proof the material.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, the carpets are often in closed-off environments with little or no fresh air. Most of the chemicals in carpets are found in commercial carpeting – in office building where the air is circulated through the air conditioning system rather than using fresh air. However, residential carpeting can be just as bad, and bedrooms often receive little fresh air – particularly during the winter months.
So what can you do?
- Get rid of the carpeting. What’s wrong with nice hardwood floors? It’s much easier on your lungs, and there’s no risk of chemicals.
- Get a better vacuum cleaner. Well-sealed vacuum cleaners of high quality will get rid of the dust and dirt that could cause allergies, and will ensure that your carpet is as clean as possible.
- Get the carpet steam-cleaned. This type of cleaning can kill off the bacteria and dust mites that are responsible for allergic reactions and lung infections.
- Get staples instead of glue. When installing the carpeting, ask for the carpet layers to attach it to the floor with staples rather than glue. There’s much less risk of toxin exposure this way.
Your home should be a safe haven, a place where you can go to escape the problems you face in the outside world. It shouldn’t be another health hazard, so stop that carpet from poisoning you!
