How to slowly reduce and avoid “Permanently” Chemical in the House?

What to do First ?:

The first important guideline to keep your house sustainable is to check all the Chemical you are using to clean the house, When you know what is use, the second step is to regroup the Chemical in specific place or Area (Safe from Children).

You can also Keep some if they are not too toxic and you might need them in the future. If you do not have possibility to Keep the Chemical in Safe Area you Can bring Chemical in Wast Collection Centre. At least Regrouping them can be helpful to have safest place.

• Please remember to never Trash any Chemical in a Bin and even less in the Sink or Toilette.

• Please Remember also to never trash any Nappy, Cosmetics or Chemicals in your Toilette cause of the risk of contamination of the water and Safety, Health Risk later on.

To use in your house Sustainable Product there is 2 possibilities:

• You can buy new products more Sustainable (Organic Shop for example)
• You can also do your own Cleaning Product Yourself (Some recipe are given in the following French Book as an Example) ( Some cleaning Product are easy to do other are more complex ) :

Green Washing : French Book : Fabriquer Ses Produits Menagers ( Cecile Berg – Edition Laplage )

Where is the Contamination in the House?

When you want to improve your house regarding Sustainability you have to think your house with “Inside and Outside aspect” to verify if there is Safety Risks.

We sometimes use the expression “If there is doubt… no doubt..”

If you have doubt about any risk of contamination in your House or in your Gardm :

Something you can do naturally is to think about the history of your House and Garden, generally it’s rare to be the first living in our house, Historically the house might have been used by lot of peoples before. Sometimes even having not notice anything wrong by testing the Ground can give better information regarding the current situation.

Do really careful regarding Garden Soil contamination you migh sometimes not have notice anything wrong and be very surprise.

Ground of Garden can contain “Heavy Metal, Pesticide, Herbicide, Fungicide“ without Being aware about your Children can be exposed and there health get at risk cause of this.

All people going to the garden can bring the chemical in the house, contamination going on the Paddle Doors, to the Windows, going on the floors Carpet in your house, going everywhere even until your plates if you had Dirty Hands when you add plate on the dishwasher.

One of the Big problem also to understand generally we do not realise the Chemical Contamination in our Garden because we cannot see it… it’s difficutly to a random person to be able to notice the difference between contaminated garden and random garden we have to realise something that is not visible and have a real impact on our health.

Children are the one the less able to understand what is occuring because children do not have Awarness they are not able to have distance with this sort of issue. Even for a random Adult we have difficulty. A way to notice ourself is to realise there is something different after going to the garden and being exposed. It’s very difficult cause sometimes Symptoms occurs 1 or 2 days after being exposed.

An other big problem is to remove a chemical contamination that have been add on Something, Soil, Ground or anything Plates, Object.

As when we are at school in “Physics and Chemical” Class there is the expression “Nothing is loose everything is Transform” Contamination with Arsenic do not disappeared like this… The chemical have component that are Persistent and Dangerous.. you can remove contamination, but it will take very lot of energy to be able to remove chemical completely.

For Cleaning you have an option for example to Use Hot Water to be able to Clean the property properly.

If you are improving your Garden, you have to be careful regarding your Exposition to the Contamination, It can be Swallow, Breath on your lungs, or Absorb by your skin, you have to use specific Material as White Suite Dress, Mask, Googles, Hat.

The best is also to Use Gloves finding a way to be efficient you have to ask advice before to do this.

If your hands get dirty remember to wash your hand multiple time with hot water as much as possible, only hot water can remove contamination on you hand.

Take your time because if you mess it can get even more problematic.

A situation can sometimes get out of control. You have to think how to remove the product without adding it again on other place and being Sustainable without consuming too much Water and so on.

Garden Contamination are sometimes affecting your ability to think correctly, that quite vicious cycle because more you want to resolve your issue more you might get exposed.

Remember some critical situation need sometimes very Big investment regarding Times and Energy. You can find a way to organise yourself on the following page “Link“. to be able to go step by step. take your time do not rush

Try to think step by step what to do to avoid to contaminate more your house. Try to seek help and think to your health as the more important aspect to avoid to loose yourself.

Be carefull also cause sometimes it’s better to change stuff buying new, to be able to act in the Safest way. Trashing sometimes is more safe than keeping things. we think to the money but not realising our health will be in danger. Sadly sometimes there is no other possibility.

Exposition to Contaminated Area Can Bring you lot of health issues.. Depending your age there is things that you should leave to people more stronger than you.. people with more ability to react. Do not act yourself alone in any case. People around as “Local Mp“, “Environmental Borough Representative” are with you to help. They are there dedicate for this sort of situation, do not hesitate to contact “Citizen Advice” also.

How To know if there is Contamination?

Remember to act as Citizen to find help with Officials Charity or Association and see what is a Best to do according to your possibilities. Try to remind yourself you are not alone in this issue trying to help to improve the situation is never seens as wrong.

If you are able Financially:

(Please be careful to not invest all your money in Contamination Testing.) Defining a budget can be good. If you want to verify what happen personally I think the best is to go to Laboratory analysis, (Loic from HealthInYourPlanet) so you will be sure what Chemical have been used ( Weed Killer, Pesticide, Fungicide, Insecticide ) It give you a picture of the current situation of the Soil and/or Body Exposure.

If you are not able Financially:

If you think there is and you are not sure, try to ask help From (Local Authority) and (Free Legal Advice) to know what is possible for you according to your possibility. Try to contact also (NGO PAN Uk or PAN Europe following bellow information). They are able to reply to your questions. You can then also directly go on section : “When the test are Positives, What are the Options available ?” (Try to request help first).

House Contamination?

A very good website that can help you in this direction is, “Pesticide Action Network” existing in Europe and UK, if you are searching information Related Ground Garden Contamination this charity will help you to find Correct Lab or Contact (Link)

It exist also “Specific Auto Test” more or less accurate, (The only problem of Auto Test is you have to know what you are looking for, to be able to test it.)

Laboratory are more expensive but more efficient proposing Professional Service in Safe Condition, They can do deeper analyse permitting to test all range of component as “Heavy Metal” “Pesticide” “Insecticide” “Weed Killer“.

Testing your garden with objective to make Grow Veggies in Organic Way can be a good idea to improve the sustainability.

If you have some doubt do not hesitate. The new Century will be Sustainable, in any case, we do not have to wait the next Cop to act in our Garden. The government will not have possibility to act in your own garden.

The Governement will be able to help but the first step is yours.. by discussing, questioning, acting..

You are the only person able to improve your garden Carbon Foot print and Wild Diversity.

The Soil Test Kit from Laboratory are costing between 100 and 180 pounds. By registering to the Laboratory you will receaved some material by Post Mail, you can then add some Ground in a Jar and sent it back to the Laboratory with high amount packaging to avoid Leak during transport.

Some Laboratory propose also Dust analyse from the house by using some material to add on the top of you Hoover it collect around “20 grams of Dust” that you can send with Packaging to the Lab and they will verify amount of Pesticide, Insecticide, Herbicide, PFAS, PCB all type of contamination.

And other way to verify if you have been victim of Contamination is to check in your Body itself if there is some trace of Chemical.

Body Contamination?

In case you have been victim of Chemical Contamination.

• The First person to talk to is your Doctor in any case and the quickest as possible.

• Blood and Urine Test are sometimes possible (But contamination will be only from the last 2 or 3 days maximum.)
• If you want to check longer exposition some Private laboratory are able to propose also Hair, Nails testing to verify Chemical, Heavy Metal contamination.

It’s bringing other Risk regarding ADN and other test that are very sensitive related to Privacy but please remember we are in GDPR and RGPD ( European Identity Protection Policy ).

This information can help to have better Scope to verify the Chemical Body exposition.

Some LAB’s in UK and France:

“The ideal” is to find a Lab in you own country to avoid too long transports. Some Lab are able to help you in some situation :

• Soil-Check for Ground and Soil Testings :
  • A Laboratory to do “Soil Testing” in UK can be find on the following ( Link ). You can find alternative in France.

• “Kudzu” Lab for Hair and Dust Testings :
  • A laboratory to do Hair, and Housing Dust Testing can be found on the following : ( Link )
    • Pesticides Cheveux – Pesticides : 100 polluants – Analyse
    • Métaux Lourds Cheveux – Métaux lourds : Mercure-Plomb-Cadmium-Chrome-Arsenic-Nickel-Cuivre
    • Pesticides Poussière – Pesticides : 100 polluants – Analyse

You will be able to order Test Kit more or less expensive available by selecting amount of pollutants (Until 100 Pollutants Verification With Nano Quantity Verification)

Sometimes the result might not be explicit or not positive as you were expecting, please keep calm… It can depend of many reason… First try to be kind with the Lab you are contacting because they are dealing with very high amount of contaminated samples that’s a difficult job.

Sometimes Machine might have some issues to be able to detect correctly, it can be also your exposition or the Samples was not taken in area with lot of product, Sometimes it’s threshold of the Chemical you are checking that might be incorrect also…

Sometimes also be symply related to the type of chemical component tested that was not the same component of the product existing.

You need to know what you are searching to be able to see if the chemical component exist.

If you are sure there is product the best is to find different lab and give feedback in any case to be able to improve situations.

When the test are Positives, What are the Options available?

If you are not the landlord of the house :

The first Act to do as a Citizen is to contact your landlord to understand what happen depending of the type of situation, if your landlord is aware about the contamination. it’s the first step in any case cause you are not inside your own property.

If you are in rental property or you are Landlord of the house and you don’t know what happen :

Contact :

• Your Local MP
• Your Local Environmental Borough Representative.

Contact Free Legal Adviser :

• In case you would like Private Legal Advice you can registering yourself to a Consumer Magazine in UK “Which” Magazine : (Link) paying a little Subscription to the Magazine you will receive free advices from a Legal Adviser.
• Legal Adviser are also providing free advices on Citizen Advice Website : (Link)

You Can Go to the Court :

Regarding Legal Advice in case you need to go to the court you can find Private Law Firm able to represent you. To find Solicitor please go on the Law Society Website : (Link)

You can Sometimes contact Legal Expert Witness :

Each law firm might have possibility to contact “Expert Witness” This Expert are mandated by Law Firm to help in case of Legal Investigation.

Expert Witness are generally provided by Law firm, In some situation your might need to contact expert yourself (Link).

When you know there is Soil Contamination, you have requested Legal advise, what to do after? How to make your garden more Sustainable?

In case your garden have a soil Contamination with chemical. After receiving the confirmation from the Analyse of the Ground. If you would like to Grow Veggies in Organic Way for example, there is not so much thing you can do to change a ground that have been contaminated.

You can find more informaiton on the Following (RMC) website : (Link) some option have been given for soil contaminated to add Organic Ground ( Around 80 cm ) On the top of the soil contaminated. Sadly it’s the only possibility that can help to make it safer.

There is practically no other solution when the soil have been contaminated removing the ground will not be necessarily the best option. Cause of the Risk of Exposition but also you will need to find a place to add this ground contaminated that generally moving a problem to an other area. Remember you have to contact also your Environmental Representative from the local Borough to be able to see what happen in the garden.

Garden Science:

By reading this page you then understand the dangerousness of Chemical contamination. That’s the reason why to avoid any risk and bad chemical and soil contamination, we recommend to try to use as much as you can sustainable product to keep the Garden Safe and Better Condition. Pesticide for Gardening is not a Fatality.

I would like also to point something important, regarding chemical related to Farming or Gardening. something important is to understand the complexity of using chemical in any situation. Farming in Organic way or Industrially is completely different. Farming and Gardening is also completely different.

Chemical depending Generation are also completely different. The Glyphosate have been invented in 1970’s, Glyphosate have revolutionise the way to remove weed ( Weed Killer ) comparing to old chemical generation with Acid.
But remember even if the Glyphosate was better in term of efficiency helping also to reduce cost and quantity of product used (The main advantage of this product)

Remember that what ever you are inventing there is always way to do better. Remember also that what ever we invent there is most of the time problem of how should we use it. We simply might not know how to use it properly.

That’s bringing an other aspect to understand that sometimes:
“The problem is not what we do, but how we do.”

Science evolve and the world is changing constantly. (It’s getting better), We do not have to wait the next COP Event for Carbon Zero. The Carbon reduction is today in front of us, for the planet and our health.

“Before it was different, Now it’s different”
( Les Temps Changes, Mc Solaar )

Some people are there to help in your local “Pesticide Action Network Charity” (Link) if you need more details to find Sustainable Alternative please do not hesitate to contact them.