FACTS ABOUT TOXINS IN THE HOME

CLEAN IT UP AND CLEAR IT OUT!

1. Asbestos may be found in walls and ceiling insulation in homes built before the 1950's.

2. Up until the 1970's asbestos was used for insulating hot-water pipes, steampipes, furnaces, and boilers.

3. Formaldehyde is found in disinfectants, wooden building materials, cosmetics, molded plastics, and pesticides.

4. Formaldehyde is also found in newsprint, paper grocery bags, carpets, draperies, permanent press clothes, paints, shellacs, waxes, photography darkroom chemicals, glues and adhesives.

5. Radon is a common indoor air pollutant that comes from uranium in rock and soil.

6. The EPA estimates 20,000 lung cancer deaths each year may be due to radon exposures.

7. Carbon monoxide is generated by combustion. Backdrafting is combustion and occurs when wood stoves, fireplaces and furnaces burn in houses that are too tightly sealed.

8. Carbon monoxide poisoning causes headaches, shortness of breath and chest pains in people with heart disease.

9. Nitrogen dioxide is produced when gas stoves burn.

10. The concentration of nitrogen dioxide is two to three times higher in homes with gas stoves than those with electric ranges and children living in these homes have higher rates of respiratory infections.

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