Eco-friendly kitchen. Photo courtesy of southernliving.com.
Everyone takes pride in having a spotless modern kitchen, but sometimes that new cookware and all those harsh chemical cleaners can make you as sick as that bacteria that your trying to avoid.
While a kitchen can hide a lot of dangerous chemicals, there are many simple and relatively inexpensive things that everyone can do to minimize their risk of exposure and health problems.
Solutions For Detoxing Your Kitchen
Cookware
Non-stick teflon-coated cookware contain perfluorochemicals (PFCs) which make them resistant to oil, stains, grease, and water, but they also pose a health hazard if scraped off and eaten.
The Minnesota Department of Health found that in laboratory animal, high concentrations of PFCs caused damage to the liver and other organs. Developmental problems also have been seen in the offspring of rats and mice that were exposed to PFCs while pregnant. Safer non-stick alternatives to teflon cookware are stainless-steel and cast-iron.
Plastic Food Storage Containers
It’s a common practice today to store everything from leftovers to grains to flour to sugar, and whatever else you can think of in plastic containers. This isn’t in itself a bad thing, you just need to be careful of the quality of the containers that you store your thing in because the plastics may leach into your foods.
In particular, avoid any containers that include polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic type number three (a known carcinogen), and bisphenol A (BPA) plastic type number seven, an endocrine disruptor, which can mimic the body’s own hormones. The use of BPA has been banned in Canada and the European Union because of concerns about neurological effects on fetuses, infants, and young children.
Another great alternative is to buy eco-friendly biodegradable plastic containers. It will take some looking to find quality products that you will like and be healthy for your family, but well worth the effort.
Gas Stove Burners
If you have a gas stove, the burner flames should be blue if the stove is burning natural gas. If you have a propane stove, the flame should be blue, with possibly a small yellow tip. If the flame is almost completely yellow, that’s a dangerous sign of too much carbon monoxide and you need to call for service!
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the most common symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. High levels of carbon monoxide inhalation can cause loss of consciousness and death. Carbon monoxide is an odorless gas, so it’s also essential to have carbon monoxide detectors throughout the home. Today, there are also combination smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Exhaust Fans
It’s also very important when cooking, especially when using a gas stove, to use your kitchen exhaust fan to remove the fumes (whether from emissions from the cookware or the stove) from the home.
It’s also a must to keep the filter of the exhaust fan clean, so the fumes can escape. If possible, remove the filter from the fan, put it in the sink, and give it a soapy wash.
Drinking Water
Earlier this year, GreenVitals reported findings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the country’s water supply contains a number of cancer causing chemicals that are still unregulated.
The best idea is either to buy a filtration system that you can attach to your sink or a filtering water pitcher. This is far more advisable than buying bottled water, which may be no cleaner than the tap and your creating plastic waste for the landfills at the same time.
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