Moms Alive!

Debra Lynn Dadd has been proclaimed by The New York Times to be “the queen of green,” but she wasn’t always so environmentally aware. It wasn’t until Dadd, a trained classical musician, was diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivities in the late 1970s that she began cleaning house. After removing the toxic chemicals from her home found in everyday products such as cleaning supplies and pesticides, her symptoms—including depression, fainting and headaches—disappeared and she regained her health. It was a process that took seven years.

During her recovery, Dadd conducted extensive research to uncover indoor contaminants and identify safe, effective replacements. The results of her efforts can be found in her book, “Home Safe Home,” which she wrote to help other people wanting to eliminate toxins in the home for health or environmental reasons.

I feel that as in-treatment or post-treatment cancer survivors, we can use all the help we can get in reducing the toxic burden on our bodies, and I was delighted when Debra agreed to speak with me about how we can clean up our own indoor environments to create healthier homes for our families and ourselves.

I’ve included links to further reading where I’ve felt it would be helpful or appropriate, and many more details about toxins and their alternatives can be found on Dadd’s Web site.

KMA: When we think about pollution, often we think about outdoor contaminants as the primary culprits, but you say that the EPA considers indoor air pollution to be the nation’s number one environmental health problem. Are most people surprised to learn this?

DLD: Yes. We do think of pollutants as being outdoor pollutants. When I first started writing, however, the EPA had not yet identified that, and there was no such terminology as “indoor air pollution” at all. It just didn’t exist.

KMA: I think there are some general assumptions that we often make as consumers about the safety of the products that we purchase, but you point out that our laws do not require that all toxic substances even be listed on products. Would you say that this sort of non-disclosure is widespread?

DLD: Yes, and also labeling laws are different. Particleboard, if you buy it in a sheet, is supposed to have a warning label on it [regarding the formaldehyde content], but as soon it is cut up and you make a piece of furniture out of it, the furniture doesn’t require the warning label. So the labeling laws are not the same across the board.

Some of the most toxic products are cleaning products and pesticides. Pesticides are required by law to list certain ingredients, such as the active ingredients, but cleaning products are not required by law to list the ingredients that are most toxic. They are only required to have labels like “harmful if ingested” or other such warnings, but they are not required to list ingredients. You often cannot even find out what the toxic chemicals are in some cleaning products. They do have some of them on the [material safety data sheets], but not all of them are listed.

KMA: Because they are proprietary trade secrets?

DLD: Yes. Nowadays, though, we are fortunate because there are a lot of natural cleaning products, and we can just use those instead. But back in 1978, when I was diagnosed, that wasn’t the case.

KMA: You probably did a lot of trial and error, trying to find things that worked for you.

DLD: Well, mostly I just cleaned with baking soda, vinegar and Bon Ami, which at the time was the only nontoxic cleaning product. And Dr. Bronner’s. And that was it. That was all that was available then.

KMA: But even those few products could go so far.

DLD: They do. And I still clean with them. I’m accustomed to doing my cleaning that way. And even though there are a lot of good cleaning products on the market now, I still do it the old way. It’s easy, simple and cheap.

KMA: I think that many tune out when they hear overwhelming information about toxic exposure. It can be easy to think, “What’s the use?” But do you think that even making a few changes—not drastic overhauls, necessarily—can have a big effect on health?

DLD: I think that it can. I recommend for most people, unless they were like I was, that they make the changes one by one. You could open my book at random to say, shampoo, and the next time you buy shampoo, you could buy one that is less toxic. So you’re gradually making the shift.

The first type of toxic chemical [reaction] is acute. If you were to drink drain cleaner, for example, it would burn up your body or skin and you would die. So that’s an immediate effect. Those are the ones that you want to eliminate first. Then there are the chronic chemicals, which you are exposed to day in and day out, and then after years, you may have a health effect. Smoking is an example. So it’s important to start with the things that will give you an acute effect first because these are the things that kids drink and die. I’d say, with cleaning products, unless you are buying your cleaning products at a natural food store, you should just remove the cleaning products all at once. In a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon you could replace all your cleaning products. By reading a chapter in my book, you could figure out where you could use baking soda and where you could use vinegar. You could go down to the natural food store and buy some less-toxic cleaning products, and that’s it. You’ve done it. That would save so many children from accidental poisoning. If everyone in America did that, it would make such a huge difference.

But then to change your bed, to make it a nontoxic bed, you would have to change everything from your sheets down to the mattress, and that’s a couple thousand dollars. Most people are not going to do that. But there’s no reason why anybody couldn’t go down to a store and buy untreated cotton sheets—especially if it’s January and you could get them at a whites sale—and for less than $50, you could get rid of that whole layer of formaldehyde that is used on permanent press, polyester/cotton bed sheets. A lot of people do take this gradual approach, where they’ll change the sheets, and then after a couple of years, they’ll buy that $1,000 [natural fiber] mattress. So it’s just a matter of becoming aware of where the toxic chemicals are and systematically removing and replacing them.

KMA: In your consulting practice, do you have people come to you who either have or have had cancer?

DLD: More people call me who are chemically sensitive. But I actually was invited to speak at a conference in Ottawa in May about chemical exposures in the home that can cause cancer. Since my mother and both grandmothers died of cancer, I really have cancer awareness. But I do think that because so many cancers are environmentally related, if someone is needing to recover from cancer, then the number one thing I would do is to remove the toxic chemicals from their environment. Toxic chemicals are very damaging to the immune system, and if you need your immune system in order to recover your health, having toxic chemicals around is not going to be helpful.

KMA: Are there specific things that you would advise for people who are concerned about carcinogens to avoid and where they should start?

DLD: I’ve just been reading a book called “Avoiding Cancer One Day at a Time,” by Lynne Eldridge, M.D. The subtitle is “Practical Advice for Preventing Cancer.” She details every single thing that is a carcinogen—everything from radiation from the sun to toxic chemicals. She also talks about what percentage of cancers are related to these different types of exposures. She doesn’t give a lot of detail about what to do instead of these things, but the purpose of the book is to show you the many different factors that contribute to cancer so you can find out more information. If someone is concerned about cancer, this is the best book I’ve seen that outlines all these different things in an easy-to-read way. Then I would recommend my book to see what are all the positive things that they can do.

KMA: Sometimes people feel that the healthy or environmental choice is always going to be the more expensive choice. Do you think this is usually true?

DLD: Yes and no. For example, it costs a lot less to buy vinegar to clean your windows than it does to buy Windex. Just looking at cleaning products, for example, most people buy 10 different cleaning products for different things. I just buy vinegar, baking soda and soap. I spend a lot less money on cleaning products.

One of the things I talk about in my book is how to never clean your oven again. By taking preventative measures, you can eliminate not only the toxic cleaner but also having to spend money and doing the work. So some of it is just a difference in how we think and do things rather than even buying a product. With pesticides, you can use a less-toxic pesticide, but it’s even easier and less expensive to prevent the pests from coming in your house in the first place.

Now, on the other end of it, if you are painting your house, you’re going to pay more for a nontoxic paint. I find that it all evens out. I don’t think that overall I’m spending more money.

KMA: What are some of the simplest, most effective changes that we could make in our households?

DLD: Actually, I have an article that I wrote that answers that called “How Toxic Is Your Home?” The first thing I said was to eliminate your exposure to ammonia by washing your windows with vinegar and water. That’s something everyone can do. The second thing is, as I mentioned before, switching to untreated cotton sheets to get rid of the formaldehyde exposure. The third thing was to install a carbon monoxide detector because carbon monoxide can be deadly. Number four was replacing mothballs because they are very, very toxic, and kids can eat them. They look like candy. You can use lavender sachets or dried rosemary or mint instead. Number five was to use soap instead of detergent. Detergent is actually the number one poison for children. It’s responsible for more household poisonings than any other substance. The next thing is to use a stainless-steel water bottle instead of plastic water bottle. Avoid toxic pesticides in foods by using fresh, organically grown produce. Number eight is to eliminate petrochemical perfumes by using botanicals for fragrance instead. Number nine is to use water-base pens and markers instead of permanent pens and markers because they have toxic solvents in them. And number 10 is to use houseplants to remove toxic chemicals from indoor air.

KMA: As mothers who have or have had cancer, we feel a dual responsibility: to our own health and to the health of our families. Could you talk a bit about some basic safeguards we can take to protect our children?

DLD: I would, first of all, not have them use plastic toys of any kind because they are made from various types of polyvinyl chloride, and vinyl chloride is carcinogenic.

There are so many Web sites now that are selling natural-material toys. And it’s not just about natural materials; there’s a whole different way of thinking about play that is about encouraging the child’s imagination. I just so love that idea. I don’t have a child, but if I did, that’s the way I’d want to raise them: to be surrounded by natural materials, feel connected to nature and play in their own imagination.

KMA: With PVC, do the plasticizers [added to make the material softer] ever stop outgassing [being removed by changes such as adding water, oil or heat—think of the film that builds up inside the windshield of new cars]? Or are they going to keep outgassing for the life of the product?

DLD: It’s going to keep outgassing for the life of the product, although it will lessen. Something that is brand-new PVC certainly has more outgassing than something that is older. Greenpeace has identified PVC as one of the most polluting substances on Earth. They are trying to get rid of it entirely.

[Editor’s note: There has been much debate about the dangers of phthalate plasticizers in consumer products. A recent study conducted by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission concludes there is little health risk to children from products containing DINP, a popular plasticizer used in soft children’s toys, although the same report states, “In lifetime feeding studies in the rat and mouse, DINP exposure was toxic to the liver and other organs and increased the incidence of hepatocellular adenoma and carcinoma.” The European Union has banned the use of several phthalate plasticizers, including DINP, in toys and childcare articles. Despite the absence of U.S. legislation, several major corporations—including Microsoft, Wal-Mart and Nike—have voluntarily instituted phase-outs of PVC in packaging and/or products. Greenpeace offers a toy manufacturer report card listing companies that have made progress in eliminating PVC from their children’s products.]

KMA: Going back to what we can do to protect the health of our children, what would be next on your list?

DLD: After getting rid of plastics, I would put them in a natural bed. If I were a parent, I would buy my kid a natural bed before I would put myself in one if money were an issue.

KMA: And by a natural bed, you mean a bed made out of natural materials.

DLD: Yes, and natural fiber bedding. We spend one-third of our lives in beds. That’s going to be the greatest exposure we have in terms of toxic exposure for the longest period of time. Something else might be more toxic, but we’re not exposed to it for hours on end. The toxicity of something is determined by how toxic it is inherently, but also, the dose makes the poison. It’s how much we’re exposed to and over what period of time. It’s a combination of all of those things. A bed is heavy on the time and amount. The younger the child, the less developed is their immune system and their liver and kidneys—their whole detoxification system. So they have much less tolerance and they also breathe faster than we do, more air per body weight. So in an environment where there is off-gassing, if there’s an adult and a child in exactly the same situation, the child is going to have more toxic chemical exposure just because they are breathing more.

I would also feed children organic food and have them drink filtered water. I have a whole-house filter in my house. I think it is really important to make sure you are not exposed to toxins through your skin or through breathing them [through evaporated water, which emits chloroform from chlorine]. And kids like to play in the tub, so they would be absorbing a lot of those toxic chemicals there.

KMA: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

DLD: Our bodies developed over millennia without these chemicals, so this is just about going back to the natural way in which our bodies should be living.