Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Open the window

We all want our house to smell good.


Q. Yes way. No way.

A. Yes way.


The above statement is quite true but the final result shouldn’t be reached to the detriment of the eventual degradation of your health or that of your children’s. There isn’t a day that goes by during which we can view at least one television commercial promoting the advantages of using some spray or other apparatus of synthetic sent distribution that is supposed to make our home smell good. More often than should be the viewers of that sort of advertizing are people who have never lived at a time during which those products didn’t exist and who don’t stop to think and realize that the suggested products are chemicals that shouldn’t be allowed to cross the entrance to their house. Don’t think either that those products aren’t used by older people who should know better. In too many cases they are indeed.


You’ve probably never thought of it this way but your skin can be compared to a fisherman’s net, the thousands of pores on it are similar to the holes found in the net. Whenever you spray a chemically produced, so-called, air-refresher in order to change the smell in your house, the particles contained in it are very light and will float in the air for quite some time. First of all you and your children will invariably breathe them and once in your lungs it’s child play for them to go into your blood streams. Further more the particles will fall onto your skin, infiltrate the pores and it’s going to be the same destination for them, your blood streams. It’s also going to fall on whatever food is exposed like fruits in a bowl and will fall on the kitchen counter, furniture and the floors, leaving a film of chemicals that you and your children will eventually touch. After touching them the chemicals will follow the same and only trajectory that they can. Every time that you use one of those products instead of opening the window you INVARIABLY, SERIOUSLY and SEVERELY POLLUTE the air in your home. What’s ironic about this situation is that some people, who would strongly refuse to breathe second hand cigarette smoke, think nothing of using those products. Unbelievably true a woman, whom I know, even told me that she sprays Febreeze between the sheets in her bed. Are you starting to get the idea of what I’m trying instill in your mind? I think so. NO CHEMICALS IN MY HOUSE. MY HEALTH AND THAT OF MY CHILDREN ARE FAR TOO IMPORTANT. The preceding should definitely become your motto for life.


Back in two thousand-six there was a study done somewhere in the U.S.A. and about which I’ve unfortunately lost the results. The study involved ten so called air fresheners of different models including plug-ins, slow release type and, if my memory is good, scented candles which are all made with chemical products. Of the ten, I clearly remember, that two contained Formaldehyde. I’ve included a short text in this article but if you want to learn more about it, google the name and you’ll have all the desired information.

• Formaldehyde is a colorless, flammable, strong-smelling chemical that is used in building materials and to produce many household products (see Question 1).

• Formaldehyde sources in the home include pressed-wood products, cigarette smoke, and fuel-burning appliances (see Question 2).

• When exposed to formaldehyde, some individuals may experience various short-term effects (see Question 3).

• Formaldehyde has been classified as a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing substance) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and as a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (see Question 4).

• Research studies of workers exposed to formaldehyde have suggested an association between formaldehyde exposure and several cancers, including nasopharyngeal cancer and leukemia (see Question 5).


It’s very easy and less expensive to open your window when you wish refresh the air in your home and also much less damaging to your health and that of your children.


Now I’m going to suggest that you close your windows. I can read your thoughts right now like: can’t that guy make up his mind? Or is he trying to drive us nuts? It’s neither one but someday I might enjoy trying to drive you nuts, ha, ha. No I wouldn’t seriously think of doing something like that to you.


This part of my blog is particularly directed to people who live in farming communities. During my teenage years I’ve lived on a farm during a period that lasted between two and three years. What I’ve observed there deranged me a little even at that young age. Every time that a farmer spread chemical fertilizer I couldn’t help but notice that a cloud of white powder formed at the back of the spreader and that it was carried by the wind for some distance and if there was a house in its trajectory, part of that cloud would invariably land inside of I, if the windows and door were open. It would land on everything in that house including; furniture, floors and food, adults and children who were present in it. I sometimes wondered through the years if people were ever affected by it until I read an article written by a doctor who mentioned that children from farming areas, at times, came to the hospital where he worked with weird diseases. Need I say more?


My next concern has to do with bath and tile cleaners. The makers of VIM have presently a commercial on television in which it’s claimed that it leaves an invisible shield on surfaces, making them easier to upkeep. Another commercial, this one by the makers of Scrubbing Bubbles, says that the famous bubbles keep on cleaning for four days after you’ve used the product. LOVELY, just bloody, LOVELY that is. This means that the next time that you’ll bathe or that you’ll give your young child a bath in the tub, you’ll both be cleaning your bodies in a soup made of chemicals. Can’t you just wait to be and feel chemically clean? Isn’t this a great prospect for your future health and that of your children? I’m not so sure my friends.


One more point and I promise that this is the last one. It has to do with an ad by the makers of Lysol who are pushing some sort of hand soap for children, claiming that it kills all bacteria. Don’t be fooled! By watching their ads directed towards children, in the past, I know very well that that company just doesn’t give a damn about them. What’s important to them is the bottom line on their profit sheet. Any regular, non chemical, hand soap will do the trick as far as you and your children are concerned. It’s quite simple.


I lied. Your favorite blogger has lied to you. Hang him from the highest tree people. THIS is the very LAST item that I want to talk about today and it has to do with the chemical spraying of lawns. For obvious reasons don’t do it, please don’t. Your kids will be healthier someday because you took the right decision.


Why am I writing on this subject this month? You might wonder. I have in front of me the report of a study that was conducted on the umbilical cords of ten babies by the Environmental Working Group located in the U.S.A. Those babies were born between the months of August and September of tow thousand-four and the results indicated that their bodies, at birth, contained two hundred and eighty-seven (287) different chemical products, one hundred and eighty (180) of them being carcinogen agents in both humans and animals. Two hundred and seven-teen (217) are toxic on the brain and the nervous system and two hundred and eight (208) cause malformations in animals.


All of this to say that the little bundle of love that you gave birth to a week, a month or a year ago isn’t really a bundle of love. It’s rather a bundle of chemicals wrapped up in a baby skin and is the direct result of the bad habits described above plus the abuse in the consumption of chemical medications. I rest my case.

© 2010 Jean-Paul Gosselin


Note: While you’re here, take time to read the article titled: “Clean your house”.


What do you think?


Whether you agree with or have an objection to my blog, leave a comment. I’m open to favorable or unfavorable criticism and what you write might enlighten other readers or myself. Thank you.



Take this with you.

Why is there an unbroken white line dividing hallways in halves in government buildings?

It’s so that the personnel coming in late for work doesn’t get in the way of those quitting work early.


Have a swell day, stay relaxed, have a beer and don’t forget: keep smiling. Life is good. Buena la vida. La vie est belle.
MERRY CHRISTMAS------FELIZ NAVIDAD-----JOYEUX NOEL

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