A few days ago a reader comments on last week’s post Thermafoil Kitchen Cabinets and Offgassing saying:
I feel duly chastised. We too, moved into our home and didn’t check the cabinets.
We removed old carpet throughout entire home which cost a fortune to redo with tile. We completely re-did (3) toxic bathrooms, and removed tons of toxic cabinetry from the garage which was being used as a workshop. We simply ran out of money.
After we moved in, I discovered the previous owner had put these kitchen cabinets in himself approx. 5 years prior. When opening the cabinets I saw that the back part looked thin and like an mdf. Yes, mortified…
But kitchens are expensive to remodel and we had to stop somewhere.
When finances permit, I’d love to rip out these cabinets. In the meantime, I’ve gotten better living here so I will go out on a limb and say I don’t think I’m being too poisoned by them. Hence, we air out the house often and use air purifiers. For now, it has to suffice.
And I replied:
For me (and I’m not saying you have to do this), I have always operated on “get rid of the exposure first and then figure out how to replace the item with something nontoxic.” Even if that means not a beautiful kitchen, but just a make-do one.
As I’ve written before, currently I’m living with Larry’s family, helping to care for his 85-year-old mom after her husband’s death last year. She’s totally happy to share her kitchen with me, but the logistics just weren’t workable. I’m using a room in a separate building on the property for my office, and Larry built a kitchen for me in the alcove.
Perhaps “kitchen” is not exactly the right word, but it’s a food preparation area with a sink unit I got from IKEA, an apartment-size refrigerator, an island with a butcher-block top and an induction burner. I prepare most of our food here. And some used wood shelves. Investments was less than $500 and all totally nontoxic. Mostly used.
So if it were me, I would rip out your toxic kitchen and be safe, and rebuild as you can afford to.
I’ve been wanting to write about my kitchen but it’s not quite done (needs some sufficient lighting and a beautiful spice rack is in progress from Larry).
Larry put this together for me on a shoestring budget in an alcove of a room we share for an office.
We started with a wall unit from iKEA that has a sink, countertop and shelf, under $200. I’d give you the link but couldn’t find it online so maybe they are no longer selling it.
Then we installed some wooden shelves above. We just got the brackets and wood shelving at a local hardware store. No finish.
We had to do some plumbing to connect to the pipe on the other side of the wall.
We got a used apartment-sized refrigerator in perfect condition (outgassed) from a young couple who were moving and had to sell it that day. $50.
It’s sitting on top of a low wood table (you can’t see it in the picture) that was left by the roadside. Free.
The butcher block island we brought from our house in Florida. Originally about $200 from IKEA but I consider it free because we had been planning to sell it.
Around the left corner there is a tall and wide solid wood shelving unit that we got free just for hauling it away.
We already had the induction cooktop from our kitchen in Florida, and our dehydrator (which at the moment is dehydrating organic peaches from the farmer’s market), and our toaster oven. If we need a full size oven we use Larry’s mom’s oven in the main house.
All of this for less than $500. Perfect? No. Workable? Yes. And totally toxic-free.
It can be done when toxic-free is your priority.
I want to be clear this is temporary. I’ve also remodeled some beautiful full-size toxic-free kitchens.
But the point is, I make toxic-free my first priority. Always. And so my exposure to toxic chemicals is extremely low and infrequent.
Debra,
May I ask what brand of toaster oven you have? Were you able to find one without a non-stick interior? All of them I have seen have a non-stick interior, and even if they say they are “ceramic”, I’ve learned from your website to beware…… So I don’t have one, though I would love to find a non-toxic one. And if you don’t mind, could you share your brand of dehydrator? Thanks!
Cuisinart toaster oven, but I’ve had it at least 10 years.
Excalibur dehydrator.
Hi Debra,
You mentioned you had the Cuisinart toaster oven for at least 10 years. So, the non-stick coating, whatever it may be, is outgassed and considered safe even when heated? Also, is there a toaster/toaster oven that you could recommend new? Thanks!
I can’t say with any certainty that my toaster oven does or does not have a nonstick finish. There is some kind of finish on the metal interiors but it’s not like the plastic-feel finish that you find on cookware.
I haven’t looked at toaster ovens recently, but I’m not aware that anything has changed, except that all nonstick finishes are now made differently, without the toxic components of Teflon.
I was never concerned about this toaster oven. It never had an odor, even when new.
In my own life, I eliminate every toxic exposure that I am able to eliminate. Sometimes I have to decide if I am going to use something that may have some unknown toxic exposure or if I am just going to not use that type of product altogether. We all have to “pick our poisons’ so to speak—if we are going to be exposed or how much exposure or how often.
We can create toxic-free homes but then we walk out into the toxic world. At this point it’s not possible to create a toxic-free life and still be in the world.
So I do what I can do to eliminate toxic exposures I have control over and then support my body with good nutrition, exercise, detox, breathing clean air, and other things that offset the exposures I knowingly choose to have so I can have a life.
You don’t need to be 100% toxic-free. You need to be as toxic-free as you need to be to make the toxic effects less than the health effects and so be healthy. And that’s going to be different for each individual.
My best recommendation is to always eliminate as many toxic exposures as you can. And that way you have the best chance of coming out ahead.
All that said, I rarely use my toaster oven. Most food I eat raw or cook in a toxic-free pot. I’ve changed the way I cook and eat a lot. Way “out of the box” now.
Hi Debra,
Very encouraging and amazing to know what can be achieved when you commit to a goal.
On the topic of IKEA, I must say their disclosure practices for toxic chemicals even when legally required to be EU REACH laws is atrocious. I contacted them via email about their furniture and mattresses wanting to know which if any products still contain PFCs. I kept getting emails every few months telling me they will respond as soon as they can. It was only after 6 months that a reply came to me that was basically devoid of any useful information and just a PR statement written by a lawyer. I believe PFCs in certain forms will be banned in the EU but not until a few years from now.
Disclosure is atrocious almost everywhere. I’m working on that.