Home Sweet Home!

It’s a phrase most can identify with. It speaks of the comfort, familiarity, and security most people associate with their regular place of dwelling. It’s uttered most often when returning home from a vacation or a stressful, long day at work.

Home Bittersweet Home…

While there’s no doubt most people hold positive emotional and spiritual ties with their home, science has uncovered that the average home can be a source of hazardous chemicals and toxins. The new Everyday Exposures interactive home website is an innovative addition to theMetametrix website, designed to help educate consumers and clinicians alike about some of the common and not so common toxins in the everyday home.

Toxic Home

A quick glance at the Interactive Toxic Home will allow users to see the common toxins that are present in different rooms and areas of the home. Move your cursor over different parts of rooms such as furniture or flooring to see their associated toxins and learn more about each one. Where applicable, you can also find information about how to get tested for exposure to the particular class of toxin from the menu across the bottom.

Over-The-Top!

Over-exaggerating or going to extremes you might say? Surely my home doesn’t contain the full array of toxins described on this website. Or perhaps you’re pessimistic about the health risks that toxins in the home pose to the average individual. You might argue that the average dwelling in western civilizations has not changed significantly in the last few decades, so why should we be any more concerned about toxins in the home now than say 30 or 40 years ago?

Increasing Toxin Stores

As it turns out, there are classes of toxins in the home that have been shown to bioaccumulate in human tissue. That means the amount of toxin stored in tissues increases over time. A good example comes from a study of the level of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the milk of individual US mothers. PBDEs are used in a range of commercial products as flame retardants, and trace amounts are present in the tissues of virtually every individual in western society. The study showed increases of PBDEs in adipose tissue of several hundred per cent over 10 years.[1]

Risks of Acute and Chronic Exposure

While toxins such as PBDEs, which are very pervasive in modern day society are hard to escape, there are other classes of toxins, such as solvents, phthalates, and parabens which are easier to avoid in the home environment. The risk posed from exposure to such toxins really does depend on the individual and the home. As you would expect, moving into a new home or undertaking home renovations can present increased health risks to susceptible individuals. But what should we make of the health risks from continued exposure to the wide range of toxins in the home over years and decades?

Model Toxic Tradesman

One way to get some idea is to look at the extreme end of the spectrum with tradesmen such as painters, carpenters, furniture and cabinet makers, etc. A study of 1,000 male Finnish painters and 1,000 carpenters found highly significant associations between cumulative intensity of long-term solvent exposure and symptoms of memory, concentration, and mood. Exposure was also associated with diagnosed psychiatric disorders, hypertension, and arrhythmia. One important point to note from the study was that recent exposure was found to have no major effects on symptoms.[2]

In an even larger study involving over 52,000 subjects from Singapore, occupational factors were found to contribute to a significant fraction of respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic bronchitis. Exposure to simple things such as dusts from cotton, wood, metal, minerals, and asbestos was associated with non-chronic cough, phlegm, chronic bronchitis, and adult-onset asthma.[3]

Outworking Toxin Exposure through Biochemical Individuality

The studies cited above involved subjects exposed to relatively high levels of different types of toxins associated with various building products. The average individual who is not a tradesman is not likely to experience such high levels of exposure. However, we know from the principal of biochemical individuality that exposure to the same toxin at the same level in two individuals with different diets, genetics, and different physical and social environments will likely have different physical effects.

Obvious Candidates for Toxin Testing

If you are an individual that can trace the onset of any respiratory or neurological symptoms with a change in the location of your home or workplace, then you are an obvious candidate for appropriate toxin assessment using the Toxic Effects Profiles. Similarly, recent renovations, changes to furniture, flooring, or insulation can trigger symptoms associated with increased toxin exposure. Check out the new Interactive Toxic Home to see which toxins may be implicated.

Toxic Health Insurance

But what if you’re an individual in relatively good health with no obvious respiratory or neurological symptoms for that matter? Well, assuming that quality of life as opposed to length of life are of value to you, there is sufficient research and evidence to suggest that continued long-term exposure to the range of toxins in the average household can be detrimental to your health in some capacity. Why not consider taking the appropriate Toxic Effects Profiles for a holistic assessment of the threats to your long-term health? ~ Wesley Hurrell

CONTACT US

For more information on the Metametrix Toxicity Profiles, please contact Nutrition Geeks

References

1. Shecter A, et al. Polybrominated diphenyl dthers (PBDEs) in U.S. mothers’ milk. Environ Health Perspect.2003; 111:1723–1729.
2. Kaukiainen A, et al. Solvent-related health effects among construction painters with decreasing exposure. Am J Ind Med. 2004;46(6):627-36.
3. LeVan TD, et al. Vapor, dust, and smoke exposure in relation to adult-onset asthma and chronic respiratory symptoms: the Singapore Chinese Health Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2006;163(12):1118-28.