March 28, 2002 – If a safe and healthy home is on your list of priorities, mark your calendar for one of the free "Safe and Healthy Home Workshops" offered by the University of the Virgin Islands Cooperative Extension Service.
They will be held:
– On St. Croix from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at UVI's Research and Extension Building, Room 133.
– On St. John from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Cooperative Extension office located upstairs from Fashion Palace.
– On St. Thomas from 5:30 to 7 p.m. April 4 in the Cooperative Extension Service building conference room up the hill on the UVI campus.
The workshops will provide information about chemicals found in common household products and their potential health effects and pollution problems; alternative products or recipes that can be used for household cleaning; how to get rid of household hazardous wastes and toxic products; and methods for evaluating your home for pollution potential.
Extension agent Dale Morton, who is running the workshops, said most people would be surprised to know where they'll find things that can make them sick. For example, new no-iron sheets are treated with formaldehyde to make them resist wrinkles. If you don't wash them before you put them on your bed, you're not only breathing in the formaldehyde but absorbing it through your skin. "Your body heat makes it volatile," he said.
He said problems of that sort are one reason the number of people suffering from allergies is on the increase.
For more information, call Julie Wright at 693-1082 or Morton at 693-1086.
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