As a parent, I’m always looking for ways to reduce my children’s exposure to toxic chemicals. The Greenopia blog recently published a post describing Five Easy Things You Can Do Right Now to Get Chemicals Out of Your Kid’s Life.
- Open the window
- Clean with nontoxic products
- Don’t cook or reheat in plastic containers
- Get a water filter
- Take shoes off at the door
Of these five things, the one I would have never thought of is opening the windows. My daughter’s allergies and asthma would lead me to believe that letting the high-allergen and sometimes pollution-warned air inside would not be helpful. However, according to Greenopia, letting some fresh air into your house is great and even in areas with subpar air quality, the outdoor air quality is often better than the quality of the air indoors.
However, opening the window is easier said than done in our household, especially at this time of year. When it starts to top 100 degrees outside (we haven’t officially hit 100 degrees yet this year), opening the window just is not going to happen. We can’t open it up at night, either, as some days it doesn’t get below 95 degrees – even in the middle of the night. Of course this is only a problem a few months out of the year.
So as the weather cools down in the fall, I’ll have to look into opening the windows and letting a little fresh air in.
Photo: IronRodArt – Royce Bair/Flickr
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
So nice to find another natural mama on the BlogHer network! Looking forward to reading it. I think there should be an asterisk, though, about opening windows. It really depends on if you live in an area with clean air or in a smoggy place — and don’t forget even areas with clean air are prone to air quality alerts! I try and stay indoors when this happens here in New York. Kids and elderly people especially are at risk when air quality deteriorates.
Again, great blog!
Thanks Karen for the reply, I’ll have to visit your blog and subscribe as well! I found it interesting that the Greenopia suggestions said that even with outdoor pollution, often times outdoor air quality is better than indoor air quality. I live in Arizona which has nasty air – red flag warnings, high ozone days, etc. I’m curious how my indoor air quality compares to the outdoor air quality on those days.