Home Safe Home

By Debra Lynn Dadd

ISBN: 9780874778595

Publisher: Tarcher

Summary of Home Safe Home

Responding to the increasing interest in the effects of chemicals in the myriad products used every day, nontoxic-living advocate Dadd offers a combined revised and expanded edition of two of her titles, published in the mid-1980s as Nontoxic & Natural (LJ 2/1/85) and The Nontoxic Home (LJ 11/1/86) and updated later as Nontoxic, Natural & Earthwise (Tarcher, 1990) and The Nontoxic Home & Office (Tarcher, 1992), respectively. This listing of toxic materials and how to avoid them uses the manufacturers' warnings and mostly resists sensationalism. Dadd's suggestions are reasonable and not too difficult to accomplish. Like Lynn Marie Bower in The Healthy Household (LJ 7/95), Dadd includes extensive resource lists, though Bower covers a wider range of products.

Fascinating, affordable, helpful tips on how to keep your home safe from toxics by an expert on home safety! Home Safe Home is the ultimate reference of its kind, written by the leading authority on eliminating toxics in the home. It offers more than four hundred tips, including do-it-yourself formulas for inexpensive, safe products to replace the harmful substances we are exposed to in our own households. If you suffer from unexplained headaches, fatigue, or depression, or if you worry about the link between increased use of toxic chemicals and the rising rate of cancer, the many suggestions in this book can make your life virtually toxic-free!

Review of Home Safe Home

Doing research as a graduate student in a semiconductor processing lab ("clean room") has left me with acute chemical sensitivities. I was exposed to many harsh chemicals and the effects of those chemicals was not taken seriously and there was no adequate ventilation in the lab (which I have learned is actually not according to regulation, which requires fume hoods, etc). After a few years of working with these chemicals, I slowly started to become allergic to items in my household, but never had any allergies previously. Clothes that I had worn for years with no problems were now making me break out in welts, sleeping on my bed was giving me a sore throat, etc. I began to notice that my allergies were related solely to man-made materials and after unsuccessful visits to the doctor I started to do my own research. I am still not allergic to dust and pollen, and of the nature's allergens (not even poison ivy as of now, to give you an idea of the type of allergies I was having).

After some research on the web, I came across Debra's website which led me to this book. Since I've gotten this book, I've followed some very simple steps, which to my own amazement have cured a lot of my symptoms. Getting rid of my 100% polyester clothing has relieved my rashes, turning off the pilot light and gas source to the gas heater has relieved my backaches (within hours!), buying organic wool blankets and pillows has relieved me of my sore throat. There is still much work to do to clear my house of all the "chemically laden clutter", but I am really happy with the immediate results I have seen. I am also feeling more uplifted and happier now. I'm sure the chemicals were also having neurological effects and causing a sore state of mind, depression, irritability etc.

Hence, from my experience, I highly recommend this book. It's a really good step-by-step guide to getting back to the basics while still retaining modern convenience. You don't have to live in a hut in the woods to have a safe and healthy home. It's written in a way that makes any topic easy to reference, like a dictionary. An excellent item to have in your home. I plan to buy several copies to give to friends and other scientists who were exposed to clean room chemicals.