How Healthy is Your Kitchen? The Safe Kitchen Quiz

[CodieCW]

by Annie Berthold-Bond, Care2.com Producer, Green Living Channels


The hearth is considered the heart of the home – the centerplace around which all revolves. The modern kitchen needs some work to hold the related feelings of love, connection, nourishment and contentment the way most of us wish it could.

Making it a healthy and wholesome place to be is a wonderful way to start the process of making such an important room the way you want it to feel. Here is a quiz to help you learn where your kitchen could use some help to become a healthy place to be.

QUIZ
Count One Point For Every “Yes,� and Subtract One Point for Every “No.�

Do you have a gas stove?

Do you cut meat on a cutting board?

Do you use store bought automatic dish detergent manufactured by a large corporation?

Do you use standard store bought regular dish detergent?

Does the label on the packaging of the sponges you buy say “kills germs?�

Does the label on the dish detergent you use say that it “kills germs?�

Do you frequently heat oil to the smoke point?

Do you have a kitchen exhaust fan that you use when you cook?

Do you clean the tray under your refrigerator at least once a year?

Do you have a compost in the kitchen that is emptied less than every three days?

Do you spray pesticides in the kitchen for sugar ants or other pests including rodents?

Do you use bleached coffee filters?

Do you place pesticide-based ant or roach traps, rodent poison, or fly stickies in the kitchen?

Do you have chlorine in your water?

If you have a garbage disposal do often run it less every two or three days, even when it contains food?

Do you have well water without a filter?

Do you or other family members often stand or sit near a large kitchen appliance such as a stove, dishwasher, or refrigerator?

Are the kitchen cabinets made of particleboard or other pressed wood materials?

Do you frequently smell food that is “off� anywhere in your kitchen including the refrigerator, potato bin, or trash bin?

Does the cabinet under your kitchen sink contain commercial cleaning products and other products that have a label with a signal word on it that is more serious than a “Caution?�

Do you clean the kitchen with standard products bought at a conventional supermarket or hardware store and that contain a label with a signal word on it that is more serious than a “Caution?�

ANSWER
If you answered any questions with a “yes,� and have any points at all, you have some environmental indoor air quality issues. Here are some suggestions to improve the situations:

Do you have a gas stove?
While gas stoves are energy savers, they can cause a significant amount of indoor air pollution, in particular high indoor concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2).

Do you cut meat on a cutting board?
Bits of meat can become imbedded in the cutting board and cause deadly bacteria to grow.

Do you use store bought automatic dish detergent manufactured by a large corporation? While washing the dishes, the synthetic fragrances will cause pollution.

Do you use standard store bought regular dish detergent?
Same answer as above, except you will also absorb the detergent’s chemicals into your hands unless you wear gloves.

Does the label on the packaging of the sponges you buy say “kills germs?�
Most likely the sponges contain a chemical disinfectant call triclosan. Triclosan is a suspected immunotoxicant, a suspected skin or sense organ toxicant, and considered more hazardous than most chemicals in an Ecological Risk Screening Score.

Does the label on the dish detergent you use say that it “kills germs?�
Answer same as above.

Do you frequently heat oil to the smoke point?
Oil heated to a smoke point can be toxic. Here is a handy chart of the smoke point of most oils.

Do you have a kitchen exhaust fan that you use when you cook?
Exhaust fans help remove hydrocarbons produced while cooking.

Do you clean the tray under your refrigerator at least once a year?
Believe me – you can grow some very ugly looking mold in this tray. Keep up with the cleaning of it; twice a year at least!

Do you have a compost in the kitchen that is emptied less than every three days?
Mold can be very toxic, and you’d be surprised at how many people let their compost bucket languish in their kitchen before emptying it of molding food! Two days is really about maximum for food scraps to be in room temperature before problems can arise.

Do you spray pesticides in the kitchen for sugar ants or other pests including rodents?
Pesticides are usually neurotoxic and EPA list of pesticides that contain suspected or probably carcinogens is extensive.

Do you place pesticide-based ant or roach traps, rodent poison, or fly stickies in the kitchen?
Same as above.

Do you have chlorine in your water?
Chlorine is a highly corrosive substance, capable of damaging skin, eyes, and other membranes. Chlorine was listed as a hazardous air pollutant in the 1990 Clean Air Act, and exposure to chlorine in the workplace is regulated by federal standards.

Do you use bleached coffee filters?
The chlorine in bleached coffee filters can leach into the coffee. The EPA says that using bleached coffee filters alone can result in a lifetime exposure to dioxin that "exceeds acceptable levels." Choose instead unbleached coffee filters.

If you have a garbage disposal do you run it less than every two or three days, even when it contains food?
Mold and bacteria can fester in rotting food that could be in the disposal. Run the disposal at least once a day.

Do you have well water without a filter?
Well water often has contaminants and bacteria. Unless you have complete water tests run regularly on your water, it is prudent to have a water filter. Reverse Osmosis filters are popular for homes on well water because it reduces both suspended solids and dissolved solids in the water source, as well as bacteria and viruses.

Do you or other family members often stand or sit near a large kitchen appliance such as a stove, dishwasher, or refrigerator?
The highest concentrations of electromagnetic fields in my house, when tested by a guassmeter, were right in front of my dishwasher when it was running. The stove and refrigerator also had high fields. Note that the high fields drop off quickly – within a few feet.

Are the kitchen cabinets made of particleboard or other pressed wood materials?
Particlboard and pressed wood is usually a source of a lot of formaldehyde, especially when the “wood� is heated, as could happen next to a stove, heater or refrigerator. Formaldehyde is a strong sensitizer and carcinogen.

Do you frequently smell food that is “off� anywhere in your kitchen including the refrigerator, potato bin, or trash bin?
Again, mold can be very toxic. Follow your nose and clean out rotting food!

Does the cabinet under your kitchen sink contain commercial cleaning products and other products that have a label with a signal word on it that is more serious than a “Caution?�
Bottles can leach toxic chemicals into the air and they will waft into your kitchen and home.

Do you clean the kitchen with standard products bought at a conventional supermarket or hardware store and that contain a label with a signal word on it that is more serious than a “Caution?�
One of the biggest causes of indoor air pollution is cleaning products. Many contain solvents that are toxic, neurotoxic, and long lasting in the environment.