Clean and decorate a natural home: these 30 tips help make your house a place where good health flourishes - Consumer guide: how to be an educated consumer

Natural Health, May-June, 2002 by Julia Tolliver Maranan

Remove Iron Stains

If you have iron rings in your toilet thanks to hard water, Berthold-Bond recommends that you try this nontoxic trick: Pour 1 cup borax into the bowl and let it sit overnight. In the morning, agitate the water with a toilet brush and flush. Repeat daily until the stain fades.

The Living Room

This room has more furniture, carpeting, and drapes than any other room in your home. As a result, your living room has more potential for indoor pollution than any other room.

Ventilate, Ventilate, Ventilate

New homes are tightly sealed against drafts to reduce heating and cooling costs. This saves money, but it's not so good for your health: Items like particleboard furniture, foam-stuffed furniture, and synthetic carpeting release potentially harmful gases like formaldehyde for up to 10 years after you purchase them. When drafts are minimized or eliminated, no fresh air comes in from the outside to replace stale, chemical-laden air. If you live in an energy-efficient home, be conscious of the need for ventilation. If your home is equipped with exhaust fans, run them, and don't worry about caulking every nook and cranny. You may also want to open your windows for 15 minutes a day to bring in fresh air.

Houseplants can also help improve air quality in your living room, Dadd says. When they draw in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, plants also pull airborne pollutants out of the air and replace them with a dose of fresh oxygen. Aloe vera, chrysanthemums, golden pothos, philodendrons, and spider plants are believed to be effective air filters. Placing just three or four plants in a 9- by 12-foot room can improve air quality, Dadd says.

Buy Nontoxic Paint

Oil-based paints (usually known as alkyd paints) contain volatile organic chemical (VOC) solvents like benzene, which is recognized by the EPA as a carcinogen, and toluene, which can cause nervous system changes and damage your liver and kidneys. Thanks to popular demand, low-VOC water-based latex paints are now available at paint stores, says Dadd. (General hardware and home improvement stores are less likely to carry them, but stores like Sherwin-Williams or Glidden usually have a good selection.) When you're shopping for paint, check labels for the words "low-VOC."

Treat Your Carpets

Synthetic carpets outgas hazardous chemicals, including neurotoxic solvents from the carpet backing and formaldehyde, a carcinogen. "Carpet also acts like a sponge to absorb other chemicals used in the home and will outgas them later," Chiras says.

If your carpet is less than eight years old, Dadd recommends sealing it with a finish like AFM's SafeChoice Carpet Seal, which forms an insoluble water- and odor-resistant barrier to prevent out-gassing (1 gallon; $20; 800-239-0321; www.afmsafecoat.com). Test a small patch, and then apply the seal to clean, damp carpet with a hand-held pump sprayer. Work the seal into the fibers with a clean push broom, and allow the carpet to dry completely.

Seal Your Furniture

Particleboard and plywood furniture like bookshelves and desks are popular because they're inexpensive. But they release carcinogenic formaldehyde fumes for the first five years that you own them. If you own particleboard or plywood furniture that's newer than that, you can coat the unlaminated parts (including the insides of drawers, the undersides of shelves, and the back of bookshelves) with AFM's Safecoat Safe Seal, a sealant with a very tight molecular structure that prevents outgassing (1 gallon; $30; 800-239-0321; www.afmsafecoat.com). The sealant will not work on laminated particleboard.