elementals

Things to avoid

Many influences that the body is subject to daily are not normally seen, heard, or felt. It is now thought that the indoor interior environment is up to ten times more polluted than the exterior as we are surrounded by a cocktail of VOC's, gases and other pollutants which are emmitted by modern building material, electrical appliances, chemical cleaning agents, external traffic, etc.

It is our Lymphatic and Nervous systems which are most likely to be affected and any unwanted matter considered to be unhelpful to our wellbeing accumulates in the fatty tissues of our bodies where it can later result in allergies, multiple sensitivity disorders, asthma, excema, cancer, tiumours, etc.

It is not only ourselves that are affected by this and their are many, many instances of chemicals such as PCB's, BFR's and others contaminating wildlife.

The attached information was taken from many sources but please feel free to send in any updates or information you would like to share with others.

Product	Use	Effects	What Can you Do
Formaldehyde	Used as a bonding agent in timber and plastic products, a preservative in paper, soft floor finishes and finish for bed linen e.g. no iron products	Irritant to skin.Can cause headaches, nausea and breathing difficulties	Buy HCHO free products. Avoid 'easy care' products.
Organochlorines	Found in plastics, cleaners, air fresheners and plastics. Includes polychlorintated biphenyls (PCB's - fluorescent lighting starter units), polyvinyl chloride (PVC - packaging, car interiors, toys)	Irritant to skin, eyes and lungs. Causes nausea and damage to Central Nervous System (CNS)	Avoid PVC in food packaging and childrens toys
Brominated Fire Retardents	TBBPA is found in circuits boards and plastics. HBCD and PBDE's which are due to be banned in Aug 2004 - high PBDE levels found in breastmilk.	Believed to cause thyroid and liver problems.	Difficult to avoid in new products. Buying older furniture, etc. is one option but increased fire risk must be considered

And that's just the beginning...

Find out more about our Holistic Interior Design and enviromentally friendly products or have a look at our resource page to see what you can do yourself.