5 Healthy Reasons To Change To Hardwood
1. Wood is a natural material and wood oils often have a strongly anti-bacterial action. Wood floors, unlike carpets, do not trap and accumulate concentrations of harmful chemicals and fumes, nor do they become homes for unpleasant parasites.
2. The World Health Organization and other environmental bodies recommend that in the interests of family health, consumers should seriously consider switching from carpet to wood floors.
3. All carpets harbor microscopic dust-mites, whose dung when breathed in has been shown to exacerbate asthma and to trigger allergies. Estimates place the number of dust mites in one square meter of typical household carpet at between 10,000 to 100,000. Carpets also contain pet allergens, feces and urine, flea and lice eggs, traces of excreta trodden in from the garden, and high concentrations of toxic dust.
4. The New Scientist reported as recently as 2001 that: "A typical sample of household carpet dust sent to an environmental lab would ring alarm bells for high concentrations of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pesticides and polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs)," according to tests carried out by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, (Source: New Scientist, 28 June 2001).
5. A house with wooden floors and rugs will contain only a tenth as much dust as a carpeted house.
1. Wood is a natural material and wood oils often have a strongly anti-bacterial action. Wood floors, unlike carpets, do not trap and accumulate concentrations of harmful chemicals and fumes, nor do they become homes for unpleasant parasites.
2. The World Health Organization and other environmental bodies recommend that in the interests of family health, consumers should seriously consider switching from carpet to wood floors.
3. All carpets harbor microscopic dust-mites, whose dung when breathed in has been shown to exacerbate asthma and to trigger allergies. Estimates place the number of dust mites in one square meter of typical household carpet at between 10,000 to 100,000. Carpets also contain pet allergens, feces and urine, flea and lice eggs, traces of excreta trodden in from the garden, and high concentrations of toxic dust.
4. The New Scientist reported as recently as 2001 that: "A typical sample of household carpet dust sent to an environmental lab would ring alarm bells for high concentrations of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pesticides and polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs)," according to tests carried out by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, (Source: New Scientist, 28 June 2001).
5. A house with wooden floors and rugs will contain only a tenth as much dust as a carpeted house.