Healthy Home Expert: The UN talks Climate Change: It's Clear Humans Are...

Healthy Home Expert: The UN talks Climate Change: It's Clear Humans Are...: In light of the first UN talk about climate change in recent years, I suggest we all take a look at this article:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/...

The UN talks Climate Change: It's Clear Humans Are Changing the Environment.

In light of the first UN talk about climate change in recent years, I suggest we all take a look at this article: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/27/226746611/its-clear-humans-are-changing-worlds-climate-panel-says

As we have suspected more and more scientists are confirming the negative human impact on climate change. With 7 billion people inhabiting the earth controlling emissions is going to become much more difficult. In this article Mr. Memmot mentions how only a decade ago 60% of scientists believed climate change was due to human behavior where as in 2013 that percentage is now over 95%. Let's all make a effort and help with our emissions. May I suggest we stop drinking bottled water as according to the "Food and Water Watch" over 47 million gallons of oil are used in the production of the plastic each year, and only 20% of these bottles are actually recycled.
                    Invest in a healthier more eco-friendly solution

Tap Water in Canada: The top 5 Problems with tap, and why a water filter is the best alternative.

Living in Canada we are lucky enough to have access to some of the world’s best drinking water. Despite this millions of Canadians decide to purchase bottled water instead of drinking water from the tap. Why is this? Perhaps it’s because there can be many trace chemicals, heavy metals and pharmaceuticals contaminating your water.

Here is a top 5 list of why many Canadians turn to bottled water instead of drinking tap.

1: Pharmaceuticals:  According to the World Health Organization “Pharmaceuticals are synthetic or natural chemicals that can be found in prescription medicines, over-the-counter therapeutic drugs and veterinary drugs”. Typical Wastewater treatment facilities have anywhere from a 20-90% capacity to remove pharmaceuticals from our water. With a higher population of people taking more and more prescription drugs we should be worried about trace pharmaceuticals in our drinking water.

For a comprehensive report on pharmaceuticals in drinking water check out this report from the World Health Organization

 2: Pesticides: Of course pesticides can leech into our water reserves. Many Canadians invest in eating organic fruits and vegetables to stay away from pesticides. It’s a big contradiction when traces of pesticides are then found in our water. Smaller communities are most at risk for pesticides in their water as for the most part there are inadequate water treatment facilities in these communities. Take for example British Columbia where there are over 4,000 different water suppliers many with inadequate treatment.

3: Copper/Lead: This will depend on the types of pipes delivering the water into your home. With older areas usually comes copper or lead plumbing. Who wants to be drinking trace amounts of copper or lead when having a glass of water?

4: Chlorine: Certainly it kills pathogens and microbial pollutants in the water but at a cost. Chlorine itself is not so harmful but it is the byproducts (BDPs) which could have a harmful reaction inside our bodies. Dangerous DBPs created from the chlorination of water include (THMs) and (VOCs).These byproducts can form free radicals inside of our bodies.

5: The Taste: Let’s be honest who really likes the taste of tap water. You can smell the chlorine and you could certainly taste it. In my opinion this is one of the main reasons millions of Canadians have turned to bottled water as their water alternative.

BOTTLED WATER: According to Agtriculture Canada in 2009 we produced 2.29 billion litres of bottled water. Don’t be fooled by the bottled water industries extensive marketing campaigns and go out and purchase bottled water which is often times more expensive than the price of gasoline. Instead opt for a water filter and help save the environment.  

WATER FILTERS: There are so many different types available on the market today. My recommendation is to invest in one that has some sort of carbon filtration for (copper & lead) and nano filtratio (UF filtration or Reverse Osmosis 99% and up removal rate of Pharmaceuticals) according to the World Health Organization.

Whatever your needs; investing in a water filter is a smart eco-friendly alternative to drinking bottled water.

What Lies Beneath our Sheets? Secrets to remove dust mites from our home

Lots of people go to bed feeling perfectly fine and wake up either during the middle of the night or in the morning with a stuffy nose, dry throat and even congestion in their chest. What people don’t realize is that what’s most likely causing these problems is what lies beneath their sheets. DUST MITES!!!

According to the University of Nebraska dust mite feces are known to cause “allergies include sneezing, itchy, watery eyes, nasal stuffiness, runny nose, stuffy ears, respiratory problems, eczema and (in severe cases) asthma.”

HOW TO EFFECTIVELY REMOVE THESE CRITTERS FROM YOUR HOME

VACUUM: What can be done to help rid your home of these unwanted visitors? According to studies done at the University of Texas vacuuming your mattress and other upholstered furniture will certainly help. Remember to buy a vacuum with HEPA filtration so you are sure the feces will remain in the vacuum cleaner and not come back into your air stream. HEPA filters are known to trap the smallest pollutants and particulants at 99.97% efficiency at .3 microns in size. HEPA filters are used in all types of applications where clean air is needed such as inside hospitals and airplanes.  I can also reccomend central vacuum cleanersas these units will have the dust swept into a cannister located in a garage or furnace room, you can always get a central vacuum with a HEPA filter, or just add a HEPA filter to the muffler.

DUSTING: It’s a good idea to dust your furniture before you vacuum. Using a damp cloth works better and “spraying furniture polish/dusting liquid directly on surface reduces airborne particles by 93 percent compared with dry dusting.” (University of Nebraska)

AIR FILTRATION: Another effective way to remove dust mite feces from your air is to invest in a HEPA filtration system. Don’t get fooled into buying an OZONE generating machine or an IONIZZER as these units will not effectively remove the smaller sized particulants which dust mites and their feces are. Check out what Dr. Siegel of the University of Texas has to say here http://www.utexas.edu/news/2005/09/15/engineering/

Essentially if you want to rid your home of the second leading cause of allergies and asthma (Pollen is first) you would be well advised to invest in a HEPA filter. You can also go a step further and invest in a HEPA filter that uses a UV light and titanium dioxide. This type of unit will create a process call Photocatalytic Oxidation and instead of capturing dust mites in the HEPA filter median will actually kill the mites on impact with the catalyst.

So there you are 3 effective ways to rid your home of the problems associated with dust mites.


If you have any questions or comments please feel free to use the comments section.