I recently foud out that plastic contacting with food leaching a ton of chemicals (not only endocrine disruptors) in food. So we changed all things contacting with food to stainless steel and glass... Pans, teapots, containers etc. Also we changed all detergents, other washing chemicals and cosmetics to less harmful and with fully disclosed ingredients list. And I feel noticeably better now (we started this all about 3-4 months ago). I know you can't avoid everything but you should lower your exposure to known harmful things.
Absolutely! I've done the same thing and it makes a dramatic difference in my health. I also use a glass steaming basket instead of metal because those metal steaming baskets seem iffy to me (heavy metal leeching?). Using products without added fragrance has also been huge for me.
Few thoughts about "plastic dust" - floors are usually made of plastic (laminate or other pvc stuff) and during normal wear and tear they produce a lot of particles. Same for furniture as you said in video. Also fabrics made of plastics are leaching micro particles everywhere. And I'm not sure how safe "natural" floors made of hard wood because they are covered in some sort of paint/polymers.
This is a great comment. My thoughts exactly. I don't feel that there's any 100% safe option in that category unfortunately. Underscores the importance of regular and proper cleaning.
Basically need to live in a wooden cabin, all wooden and glass furniture, with natural fiber cloths and clothes, with almost no modern appliances or products, and sourcing food from trusted places. It’s all very hard (if not practically impossible) to go back too if you have only known our polluted but convenient modern world. 😢
I've thought this might be the case - depressing to see my theory was correct. The vast majority of clothing/fabric in our homes is polyester - which is plastic. Cotton seems rarer and rarer now. Dust is typically human skin cells, but it is also from tiny fibers shed from fabrics. A good example is when you empty your dryer lint trap - the color of the lint will even match the largest clothing article's color. What would be interesting is if you managed to switch over all of your household fabrics to cotton, if it would solve this issue? If not solve it, at least drastically help?
Thanks for this interesting comment! I'll probably do a deep dive into plastics at some point. I don't think that switching household fabrics to cotton would solve this issue, no. As I mentioned in the video, the compounds that make our dust hormonally active can come from a wide variety of consumer products, building materials, and furniture.
Interesting video. I once talked with the director of facilities of a large school corp. He told me that by Wednesday of the class week, a number of children could not function well within the classroom environment and did not return to class until the following week. The district already had CO2 monitoring in every classroom. But after collecting millions of data values I could find no relationship between CO2 and causation for children who become uncomfortable with classroom conditions. In part that's because high CO2 levels, which occur everyday between 11:30 and 14:30 in every classroom (in the U.S.), is not a pseudo measure of room air quality. (CO2, as a measure of room environmental conditions, is bogus as admitted by ASHRAE. Their recommendation of 1000 ppm is based solely on minimizing body odor.) Indeed the real problem is more likely to be dust - as this study points out. Your point about dust fits the need for an effective room filter, as described in your previous video.
Thank you for this thoughtful comment. Air filtration is definitely key. Proper cleaning techniques are also invaluable. I'm coming out with a pretty unique video about microfiber cleaning within the next month or so.
@@HealthyHomeGuide So I have been thinking of some places these flame retardent dust particles can come from in a house and would like your opinion. I was thinking of the walls (sheet rock/dry wall), synthetic furniture, carpets. And the possible solutions for that is making sure the drywall is painted well and the edges are sealed away with base molding and caulk, Furniture can be looked at by purchasing/making cotton fabric furniture with natural stuffing. And carpets can be removed. Would that be a reasonable way to limit these FR dust particles? Or is this thinking on the wrong path? Any additional sources you can think of?
I like your thinking! Those are all great strategies. Of course, buying furniture that doesn't have added flame retardants is a good idea. If you have an IKEA near you, that's an example of a company that doesn't add flame retardants to their furniture.
Good advice. We live in a very old home and use a HEPA vac and microfiber cloths on everything to control the dust. But speaking of healthy buildings, I would love to get your take on what to do about air quality in a college dorm. My daughter is headed to university in the fall. It has dozens of dorms and apartments, both old and new. But the online parent groups all say the same thing no matter which residence hall: Bring an air purifier. They mainly say to do it to relieve the musty odor of living in close quarters with hundreds of other kids whose hygiene is not always the best. But some also think their kids were exposed to more germs that made them sick. My wife bought one of the ones they recommended from Amazon. We tested it in our teenage son's room. It does seem to reduce the "funky odor." But it would be nice to know for certain that whatever purifier we send with our daughter is actually going to do something helpful.
Thanks very much! You're smart to clean your home in those ways. In the case of college dorms, yes, using an air purifier is hugely helpful. If you haven't seen it, my video called "Most HEPA air purifiers are a scam" is a good guide on them. I would also recommend that your daughter should crack her window a couple inches whenever it isn't too rainy or humid outside. Dilution with fresh air is key especially when sharing a living space with many other people.
@@HealthyHomeGuide Thank you. She managed get into one of the newer dorms. So, she should be able to open the windows. I wasn't so lucky. The windows in my old dorm were painted shut. :-)
Hi! May you propose a protocol of cleaning / maintaining healthy indoor air quality (like mopping the floor before of after vaccuming etc) ? Thank you very much
To expand on my question bit, relating to a expensiveness of a hepa vacuum will be more effective, which brand should i trust according to its product. If it performs at a higher quality, similarly, to a inexpensive brand of a hepa vacuum?
Hepa vacuums are needful for removing dust, through uncertainty, of pricing from low hundreds to $400; comparison between price to quality. Which vacuum will give me a result of removing more dust, however, at a lower cost?
Hey man, looking into building your 16x30x1 fan filter setup but the only filters available in Canada are 16x25x1. Wondering how that would change airflow and volume? Thanks
Hey, one last thing. I've sourced all the materials and followed your advice on going with 3M merv 13. Can you really get a year of reliable life out of these things? Even dealing with fire season every year? For reference, I plan on running the ac infinity fans at roughly 5/10(roughly 500cfm) most of the time. Thanks again and love your vids!@@HealthyHomeGuide
@@dylanjones7798 It basically depends on how polluted your home’s air is. Changing the filters every 6 months is probably best, but you can stretch it a few months longer if you’re on a tight budget and you've had no wildfire events. A year would probably be the maximum I’d recommend going. If wildfire smoke is very bad where you live, you’d probably want to change the filters even more frequently than every 6 months.
Hepa Sealed Robot Vacuums might be a good idea too. I run mine every day and it works great as one measure keeping my floors cleaner. It would be interesting to see in which rhythm you should clean your floor manually with regular vacuums and water in a framework with such treatment. Also it would be great if you could explain if dusting with a swifter or similar products is superior to dusting with hepa sealed vacuums.
Can’t wait for next video. Using certain UV lights you can see the dust that clings to your walls. I recently started vacuuming my walls since microfiber pads were leaving particles the painted drywall. Vacuuming was much more effective, but I’m not sure it’s due to the suction or the brush head on the vacuum. Very early stages right now. I can’t mop the walls due to the low quality paint running if it gets wet.
The idea of using a UV light to see dust is very interesting to me. Which UV light do you use? Cheaper microfiber pads can definitely leave a small amount of lint behind. Especially if used dry.
@@HealthyHomeGuide The exact one I use isn't around anymore. *They can be a bit dangerous* since they can lead to *eye damage* if looked at long enough. My eyes definitely hurt after using it for 2 hours strait. The model was the "JAXMAN MINI 365nm UV flashlight". So if you use it, *you should consider using eye protection.* I recommend the *Eagle Pair 190-540nm 900-1700nm Blue Green IR YAG Laser Safety Glasses* Other *365nm UV flashlights* are available. Some normal consumer UV lights won't work for it, due to them having a different wavelength than is needed to see the dust, so be sure 365nm is listed in the description. Also be sure it's over $50, otherwise it is likely fake or leaking other wavelengths of light which can also be dangerous. Some don't have a long of a range as others but you normally have to be within 2 feet if the place you light up regardless. Wood is also a little tricky if you shine down on it. The trick is to shine the light horizontal with the flat surface and you will see the dust."
Some recent vacuums from Shark use these lights on their vacuum heads to help you find dust. So there already is some work being done to implement uv into consumer products.
@@MemeScreen Awesome, thanks for the info! I really like the idea of a vacuum that can illuminate surfaces as it cleans. I also have always wanted a vacuum that can somehow tell me which part of the surface I’ve cleaned and which I haven’t clean yet. Like a screen or something.
I recently foud out that plastic contacting with food leaching a ton of chemicals (not only endocrine disruptors) in food. So we changed all things contacting with food to stainless steel and glass... Pans, teapots, containers etc. Also we changed all detergents, other washing chemicals and cosmetics to less harmful and with fully disclosed ingredients list. And I feel noticeably better now (we started this all about 3-4 months ago). I know you can't avoid everything but you should lower your exposure to known harmful things.
Absolutely! I've done the same thing and it makes a dramatic difference in my health. I also use a glass steaming basket instead of metal because those metal steaming baskets seem iffy to me (heavy metal leeching?). Using products without added fragrance has also been huge for me.
Joe Rogan episode with Dr. Shana swan talks about the plastics problem number #1638 if anyone who reads this is interested
Sometimes when the sun hits the air in my room I actually see the particles in the air it’s horrifying 😅
I hate that too haha
Few thoughts about "plastic dust" - floors are usually made of plastic (laminate or other pvc stuff) and during normal wear and tear they produce a lot of particles. Same for furniture as you said in video. Also fabrics made of plastics are leaching micro particles everywhere. And I'm not sure how safe "natural" floors made of hard wood because they are covered in some sort of paint/polymers.
This is a great comment. My thoughts exactly. I don't feel that there's any 100% safe option in that category unfortunately. Underscores the importance of regular and proper cleaning.
Basically need to live in a wooden cabin, all wooden and glass furniture, with natural fiber cloths and clothes, with almost no modern appliances or products, and sourcing food from trusted places. It’s all very hard (if not practically impossible) to go back too if you have only known our polluted but convenient modern world. 😢
I've thought this might be the case - depressing to see my theory was correct. The vast majority of clothing/fabric in our homes is polyester - which is plastic. Cotton seems rarer and rarer now. Dust is typically human skin cells, but it is also from tiny fibers shed from fabrics. A good example is when you empty your dryer lint trap - the color of the lint will even match the largest clothing article's color. What would be interesting is if you managed to switch over all of your household fabrics to cotton, if it would solve this issue? If not solve it, at least drastically help?
Thanks for this interesting comment! I'll probably do a deep dive into plastics at some point. I don't think that switching household fabrics to cotton would solve this issue, no. As I mentioned in the video, the compounds that make our dust hormonally active can come from a wide variety of consumer products, building materials, and furniture.
Interesting video. I once talked with the director of facilities of a large school corp. He told me that by Wednesday of the class week, a number of children could not function well within the classroom environment and did not return to class until the following week. The district already had CO2 monitoring in every classroom. But after collecting millions of data values I could find no relationship between CO2 and causation for children who become uncomfortable with classroom conditions. In part that's because high CO2 levels, which occur everyday between 11:30 and 14:30 in every classroom (in the U.S.), is not a pseudo measure of room air quality. (CO2, as a measure of room environmental conditions, is bogus as admitted by ASHRAE. Their recommendation of 1000 ppm is based solely on minimizing body odor.) Indeed the real problem is more likely to be dust - as this study points out. Your point about dust fits the need for an effective room filter, as described in your previous video.
Thank you for this thoughtful comment. Air filtration is definitely key. Proper cleaning techniques are also invaluable. I'm coming out with a pretty unique video about microfiber cleaning within the next month or so.
I thoroughly enjoy the videos you make on this channel. Please keep them up and for sharing useful tips! Thank you for all you do!
Aw, that comment made me happy, thank you!
@@HealthyHomeGuide So I have been thinking of some places these flame retardent dust particles can come from in a house and would like your opinion. I was thinking of the walls (sheet rock/dry wall), synthetic furniture, carpets. And the possible solutions for that is making sure the drywall is painted well and the edges are sealed away with base molding and caulk, Furniture can be looked at by purchasing/making cotton fabric furniture with natural stuffing. And carpets can be removed.
Would that be a reasonable way to limit these FR dust particles? Or is this thinking on the wrong path? Any additional sources you can think of?
I like your thinking! Those are all great strategies. Of course, buying furniture that doesn't have added flame retardants is a good idea. If you have an IKEA near you, that's an example of a company that doesn't add flame retardants to their furniture.
Good advice. We live in a very old home and use a HEPA vac and microfiber cloths on everything to control the dust. But speaking of healthy buildings, I would love to get your take on what to do about air quality in a college dorm. My daughter is headed to university in the fall. It has dozens of dorms and apartments, both old and new. But the online parent groups all say the same thing no matter which residence hall: Bring an air purifier. They mainly say to do it to relieve the musty odor of living in close quarters with hundreds of other kids whose hygiene is not always the best. But some also think their kids were exposed to more germs that made them sick. My wife bought one of the ones they recommended from Amazon. We tested it in our teenage son's room. It does seem to reduce the "funky odor." But it would be nice to know for certain that whatever purifier we send with our daughter is actually going to do something helpful.
Thanks very much! You're smart to clean your home in those ways. In the case of college dorms, yes, using an air purifier is hugely helpful. If you haven't seen it, my video called "Most HEPA air purifiers are a scam" is a good guide on them. I would also recommend that your daughter should crack her window a couple inches whenever it isn't too rainy or humid outside. Dilution with fresh air is key especially when sharing a living space with many other people.
@@HealthyHomeGuide Thank you. She managed get into one of the newer dorms. So, she should be able to open the windows. I wasn't so lucky. The windows in my old dorm were painted shut. :-)
You're welcome! A window painted shut...I had the same problem in my college dorm 15 years ago!
Hi! May you propose a protocol of cleaning / maintaining healthy indoor air quality (like mopping the floor before of after vaccuming etc) ? Thank you very much
My next video will be about that. Stay tuned.
To paraphrase, is it possible to buy a hepa vacuum that is affordable ($100), however, with high-quality performance in dust removal.
To expand on my question bit, relating to a expensiveness of a hepa vacuum will be more effective, which brand should i trust according to its product. If it performs at a higher quality, similarly, to a inexpensive brand of a hepa vacuum?
Hepa vacuums are needful for removing dust, through uncertainty, of pricing from low hundreds to $400; comparison between price to quality. Which vacuum will give me a result of removing more dust, however, at a lower cost?
Hey man, looking into building your 16x30x1 fan filter setup but the only filters available in Canada are 16x25x1. Wondering how that would change airflow and volume? Thanks
16x25 would work great! I actually use that size these days. Easier to manage when changing filters. 16x20 works as well.
Excellent! Thank you!
Hey, one last thing. I've sourced all the materials and followed your advice on going with 3M merv 13. Can you really get a year of reliable life out of these things? Even dealing with fire season every year?
For reference, I plan on running the ac infinity fans at roughly 5/10(roughly 500cfm) most of the time. Thanks again and love your vids!@@HealthyHomeGuide
@@dylanjones7798 It basically depends on how polluted your home’s air is. Changing the filters every 6 months is probably best, but you can stretch it a few months longer if you’re on a tight budget and you've had no wildfire events. A year would probably be the maximum I’d recommend going. If wildfire smoke is very bad where you live, you’d probably want to change the filters even more frequently than every 6 months.
@@HealthyHomeGuide When you say, "changing filters" you mean replacing the entire unit other than the fan - right?
Hepa Sealed Robot Vacuums might be a good idea too. I run mine every day and it works great as one measure keeping my floors cleaner. It would be interesting to see in which rhythm you should clean your floor manually with regular vacuums and water in a framework with such treatment. Also it would be great if you could explain if dusting with a swifter or similar products is superior to dusting with hepa sealed vacuums.
You're in luck! I'm currently working on a video about that exact question. I also have another video on HEPA vacs in general.
@@HealthyHomeGuideis this up yet? Also wondering if your thoughts on how important it is that HEPA vacs be bagged for the environmentally sensitive…
Can’t wait for next video. Using certain UV lights you can see the dust that clings to your walls. I recently started vacuuming my walls since microfiber pads were leaving particles the painted drywall. Vacuuming was much more effective, but I’m not sure it’s due to the suction or the brush head on the vacuum. Very early stages right now. I can’t mop the walls due to the low quality paint running if it gets wet.
The idea of using a UV light to see dust is very interesting to me. Which UV light do you use?
Cheaper microfiber pads can definitely leave a small amount of lint behind. Especially if used dry.
@@HealthyHomeGuide The exact one I use isn't around anymore. *They can be a bit dangerous* since they can lead to *eye damage* if looked at long enough. My eyes definitely hurt after using it for 2 hours strait. The model was the "JAXMAN MINI 365nm UV flashlight". So if you use it, *you should consider using eye protection.* I recommend the *Eagle Pair 190-540nm 900-1700nm Blue Green IR YAG Laser Safety Glasses*
Other *365nm UV flashlights* are available. Some normal consumer UV lights won't work for it, due to them having a different wavelength than is needed to see the dust, so be sure 365nm is listed in the description. Also be sure it's over $50, otherwise it is likely fake or leaking other wavelengths of light which can also be dangerous.
Some don't have a long of a range as others but you normally have to be within 2 feet if the place you light up regardless. Wood is also a little tricky if you shine down on it. The trick is to shine the light horizontal with the flat surface and you will see the dust."
Some recent vacuums from Shark use these lights on their vacuum heads to help you find dust. So there already is some work being done to implement uv into consumer products.
But if you wan't a recommendation anything from uvBeast with the 365nm should work fine
@@MemeScreen Awesome, thanks for the info! I really like the idea of a vacuum that can illuminate surfaces as it cleans. I also have always wanted a vacuum that can somehow tell me which part of the surface I’ve cleaned and which I haven’t clean yet. Like a screen or something.
Medieval peasants watching this while inhaling 2kg of house dust per night. :
bahahaha. the only difference is that their dust probably wasn't hormonally active.
So mr handsome... why did you forget to mention AIR PURIFIERS?
I would assume this without having to read a study because it’s coming from microplastics