February 04, 2013

VOC’s in the Home: How to Make Smart Choices to Protect the Ones You Love

Floors are the largest surface area in the home. Improve the health of your home by starting with the floors.

VOC’s in the Home: How to Make Smart Choices to Protect the Ones You Love

Many of us interpret a healthy lifestyle as eating right, keeping healthy habits and exercising. Yet we often neglect one of the biggest culprits of poor health – our home. 

Today’s average home contains more than 62 toxic chemicals. Home chemicals are 3-5 times more likely to cause cancer than other pollutants. Consider these facts from the Environmental Protection Agency:

• Consumers spend 90% of their time indoors, 65% of that time in the home
• Air indoors is three to seven times more polluted than outdoor air
• Dust, allergens and chemicals in the home significantly contribute to pollution

Healthy Homes Have Hardwood Floors
Floors are the largest surface area in the home and can trap harmful pollutants like dust and allergens drastically affecting the health of the home. Consider these tips to improve the health of your home starting with the floors: 

• The Mayo Clinic recommends replacing carpet with hard surfaces making it more difficult for allergens to penetrate and cling to the floor.

• Dust containment systems make replacing or refinishing hardwood floors clean and safe by reducing dust by 99.8 percent. (Traditional wood floor finishing methods can produce wood dust particle counts 200 times over the OSHA limit.)

• Look for third party certifiers, such as Design for Environment (DfE), LEEDs and GREENGUARD. These organizations test products for indoor air quality and safety providing consumers with tools to determine healthy products.

• Look for cleaning products that are biodegradable, non-toxic and emit low VOCs.

Keeping a home and floor healthy relies on the right flooring material and the right products for care and maintenance. Bona, the leader in hardwood floor care for more than 90 years, provides all the components for healthy floors. With cleaning solutions that are non-toxic, biodegradable and GREENGUARD certified along with products for dusting, polishing and refinishing, Bona is the industry go-to for floor care.  Bona’s complete floor care system addresses the four key steps to maintain a healthy floor.

Four Easy Steps To Healthy Floors For A Healthy Home
DAILY  Dust: Daily dust mopping will significantly reduce allergens in the home. More effective than traditional methods, a microfiber material uses static charge to attract more dust and allergens. These smaller fibers reach into floor pores to lift dirt more effectively.

WEEKLY Clean: There is a right way to clean floors. Too much liquid can damage floors, while the wrong formula may not work. Look for pH-neutral, non-toxic and biodegradable formulas to clean effectively and keep your home and environment safe. Use a washable microfiber pad which will remove bacteria and also keep waste out of landfills.

QUARTERLY Shine: Clean and healthy floors also deserve to look beautiful! Water-based polishes won’t leave residue or emit harmful toxins and will prevent “over cleaning” and stripping floors.

LONG TERM Protect: Refinishing floors every 5-8 years will significantly extend the life of your floors. Avoid highly flammable acid-cure finishes, which may contain formaldehyde, emit high VOCs and be harmful. If it’s time to sand and finish floors, opt for low VOC, waterborne finishes and dust containment sanding.