Book Review

Home Safe Home: Protecting Yourself and Your Family from Everyday Toxics and Harmful Household Products by Debra Lynn Dadd (Tarcher/Putnam, June 1997)

In 1987, an EPA task force found that some of the greatest dangers we face are household ones, including indoor air pollution from radon, space heaters, gas ranges, pesticides, and cleaning solutions. Author Debra Lynn Dadd puts it bluntly: "Your greatest exposure to toxic substances is right at home."

She should know. In 1980, while working as a classical musician, Dadd suffered a severe breakdown of the immune system caused in part, she says, by "heavy chemical exposure." Convinced that her illness stemmed from exposure to household toxics, she began researching the chemicals in many products; she also started a list of natural and less harmful alternatives. Seventeen years later, Dadd is a healthy and truly educated consumer, and we have the benefit of her experience.

Home Safe Home, Dadd's informative and readable sixth book, offers over four hundred tips for limiting exposure to toxic chemicals, including advice on label-reading, do-it-yourself "safe solutions," and mail-order resources for "safe products." Chapter topics progress from the obviously dangerous--indoor air pollution, pesticides, and contaminated drinking water--to home-office and art supplies. (Medications, cosmetics, food, textiles, furnishings, pets, and child care are also covered.) Dadd provides useful lists of relevant government agencies, and environmental and health organizations.

Though very practical, this book is not very scientific. Often Dadd does not bother to document the toxic effects of the chemicals we should avoid, but merely suggests that long-term exposure is probably dangerous. To be fair, she is not trying to prove the science behind her claims but rather to point out alternatives that are more natural (like using vinegar instead of ammonia to clean glass). For readers (like this one) who want to become safer consumers, this is a very interesting introduction.