Poison Ivy
Hi Debra, My boyfriend and I have just moved into a new house, and as my botfriend discovered after mowing the lawn for the first time, it seems there are several poison ivy plants around the house (resulting in three--going on four--weeks of blisters and rashes for him). We rent the house, but we're in charge of landscaping, so it's up to us to kill it.
I was wondering if you had any suggestions on how to kill it. I have Borax and white vinegar on hand, which I've read some have used to kill plants, but I was wondering if you had a other suggestions. I'm not concerned about killing some of the surrounding plants in the process (they're mostly weeds, anyway), so anything would be helpful. Thanks! Adica
Annie Berthold-Bond has a homemade Poison Ivy Killer using salt and vinegar, but my husband says if you use salt, it will be a while before anything grows there again.\
My husband recommends trying steaming the plant and leaves with a steam cleaner. He's never tried this, but his logic says it would kill the plant (I myself am not sure it would kill the roots).
Readers, any experience with this to share?
ceiling panels
We have a dropped ceiling in our basement and are going to replace the acoustic ceiling panels with something more healthy. We're not sure what to use. The metal grid framework will accept panels about 2' x 3'.
Any recommendations?
Readers, any suggestions?
How do I remove glued-down tack strips under carpet?
HELP PLEASE?! I wish to remove the very old, dust laden carpets located in the front stairwell. I lifted up a corner and see that there are wooden tack strips that are glued down VERY VERY tightly. I tried to pry one up and it was absolutely impossible. I would greatly appreciate any tips on a safe product which I can use to remove these wooden strips that are holding the carpets down. (and any tips on how to remove these wooden tack strips safely?) The stairs are made of some type of 1950's/60's style - a type of stone, which appears as many mixed mottled colours(difficult to describe). Thank you!
Readers, any suggestions?
Choosing Kitchen Cabinets
A few days ago I received an email from the U.S. Green Building Council's Green Home Guide, a resource that answers your building questions with solutions from their network of experienced green building professionals--architects, designers, contractors, electricians, energy experts, landscapers, tile & stone specialists, and more. There are a lot of great ideas here, including product recommendations. They also have local directories of green building professionals for about a dozen major metropolitan areas.
One of the topics was choosing kitchen cabinets. Most of the article was very good. Some of it I didn't agree with. What I write below is pulled from this article as well as some of the links from this article.
Before I get in to the options for new cabinets, it is definately greener to reuse your existing cabinets if they are in good repair, and often less toxic too. My husband and I have been slowly remodeling our kitchen and chose to keep our old cabinets--for economic reasons as well as resource efficiency. I happen to prefer open shelving, so we just removed the old doors on the top cabinets (though you can get a whole new look for the kitchen simply by replacing cabinet doors, if you want to). We're repainting and adding new hardware, which is completely sufficient for the style and vintage of our 1940's suburban house.
I have also seen a lot of cabinets at architectural salvage yards.
If you want or need to buy new cabinets, here are some points about choosing them.
According to the article, the three pillars of sustainable design and construction are energy efficiency, resource efficiency and air quality.
For energy efficiency, choose a a local cabinet maker who is willing to construct cabinets to your specifications. When I lived in California, the cabinets were so old they were falling apart and we needed to install new ones. There happened to be a cabinet maker right in the little village where we lived and he did an excellent job making solid wood cabinets just the way we wanted them, and it cost less than buying new "cheap" cabinets at Home Depot.
You can also check on the energy efficiency of the manufacturing process. Look at a manufacturer's website for this information.
For resource efficiency, "select a green cabinet manufacturer that uses sustainably harvested wood products such as Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified woods (given your preference for USA made, consider wood species grown in North America such as eastern maple, american cherry, red alder, hickory, etc.)."
Other commonly used resource efficient cabinet materials recommended in the article include:
- veneers
- plywood products such as SkyPly (Roseburg Forest Products www.roseburg.com),
- medium density fiber board products such as Arreis (Sierra Pine www.sierrapine.com) and
- particle board products such as Encore (Sierra Pine www.sierrapine.com) that do not use added urea formaldehyde.
Another article on Green Home Guide notes these options for materials being used to make green cabinets:
- low- to zero-VOC panel products such as Medite II or the less expensive Roseburg Skyblend, a non-urea-formaldehyde particleboard made with 100 percent post-consumer recycled wood fiber
- FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified plywood such as ApplePly
- rapidly renewable agrifiber boards (such as wheatboard, made from the shaft of the wheat stalk, an agricultural waste product)
- reclaimed wood.
Other materials include PureBond, a wheatboard core with a variety of FSC veneers, and Plyboo, a very strong bamboo plywood.
And finally, use low Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) paints, stains, finishes, and glues.
There is now a certification program for green kitchen and bath cabinets. The Environmental Stewardship Program (ESP) certification from the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association (KCMA) certifies cabinets for
- using wood from sustainable forestry and selective harvesting programs
- using low formaldehyde emitting products
- recycling, conserving energy
- educating suppliers
- showing involvement in their community.
They have a list of about 140 certified cabinet manufacturers at ESP Certified Companies. Some companies exclusively produce green cabinets while others offer a single line of green cabinetry.
I would check these companies thoroughly, however, and not rely on this certification for nontoxic cabinets. "Low formaldehyde emitting" does not mean "no formaldehyde." For example, ESP certified manufacturers guarantee that at least 80% of the particleboard, medium density fiberboard, plywood and hardboard used in their cabinets meets the formaldehyde emission level of the California Air Resources Compwood ATCM and that it is third-party certified to meet low formaldehyde emission standards. Personally, it would need to be 100% for me.
I haven't checked all the cabinets on this list, but it is a place to start for possibilities. (Note that as of this writing there is an error in their database that results in many of the links not working. The problem is an extra "http://" at the beginning of some of the URLs, so if you get a broken link, just remove the extra "http://" from the beginnning of the URL and you'll get through.)
Green Home Guide recommends these green cabinet makers::
- Neil Kelly Cabinets – www.neilkelllycabinets.com
- Berkley Mills - www.berkeleymills.com
- Pacific Crest Industries, Inc. – www.pacificcrestindustries.com
- Columbia Cabinets - www.columbiacabinets.com
- Crystal Cabinet Works, Inc. – www.crystalcabinets.com
- Huntwood Industries – www.huntwood.com
- Henry Built – www.henrybuilt.com
Here is a list of all the "green cabinet" Q&A on Green Home Guide: greenhomeguide.com/askapro/tag/cabinets.
And here is one homeowners tips for Getting Great Green Results from a Cabinet Shop."
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The Toxicity of Polyurethane
I just happened to receive two questions this week about the toxicity of polyurethane, so I thought I would write a separate post on this chemical.
In the past, we mostly heard about polyurethane foam, which is used to make mattresses, seat cushions, and other such products. That is toxic.
Now, there are new products that have a thin polyurethane film fused to fabric to make it waterproof. As best as I can tell, this is made from a different type of polyurethane, probably the type that is used to produce FDA dry and wet food grade urethanes.
Here's the chemistry lesson.
Polyurethane (or "urethane" for short) is the name given to a class of petrochemical resins that contain isocyanates.
There are three different polyurethanes:
1. Toluene Diisocyante (TDI)
2. Diphenylmethane Diisocyanate (MDI)
3. Paraphenylene Diisocyanate (PPDI)
And they are made into chemicals that fall into eight major groups:
1. MDI-Esters: produce FDA dry and wet food grade urethanes. 2. TDI-Esters 3. MDI-Ethers: Some are adaptable to FDA and USDA application for wet and dry food contact. 4. TDI-Ethers 5. PPDI-Esters 6. MDI 7. TDI: used to make polyurethane foam for mattresses, cushions etc 8. PPDI
So when you read that something is made from "polyurethane" you need to also find out what type of polyurethane it is.
It's likely that the MDI food grade polyurethane is a lot less toxic than the TDI polyurethane foam. To research the health effects of every polyurethane is beyond the scope of this blog at the moment. But I've done enough research to see that the toxicity of one "polyurethane" is different than another. It's unfortunate that the same word is used to refer to a whole class of chemicals of varying toxicity.
Wood Finishes
I used to order"Right On" Crystal Aire, Pace Industries from Jim Nigra (as suggested in Nontoxic and Natural, 1984). I can no longer locate it. Is it still made? If not, what alternative is there?
I haven't heard of it in a while and can't find it on the Internet.
The wood finishes I currently recommend are at Debra's List: Interior Decorating: Wood Finishes.
Clarification About Organic Cotton vs. Non-Organic...Pesticide Residues?
Debra, A while back I was browsing your site looking for information on buying a new bed.
At that time, I thought you said that buying organic is good for the planet but made no difference at all in relation to people with MCS, since there were no pesticide residues left over in the fabrics once they were finished growing. But now I am reading that pesticide and fungicide residues are found in non-organic cloth.
I want an inner-spring bed and I have found an "all-natural" one, but its not made with organic cotton. It has nothing synthetic in it, and is made with cotton, wool and natural latex. Because there is wool in it, it is not required to have fire-retardant. I seem to do fine on it, when testing it out and its SO comfortable. I do not find the Shepherd's Dream beds to be comfortable...I need a little more cush because of joint pain.
I believe the company who makes the beds is called Berkeley Ergonomics, but they are being sold at a store in Santa Cruz called SC41. Here is a link to the beds: http://sc41.com/SC41ProductSheets_Mattress_Systems.pdf
Please clarify for me, whether I need to buy certified organic in order to heal from MCS. The price difference for organic is more than twice as much! Thank you so much!!!
I said that there are no pesticide residues in non-organic cotton fabric after it has finished processing, not growing. This is based on lab tests from Germany. You don't say where you read there are pesticide and fungicide residues in non-organic cotton, so I can't comment on what was said.
If you want to avoid pesticide residues, you must get organic batting on the inside of the mattress. Organic cotton is not necessary for the cover of the mattress.
flooring underlayment
My wife has MCS and has not been living inside for several months. We would like to upgrade our floors - remove carpet and particleboard - to make the house less toxic for her. We plan on hardybacker over 3/4 inch plywood and over 2" tongue and groove with tile on top with associated normal thinset compounds and grout for several rooms.
We would also like to put prefinished solid hardwood in the living room and hallway. For these floors, we will need to remove the particleboard. Need suggestions for subfloor materials to replace the particleboard over the 2" subfloor. We want to lay the hardwood the same direction as the 2" subfloor so a layer over the subfloor is needed. Plywood would be the normal option but we are concerned about the VOC's from the glues.
Any comments about material choices would be appreciated.
We have in the past laid plywood down as a subfloor and then laid other flooring over it and it was fine. But I don't want to assume that would be fine for your wife with MCS.
Readers, any suggestions?
How can I be safe while flying?
I am planning a trip in about 3 weeks and will be flying for the first time since developing MCS. (First flight for 7 years) It will be within the USA. I am very concerned about all the chemicals in the cabin of the airplane as well as the concentrated exhaust outside the airport and the smells inside the airport. Being near perfume or other fragrances makes me cough uncontrolably. Pesticides and cleaning products bother me in other ways.
I have read about using oxygen in flight, but how is that done? Does one use an oxygen mask or just the tube that goes to the nose? New plastic smell bothers me, so how can I avoid that with oxygen? Is there a brand of tubing or mask that is better about not smelling like plastic? Do I just need a prescription for oxygen, or a special kind of prescription?
Thank you for your help and please tell me how to protect myself.
Debbie in NM
There is already some information about this at Q&A: Toxics While Traveling, but it doesn't answer your questions about oxygen.
Readers, any experience or advice to share on this?
Best disposable diapers to use?
Hello Debra,
I normally use cotton cloth diapers and wool covers, but we are going to be taking some trips and the homes we are staying in are not too keen on me washing diapers in their washing machine. Is there any safe disposable options avaliable?
Here are Seventh Generations ingredient listing www.seventhgeneration.com/ingredients#ingredients-for-nid-156
Or gDiapers with the biodegradable inserts www.gdiapers.com/happy-planet/what-are-they-made-of They say the the snap in liners have a polyurethane coating, which I have read on your site that polyurethane is toxic, but they say that the way that they process it it is not toxic http://www.gdiapers.com/gdiapers101/faqs (It is toward the bottom, under "Earth and Baby".)
Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know your thoughts on these or if you of some better options.
Of these two options, the gdiaper is clearly much better, in my opinion.
The Seventh Generation disposable diaper is basically your ordinary disposable diaper, made with plastics that don't biodegrade. The absorbent wood fluff part is better than average because it is not bleached with chlorine, but otherwise, it's just a disposable diaper like all others.
The gDiaper is something completely different altogether. The whole concept of diaper has been completely redesigned. Instead of making the entire diaper disposable, the gDiaper has a reusable cover into which you insert either a reusable cloth diaper or a biodegradable disposable diaper. You can compost or flush this disposable diaper. This is brilliant.
As for the polyurethane liner, you are correct that polyurethane can be toxic. However, I just did some research on this for another question, and, without getting too technical, it seems there are several different types of polyurethane, including one that is nontoxic. It's unfortunate that toxic and nontoxic materials can go by the same name. In this case, polyurethane is fine to use. See Q&A: Toxicity of Polyurethane.
Readers, any other suggestions?
