How can you reduce PFAS exposure from food without turning grocery shopping into another source of stress?

In this short Practical Nontoxic Living™ episode, Elizabeth and I look at some of the ways PFAS, or "forever chemicals," can enter our food environment—through contaminated water and soil, certain foods, food-contact materials, and other pathways.

Rather than trying to identify one perfectly "clean" diet, we focus on practical ways to reduce recurring exposures while still eating and shopping normally.

In this episode:

• Why PFAS can show up in food and drinking water

• Why contamination can vary by food, source, geography, and production practices

• Which food-related exposure pathways may be worth paying more attention to

• How we think about grocery shopping when PFAS data is incomplete

• Why food packaging and food-contact materials can matter

• Simple ways to reduce unnecessary PFAS exposure without trying to avoid every possible source

• Other everyday household sources of PFAS that may be easier to change than food itself

We also discuss 1,4-dioxane, a different environmental contaminant that can occur as an unintended byproduct in some cleaning and personal-care products, and regulatory efforts aimed at reducing exposure to it.

The larger lesson is that PFAS exposure doesn't come from one food—or one product.

It comes from patterns across water, food, packaging, consumer products, and the environment. So instead of asking, "How do I avoid PFAS completely?", I find it more useful to ask:

Which recurring sources can I reasonably reduce, and which changes are easy enough to make part of everyday life?

Go deeper:

• Explore Ruan Living's PFAS & Forever Chemicals resources

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Read A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures

• Learn the foundations of Practical Nontoxic Living™ with the free Ultimate Home Detox Kickstart email series

How can we use technology more intentionally—without becoming afraid of it?

In this episode of Practical Nontoxic Living™, Elizabeth and I speak with August Brice, founder of TechWellness, about electromagnetic fields, wireless technology, and the everyday habits she uses to reduce unnecessary exposure.

August has spent years educating consumers about technology and EMFs. She also approaches the subject through a broader lens of mindfulness: noticing when technology is serving us, when it is distracting us, and where a few simple changes can create more distance or less exposure without giving up the conveniences we value.

In this episode:

• What electromagnetic fields are and some of the different frequencies we encounter

• The difference between radiofrequency fields from wireless devices and other types of EMFs

• Common sources of exposure at home and while traveling

• How distance, duration, and device placement can change exposure

• Practical ways August reduces wireless exposure in her own life

• How she approaches phones, laptops, headphones, routers, and travel

• Why she thinks mindfulness belongs in the technology conversation

• What to consider before buying products marketed for EMF protection

• Why our bodies' resilience is an important part of the conversation too

The health implications of long-term, everyday exposure to low-level radiofrequency electromagnetic fields remain scientifically debated, and experts do not all interpret the evidence the same way.

So I don't think the goal is to treat every wireless device as a threat.

A more useful question is:

Where can I reduce an exposure easily—and where would doing so cost me more convenience, connection, or joy than it's worth?

That balance is central to Practical Nontoxic Living™.

Technology is part of modern life. The opportunity is to use it consciously rather than assuming that either "wireless is completely harmless" or "every exposure must be eliminated."

Go deeper:

• Learn more from TechWellness

• Explore Ruan Living's EMF Detox resources

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Explore the D-Tox Academy, Phase Two of the Ultimate Home Detox™, for ongoing guidance applying Practical Nontoxic Living™ across your home and everyday life

• Learn the foundations of Practical Nontoxic Living™ with the free Ultimate Home Detox Kickstart email series.

August Brice is the founder of TechWellness, which sells technology- and EMF-related products discussed in this conversation.

What do we mean when we say we feel "depleted," "energized," or restored—and how does an energy-medicine practitioner understand those experiences?

In this revisited episode of Practical Nontoxic Living™, I return to my 2020 conversation with Dr. Jill Blakeway, author of Energy Medicine: The Science and Mystery of Healing and founder of the Yinova Center in New York City.

Jill is a Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, licensed acupuncturist, clinical herbalist, and longtime practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Her work also explores concepts of "energy" that extend beyond what conventional biomedicine can currently measure or explain.

We talk about that boundary openly: what has an established physiological basis, what comes from longstanding healing traditions, what Jill has observed in clinical practice, and what remains difficult—or impossible—to verify scientifically.

In this episode:

• What Jill means by energy medicine

• How Traditional Chinese Medicine conceptualizes energy, balance, and restoration

• Why acupuncture is different from broader claims about "energy healing"

• Jill's experience integrating intuition into her clinical practice

• What stress, sleep, environment, and daily habits can have to do with feeling depleted or restored

• Her perspective on electromagnetic fields and the body

• Why EMF-related health claims remain scientifically contested

• How she thinks about practices intended to create calm, regulation, or a greater sense of well-being

• The difference between a practice feeling restorative and proving that it treats a disease or reverses an environmental exposure

Jill's perspective includes concepts and practices that sit outside established biomedical science. Energy healing has not been shown to "detox" or reverse EMF exposure, and the health effects of everyday low-level electromagnetic fields remain an area of scientific debate.

But I think there is still an interesting question underneath the terminology:

What helps us feel more regulated, present, and restored—and how much of that can we shape through the environments, habits, and rituals we create?

That question now feels even more relevant to the direction Practical Nontoxic Living™ has taken.

Our environment isn't only what we can measure in air, water, food, or electromagnetic fields. We are also shaped by stress, attention, expectations, relationships, and the ways we interpret what we experience.

Not every explanation for why something helps will ultimately prove correct. But learning to distinguish the experience itself from the explanation we attach to it can make us better thinkers—and wiser decision-makers.

A note from the archive: This conversation was originally published in 2020 and later revisited. I recommend listening to the EMF and energy-medicine portions as Jill Blakeway's perspective rather than as established medical guidance.

Go deeper:

• Learn more about Dr. Jill Blakeway and the Yinova Center

• Explore Ruan Living's EMF Detox resources

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Explore the D-Tox Academy, Phase Two of the Ultimate Home Detox™, for ongoing guidance applying Practical Nontoxic Living™ across your home and everyday life

• Read A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures

What does Practical Nontoxic Living™ actually look like once you leave the research behind and start making choices in a real home?

In this episode, I welcome Elizabeth McCormick, then a new member of the Ruan Living team, for a conversation about how each of us was applying nontoxic living in our own lives.

Elizabeth shares what first made her curious about environmental exposures, how our paths crossed, and the changes she was experimenting with in her home and daily routines.

What makes this conversation useful is that we weren't starting from the same place—or making exactly the same choices.

In this episode:

• Elizabeth's path into nontoxic living

• How Elizabeth and I first connected

• The changes she was making in her own home at the time

• How I was approaching some of the same everyday decisions in mine

• Why nontoxic living looks different depending on your priorities, household, budget, and stage of life

• How to move from learning about an exposure to deciding whether it deserves action

• Why you don't have to change everything at once

• Questions we were considering about ingredients in personal-care products, including parabens

We also discuss research on parabens, preservatives used in some cosmetics and personal-care products. Certain parabens can interact with estrogen signaling, which is one reason researchers have investigated them in relation to breast biology and hormone-sensitive outcomes. That does not mean that using a paraben-containing product has been shown to cause breast cancer.

That distinction reflects something central to Practical Nontoxic Living™:

We can take emerging evidence seriously without turning every scientific concern into a certainty.

The goal is to notice what surrounds us, understand what the evidence can actually tell us, and decide which changes make sense in the lives we're living.

Sometimes that means making a swap.

Sometimes it means deciding an exposure isn't a priority right now.

Both can be informed choices.

Research discussed:

• Review of parabens and breast cancer-related biological mechanisms

• 2016 Environmental Health Perspectives study

Go deeper:

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Explore the D-Tox Academy, Phase Two of the Ultimate Home Detox™, for ongoing guidance applying Practical Nontoxic Living™ across your home and everyday life

• Read A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures

• Learn the foundations of Practical Nontoxic Living™ with the free Ultimate Home Detox Kickstart email series.

What is the concern with talc—and why has baby powder been at the center of so many lawsuits?

In this episode of Practical Nontoxic Living™, I look at talc, asbestos contamination, and the consumer products that can contain talc, including body powders and cosmetics.

Talc and asbestos are different minerals. The concern is that talc deposits can occur near asbestos in the earth, which means contamination can occur if sourcing, mining, and testing do not adequately separate them.

I also revisit the lawsuits involving Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder and what those cases can—and cannot—tell us about the broader safety of talc-containing products.

In this episode:

• What talc is and why it has been used in baby powder, cosmetics, and other personal-care products

• Why asbestos contamination is the central concern when evaluating talc

• The difference between talc and asbestos

• Why sourcing and testing matter

• What the Johnson & Johnson litigation brought to public attention

• Why a lawsuit or jury verdict is not the same thing as scientific proof that every talc product presents the same risk

• Where talc can show up beyond baby powder, including face powders, eye shadows, and other cosmetics

• How to check ingredient labels for talc

• Why choosing talc-free products can be a simple precaution when comparable alternatives are available

• How to think about powders differently when children are using them or when inhalation exposure is possible

The takeaway isn't that every product containing talc is dangerous.

It's that asbestos is a known carcinogen, contamination of talc has been a legitimate concern, and talc is often an exposure that is relatively easy to avoid if you prefer a precautionary approach.

That makes this another useful Practical Nontoxic Living™ question:

How strong is the concern, how easy is the alternative, and is this an exposure I need in the first place?

Go deeper:

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Read A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures

• Explore the D-Tox Academy, Phase Two of the Ultimate Home Detox™, where you continue applying Practical Nontoxic Living™ across the home and everyday life.

• Learn the foundations of Practical Nontoxic Living™ with the free Ultimate Home Detox Kickstart email series.

What should you look for when choosing a dry shampoo—and what did the benzene testing of aerosol products actually reveal?

In this episode of Practical Nontoxic Living™, I revisit testing that detected benzene in a number of aerosol dry shampoos and explain why it changed the way I think about this category of products.

Benzene is a known human carcinogen. It is not an ingredient consumers typically expect to find in dry shampoo, and contamination identified in some aerosol products prompted recalls and broader questions about formulation, propellants, and product testing.

In this episode:

• What benzene is and why exposure to it is a concern

• What independent testing found in samples of aerosol dry shampoos

• Why contamination findings don't mean every dry shampoo contains benzene

• Why aerosol products deserve different consideration from loose or pump powders

• How propellants and manufacturing can complicate what you learn from an ingredient list alone

• Why reading ingredients is useful—but may not reveal unintended contaminants

• Why I generally prefer a non-aerosol powder dry shampoo when a practical alternative works just as well

• How dry shampoo fits into my Household Repeat Offenders™ approach to identifying recurring exposure patterns rather than memorizing individual products

The useful takeaway isn't that you need to give up dry shampoo.

It's that when a product category has a known contamination issue and a simple alternative is available, the format itself can become part of the decision.

That's how I often approach Practical Nontoxic Living™:

What is the concern? How meaningful might the exposure be? Is there an easy alternative—and does it work well enough for my real life?

In this case, switching from an aerosol to a powder format is one of those changes I find relatively easy.

Go deeper:

• Explore the Household Repeat Offenders™ framework

• Explore the D-Tox Academy, Phase Two of the Ultimate Home Detox™, where I share ongoing product research and the practical lower-exposure choices I use in my own life

• Learn about the 40-Day Home Detox™, Phase One of the Ultimate Home Detox™

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Learn the foundations of Practical Nontoxic Living™ with the free Ultimate Home Detox Kickstart email series.

This episode was originally recorded in response to benzene testing and dry-shampoo recalls that were current at the time.

How do you choose building materials that are better for indoor air quality—not just better for the environment?

In this episode of Practical Nontoxic Living™, I speak with Andrew Pace, founder of the Green Design Center, healthy-home consultant, and host of the Non Toxic Environments Podcast, about one of the hardest parts of creating a healthier home: choosing materials for a renovation, redesign, or new build.

Andrew has spent decades working with homeowners, contractors, designers, and people who report chemical sensitivities, allergies, and other concerns about indoor environments. His perspective is particularly useful because he distinguishes between materials marketed as green or sustainable and materials selected with human exposure and indoor air quality in mind.

Those goals can overlap—but they aren't always the same.

In this episode:

• What Andrew looks for when evaluating healthier building materials

• Why "green," "sustainable," "natural," and "low-VOC" don't necessarily mean the same thing

• How building materials can influence indoor air through emissions, finishes, adhesives, and other components

• Why people with chemical sensitivities may react differently to the same environment

• How to think about wood products, paints, vinyl, flooring, windows, and other common renovation choices

• How my Household Repeat Offenders™ framework applies to building and design decisions

• What California Proposition 65 warnings can—and cannot—tell you when choosing materials

• Why product composition is only one part of creating a healthier indoor environment

• How to prioritize your budget when you can't choose the ideal material everywhere

• Where Andrew believes spending more can make the biggest difference

One of the most important ideas in this conversation is that an environmentally preferable product isn't automatically the lowest-exposure choice for the people living with it.

Recycled content, energy efficiency, durability, carbon footprint, chemical emissions, adhesives, finishes, cost, and performance can all point us in slightly different directions.

That's why I find the question "What's the nontoxic material?" less useful than:

What are my priorities for this particular material, what are the tradeoffs, and where will a lower-exposure choice matter most?

A healthier home isn't created by finding one perfect material.

It comes from making a series of informed choices about the materials, products, and systems that will surround us for years.

Go deeper:

• Read the full podcast show notes

• Learn more from Andrew Pace and Green Design Center

• Explore the Household Repeat Offenders™ framework

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Learn about the 40-Day Home Detox™, Phase One of the Ultimate Home Detox™

• Explore the D-Tox Academy, Phase Two of the Ultimate Home Detox™, for ongoing guidance applying Practical Nontoxic Living™ across your home and everyday life

How do you make smarter choices about drinking water—and create a bedroom environment that better supports sleep?

In Part 3 of this three-part Home Detox series, originally presented for the Everwell community, I focus on two parts of the home we interact with every day: the water we drink and the environment where we sleep.

Rather than looking for one universally "best" water filter or one perfect sleep setup, I walk through how I think about the sources of exposure, the tradeoffs, and which changes are most worth prioritizing.

In this episode:

Drinking water

• How bottled water and tap water differ—and why neither is automatically the better choice

• Why knowing your water source is the first step in choosing a filtration strategy

• How contaminants can vary by location, plumbing, and water system

• Why different filters remove different contaminants

• How to think about filtration without assuming that more filtration is always better

• Why reducing reliance on bottled water can also reduce plastic-related exposures and waste

Sleep environment

• How to prioritize changes in the bedroom without trying to redesign everything at once

• Why darkness, temperature, noise, light exposure, and technology habits can all influence sleep

• Simple ways to make the bedroom more supportive of rest

• An introduction to electromagnetic fields from wireless devices and other electronics

• Why distance and device placement can reduce exposure even when the health implications of everyday low-level EMFs remain scientifically debated

• How I decide which sleep-environment changes are easy enough to make part of normal life

What connects water and sleep is a larger Practical Nontoxic Living™ principle:

Start with the environment you actually have, understand the relevant exposures, and prioritize the changes that offer the most value for the least disruption.

You don't need perfectly "pure" water or a perfectly detoxed bedroom.

You need enough information to ask better questions—and a framework for deciding what's worth changing.

Go deeper:

• Read A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Explore Ruan Living's EMF Detox resources

• Learn the foundations of Practical Nontoxic Living™ with the free Ultimate Home Detox Kickstart email series

• Learn more about The Everwell

This episode is Part 3 of a three-part Home Detox workshop series originally presented for the Everwell community.

What are the simplest ways to improve the air you breathe at home—without spending a fortune?

In Part 2 of this three-part Home Detox series, originally presented for the Everwell community, I focus on indoor air, household dust, fragrance, ventilation, and the everyday products that can influence what accumulates inside our homes.

Indoor air quality is shaped by many things: outdoor pollution that enters the home, cooking and combustion, particles and dust, moisture, building materials, furnishings, cleaning and personal-care products, and how effectively we ventilate and filter the space.

The good news is that some of the most useful interventions are also remarkably simple.

In this episode:

• Free and low-cost ways to improve indoor air quality

• Why opening windows and increasing ventilation can help—when outdoor conditions are appropriate

• Why household dust matters as a reservoir for particles and chemicals that settle out of the indoor environment

• Why handwashing and regular dust removal can reduce some everyday exposures

• What the ingredient term "fragrance" can represent and why people seeking to reduce certain fragrance-related exposures may choose fragrance-free products

• The difference between fragrance-free and products marketed with terms such as "natural," "green," or "clean"

• Why marketing claims don't necessarily tell you everything about a product's ingredients or emissions

• How multiple exposures can occur simultaneously—and why scientists study mixtures as well as individual chemicals

• How I think about essential oils in the context of indoor air

• Why houseplants may be lovely additions to a home but shouldn't be relied upon as an air-purification strategy

• When an air purifier may be useful—and what filtration can and cannot accomplish

One of the most important Practical Nontoxic Living™ lessons here is that indoor air quality isn't determined by one product.

It reflects a pattern: what comes into the home, what we generate inside it, what settles into dust, and how effectively we remove or dilute those pollutants.

That means improving indoor air doesn't necessarily begin with buying something.

It may begin with opening a window, using the kitchen exhaust, removing shoes, damp-dusting, washing your hands, reducing unnecessary fragrance, or identifying a recurring source you no longer want in your home.

Small changes matter most when they become part of the way you live.

Go deeper:

• Read A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures

• Read about the air purifier I've used in my own home

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Learn the foundations of Practical Nontoxic Living™ with the free Ultimate Home Detox Kickstart email series

• Learn more about The Everwell

This episode is Part 2 of a three-part Home Detox workshop series originally presented for the Everwell community.

Why pay attention to the home environment when diet, exercise, sleep, and stress already demand so much of our attention?

In Part 1 of this three-part Home Detox series, I'm interviewed by Abby Knott, co-founder of The Everwell, about the experiences that led me to spend years researching environmental exposures—and why I came to believe that our homes deserve a place in the broader conversation about health.

We talk about chemicals, heavy metals, EMFs, consumer products, and the practical question at the center of my work: How can we reduce unnecessary exposures without making everyday life harder?

In this episode:

• How I became interested in toxic chemicals, heavy metals, EMFs, and other everyday exposures

• Why the home environment became such an important part of my thinking about health

• What researchers have studied about environmental exposures and reproductive, developmental, neurological, hormonal, and other health outcomes

• Why those associations don't mean that any single household product causes a particular disease

• How to begin reducing exposures without replacing everything you own

• Why inexpensive changes can sometimes be among the most useful

• How to make healthier changes when the people you live with have different priorities

• Why I think of Practical Nontoxic Living™ as a mindfulness practice

• What "BPA-free" can—and cannot—tell you about a product

• How I think about detergents, plastics, EMFs, receipts, and other everyday choices

• Why marketing terms such as "clean" and "nontoxic" deserve scrutiny

One of the ideas I return to throughout this series is that the home detox is not one giant project.

It is a sequence of decisions.

You notice a recurring exposure. You understand enough to decide whether it deserves your attention. You make a change that works in your life. And over time, those decisions can accumulate into a meaningfully different environment.

That's why I don't think Practical Nontoxic Living™ needs to compete with healthy eating, exercise, sleep, or relationships.

The home is simply another environment that shapes us—and one we have some ability to shape in return.

Go deeper:

• Read A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures

• Explore the Practical Nontoxic Living™ framework

• Explore the Household Repeat Offenders™ framework

• Learn the foundations of Practical Nontoxic Living™ with the free Ultimate Home Detox Kickstart email series

• Learn more about The Everwell

This episode is Part 1 of a three-part Home Detox workshop series originally presented for the Everwell community.