Home's Your Haven - Make It Safe

Sources of pollutants:

Old paint
If your house or apartment was built before 1978, there’s a chance that there is lead in the paint. Exposure to lead can result in damage to the brain, kidneys, blood, central nervous system, and reproductive system. Children are particularly sensitive to the long-term effects of lead, including slowed mental development and reduced growth. If the paint is not peeling or cracked, it’s safe to leave it alone. Do not remove paint containing lead yourself. There are specially trained paint removers who know how to safely remove and dispose of paint containing lead. Remember, over time even small doses of lead—like paint chips or dust—can have a severe impact on your child’s health.

Dust
Children come in contact with many pollutants through dust. Lead (in paint dust), mercury, household pesticides, and other pollutants often wind up settling down on the floor and other horizontal surfaces. Because of children’s closeness to the ground and their habit of putting their hands in their mouths, it’s likely that they get a certain amount of dust in their mouths and noses. That’s why it’s important to keep surfaces that children touch clean and to wash children’s hands often, particularly before eating.

Soil
Soil often contains pollutants like pesticides used in lawn-care and gardening. It can also contain lead that remains from a time when cars used leaded gasoline. While lead can make it hard for children to learn, pesticides, too, have an impact on children’s brains. To prevent your child’s exposure to pollutants found in soil, plant grass or shrubs over bare soil outside and use doormats to wipe soil from shoes before entry into your home.

Smoking
The more a child is exposed to tobacco smoke, the more the child gets sick and requires hospitalization. Some serious illnesses include asthma, pneumonia, and SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), as well as an increase in the chance of lung cancer and coronary heart disease as an adult. Also, a baby born to a woman who either smokes or is exposed to smoke while pregnant is at risk for lower IQ, learning disorders, impaired speech and language skills, and difficulty in paying attention. If you do smoke, try to stop. If you don’t, do not allow smoking inside your home. If someone insists on smoking inside, increase that area’s ventilation and have your child avoid the area.

Fresh fruits and vegetables
Farmers' use of pesticides on their crops kills unwanted pests. Unfortunately, these pesticides can also harm people, especially young children. Pesticides’ impact on children’s brains includes damaging the brain’s ability to function, memory difficulties, and impaired body movement. It is best to eat produce that’s in season and comes from farms that are closer to home because fewer chemicals, including pesticides, have to be used for shipping and storage. Another option, though less appealing because of its higher cost, is organic foods. Organic foods have higher standards for what’s allowed in the product during the agricultural process. Either way, always wash or peel all produce before it’s eaten.

Home and lawn pesticides
While farmers use pesticides on their crops, pesticides are also a convenient way to get rid of unwanted pests in your home, garden, and lawn. These pesticides may harm children in a similar way, damaging their brains and also causing problems with respiration and the immune system. For your home, reduce the need to use pesticides. Prevent pests from entering a building by closing or sealing openings. Put food and trash away in closed containers. Use alternative means to control pests first, including fly swatters, horticultural oils, and mechanical trapping devices. If you do use pesticides in your home, follow the instructions and remove your children, toys, and food from the treated areas during and after treatment. If you hire pest control or lawn care companies, choose one that applies Integrated Pest Management (IPM). IPM focuses on the least toxic methods of control and prevention rather than treatment.

Hobbies
Some hobbies involve work with harmful pollutants such as lead and mercury. These include refinishing furniture, glazing pottery, soldering glass or metal, making bullets or slugs, and working on batteries or radiators. While it’s less harmful for adults to engage in these activities, do not let children in areas where such hobbies take place. Change clothes and shoes right after you finish the activity and wash these clothes separately. As mentioned above in the section on old paint, lead can damage your child’s ability to learn. Mercury also causes brain damage, including mental retardation, inability to move, and speech impairments. Inhaling mercury vapors can cause lung, stomach, and intestinal damage.

Ventilation
Having a home with good ventilation “airs things out,” including harmful pollutants. Such pollutants include tobacco smoke, radon, air-born mold particles, household pesticides, carbon monoxide from fuel-burning appliances and furnaces, and toxins that are found in insulation. One of the most serious and most common effects of indoor air pollution in children is asthma. Other effects include breathing difficulties and allergic reactions similar to a head cold. To create more ventilation in your home, choose to have a smoke-free home, use fans, and open doors and windows when the heat or air conditioning are not on. Also, if you change the insulation in your home, make sure the material does not contain harmful particles that are easily airborne.

Mercury-containing products
Many household products contain mercury. They include thermostats, batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, and glass thermometers. Mercury causes brain damage and can slow your child’s progress in reaching developmental milestones, like walking and talking. Make sure your child does not put these products in her mouth. Also, when these products leak or break, be careful and thorough about the clean up of spilled mercury (a shiny, metallic liquid that rolls into little balls). Never vacuum or wipe up metallic mercury. First, remove children from the area. Then use paper to scoop it up and put into a sealed plastic bag. Ventilate the room. Use fans if available. Call your local health department for instruction on how to safely dispose of the sealed bag of mercury.

Midday sun
Playing outside on a warm, sunny day can be one of the best parts of nice weather. But you have to be smart about it. Midday sun poses two threats to your child’s health. One is sun over-exposure, which, aside from painful sunburns, can cause skin cancers later in life. Have your child wear protective clothing and apply sunscreen generously and repeatedly.

The other danger of midday sun is ozone. Ozone is the outcome of the sun reacting with car exhaust and industrial pollution. Inhalation of ozone affects the functioning ability of lungs and the heart. It can cause shortness of breath, fatigue, and chest illnesses like bronchitis. Ozone also increases the frequency and severity of asthma attacks. Because ozone is created by chemical reactions with sun’s rays, ozone is most prevalent in the afternoons on warm, sunny days. Try to have your child play outside in the morning or late afternoon (before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m.) when the sun is less strong.