The indoor solution

Sure, you’ve heard of “sick building syndrome” -- the idea that the buildings we live in can make us ill. Tenants have alleged just that in a slew of recent public lawsuits. But you obsessively clean your house, so this can’t happen to you, right?

Wrong, writes Athena Thompson. Even the cleanest home is filled with toxic chemicals and materials, she says, and even the most conscientious homeowners can make themselves and their loved ones sick if they don’t try to detoxify their home. Some scientists and green theorists suggest a link between the rising rates of various childhood diseases and children spending so much time in polluted indoor environments.

It’s surprising to find that all this bad news makes for kind of fun reading. Explanatory passages are interspersed with fictionalized scenarios that may evoke some giggles. In the end, this is less a doomsday analysis than a fun, practical -- and inspiring -- guidebook.

Steven Barrie-Anthony