A trio of undesirable houseguests

According to Barry Jones, author of Home, Sweet Toxic Home, toxins in your home typically will fall into the following three main categories:

Airborne particles—such as dust, lint, mites, pet dander and mold spores; these invaders are just small enough to be breathed into your lungs, which makes it harder to cough them up
Biological contaminants—include bacteria and viruses, which can travel on the airborne particles
Household products—air fresheners, dryer sheets, cleaning products and pesticides are just a few of the products that many folks regularly use—all the while introducing toxic chemicals into their homes

It can be a little scary to think of the number of ways toxins in these categories affect your indoor air quality.

For example, many folks use toilet cleaning crystals to fight buildup of mildew and stains. But while these chemicals are doing their magic wipe down, they're also leaving behind carcinogenic chlorine gas!

These noxious fumes also can be a problem when you take hot showers in water treated with this chemical (and most water from public systems is). You're essentially inhaling a cancer-causing gas as part of your daily hygiene.

And let's just pray there are no asbestos or lead pipes in your plumbing system! The last thing you need is for those particles to go airborne and lodge themselves in your lungs.

Do you have carpeting on your floors? That's a whole other way to introduce pollutants into your home.

The glue used to set new carpets contains the known carcinogens benzene and xylene. These volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are chemicals that are known to cause a variety of respiratory problems and have also been linked to cancer.

Have you fallen in love with those scented, plug-in air fresheners that keep your home smelling like apples and cinnamon or freshly laundered clothes?

Well, they're also delivering a steady stream of scented formaldehyde into your air! Some friends of mine recently moved into a house where the previous owners were wild for these plug-in perfumeries. The smell lingered and was very hard to get out.

Long-term exposure to this chemical can cause eye, nose and throat irritation. And some evidence exists that constant formaldehyde exposure boosts your risk of developing nose and lung cancers.

Watch out for these building materials

Air fresheners are not the only offenders. Some types of home-building materials — mainly pressed wood products — are often made with formaldehyde. Pressed wood products for indoor use include particle board, used as sub-flooring and in cabinetry and furniture, and also hardwood plywood paneling, used in cabinetry and furniture, as well as in decorative wall coverings.

The website of the Environmental Protection Agency identifies "medium density fiberboard" as being the highest formaldehyde-emitting pressed wood product. All these "fake woods" are pervasive in modern homes.

Egad, what's a health-conscious homeowner to do? Remember, it's not just about avoiding cancer at some vague date years in the future. It's about feeling good now. How many mystery medical problems can be explained by all these toxins we're exposed to? (I can give you the answer from personal experience: A lot.)

You could always peel off a few hundred dollar bills to purchase an air purifier. These machines use filters to remove harmful particles from the air before they can do maximum damage to your health.

But if you don't want to spend that kind of cash, don't worry! There may be an even simpler solution for you…

Meet some of Mother Nature's air purifiers!

When it comes to removing indoor air toxins—"Mother" truly may know best!

Dr. B.C. Wolverton, author of How to Grow Fresh Air — 50 Houseplants that Purify Your Home or Office, conducted studies for NASA that concluded that plants can clean pollutants in homes.

Wolverton's study rated plants on a scale from one to 10, based on criteria such as:

Ability to remove chemical vapors or indoor air toxins
Ease of growth and maintenance
Rate at which water evaporates from the leaves.
Resistance to insect infestation

The NASA-funded comparison yielded this list of top 10 plants for removing contaminants like benzene, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde from the air:

Areca palm— also called the "butterfly palm," this plant can grow to as high as 12 feet and prefers a humid area
Lady palm—grows slowly but is one of the easiest palms to cultivate
Bamboo palm—also called a "reed palm" and prefers indirect light
Rubber plant—also known as "ficus robusta" and grows very well indoors
Dracaena (Janet Craig) —these plants grow best in bright, indirect sunlight shining from east to west
Philodendron—one of the heartiest house plants that needs to be misted regularly and planted in soil that's kept evenly moist
Dwarf date palm—grows best in sunny locations free from drafts; be aware that it grows needle-like spines near the base of the leaf stem that can poke through skin and clothing
Ficus alii—prefers a humid environment with low to medium light; will lose foliage if placed near heating or air conditioning vents; this is a virtual weed in the tropics but up north it's a fussy house plant that doesn't like to be moved
Boston fern—grows feathery ferns that prefer bright indirect sunlight
Peace lily—prefers indirect sunlight and high humidity

Wolverton's research showed that when these top performers and other plants were placed in sealed chambers with specific chemicals, the plants went to work removing those chemicals from the chambers!

Now just imagine the health benefits you'll receive when you place some of this chemical scrubbing, humidity-loving greenery around your house.

You can breathe deeply knowing that the air is being scrubbed clean of toxins. And you can rest easy knowing that dangerous chemicals have met their match in nature's finest air purifiers!