A Framework for Assessing Any Health Risk in Your Home

Three Exceptions

If you’re up for injecting a little complexity into the above, there are three times when the six-step framework calls for a little more nuance.

1. Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

Sunscreen contains chemicals that absorb through skin (risk) but it also prevents skin cancer (benefit.) X-rays involve radiation exposure (risk) and enable life-saving diagnoses (benefit.) A possibly-lead-containing vintage lamp (risk) from your grandma reminds you of her (benefit) so you keep it on your shelf. In short, even if you get to the end of the framework and some risk is present, you may decide there’s enough benefit outweighing it. This depends on your unique risk tolerance level and personality, and the answers won’t be the same for everyone.

2. Before You: The Workers Making It

Here is where it starts getting a little more tricky: every product has a life before it reaches you. The chemicals used to process textiles, treat wood, apply coatings, or manufacture foam are often present in much higher concentrations in the factory they’re made in than they ever will be in your home. Workers in these facilities are exposed at levels that dwarf what you'll encounter as an end user. This is why Prop 65 warnings sometimes say more about factory conditions than about your living room, and why certifications like GOTS matter beyond what's in the final product: they set standards for the entire production process, including what workers are exposed to.

What's healthy for you as the end user isn't always the healthiest option for the people making it. It’s worth keeping in mind, even if the answer isn’t always clear or consistent, and doesn't change your immediate purchasing decision.

3. After You: Other People and The Environment

The trickiest caveat of all: the chemicals in a product you discard don't disappear. They enter landfills, wastewater treatment, soil, and water systems, and eventually some cycle back into the food and water supply. PFAS in particular are notorious for this: they've been found in drinking water far from any known point source, carried there through the water cycle.

This is part of why avoiding certain chemical classes matters at a societal level even when individual exposures seem small, and why buying only what you need matters. This is a major criticism of the wellness world, and I understand why.

An example: an OEKO-TEX certified polyester blanket poses relatively low risk to your health, and its accessibility compared to organic alternatives is important. But polyester is petroleum-derived, and the extraction and refinement involved carries costs for the planet and the communities near those facilities, as well as the landfill that will contain it in the future, because polyester is a plastic that doesn’t break down easily. This is not an argument against buying OEKO TEX certified polyester. It's an acknowledgment that buying healthier products for your home isn't a complete answer to a much larger question. That conversation is global, political, and ethical, and well beyond what a few paragraphs here can resolve. But, I think it’s important for all of us to consider, and it’s important to me that you know I’m aware of this complexity.