Share your tips for a 'non-toxic' house

[Lullabybutterfly]

I feel as though there is an awful lot of information out there about things that are probably quite bad for us (forever chemicals, phthalates, BPA etc etc) but trying to find 'healthier' alternatives on a budget is a minefield. I recently spent several days wading through lists of mattresses that don't contain chemical flame retardants (mostly costing thousands of pounds) before almost accidentally discovering that Silentnight do them at normal prices. I'm now researching the formaldehyde emissions of laminate flooring to try and find the lowest one, and trying to decide if that is better or worse than carpet for VOCs...

I'm fully aware that I'm a bit obsessive and most people probably don't give a second thought to this stuff, but if anyone else is like me and has wasted hours down these rabbit holes, maybe we could share some tips and save each other some time?

Please, please, please anyone who is able, take the time to respond to this consultation, if nothing else they are proposing to improve product labelling to include whether a product includes chemical flame retardants and which ones they are. As anyone who has tried to find FR free products, it is an absolute minefield, take shours of contacting companies directly and much back and forth with CS depts who often don't even have access to the information at all. Including labelling will allow for consumer choice over whether you want to buy products with FRs, will increase consumer awareness of FRs, and perhaps even more importantly, because specific FRs will be listed, if they are later confirmed to be harmful, you will be able to identify which products in your home they are on, and be able to make the choice to dispose of them if you want to. At the moment, you have no idea which of your older furniture includes brominated FRs for example.

The chemical industry lobbies on this are a very powerful and strong voice. If the government don't think we care, they could roll back on some of these suggested changes.

Posting the link again below for convenience:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/smarter-regulation-fire-safety-of-domestic-upholstered-furniture

@melinab @FlameIngSofa @jennymor123 @MattRess If any of you are able (aware you may be all one person :-)) would welcome your views, concerns, positive comments before I reply tomorrow. Thank you.

Yes, mattresses are easier but still much more expensive than other furniture. the other furniture is 5x more expensive for worse esthetics. Baby products are excluded in the newly proposed requirements. I am not sure if they were excluded in the 1988 ones. The reasoning is that babies are more sensitive to the chemicals used - but babies live in the same houses as us and the these flame retardants are in the household dust which they also breathe, in the mattress that their mom sleeps on, in the couch on which they climb.

@melinab Yes absolutely. I believe certain baby products were caught by the 1988 regs as they were deemed furniture of some kind. The Environmental Audit Committee report Iinked to certainly recommended leaving them out of the regs so assume they were caught.

One issue with the new proposals is that some manufacturers seem to use chemical FRs on products where they don't have to currently. I think it's important that all products containing FRs are clearly labelled whether or not that product is caught by the regs.

Yes @NoMoreFuckingAbout , I liked the fact that the manufacturer had to prove they had considered or tried other methods than chemical FR to avoid using chemical FR. I don't think that requirement has much teeth because they can claim it is more expensive to use other methods but it would prevent frivolous use if it is happening still.

Has anyone mentiond 'Greenfibres' yet?
Not cheap but long-established, a wide range and good quality.
https://www.greenfibres.com/

Get an air quality monitor and open a window.

Everything we do affects air quality in the house. Cooking, cleaning, DIY, hoovering, spraying deodorant, hairspray, dusting etc.

I roasted a chicken on Sunday and that made the air quality monitor max out at 500 AQI. Thats a reading 5 times higher than when we use the log burner!

10 minutes after opening a window in the kitchen, the AQI was back below 40.

I concur. I have Greenfibres pillows, mattress protectors and a duvet. All excellent quality but like all this stuff not cheap.

Sadly missed the consultation deadline, but reading this thread (again) with interest.
@NoMoreFuckingAbout yes please share your research on baby stuff, I need to buy a new car seat & cot soon and just recently started paying attention to these things. Thanks

@NoMoreFuckingAbout Would you mind sharing your research?

@BlessedKingfisher How did you get on?

@roombaclean I haven’t bought the car seat yet. For the cot mattress I went for Little Green Sheep and I’m happy with it, though it was quite expensive. The cot is a second hand solid wood one and again, very happy with it. Hope that helps!

My mattress is 24 years old. Probably hasn’t got anything left to emit!
perhaps making do with older stuff is better than buying new stuff sprayed in shite.