The environment affects human health, often in more ways than you might think. Your home environment is no exception. The air you breathe, water you drink, things you touch, and types of chemicals in your home affect your health.
You can take action to improve the health of your home by learning to:
- Spot hazardous household products.
- Store hazardous household products properly.
- Clean your home with safer chemicals.
- Shop for safer products.
Common toxic household products
Many common products you have at home can contain hazardous chemicals. Look for warning labels like Danger, Warning, Poison, Caution.
Be sure to:
- Store these products in bins, trays, or other storage options.
- Keep these products out of reach of pets and children.
- Keep the labels on so everyone knows what the product is.
- Always dispose of hazardous household products correctly.
NEVER dump hazardous products down the drain, sink, toilet, or trash!
Unlabeled toxic products at home
There are products in most of our homes that contain toxic chemicals that come with no labels. Why? Because they are unregulated (i.e. there is no oversight to their use).
Adopt safer cleaning practices at home
Shop for safer products
Part of improving the health of your home involves choosing products that are less-toxic to start with. Here are our recommendations for how to find products that are effective at what they do, but contain less toxic chemicals.
Look for EPA's Safer Choice and DfE labels
If you see the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Safer Choice program label or the Design for the Environment (DfE) label on products, this is because the product is certified to:
- Contain the safest ingredients.
- Be just as effective as similar, more toxic products.