Inspired by lung cancer awareness month, let’s choose one detox tweak that unburdens our lungs.

This week: edit your spray products. Search your home while responding to the question: How many spray products in my home are unused? 

Then discard those responsibly, and note how many you eliminated from your home. Feel proud because they are potential sources of toxic fumes—even if they are unused! Let me know how it goes @ruanliving on Instagram or Facebook.

Spray products often contain risky chemicals that can off-gas even if unused. Used, chemical ingredients can be inhaled easily as they are suspended in the air, or settle onto surfaces to be inhaled or absorbed later as dust. Once in our bodies, their journeys and impact are a risky mystery. So, before buying spray products:

• Read product labels for "fragrance" or other risky chemical ingredients.
• Check the database at the Environmental Working Group (EWG) for more details on what to avoid and look up "Hazard Scores" for products you're interested in buying.
• Then, ask yourself again of spray products, Do I love or need it? Are the risks worthwhile? Please feel empowered by your informed choices.
• Consider buying Home Detox Workbook: Checklists to Eliminate Toxic Chemicals (Amazon paid link) to track your research. It contains an Air Detox section as well as pages for you to track your EWG Hazard Scores and other shopping notes for conscious consumers.
• For more personalized assistance, check out the online D-Tox Academy (it includes a private Q&A forum) and other Ruan Living Offerings.

 

 

 

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Love Test

As you learn more, just keeping asking yourself, Do I love or need it? This is the "Love Test." Discard responsibly what fails the Love Test.

Home Detox Workbook: Checklists to Eliminate Toxic Chemicals (Amazon paid link) contains more tips on how to manage the risks from what survives the Love Test.

Use the "Love Test" to detox what you buy, own, and do. This sets you up for a sustainable practical nontoxic lifestyle because it is a balanced approach that protects your joy and convenience. 

 

 

 

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Check out my recent Instagram Live with Practical Nontoxic Living podcast guest, Reina Honts, lung cancer survivor and Lung Cancer Research Foundation Board Member. We talk about the spray products in our homes that survived the Love Test.

 

 

 

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Recommended Resources

• Listen to my Practical Nontoxic Living podcast with Reina (episode 29): "If you have lungs, you can get lung cancer."
• Check out Sophia's air purifier (10% discount code SOPHIA102924 at checkout here).
• Home Detox Workbook: Checklists to Eliminate Toxic Chemicals (Amazon paid link). Available worldwide on Amazon.
• For more personalized assistance, check out the online D-Tox Academy.