City living exposes us to many environmental pollutants. But who would of thought that our home could potentially be making us sick? It wasn't until a neighbor's car idling did I realize how much carbon monoxide leaked into our living room. The smell was horrible and the clincher is I couldn't open the window for fresh air since it was coming in from outside.
After sharing the story with a friend she told me about a NASA study of plants that clean the air. I was surprised to say the least and happy to learn about it before the baby arrived. We live on a fairly busy street and right above the parking garage, so I stopped into Sloat Gardens and picked up a few plants. The folks there are super knowledgeable and even knew about the cleaning properties of the plants.
So it got me wondering, other than some pretty house-cleaning plants, what else could I do to help keep the house clean of pollutants. That lead me to the US Environmental Protection Agency's website, where I discovered a very comprehensive site with lots of studies and tools on protecting our home from these pollutants.
A few obvious pointers are to keep your home well ventilated, cleaned and to be cautious of the cleaning chemicals, paints and other unassuming household products.
For more information, check out these links:
Indoor air quality introduction
"Care for your air tour"
For you Urbanists out there, the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) just came out with this great issue called Greening Apartment Buildings. It's a great piece on what other steps we can take to green our homes.
Love Lots,
MommySF
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