Give Your Home a Healthy Makeover

Cockroaches—Be sure to keep your kitchen clean with no crumbs for cockroaches to feast on. Keep food sealed and put away. Seal all the entry points around pipes and doors with caulk. If need be, call an exterminator.
Mold in your vacuum cleaner—Spray your vacuum’s bristles every 3 months with white distilled vinegar. This keeps mold out of the fibers. Buy a vacuum with a HEPA filter.

Pollen on your pet—Shampoo you pet weekly. If your pet goes outside wipe them down with a wet cloth before they come back inside.
Dust mites—Wash your cushion covers and slip covers weekly on the hottest cycle you can use with them. Wash or dry clean your curtains every few months. This should help with cutting down on the amount of dust mites in your home.

Cleaning—Use some of the many newly available “green” non-toxic cleaners available at any store. Whenever you use chemicals in your home be sure to open the windows so the area is properly ventilated.

Detectors—Make sure that you not only have smoke detectors in your home, but also carbon monoxide detectors as well. Carbon monoxide is odorless, so you won’t be able to tell if it is present. Remember to check the batteries every 3 months!
photo credit: Jeremy Levine Design

Don’t Share Ear buds

You remember your mom telling you not to share hats or hairbrushes because you might catch something? Well, here’s something else to add to the Do-Not-Share list—ear buds. The Online Journal of Health and Allied Sciences reports that infection-causing bacteria was found on 92 percent of earphones that belonged to people who shared them with others. Sixty-four percent of headphones that belonged to people who rarely or never shared their headphones had the bacteria. A study done at India’s Manipal University found that 93 percent of ear swabs of people who shared ear buds had harmful bacteria, compared to only 8 percent for those who never shared ear buds. To reduce your risk of having a harmful bacteria colony in your ears, clean your ear buds every month with alcohol-free cleaner.

photo credit: Unhindered by Talent

Your Laser Printer May Pollute Your Air

One-third of printers studied emitted toner particles, a report in Environmental Science and Technology found. These particles could be potentially harmful to your health. Some printers give off as much pollution as a burning cigarette. These particles are a problem because they are so small they are inhaled deep into the lungs. Depending on how well ventilated the area is, these particles can stay in the air from a few minutes to a few hours. The best way to deal with this issue is to make sure the printer is in a well ventilated area. Try to keep the printer in a separate location than your workspace. The closer you are to the printer, the higher the concentration of the particles. If you don’t need to print something—don’t. Not only will you save some trees, you may save your lungs!

photo credit: Sir Adavis