The Most Toxic Places in Your Home

你家毒性最大的地方

by Alexandra Zissu 作者：Alexandra Zissu

Surprise: Your lush lawn is one of them. Find the top danger zones and how to keep your family safe.

惊奇：你家葱郁的草坪就是最毒的地方之一。怎样找到你家里最危险的地方并保护好你的家人。

Moments after my first attempt to get pregnant, I totally freaked out. I wasn’t nervous about the idea of being knocked up (whee!). Instead, I was worried because my home suddenly seemed overwhelmingly toxic, filled with chemicals that might harm my growing baby, her father, and me. Peeling paint above us. Bleach-scrub residue on our counters, sink, and tub. The plastic in my water bottle. The water in my water bottle. Roach bait. I spun around and around. How had I not noticed this before?

在我第一次怀孕不久，我完全惊呆了。我并不会为被撞倒而紧张，然而，我突然发现家里布满了有毒物质，这让我很担忧。屋顶上脱落的油漆，柜台上、洗涤槽、浴缸里的漂白剂残留物，我水杯中的塑料和溶剂。屋里充满了化学物质也许会危害到我成长中的宝宝以及她的爸爸和我。我在屋里东转西转，我怎么在这之前没有发现呢？

Google didn’t ease my anxiety—there I learned that less than 5 percent of the more than 80,000 chemicals introduced in the United States since World War II have been tested for their effects on human health and development—but a close friend did. She suggested that I take baby steps to make what’s inside my home as pure as the organic apples and pears in my fruit bowl. My anxiety ebbed as I swapped my most toxic home products for more natural versions. Pretty soon I’d replaced everything from my vinyl shower curtain to my bedding, and I’d written a book—The Complete Organic Pregnancy—with that friend, Deirdre Dolan. Since then, I’ve been guiding families (including my own, which now includes an organic 2-year-old), friends, and total strangers through similar transformations.

GOOGLE没能缓解我的焦虑，在那里我了解到自二战以后有80,000多种化学物品被引进美国，其中只有不到5%被测试它们对人类的健康和发展的影响，但是我的一个好朋友做了这样的测试。她建议我利用养育孩子的机会让我的家像我水果盘中的有机苹果和梨子一样的纯粹。当我用自然的替代物替换掉我家绝大多数有毒的家用产品时我的焦虑也在减退。在替换掉从地毯式浴帘到床上用品的一切之后不久，我想要写一本书：《完整的有机怀孕和我的朋友：Deirdre Dolan》。自那以后，我一直在指导我的家庭（包括我自己和我2岁大的有机女儿）、朋友以及完全陌生的人去通过类似的转换。

To give you the same advantage, here’s a cheat sheet to the most toxic zones around your home and how to detox them. If you feel overwhelmed, start small, says David O. Carpenter, MD, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany, State University of New York:

“It’s only reasonable to do what you can to reduce exposure without compromising your whole standard of life.”

为了给你相同的便利，这里有一张关于你家里最有毒的区域和如何解除它们的小抄。如果你觉得不堪重负，就从细节做起。Albany大学和纽约州立大学的健康与环境研究所所长，医学博士David O. Carpenter说：

“这是在能够减少暴露在有毒物质中同时协调你的生活标准的唯一合理做法。”

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