How to detox your home

Most of us are focused on living a healthy life whether it be exercising regularly, eating healthy foods or reducing internal toxins, however detoxing the home is an area that is commonly overlooked but can benefit your health and wellbeing greatly.

The average home contains between 500 to 1000 chemicals. From the cleaning products used weekly, to the physical walls and floors of the home, there are many toxic chemicals lurking in our possessions that surround us every day. Detoxing your home can seem overwhelming at first but if you start by making small changes, you are more likely to continue to reduce your chemical exposure over time. Changes can be as simple as swapping to natural alternatives or opening your windows more regularly to let in fresh air.

Chemical free cleaning
Cleaning is a daily household task that can significantly increase your exposure to chemicals. Most commercial cleaning products contain a concoction of harmful chemicals that are known carcinogens, skin irritants and hormone disruptors. To reduce your daily exposure to these chemicals, swap your chemical produced cleaning products to plant-based and palm oil free alternatives, or make your own.

Reducing plastic
Plastic kitchen products contain numerous toxic chemicals and when used, especially heated, can emit toxins and leach chemicals into the food or liquid contained inside. Reduce your use of plastic products in your kitchen, especially ones that contain Bisphenol A (BPA). Instead, use glass or stainless steel containers, and bamboo or wooden cooking and cleaning utensils.

Freshening the air
Reducing odours in your home is usually a top priority for every houseproud person, however commercial home fragrance products are commonly produced using a toxic concoction of synthetic fragrances. The self-regulated fragrance industry selects from over 4000 chemicals to produce their products and due to proprietary knowledge regulations, companies are not legally required to disclose the ingredients used in each product. Most of the chemicals used in this industry have previously never been tested and the ones that have been tested, are assigned a ‘safe dose’ that permits use in low quantities. This ‘safe dose’ is taken in isolation and does not account for a person’s daily exposure to other harmful chemicals. Instead of using synthetic home fragrance products, opt for 100% pure essential oils. They contain no harmful chemicals and will make your home smell fresh and inviting to any unexpected visitors. Another alternative is to regularly open your windows to refresh the air inside your home.

Creating ambiance 
Although they enhance the home’s atmosphere, most commercial scented candles contribute greatly to indoor air pollution. Most chemical produced candles are made from paraffin wax which is derived from petroleum. During the manufacturing process, the petroleum is chemically bleached and deodorised to turn it into wax. When candles containing paraffin wax are lit, they emit hazardous toxins including benzene and toluene which are both known carcinogens and comparative to the toxins in second-hand smoke. If you love the ambiance candles create, try to avoid purchasing candles that are made from chemicals and buy natural bees wax candles instead.

Detoxing your home can greatly benefit your health, the environment and save you money in the long term.

Related: Zero waste toxin free washing; Plastic free living; The health impacts of synthetic fragrance

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The health impacts of synthetic fragrance

Synthetic fragrance is now infused in the most basic household products used daily, from toothpaste and cosmetics to washing powder and bin liners. Society is suffering with the excessive use of synthetic fragrance and its effects on people with sensitivities are beginning to show. Research completed by Professor Anne Steinemann from the University of Melbourne has revealed one third of Australians experience health problems when exposed to fragrance including migraines, dizziness, nausea, skin irritation, asthma attacks and seizures.

Initially derived from flowers and used sparingly, fragrance is now chemically produced to make it more cost effective than natural versions. Over 4000 chemicals are available for the self-regulated fragrance industry to use in the production of their products, and due to proprietary knowledge regulations, the industry is not legally required to reveal the specific ingredients used in each product. Most of the chemicals used in the fragrance industry have previously never been tested for their health effects and the ones that have been tested are allocated a safe dose due to low usage levels, however this does not account for the thousands of other chemicals a person is exposed to throughout the day.

Due to the health impacts of synthetic fragrance, it is likely in the coming years fragrance in the workplace will follow the same trajectory as smoking. The study found 7.7 per cent of Australians leave work for the day or resign, and 16.7 per cent leave a shop due to illness from fragranced product exposure.

While there aren’t any laws enforcing fragrance-free workplaces in Australia, there are precautions you can take to reduce your daily exposure to these chemicals. Purchasing fragrance-free products will significantly reduce your exposure. If you are affected by fragrance within your workplace, address your concerns with management and discuss options about enforcing a fragrance-free policy within the office. To learn more about the research into the science of scent, read Kate Grenville's book The Case Against Fragrance. This insightful and thought provoking book uncovers the truth about the production of synthetic fragrance and its heath impacts on society.

Related: Cutting chemicals out of cosmetics; What toxic chemicals are in your toothpaste?; Why is BPA the only concern?

 

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Tanjung Puting orangutan sanctuary expedition

In September 1996, my mother, father and I shared a truly remarkable journey to "Camp Leakey" at the heart of Tanjung Puting National Park in the south of Kalimantan, Indonesia.  This precious place is where a young Birute Galdikas arrived in 1971 under the mentorship of Prof. Louis Leakey, beginning 42 years of relentless endeavour to save the orangutans and their forests.

Without the work of Dr Galdikas and the Orangutan Foundation International and its supporters, this tiny peninsula of jungle would certainly be clear felled like the thousands of clear-felled hectares pressing at its boundaries.  It is one of the last havens for the orangutans and the other species that share this wild jungle home, such as the proboscis monkey and toucan (read more about Dr Galdikas below).

Dr Galdikas is one of my heros and shining lights. When I question what we are doing at Biome or I struggle with the pressures of the competitive retail industry, I try to remember what she endured and achieved.  How she dared to dream, lived her dream and helped our planet.  We can't all devote our lives to such significant work in the wilds of Borneo, but we can do something to help the environment each day in the sphere over which we have control.

Avid readers of National Geographic Magazine, our family was drawn to primates and we hoped to see them up close one day.  The opportunity came to visit Camp Leakey 17 years ago while I was working in Jakarta for a public relations firm.  It was a time before the internet and mobile phones!  I remember organising the trip via a chain of land-line phone calls and messages in broken Indonesian.  There were no blogs to read the advice of other travellers.  So when we hopped off the tiny plane that flew us to Pangkalan Bun, we had very little idea of the expdetition that lay ahead.

As in most jungles of the world, rivers are the highway and so we set off on a long narrow boat called a Klotok up a small tributary of the Kumai River. Our four crew were enthusiastic and entertaining hosts. For the next few days we lived a dream.  We saw proboscis monkeys leaping from high branches to land as far as they could across the river and then swim like crazy to beat the crocodiles.  We swam in the river at Camp Leakey so smitten by the adventure we forgot about the massive crocodile we saw sunning itself earlier. One gloriously serene night our boat was lit up by a galaxy of fire flies shining from the long river reeds all around us.  And of course, we saw up close many orangutans of all ages, from playful orphans to a massive male with large cheek pads. 
                        

Feeding time at one of the stations where young orphaned orangutans are reintroduced to the jungle.

Poking her or his tummy out for a tummy tickle from me - 17 years ago!

Hee, hee ... Spot the similarities!

Breakfast on the Klotok. One of our crew, Dad and I.

As we now know so well, the orangutans' rainforest home is being destroyed for palm oil plantations and illegal logging.  There are a number of amazing organisations fighting to protect them.  Please consider volunteering your time to help them out or making a donation through sponsoring an orangutam.

Today, similar organutan tours to the one undertaken by us are run by the Orangutan Foundation International to raise vital funds to continue their work.  Some include the absolute honour of being accompanied by Dr Galdikas!

This video captures some of what we saw.  It was wonderful to come across this as we did not have any video memories of the trip. 

About Dr Birute Galdikas

In 1971, Biruté Mary Galdikas and her then husband, photographer Rod Brindamour, arrived in one of the world’s last wild places, Tanjung Puting Reserve in Borneo. There were no telephones, roads, electricity, television, nor regular mail service. The reserve was being logged and the laws protecting wildlife were not enforced. The rhinoceros had already been hunted into extinction in the area. At this time, very little was known about orangutans in the wild.  Before she left the U.S., she was told by her professors and others that it “couldn’t be done”; she wouldn’t be able to study orangutans in the wild.  They were too elusive and wary, living almost entirely in deep swamps.
Before long, however, her hard work and determination had paid off. She set up “Camp Leakey,” named after her mentor and began documenting the ecology and behavior of the wild orangutans. Four years later, she wrote the cover article for National Geographic Magazine, bringing orangutans widespread international public attention for the first time. The article was illustrated with Brindamour’s photographs.
(Ref: http://www.orangutan.org/dr-galdikas-bio#sthash.CNH7NpMW.dpuf)

Camp Leakey is the site of the longest continuous study on any primate. She has also protected one of the last havens for orangutans in Borneo despite the tremendous pressures from illegal logging and mining interests.  Read more of Dr Galdikas' life work and achievements for the orangutans

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Leaf love: beautiful heart shaped leaves

We love this great green earth. Love is everywhere ... see it in nature around you ... in the tallest of trees, in the tiniest of leaves. We wish everyone a happy day of love and appreciation for every living thing.

The photographer said "The tiny red heart-shaped leaf was one of the last clinging to a branch of this shrub, so I turned it upside down and held it up against a larger, yellowing leaf to show off it's color."  rosecottagegarden.blogspot.com.au

 Flickr gallery Twilight-Faa

 Snowflowers25.blogspot.com

Please share a link for a love heart shaped leaf you come across and we'll add it here.

Feel the need for more love??  Check out this blog post with 25 awesome hearts found in nature 

   

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Take 3 initiative & single use plastics

Story by Biome's Online Manager:  Some of the Biome team recently attended a screening of the documentary BAG IT, which was promoted by Queensland Conservation and TAKE 3.

We learned how garbage and litter flows from our waterways out to sea and the harm it causes to water birds and sea life as well as our fragile ocean eco systems.

Turtles, who apparently eat everything, are attracted to floating plastic bags because they look like jelly fish.  While, all over the Pacific, albatross chicks are fed junk by their parents who mistake pieces of plastic for food and bring them back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year thousands of baby birds die from starvation, toxicity, and choking.  Carcases of these birds are found decaying with bits of plastic sitting in their stomach cavities still perfectly in tact.

 

TAKE 3 is “A Clean Beach Initiative” where you are encouraged to take at least 3 pieces of rubbish when you leave the beach, waterway or anywhere. You may not have put the rubbish there but you have the ability to take it away and make a difference. If we participate in this simple act and pass on this message we can help stop the damage our litter is causing to our fragile oceans and waterways.

There is no "away"

The documentary BAG IT is a light hearted look at the effect our addiction to single use packaging has in the world. We saw that although we think we are doing the “right thing” by recycling, most plastics are in fact not recyclable and get filtered into landfill.  Further, a huge amount of our “unwashed” plastics are being shipped to China and India to be processed in deplorable conditons.  Container ships are full when they come here carrying fast moving consumer goods, but they are empty on the return leg.  This makes it an inexpensive prospect to ship our garbage around the world to be processed by cheap labour, starting with sorting the heaps of stinking waste.  

The better solution is clearly to avoid plastics in the first place, or to re-use plastics many times before they are sent to "recycling".

Things you can do

• TAKE 3 - pick up other people's rubbish. We can greatly reduce the amount of marine debris in our oceans by preventing it from getting there in the first place.
• Reduce & re-use - use your reusable shopping bags and Onya Weigh grocery bags instead of plastic bags.
• Take your own container to the grocery store and shop from the Deli for meats and cheeses, or take them to the take-away from where you buy lunch and Friday night Thai. You can use stainless steel lunchboxes or glass containers that are BPA free.  
• Sign a petition to support the introduction of acontainer deposit system in Australia which will significantly increase the recycling rates of glass, plastic and aluminium drink containers. 
• Small plastic caps are not recyclable for many reasons, so although it's hard to believe, the responsible consumers are the ones who throw their plastic caps and lids into the rubbish instead of the recycling bin!  For this reason, try not to buy things with small plastic lids or get creative with them instead of throwing them away. 
• Watch the BAG IT documentary.  Find our where it is screening in Australia hosted by Tim Silverwood or visit the official BAG IT movie site.

 

You know how handmade soap gets all goopey on a soap dish? It’s because the soap sits in water and makes your lovely soap disappear faster. You can make this little soap dish with plastic lids that would usually be thrown away, to keep your soap dry by allowing excess water to drain away faster.

Here's another cool way to reuse your plastic drink bottles and lids. Vertical herb gardens are great for small spaces like balconies. 

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Essential oils for Christmas

Tea light candle holders made from Australian Banksia seed pods

Diffusing essentials oils in your home at Christmas will not only help with creating a lovely festive aroma, but they can encourage a calm and relaxed state of being - a special gift at this busy time of year!

Although we have a hot Christmas in Australia, we still love the warming and woody oils traditionally associated with Winter in the northern hemisphere like Pine, Cinnamon, Cedarwoord, Clove oil and Nutmeg.  

For a lovely festive blend mix a spicy oil like Cinnamon with a gentle citrus oil like Sweet Orange, Mandarin, Lemon or Tangerine. Only a small amount of spicy oils should be used as they can be over-powering and irritating.  Avoid contact with the skin also.

The mix of spice and citrus is familar to those who have smelt a traditional Clove Pomander, used for generations to mask smells and add to festive decorations.  These are typically a citrus fruit such as orange, spiked all over with black clove heads and then hung with a red ribbon.

You can play with any combination of mints, such as Peppermint or Eucalytpus with woody oils, citrus and spice.

Banksia scent pots $13.95

Place the oils in one of Biome's hand turned Banksia scent pots, an oil burner or vaporiser.  Banksia is a particularly porous material that will soak up the essential oils and fragrance your room for weeks before needing to add more oil.

See Biome's essential oils here, plus we have a greater selection in our stores.

The Thurlby Scents of Christmas sachet ($7.95) is another lovely idea for your home or a gift.  This Australian-made natural fragrance sachet can hang on the tree or anywhere. 

Queen B Christmas beeswax candles

For creating a beautiful festive atmosphere, candles are the centrepiece.  Choose Australian beeswax candles for their purity and eco-friendliness.  Queen B offers gorgeous beeswax candle designs for Christmas with Christmas Trees, Jolly Santa and Mary, Joseph & Baby Jesus.

Don't forget the essential oils for relaxtion to help you through the busy festive schedule.  Try the Mt Retour certified organic relaxing blend or Mandarin, which is meant to relax, sooth and calm restlessness, especially for hyperactivity in children.  What parent doesn't need that at this time?

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Cooloola Great Walk opens: 5 day trek from Noosa to Rainbow Beach

The new Cooloola Great Walk is set to become one of Australia's iconic long distance walking tracks attracting international and local bush walkers to Queensland.

The 102km Cooloola Great Walk links the Noosa North Shore to Rainbow Beach via the eastern high dunes, the upper Noosa River, Poona Lake and Carlo Sand Blow, with an optional route via Double Island Point.

Showcasing the outstanding natural attractions of the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park, the track winds through rainforest, tall eucalypt forest, dry coastal woodland and heath plains.

You can undertake the full 5 day trek or a shorter walk by joining at several entry points.  The designated overnight camp sites must be booked. A lovely two day walk can be undertaken from Rainbow Beach to Freshwater, where you camp overnight and then walk back.  If you love cool, fresh water when bush walking, you won't be disappointed by the upper Noosa River, Lake Cooloomera, Freshwater Lake and Poona Lake along the way.

From Rainbow Beach, keen walkers can hike another 13km to Inskip Point and catch the barge across to link up with the Fraser Island Great Walk!

We recently explored the Carlo Sand Blow, which is at the Rainbow Beach end of the Great Walk.  Here's just a glimpse of the beautiful wildflowers and plants you can expect to see along the way.

Coastal bush sculpted by the wind.  View looking across Carlo Sand Blow. On the opposite hill you can see a track where people slide down the dune and tiny specks of people!

Interesting links
All the Great Walks of Queensland
Construction of the Cooloola Great Walk
More about Rainbow Beach

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The "top end" of Australia has taken our breath away

We are so fortunate to live in Australia and enjoy its immense natural beauty - but I had not realised until now just how incredible the land is around Darwin, Litchfield and of course World Heritage Kakadu. We are on a family camping trip around the region and every day opens the door to a magical world.

Here are the children snorkelling in Bitter Springs, a setting so surreal it seems to have been landscaped. Fresh, warm and crystal clear water from an underground spring flows gently along a sandy course through reeds and lush bush. An Azure Kingfisher skims overhead as we drift, watching the underwater life. Apparently there are no crocodiles in residence - although they are omnipresent around here and have caused me great apprehension! We swam in many inviting waterfalls where it was signed as safe. The management of the National Parks from a visitor's point of view has been outstanding.

Today we joined a sunrise cruise on Yellow Water billabong in Kakadu. Experiencing the morning symphony of animals, birds and plant life was exhilarating. It was abuzz with crocodiles (one of the 17 we counted lurks below) and birds, like the regal Jabiru and Brolgas. We finished the day looking at ancient rock art and watching the sunset over the Kakadu wetlands at Ubirr.

Re-connecting with the raw beauty of our environment helps to reinvigorate our passion for eco friendly living and what we believe in at Biome. In the city it's too easy to feel distant from why we need to conserve water, save forests and reduce emissions.

Should you have any travel questions about what we did and saw, please post a comment.

WIN a $50 voucher with your photos >> On our Facebook page, we're inviting you to share an experience with nature that inspired you to live a more eco friendly life and you could win a $50 voucher.

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A wander through coastal woodland of Scribbly Gum & Banksia

Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park, near Rainbow Beach, Queensland

Once at threat from sand-mining, this stunning area stretches from the north shore of the Noosa River, along beaches backed by high dunes, open wallum heathland, woodlands of scribbly gum and banksia, shady blackbutt forests, rainforests and tranquil lakes, to the mangrove lined fish habitats of the Tin Can Bay inlet. The coloured sands, Carlo Sand Blow and Double Island Point lighthouse are popular attractions. Our family explored the area over the school holidays.
house

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Remarkable Rocks, Kangaroo Island

Remarkable Rocks in Flinders Chase National Park, Kangaroo Island, South Australia

A recent family holiday on Kangaroo Island was the perfect recharge - beach, wildlife, spectacular natural wonders, fascinating history and local food. This remarkable cluster of massive boulders has been sculpted by the elements. They perch miraculously on a granite dome right at the end of a peninsula.

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