15 Household Toxins That Are Hurting Your Health

It can cost a lot to keep our homes clean, including in terms of our health. A lot of the products that we use every day to create a welcoming living space are actually doing harm to our bodies.

For example, sprays and cleaners used to clean carpets and upholstered furniture, like sofas and comfy chairs, contain perchloroethylene, a neurotoxin and chemical that the Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a carcinogen. It's also a chemical used at the dry cleaners.

Most antibacterial liquid dishwashing detergents contain triclosan, which is so aggressively antibacterial that it can promote the growth of drug-resistant bacteria, according to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes we've made health-wise in the last couple of decades is the use and overuse of antibacterial soaps and washes. They've promoted the development of resistant microbes and do not make us healthier or safer.

Quaternary ammonium compounds, found in liquid fabric softeners and sheets, also have an antimicrobial effect and breed resistant microbes. They can also irritate the skin and, according to research, may be the cause of certain respiratory problems.

Window and glass cleaners leave everything looking so clean and shiny thanks to butoxyethanol. It's what gives them that kind of sweet smell. If inhaled, though, it can irritate your throat. If inhaled in large enough amounts, it can cause kidney problems.

Ammonia is a great cleaner because it doesn't leave streaks. It's a health problem because it's a really strong irritant and exacerbates breathing issues for people with asthma and other breathing problems (especially in the elderly).

Chlorine-based cleaning products, including ones for the toilet, are a health risk waiting to happen. We're exposed to it anyway, since it's used to treat the water that comes into our homes, but it is a respiratory irritant. Your exposure is intensified when it comes in jugs for mopping and cleaning the house.

Cleaning an oven is made super easy with all of the oven-cleaning products on the shelves. While they're good at getting at the baked-on grime, they're also pretty toxic. The active ingredient, sodium hydroxide (know as lye), is very corrosive and causes severe burns if it gets on your skin or in your eyes. If you breathe it in, you can have a sore throat that lasts for several days—never a good sign.

We have to take care of our pets, but a lot of the products are toxic for humans. Many flea and tick treatments have pesticides that contain chemicals like imidacloprid, fipronil, pyrethrins, permethrin and methoprene—which cause headaches, dizziness and nausea in humans.

Like pet treatments, insecticides contain similar toxic chemicals. They also often have diazinon, propoxur and chlorpyrifos, which cause headaches, dizziness and nausea.

It's much easier to pour chemicals down the drain than to call a plumber or snake a pipe. But those drain-cleaning chemicals, which are mostly lye- and sulfuric acid-based, can burn the skin and eyes. If they are swallowed, they can severely damage the esophagus and stomach. The sulfuric acid can damage the kidneys, liver and digestive tract. The fumes for both are dangerous for the eyes.

Laundry detergents contain products that have enzymes that clean clothes by loosening stains and dirt from the fabric fibers. But if ingested, they're dangerous and can cause vomiting and shock, convulsions and even coma.

Getting out mold and mildew is hard and relentless work, so any product that can make it easier seems like a good thing. But these products tend to contain chlorine and alkyl ammonium chlorides, which are common fungus killers. They also cause breathing problems if inhaled and can burn the throat if ingested.

Despite their awful smell, mothballs are still frequently used to prevent chewed-up sweaters. But the chemicals that keep moths away—naphthalene and p-dichlorobenzene—are super toxic. Breathing their fumes can cause headaches and dizziness. They also irritate the eyes and skin and can potentially cause cataracts and liver damage.

Toilet paper? Depending on the type you're using, it could contain toxic chemicals. In addition to chlorine (it's usually super white, after all), it can also contain bisphenol A (BPA), which is a known endocrine disruptor.

Furniture polish tends to contain petroleum products and also ammonia, naphtha, nitrobenzene, petroleum distillates and phenol—all of which can irritate your skin, eyes, throat, lungs and windpipe.