"Domestic Detox" featured in The New York Times

Photo courtesy of The New York Times.  Illustration by Josef Astor

Today's New York Times article, Domestic Detox: Extreme Home Cleaning, by Penelope Green, provides a humorous and helpful look at the many ways to keep your home healthier:

WHEN Matthew Waletzke appeared at the door of my East Village apartment to evaluate my home for what he calls “toxic exposure” — the alternative world’s catch-all phrase for potential health hazards like mold, indoor air pollution, household chemicals and electromagnetic radiation (beware your Wi-Fi!) — I half-expected to see a guy in an “Andromeda Strain”-era hazmat suit.

Mr. Waletzke, however, was dressed casually enough, in a polo shirt and khakis. But the aluminum suitcase he carried was all business, filled with an impressive array of meters, probes and other devices that he proceeded to unpack onto my dining room table. 

Mr. Waletzke is a “building biology” consultant, which means he has trained for a year with the Institute for Bau-Biologie & Ecology, a Florida-based, mostly online school that teaches its students to test water, air and building materials for a checklist of toxins and then prescribe a cure. (They will also vet the cleaning products under your sink and the lotions and cosmetics in your medicine chest.) 

The training and its tenets are a European import, developed in post-World War II Germany to deal with the problems that emerged as new housing went up and some inhabitants began to suffer what would be later identified as “sick building syndrome,” or a sensitivity to chemicals like formaldehyde used in construction...

For the complete article, click here.