Toxic Menace Preview

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TAMING

THE

IN

YOUR

HOME

TOXIC MENACE

By Cliff VanGuilder, P.E.


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LICENCE, DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY, AND LIMITED WARRANTYBy purchasing or using this book, you agree that this license grants permission to use the contents

therein, but does not give you the right of ownership to any of the textual content in the book orownership to any of the information or products contained therein. Please do not duplicate or dis-seminate any of the materials contained therein without the express written confirmation of the au-thor.

The author cannot warrant the performance or results that might be obtained by using the contentsof this book. The author, developers, and anyone involved in the composition of this book will notbe liable for damages of any kind arising out of the use of the materials in this book. This includes,but is not limited to, loss of revenue or profit, or other incidental, physical, or consequential damag-es arising out of the use of this work.

COPYRIGHTThis book is copyrighted under the seal of the Copyright Office in accordance with title 17, UnitedStates Code. This publication, portions of it, or any accompanying works, may not be reproduced inany way, stored in a retrieval system of any type, or transmitted by any means, media, electronicdisplay, including, but not limited to, photocopy, recording, Internet postings, or scanning, withoutpermission in writing from the author.

Cliff VanGuilder, Taming the Toxic Menace in Your HomeRegistration Number TXu 1-671-612

The author recognizes and respects all marks used by companies, manufacturers, and developers as a

means to distinguish their products. All brand names and product names mentioned in this book are

trademarks or service marks of their representative companies. Any omission or misuse (of any kind)

of service marks or trademarks, etc., is not an attempt to infringe on the property of others.


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Taming

The

TOXIC MENACE

in Your Home

By Cliff VanGuilder, P.E.


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Taming the Toxic Menace Cliff VanGuilder

5 www.YourPollutionFreeHome.com

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsTable of ContentsTable of Contents

Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 9

Part One: The Toxic Menace ................................................................................................................ 13

Chapter One: Pesticides in Paradise: From Silent Spring to Toxic Menace ...................................... 14

Chapter Two: Some People Care About the Environment .......................................................... 19

Chapter Three: Industrial Regulations - Do They Apply to Chemicals in the Home? ......................... 21

Part Two: Sorting Out the Toxins in Products...................................................................................... 24

Chapter Four: Kids Can Tame the Toxic Menace..................................................................... 25

Chapter Five: Chemicals in the Home - a Room-by-Room Guide ............................................... 26

Chapter Six: Personal Care Products .................................................................................. 27

Chapter Seven: Cleaning Products ..................................................................................... 29

Chapter Eight: Plants ..................................................................................................... 44

Chapter Nine: Pesticides ................................................................................................. 47

Chapter Ten: Auto Products, Gardening and Swimming Pool Products, and Paint ............................ 54


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Cliff VanGuilder Taming the Toxic Menace

www.YourPollutionFreeHome.com 6

Part Three: The Toxins .......................................................................................................................... 62

Chapter Eleven: Poisonous Fumes: Don't Inhale .................................................................... 63Chapter Twelve: Food and Water Safety: Chemicals in our Food & Drink ...................................... 71

Chapter Thirteen: Toxic Chemicals and Bacteria: Things we Touch .............................................. 79

Part Four: Before You Build or Buy a Home ....................................................................................... 83

Chapter Fourteen: Discover Chemicals Before You Build a Home ............................................... 84

Chapter Fifteen: Looking for Toxins in Older Buildings ............................................................ 86

Chapter Sixteen: Finding Dangerous Chemicals Before You Buy a House ...................................... 88

Chapter Seventeen: Toxic or Not: The Bottom Line on Phtalates, PET and More ............................ 89

Part Five: Our Greatest Menace .......................................................................................................... 91

Chapter Eighteen: Pesticides: Our Greatest Menace? .............................................................. 92

Part Six: There's Still Hope .................................................................................................................. 96

Chapter Nineteen: Saving Our Planet: Making the Earth Eco Friendly for Future Generations ........... 97

Endnotes ....................................................................................................................... 99


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About the Author:

Cliff VanGuilder is a licensed Professional Engineer in New York State with over30 years of experience as an Environmental Engineer, 26 of those years in haz-

ardous waste and 20 of them also dealing specifically with pesticides.

Cliff was raised on a small farm in the Adirondack Mountains of NortheasternNew York, where he learned a lot about nature and developed a great deal ofdown-to-earth common sense. His appreciation of that pollution-free lifestyle,combined with his professional career spent protecting the environment, ledhim to write this book after he retired from New York State government in2009.

He has also written a college textbook entitled Hazardous Waste Management, anIntroduction, published by Mercury Learning & Information, copyrighted in 2012,ISBN Number 978-1-936420-26-1.

You can connect with Cliff online at his blog, YourPollutionFreeHome.com, or@TheEcoEngineer on Twitter

Cover Illustrated by Molly Rae VanGuilder


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Acknowledgements:

To my very lovely and incredible Wife, Colleen, thank you for loving me and accompanying me on this journey.To my lovely and talented Daughter, Molly Rae for the AWESOME cover drawing.

To my Son Ben, always my right hand, thanks for your help in this effort.To my church family at Faith Baptist, thanks for your prayers and moral support.

To Melissa Worcester, for your work as editor, web designer, compositor, and e-book guru.To Pauline Bartel and Dan Osborn, for inspiring and encouraging me to write this book.

To Rick DErrico for providing final editing comments.

To Howard Brezner and all my co-workers at NYSDEC, for the great work and experiences.


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substances in our homes and work places inspired me towrite it.

By reading this book you will learn useful infor-mation about the toxins we are exposed to in our lives,where these toxins came from, how they can affect usand ways we can detoxify our homes, our lives, and ourenvironment. While the information is sometimes com-plex, I try to make it interesting and put concepts intoterms that everyone can understand.

Time For You to Take ControlTaming the Toxic Menace gives you ways to take control

to clean up your personal environment by detoxifyingyour home and property. It provides remedies for pollutionwithin our personal control. We need to stop needlesslyexposing ourselves to toxins in our homes and work places,by cleaning them up one house or work place at a time. Mygoal is to offer you information to take control of your life,and make the world a cleaner place.

Think of this book as a simple, straightforward guideto help us understand how to deal with this toxic menace inour homes and at work. It lists the most common toxins;tells us where they are and how they got there. It de-scribes what these toxins can do to our health, and tells

us how to get them out of our lives and what productswe can use instead that are safer. This book also is a self-help guide to tell you which toxins to look for when youare buying a home, depending on the age of the building.

The title may seem dramatic, but I wanted to geteveryones attention. I entertained pursuing the titleToxins for Dummies, but that title doesnt work, because

only intelligent, caring people would pick up this book.Another possible title was Toxins for Kids, but I certainly

didnt want to leave out the parents.There is an added bonus to getting rid of this toxic men-

ace. While we are cleaning the toxins out of our lives,homes and work places, we are helping to clean up ourplanet. Earth is the only planet we have, so we have to makeit last for us, our children and all future generations.

As mentioned earlier, many books have been writ-

ten about the damage the human race has caused to theplanet Earth, some even predicting the end of the worldas we know it. Whether the authors of these other booksare correct or not, I prefer to look forward and help allof us take steps to clean up our act before we make ourenvironment any worse.


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Part One:The Toxic

Menace

Artwork by Molly Rae VanGuilder


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Chapter One:

Pesticides in ParadiseI was raised in the foothills of the Adirondack

Mountains in upstate New York. My parents instilledwithin me a great appreciation for nature, and all Godscreation. Other than the few families that lived aroundLoon Lake year-round, this area was pristine and the

footprint of humans in the form of pollution was not ap-parent. This began to change gradually in the late 1950sand 1960s, when little was known about toxins, includ-ing pesticides. Our home was a small farm, where myfamily raised livestock, such as chickens, beef and dairycattle, pigs and horses. With my fathers income, thevegetables from our garden, eggs from the chickens andthe meat from the livestock, we never had much extra

food, but the good Lord blessed us, and we always hadenough on the table to keep us from going to bed hungry.

My mother was an avid naturalist, and her passion wasto know the names and detailed information about everyanimal, bird, tree, plant and wildflower in the Adirondacks.She passed that appreciation on to everyone she could, in-cluding her children, grandchildren, and great grandchil-

dren. She often expressed concern for the environment, andappreciated beneficial creatures like frogs, toads, snakes,spiders, bats and predatory insects. One of her favorite say-ings as one of her children were about to harass or kill oneof these critters was Dont kill that. It eats bugs! The bugsshe was referring to were the nuisance insects, like mosqui-toes, deer flies, horse flies, and the infamous Adirondackblack flies. She loved lady beetles, dragonflies, robber flies,

barn swallows and blue birds for the same reason theyprovided relief from the nuisance insects before pesticides

were conceived.

Enter the ToxinsOne of mans first assaults on this natural order of

things began in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when thesouthern Adirondacks, including our farm, was sprayedin the spring and summer by a crop duster airplane hired

by our town to control nuisance insects, like mosquitoesand black flies. I remember everyone on the farm goinginside our house or barn when they sprayed because thesmell of the fuel oil solvent mixed with the pesticides was

Photo credit: MauroPPP


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generated by industries, and CERCLA was set up to investi-gate and clean up hazardous waste dumps.

Fast Forward to Present DayDespite these laws, we average Americans use prod-

ucts in our homes and at work that can be toxic to us,either over the short term (acute), or the long term(chronic), or both. Much more can be done to advise usof the health effects from exposure to these toxins. If the

users read the product label carefully and follow the di-rections for application and personal protection, theyhave a better chance of avoiding exposure to the toxins.Unfortunately, reading all that fine print is tedious and

easily ignored. There is also the issue of pollution causedby the disposal of these chemicals, whether they are

washed down the sewer or septic tank, dispersed into theair, or dumped in a landfill. Throughout my career. Ihave spoken to several of people, many of whom werevery highly-educated, who failed to read the pesticide orproduct labels carefully or didnt follow the safety proce-dures. These people needlessly exposed themselves andtheir loved ones or coworkers to toxins.

The Purpose of this BookThere are countless books, magazine articles and

other guidance available to tell us how to improve thequality of our lives by eating healthier foods, exercis-ing more but few deal with controlling the toxins weare exposed to every day.

I wrote this book to provide:1. lists of the most common household toxins

to watch out for, in simple, plain language;

2. a short history of how these toxins were intro-duced into our homes;

3. details about how they may hurt you and yourloved ones;

4. safe, legal ways to get them out of yourhomes; and

5. alternative products and solutions we canuse to accomplish what those toxins are designedto do. (Many of these alternatives are less expen-sive and can save you money.)

Photo credit: U.S. Army Environmental Command


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Chapters 2 and 3 give a little more background andprovide real life stories of people who care about the en-

vironment. Chapter 4 tells how to tame the toxic men-ace. Chapters 5 through 7 identify toxins in our homesand contain advice on how to dispose of those toxins ifyou find them. Chapters 8 through 10 give advice aboutwhat toxins to look for when building or buying homes,and how to detoxify them.

Saving ourselves from the Toxic Menace in our homes

has become a global challenge. It is my hope this messagewill spread across the nation and around the world, andequip us with the knowledge and the tools to remove thetoxins from our lives to improve our health and well-being.


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Chapter Two:

Some People ReallyCare About theEnvironment

There are many people who care deeply about ourenvironment and the future of our planet. For the past 20

years, I worked in a regional field office for a state envi-

ronmental agency. My job was to regulate industries andpesticide applicators, investigate claims of pollution, and

help citizens and businesses find safe ways to deal withhazardous wastes, pesticides and radioactive wastes. Mystaff and I received countless phone calls, letters and e-mails from homeowners, tenants, and industrial workerswho were concerned about toxins that were affectingtheir lives. These problems were very diverse, includinghousehold chemicals, automotive products in garages andsheds, and chemicals being stored and used where people

worked.

I received calls about various chemical-related con-cerns, including pesticides being sprayed by neighbors,drifting or leaching onto neighboring property, pressure-treated wood in back yards, and pollution contaminatingproperties or left in the ground by neighboring indus-tries.

I heard from people who bought houses and movedin to discover the previous owners left behind hazardousor toxic wastes like old paint, engine cleaners, used oil,empty propane cylinders, and expired and banned pesti-cides. Retired factory workers, their widows or childrencalled about tens or hundreds of gallons of Polychlorinat-ed Biphenyls (PCBs) and other toxins in their basements

and garages. Retired welders or their families were stuckwith dozens of empty or expired compressed gas contain-ers in their garages, including dangerous, explosive gaseslike acetylene and hydrogen. Retired farmers, or peoplewho bought farms, called us about pesticides that werebanned, expired or no longer registered for use. Once ascrap yard called us because a homeowner had dropped

Photo credit: code poet


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off of a suspicious-looking item that turned out to be asighting instrument from a ship that was radioactive!

The driving force for these phone calls was thecallers concern for the health effects on their familiesand pets, and their overall concern about the environ-ment. In many cases, the reason for the call was theirdesire to do the right thing in terms of proper disposal ofthese wastes. While I was always happy to help peoplewith their waste disposal problems, I wondered and wor-

ried about all the other people who didn

t contact us ask-ing what to do with their wastes. Improper disposal ofhazardous household wastes is dangerous and always badfor the environment. Regulatory agencies exercise littlecontrol over homeowners who improperly dispose oftheir wastes, as I will discuss later.

These communications from the general public en-couraged me to continue working in the environmentalprotection field after I retired, fighting pollution wherev-er it is found, and helping people do the right thing forthe environment.

Image credit: USEPA

Image credit: Teasynews

Hi Im Cliff VanGuilder, author ofTaming the

Toxic Menace in Your Home. Thank you for

downloading this preview. I hope you enjoy it.

The complete book contains 98 pages plus sever-

al pages of endnotes. It will help you find ormake safe alternatives to many of the chemicals

found in your home, and warn you of some of the

toxic effects of these chemicals. Check out the

table of contents to get a better idea of how the

information breaks down into chapters and sec-

tions.

Visit my website, YourPollutionFreeHome.com,

to buy the book and read helpful articles on relat-

ed topics.

Feel free to share this preview with your friends.

Cliff VanGuilder

The Eco Engineer


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