Your toxic house

Everybody is more or less aware of external pollutants, the thick black smoke coming out of old exhausts, the greyish fog cloud over big cities..etc..

However, the inside of a building can be as polluted and in most cases between 5 to 10 times more polluted than outside. Interiors, where we spend more than 80% of our time contain toxic elements in the carpet or wooden flooring, within the walls and ceilings and the cleaning materials we use can be pretty nasty too. You have to think that any material within a building can under certain conditions emit or form particulates which could then be inhaled and possibly lead to health risks (carpets, fabrics, ceiling tiles, printers...)

VOCs or Volatile Organic Compounds are a known interior pollutant. Some VOCs are carcinogen, suspected carcinogen or known irritants at typical levels. Building materials and cleaning products are the most common sources of VOCs. The paint on your walls could be toxic, the cleaning liquid you use on the bathroom or kitchen too…

Formaldehyde, one of the big nasty players in terms of VOCs is considered carcinogen and also found in a wide range of building materials and furnishings and this is why levels indoors are much higher than outside. The construction industry is slowly making efforts to eliminate formaldehyde from its materials and with things such as Sick Building Syndrome and Building related illness (Legionnaire’s Disease,…) as well as allergic or asthma numbers growing  it really needs to. It is estimated that indoor air pollution is costing the american industry alone tens of billions of dollars every year.

So with all this being a bit daunting,I hear you ask,what can I do !!!???

There are simple steps you can take to ensure a higher quality of indoor air without having to demolish your house or office:

• Ventilate your indoors regularly

• Use cleaning products that are kind to the environment and therefore kind to you

• When you next choose a new paint,fabric,mattress…question the environmental qualities,what does it contain ? What effect will it have seeing I will be surrounded by it most of the time ?

• If you happen to have mold somewhere then get a professional to look at it asap

• Plants are can clean the indoor air

A NASA study has found that plants can be huge benefit to interiors, purifying the air by absorbing the toxic components and alleviating stress.  These are easy-to-find plants such as the Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata) which is a very good overall depolluting plant. The spider plant (Chlorophytum) as well as the Peace lily (Spathiphyllum) are the other very easy-to-find very effective plants that will help clean and purify your indoors on a regular basis. This website has a very clear listing of all beneficial plants

So, the construction industry has a lot to answer for and needs to make rapid change in their process.

If you happen to be a designer,builder or architect, then please take this into account for every single project. You are responsible for specifying materials and therefore should know the ins and outs and long term effects of every single one of them.
We are talking about people’s well-being here and the possibility of diminishing the risks of cancer which is a great responsibility to have and improving everybody's life quality.

Seedbombs and sunflowers- It must be guerilla gardening !

The earliest record of the term guerrilla gardening being used was by Liz Christy and her Green Guerrilla group in 1973 in the Bowery Houston area of New York. They transformed a derelict private lot into a garden. Since then, it has grown and grown and there are now several thousand guerilla gardeners all around the world. 

Greensoul is delighted to have interviewed Richard Reynolds, the unofficial patron of guerilla gardening in the UK for a quick insight into his guerilla world whose activities also include planting sunflowers in various urban corners of the world…as well as seed bombs...

I hope you enjoy the interview and that it makes you get those hands dirty ! ;-)

• What inspired you to become a guerilla gardener ?

Not having a garden and seeing the opportunity to create one in the neglected flower beds near where I lived. I'm a keen gardener and missed having a garden. I was unaware of guerrilla gardening as a concept, it just seemed like the obvious thing to do and call it.

• How difficult or easy is it to become a guerilla gardener ?

It's very easy. "The illicit cultivation of someone else's land" is how most of us define it. So sowing seeds outside your garden is guerrilla gardening.

• What does the future hold for guerilla gardening ?

More people doing it (population pressure, urbanisation, degradation of land will make the issue of having space to grow things greater and resolving the issue via some assertive guerrilla action is more likely). Also, as the idea spreads and is generally well received more people feel it's something they can do.

• What advice would you give greensoulers out there who want to lead a more green, sustainable life ?

Do it, don't just talk about it. The biggest barrier is a fear of the change. What I discovered by just doing the garden rather than wishing I had one or wishing someone else would sort out the mess, what a lot of other unexpected benefits - I got to know my neighbours better for a start.

http://www.guerrillagardening.org/