Comments on: Question of the Week: How do you protect your children from environmental health hazards in and around your home?

By: Gary S

Gary S — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 19:50:50 +0000

With the advent of H1N1, the hysteria surrounding the disease has atleast created enough fear to get the kids at my school to wash their hands with alcohol based disinfectant at regular intervals. Apart from that, I do my part in getting my gaming friends in game and through my website to regularly clean and disinfect their keyboards. I once read an article that your keyboard is so much more dirty than the worst parts of your restroom.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:58:29 +0000

I agree whole heartily. Some basic precautions with in your home such as an air purification system can have a huge help to the wellness of your family. You can’t always control what is outside, but having a system to remove dirty air once it enters your home can have a huge impact as air tends to enter your home and stagnate. While you are in and out of the house all day, every night you have to sleep breathing what ever is in your home.

By: Rob Ashby

Rob Ashby — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:48:06 +0000

I believe the first line of defence is Indoor Air Quailty (IAQ) using a good whole house filter with an 800 clean air delivery rate or better AND the use of UVGI (UV) lights. Most people do not know how much mold, bacteria, virses, & germs that grow in your average heating / air conditioning system. UV has been around used in hospitals to sterlize since the 1800″s. checkout the EPA’s website on UV. You can kill 99+% of all mold, bacteria, virses, & germs without chemicals using UV.

By: Michael E. Bailey

Michael E. Bailey — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:46:29 +0000

I use soaps free of dyes, phosphates, and scents. I don’t use pesticides but there are a few garden spiders that weave webs around the plant I have on the patio deck and they catch most of the pests and the plant looks nice and healthy. And I buy food that says organically gown. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

By: Johnny R.

Johnny R. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:58:32 +0000

There is a citrus based alternative now on the market. When millions of people use chlorine based cleansers it accumulates in the waste disposal system and ends up in the environment.

By: Kanai Lal Hazra

Kanai Lal Hazra — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:24:32 +0000

Everyday our children do some routine activities. Though they are quite safe at house and school but the need of environmental hazrad awareness is essential to protect themselves and grow good habit. Identifying the potential hazard in and around neighbouring areas is the foremost importance and parent must involve their children in this activity. It should start from the condition of their tooth brush, playing with toys & pets, hang wet cloths to dry in sunlight, waste generated by the family members and disposal. Children should be taught that they must not through anything to neighbour’s fencing. They should be allowed to avail public vehicles as much as possible. They should be given opprotunity to act as they wish in the community development programme.

By: Jimmy McCurry

Jimmy McCurry — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:42:32 +0000

Giorgio,
Do I hear a hint of sarcasm in your voice. You really don’t think “Big Brother” is overstepping his constitutional bounds do you?

By: Jimmy McCurry

Jimmy McCurry — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:37:18 +0000

P.S. Bacteria hate Chlorine. Your municipal water supply has to have a chlorine residual to make sure that your water is disinfected and safe to drink. This residual also helps kill bacteria when you are using hot water to clean! Don’t worry though, it usually is less than 1 part per million and does not pose any health hazards to you or your children.

By: Jimmy McCurry

Jimmy McCurry — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:32:27 +0000

I think you are very smart. You cannot beat plain old soap and hot water for cleaning. My daughter did an experiment in our little rural school. They took samples of germs off of hands that had not been washed, then hands that had been washed with soap and water, then they had one person to use the anti-germicidal lotion that is available in most hospitals on his hands. Each of these cultures were grown and guess which one was more sterile? The soap and hot water. I guess our grandparents and their lye soap knew what they were talking about when it came to cleaning our hands.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:44:25 +0000

We stopped using a lot of products like pesticides and cleaners. All medications are in the back bathroom away from reach. Of course you attempt to explain, according to the age of the child, the dangers of certain actions by illustrating possible outcomes, but not scare them, instead help them see the danger to themselves. And, because my grand-daughter has a mild case of emphysema (due to second hand smoke in her environment before and after birth) we are VERY careful to keep our environment as clean as possible else it exacerbates her symptoms.