Home Improvement | Green Furniture Guide :: By Christine Dunbar ...

Going green without going toxic

Many people today are ?going green? in a variety of manners. One more way to go green is with your furniture. Wood furniture is naturally better for the environment, but jumping the gun and simply buying all the wooden furniture you set your eyes on can be a mistake. The air inside our home is filled with pollutants, and choosing the wrong furniture can increase the levels even more.

Many chemicals used in wood furniture can volatilize. This is a process when, even at room temperature, certain chemicals locked within the wood such as glues, paints, and varnishes are released into the air where they then travel into our lungs. These airborne chemicals can cause asthma, allergies, and even cancer over time. Because of this you should take the extra time to actually find out what is in that new wood furniture you have been looking at.

Plywood and particleboard are often made with scraps such as saw dust and wood chips. While this is considered a green material because of the composition it may not be best suited for your new couch. Often times the glues that hold these materials together can volatilize and enter the air. If considering plywood for indoor furniture make sure to ask the retailer what kind of binding agent it is made with. If the adhesives used in the material are water based it should be safe, however if it use a chemical adhesive, or you can't find the information it is recommended that you skip that particular item.

In fact any time you are looking at wood furniture it is a good idea to learn about what holds it together as chemical adhesives are some of the most used on the market. Even if your chairs are made of regular maple they may still be held together by these dangerous chemical glues.

Paint and varnish also are known to have highly volatile chemicals in them that can enter the air, and become hazards to our health. Read the labels of any paints or staining products and find out if you should worry about the chemicals in them becoming air born. A simple rule to remember is that if it stinks it's probably laden with chemicals which may find their way into your lungs.

Some people avoid this danger by buying unfinished furniture as these have no coatings on them which may become dangerous in home pollutants. Another way to help avoid the danger of these chemicals is to buy vintage furniture, so long as it has not recently been refinished, as time has degraded the dangerous chemicals which may have been originally used when the item was made. With both these choices you can choose the finish or paint you desire to use so that you are aware of any risks of volatile chemicals.

While going green is always a good idea we must be very careful that we are not putting ourselves in danger while we attempt to help the environment.

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Article Added on Saturday, February 25, 2012

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