We talk a lot about pollution around here, but what about the environment inside your home? Most of us spend a good bit of each day indoors, and your house's indoor air quality can be just as damaging to your health as outdoor air pollution.

Why Indoor Air Quality Matters

According to EPA, indoor air pollution can harm your health immediately, or there can be a delay in the effects of poor indoor air quality. For example, if you introduce something toxic, like paint or furniture sealer, to your indoor environment, you might get a sore throat or itchy eyes immediately. Indoor air pollution can even cause problems like asthma.

Delayed effects can take time to show up, and they're often associated with long-term exposure to poor quality air. These problems can range form respiratory disease to cancer or even death. So, how can you improve your home's indoor air quality for better health?

How to Improve Indoor Air Quality

There are two ways to battle poor air quality in your house: by choosing non-toxic materials and by actively cleaning the air. Products like paints, plastics, even furniture and fabrics produce fumes that can harm your health. Whenever possible, you want to choose products that are healthy for your home. If you think your indoor air quality is already pretty bad, there are some proactive things you can do to help improve it.

1. Choose zero VOC paints and low-voc primers and sealers.

2. When shopping for furniture, avoid pressboard as much as you can. Pressboard contains formaldehyde, which can off-gas into your home.

3. Avoid flame retardant fabrics, since these also off gas harmful chemicals into the air.

4. Ditch the plastic, especially PVC. Yap, more off gassing! PVC turns up in the most unlikely places. Last year, I learned that our artificial tree (we got it second hand) was made from PVC.

5. Dust and clean. I know, deep cleaning is a pain, but taking some time to dust and wipe down surfaces can prevent mold, which is linked to asthma.

6. Choose plants. Certain plants can help improve your indoor air quality.

7. Air it out. It may sound simple, but airing out your house periodically can help a lot. Open those windows, turn up those fans, and get that stale air outta there!

8. Clean your ducts. If you have central air conditioning, get your ducts cleaned once a year. Not only will your system run more efficiently, but cleanings help prevent mold from growing in your HVAC system.

9. Ditch the fragrance. Scented products like air freshener, Febreeze, and even dryer sheets use toxic chemicals to make those artificial smells. Go for essential oils and fresh herbs instead.

What do you do to improve your home's indoor air quality? Let's share more tips in the comments!

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by Jay_Dee_92

Gloria who said, "I am very curious about the shampoo bar, and would be really interested in trying one!"

We'll get in touch with you ASAP, so that you can claim your prize!

The lovely ladies at Greyslater have offered up a set of organic no-bottle shampoo and conditioners to one Green Upgrader reader, and there are still a few days left to win!

It doesn't make a lot of sense to spring for pricey organic shampoos that come in a single use plastic bottle, right? The no-bottle shampoo and conditioner from Gear Head leaves the waste behind by changing the shape of shampoo.

The gals at Greyslater, a brand new online eco-boutique,  just launched their site last month, and the Gear Head shampoo and conditioner bars were some of the first products they featured. They want to give away the shampoo bar and conditioning bar, plus a mesh bag to hang them in the shower. The conditioning bar is actually 2-in-1, and if they're kept dry between uses (thus the bag), the bars will last as long as two regular 8oz bottles of shampoo.

How to Enter

Pretty awesome, right? There are a few ways to enter, and each one gets your name in the hat, so do one, a couple, or all of these!

• Tell us your favorite product in the Greyslater shop (leave your comment on the original post).
• Follow Green Upgrader on Facebook and let us know with a comment on the original post.
• Follow us on Twitter and leave a comment on the original post letting us know.
• Follow Greyslater on Twitter and let us know with a comment on the original post.
• Like Greyslater on Facebook, and let us know with a comment on the original post.

Just remember to leave a comment on the original post for each thing that you do, so that we can be sure to count all of your entries. We'll choose a winner on Monday, January 9th!

Remember those waste-free organic shampoo and conditioner bars I talked about a couple of weeks ago? The lovely ladies at Greyslater have offered up a set to one Green Upgrader reader!

It doesn't make a lot of sense to spring for pricey organic shampoos that come in a single use plastic bottle, right? The no-bottle shampoo and conditioner from Gear Head leaves the waste behind by changing the shape of shampoo.

The gals at Greyslater, a brand new online eco-boutique, just launched their site last month, and the Gear Head shampoo and conditioner bars were some of the first products they featured. They want to give away the shampoo bar and conditioning bar, plus a mesh bag to hang them in the shower. The conditioning bar is actually 2-in-1, and if they're kept dry between uses (thus the bag), the bars will last as long as two regular 8oz bottles of shampoo.

How to Enter

Pretty awesome, right? There are a few ways to enter, and each one gets your name in the hat, so do one, a couple, or all of these!

• Tell us your favorite product in the Greyslater shop.
• Follow Green Upgrader on Facebook and let us know with a comment here.
• Follow us on Twitter and leave a comment here letting us know.
• Follow Greyslater on Twitter and let us know with a comment here.
• Like Greyslater on Facebook, and let us know with a comment here.

Just remember to leave a comment for each thing that you do, so that we can be sure to count all of your entries. We'll choose a winner on Monday, January 9th!

Awesome Chicago duo Katya Siddall and Natalie Slater launched Greyslater, an online eco-boutique, to support local artisans, small businesses, and manufacturers of made in the USA products.

This is just the beta launch for Greyslater, so they're carrying just a select few products and Natalie was kind enough to contact me about the soft launch. She recommended their no-bottle shampoo from Gear Head. I do the no 'poo thing, but for folks who aren't ready to make the leap but want to reduce their haircare waste, I think it's a great option!

No-Bottle Shampoo

Shampoo bars are nothing new, but Gear Head Shampoo gives the shampoo bar a facelift with their super cute no-bottle shampoos. Like they point out on the site, it's a little bit ironic to spend the big bucks on organic shampoos that come in a single use plastic bottle.

The shampoo itself is organic and totally vegan (or "totes vegers," as my pal Rob likes to say), so you can feel as good about the shampoo bar as you do about the packaging. It's also handmade in Chicago, which means that you're supporting a handmade artisan when you wash your hair with Gear Head.

Greyslater carries the Gear Head citrus shampoo and conditioner bars along with other ethical and reusable goodies.

How many of you guys are doing the no poo thing? It's been just about a year since I went back to shampoo free life, and I'm loving it!

New to No 'Poo?

No Poo is short for No Shampoo, and refers to a hair car method where you "wash" your hair with a baking soda solution and rinse with diluted vinegar.

To start, you massage your diluted baking soda into your hair, let it sit for a few minutes, then rinse. Follow that up with your vinegar solution, and rinse that out well. The ratio of baking soda to water and vinegar to water depends on your hair type and the climate where you live, so it's best to experiment until you get it how you like. To start, I'd try 1T baking soda in 1/2c water and the same ratio of vinegar to water. If your hair is greasy, up the baking soda. If it's dry, back off the baking soda and try more vinegar.

No 'Poo White Vinegar Experiment

We got a reader question about the vinegar part of the no 'poo regimen, and it was so interesting I thought I'd do a little experiment! First off, here's the question:

I was wondering why you recommend ACV over white vinegar? Any benefits of one over the other?

Honestly, I'd been using apple cider vinegar (ACV) because that's what I've always used, but it does have its down sides. ACV costs more than white vinegar and it has a much stronger smell, in my opinion. After a little googling to make sure it wouldn't make my hair fall out, I decided to swap in white vinegar in place of my regular ACV.

It's been about 3 weeks or so since I made the switch and I don't really notice any difference. I haven't changed the amounts I'm using, so my very unscientific conclusion here is that swapping out vinegars is just fine, if you prefer white vinegar over ACV. My husband is very sensitive to vinegary smells, so I think I might stick with the white vinegar. The smell seems to take less time to fade than with the ACV, which is nice.

I'd love to hear about your no poo experiences. Share away in the comments! There are also some great tips for different hair types in the comments on my no poo post from last June.

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by cafemama

Recent fluctuating reports that dangerous levels of radiation have been detected in Japanese food and water have many people concerned.

The Fukushima explosion is the worst nuclear disaster in Japan since World War II.  This situation comes on the heels of—not one, but two—natural disasters, and the in the midst of this crisis, questions undoubtedly arise about the safety of radiation exposure.

Also check out: Japan Earthquake Relief - Five Ways You Can Donate To Help

The following infographic is the aggregation of numerous sources that are authorities on radiation (see references). It details the threat levels of radiation exposure from events like the Fukushima explosion down to a dental x-ray.

(Click image to expand)

Created by Geary Interactive, a digital marketing agency