If my couch is healthy, I'm healthy

By my estimation, the average American probably spends somewhere between 700 and 1000 hours a year on his or her couch.  Watching TV, napping, reading, relaxing after a long day; some of us (Jake and I are guilty!) even have meals there.  Most of us don't give much thought to the close relationships we've developed with our furniture, but it is a fact that we are intimately involved.  So it only seems natural that we'd expect an object we're in such close contact with every day to be made of materials that won't harm us.  Unfortunately, Green Daily just mentioned a new report that links an ingredient in more than 2/3 of California furniture to birth defects and cancer.  The chemical, called PBDE (a type of bromide) seeps into the bloodstreams of pregnant women, affecting the fetus or baby via the umbilical cord or breast milk.  This toxin has even been affecting the cats who snuggle with us.

So that begs the observation: if California is noticing this problem in household furniture (and still hasn't resolved it via legislature), imagine what that says about my couch here in North Carolina, one of the largest furniture-producing states around.  My solution?  The next couch we buy (which will be very soon) will be a green one!