Top 4 Toxins Hiding In Your Home

1. Radon

Radon is a radioactive gas that occurs naturally when the uranium in soil and rock breaks down. It is invisible, odorless, and tasteless. When radon is released in a home, it can accumulate to high levels. When radon gas is inhaled into the lungs, it decays into radioactive particles that can cause lung cancers.

All homes in Canada have radon gas in them. Concentrations differ greatly across the country but are usually higher in areas where there is a higher amount of uranium in underlying rock and soil. You can find a radon risk map from your local CDC (Center for Disease Control). For the lower mainland, BC where I live, the risk is low. However, you might also want to be aware of the marbles that may carry the radon gas with them. When I was doing environmental consulting, I came across a fancy home in West Vancouver where a high level of radon gas was detected. It turned out that the expensive marbles they imported contained a lot of radon gas.

If you want to know if there is a high level of radon gas at your home, especially in a high-risk area, you can hire an environmental health professional or order a radon test kit. Here is the link for a test kit (including lab fee) from AccuStar Canada.

2. Asbestos

Asbestos has been used to make products strong, long-lasting, and fire-resistant building materials.

Asbestos can cause asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma. The health outcomes are all latent, meaning it will take 10 years for those effects to show up. If this is the first time you hear about mesothelioma, I will say it is one of the most hideous and worst forms of cancer. The patients are in miserable pain.

Asbestos was heavily used in Canada until 1980. Starting in 1981, the government introduced a number of regulations and measures to reduce the use of asbestos. However, asbestos still finds its way into the homes built in the 90th.

The good news is that even though airborne asbestos fiber is dangerous, it is harmless if the building materials are intact. For your home, I would say do not disturb any of the building materials! Before doing any renovations or remodeling that would disturb building materials, please hire a professional to test for asbestos - it is also a law!

3. Formaldehyde

Formaldehyde is a colorless, strong-smelling, flammable chemical that is produced industrially and used in building materials such as particleboard, plywood, and other pressed-wood products. Formaldehyde is a sensitizing agent that can cause an immune system response upon initial exposure. It is also a cancer hazard. Acute exposure is highly irritating to the eyes, nose, and throat and can make anyone exposed cough and wheeze.

Depending on the manufacturing process, different wood products can have varying concentrations of formaldehyde in them. For countries and areas that are more environmental and health-conscious, such as California, there are stricter regulations on the concentration allowed. However, for most places, there aren’t any regulations or loose rules that don’t protect the general public population. Other than the origin, how they are installed and used at home affects the emission as well, for example, good ventilation can dilute the formaldehyde in the air so people will end up inhaling less; heating can accelerate the emission and cause more formaldehyde to be released in the air.

If you use a floor heating system, please don’t use processed wood products or make sure to choose something that has low formaldehyde levels. It can take a long time (sometimes years) for the stored formaldehyde to dissipate, so it is important to ventilate regularly if you do have wood, especially wood products at your home.

4. Mold

Mold is found both indoors and outdoors. Mold can enter your home through open doorways, windows, vents, and heating and air conditioning systems, or by attaching itself to clothing, shoes, and pets and be carried indoors. When mold spores drop on places where there is excessive moisture, such as where leakage may have occurred in roofs, pipes, walls, plant pots, or where there has been flooding, they will grow. Many building materials provide suitable nutrients that encourage mold to grow. Wet porous materials, including paper and paper products, cardboard, ceiling tiles, wood, and wood products, are particularly conducive for the growth of some molds. Other materials such as dust, paints, wallpaper, insulation materials, drywall, carpet, fabric, and upholstery, commonly support mold growth.

Mold contamination can usually be seen such as black staining or smelled such as musty smells.

For most people, exposure to mold doesn't cause any significant health effects. However, if a person has a weakened immune system, the health effects can be severe. Mold can cause allergic reactions, asthma, pneumonitis, infections of the upper airway, sinusitis, or other lung infections.

To remove indoor mold spores, the first step is to remove the contaminated materials; find out the moisture sources and fix the water intrusion problem. If mold is visually identified, you will need to remove the contaminated building materials. If you have a suspicion or smell something, you can also get air sampling done to see if there are abnormal levels of mold spores at your home which may indicate hidden mold growth.