Bedroom Of Your Dreams - interior environmental standards

Vegetarian Times, June, 2000 by Victoria Moran

Breathe easier, sleep better and maybe even soothe your soul by changing your nighttime environment and creating the ... BEDROOM OF YOUR DREAMS

What's wrong with this picture? A big brass bed, plush carpeting, freshly painted walls and the rich anticipation of drifting off into dreamland snuggled beneath a cozy comforter and overstuffed pillows. This description probably fits everyone's actual or fantasy bedroom, but underlying the pleasant picturesque scene are the nemeses to a good night's sleep and to our overall well-being. In fact, the typical bedroom is under constant assault from mold and dust mites, chemical outgassing and even electromagnetic radiation.

But don't despair. The green building movement, which advocates environmentally sound architecture, construction practices and design, is working to raise public awareness of environmental issues and make available the basic tools for creating healthier homes--bedrooms included. "In the past 25 years, environmental issues around design and construction have come to the forefront, and health issues have come on its coattails," says Graham Davis, a green building consultant in Colorado Springs.

With the mission of enhancing both human and planetary health, German builders are heading up a new science known as Bau-Biologie, which translates as "the relationship between buildings and life." Bau-Biologists learn to build, design and furnish homes with health-promoting, environmentally sound materials, as well as to measure and mitigate the impact of an exhaustive list of pollutants.

Mary Cordaro, a certified Bau-Biologist and environmental consultant in Los Angeles, oversees a team that provides a full range of "green" building services, from on-site inspections for pollutants to feng shui consultations. "We always look for environmental elements that could cause health problems in the bedroom first," says Cordaro. "You spend so much time there, and at night the body is most vulnerable because it's regenerating, detoxing and shedding metabolic waste. You need healthy sleep to respond to the demands of the day."

For some people, notably those with respiratory allergies or multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS), the effects of a toxic, ill-ventilated bedroom are immediate. Symptoms like sneezing, wheezing, itchy eyes, headaches, joint pain, shortness of breath and dizziness can be annoying all day--and keep you up at night. Often, Cordaro says, decreasing environmental irritants works like a panacea for people suffering from these conditions.

Even those of us who don't think we experience any ill effects from our nocturnal environment often notice that our chronic runny nose or stuffy head vanishes once we make changes in the bedroom, much the same way basically healthy people report feeling energized and healthier when they switch to an organic vegetarian diet. "No one benefits from long-term exposure to an unhealthy environment," Davis stresses.

And you don't have to take out a second mortgage to accomplish this. This second installment of our "Healthy Home" series gives you step-by-step advice for making your bedroom not just a place to crash at night but one that will enhance your mental and physical health and, if you're really lucky, spice up your love life.

In the Air at Night

We take some 20,000 breaths a day--more than 10,000 of them at night in our bedrooms. Although outdoor air pollution is an obvious problem in many locales, indoor air routinely tests as worse. This is because the Earth works valiantly to keep her atmosphere clean, but even Mother Nature can't do much about a closed-up bedroom.

Cordaro has a simple recipe for flushing out and diluting a toxic room. Pick a time you'll be home so you can safely crack a window for an entire day. Then open all the interior doors in the house and run an exhaust fan in the kitchen or bathroom on the same floor as the bedroom. The equation is simple: fresh air in, stale air out. Do this every time the seasons change or whenever a room starts to feel stuffy or smell even slightly of mold or mildew.

You can further enhance bedroom air with a high-quality portable air filter. If you purchase one, be sure it is a genuine High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter, as these are far more effective at cleaning the air. Choose one with a generous amount of carbon (which absorbs odors and chemicals produced by mold and synthetic materials). Standard compact air cleaners often have so little carbon that they fill up with residue and actually off-load (recirculate) chemicals. Even with the best machine, however, you must change filters religiously--on average, two to three times a year. But check with the manufacturer to be sure.

It Ain't the Heat

The most common type of heating is forced-air gas, which can recirculate dust and other airborne pollutants throughout your home. Using a high-quality, pleated air filter (available from your heating contractor) will cut down on this, as will professional duct cleaning. Forced-air gas heat has a drying effect inside your home, which can actually be a good thing, as it cuts down on mold and dust mites. But it also dries out your skin and nasal passages. A well-regulated steam humidifier that attaches to your furnace and runs off the main air distribution system generally works well to maintain optimum humidity.