There’s a lot of work in keeping an allergy-friendly home: regular dusting and vacuuming, cleaning with hypoallergenic products and ensuring low humidity levels to keep moulds away. This regimen is likely to keep indoor allergies in check, unless you have wall-to-wall broadloom. Carpets are heaven for allergy-inducing dust mites, since pile traps skin particles, the mites’ main source of nourishment.

If you’re looking to replace your dust mite settlement with a hypoallergenic floor, there are a number of good options. And esthetic appeal can still be your first consideration, according to Mark Bisbee of GreenFloors, a Virginia-based flooring company that specializes in healthy floors. “Just because it’s good for you, doesn’t mean it has to be ugly.”

Allergic Living sweeps through the following choices for a beautiful, allergy-free floor.

Bamboo

The green alternative to hardwood, bamboo is growing in popularity and dropping in price. Like hardwood, bamboo comes naturally light or dark (and can be stained) and is just as easy to keep clean. Bamboo, though, is actually a member of the grass family. It only takes three years to mature – most hardwood takes between 50 and 100 years – and it flourishes with few pesticides, so the impact of harvesting it is minimal.

Bamboo is kiln-dried and turned into a variety of floor products, from unfinished tongue-and-groove strips that are installed the old-fashioned way, with a hammer and nails, to floating floors that can be glued into place. Bamboo is durable, too, lasting between 30 and 50 years, and can be refinished. However, like any wood product, it’s not suited to a moisture-prone area of the home.

Be careful when choosing your bamboo since some brands are made using formaldehyde (known to irritate the airways), while other brands may emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Check also that an installer is using an adhesive that will not give off fumes. Be sure to ask a supplier for an emission-free bamboo: it is available and beautiful.

Cork

This is another great and green alternative. Bark from the cork oak tree is harvested carefully in its natural habitat, the Mediterranean, (Portugal is a major exporter) without doing any damage to the trees themselves – some of which are centuries old. The bark is then fashioned into tiles that are moisture resistant, making it a good choice, even in the kitchen.

Cork flooring products include glue-down tiles and floating-floor systems in which the cork is pre-glued to a core of particle board. Pieces snap together to make a floor. Wicanders is one brand that ensures the particle board in their floating floor is virtually formaldehyde free (less than 1 per cent).

Cork comes in a variety of colors and patterns. While it may feel soft underfoot, it is long-lasting as well as visually appealing.

Natural Linoleum

Just the word ‘linoleum’ may conjure up images of the vinyl flooring popular in 1950s kitchens. Today, the word has been reclaimed and is used to describe floors created from organic materials that are stylish and allergy-friendly.

Natural linoleum, also known by the brand name Marmoleum, is made from wood flour and bound together with flax and linseed oils to produce an anti-microbial barrier. “You can actually eat it – it’s 100 per cent biodegradable,” Bisbee says. Marmoleum comes in an incredible range of patterns and colors, from bright red to mahogany brown. It is durable, lasting about 30 years.

Next: Tiles and Stairs

Autos

Let’s start with your vehicle. If you’re driving an SUV, it burns one-half to two-thirds more fuel than a regular car. As for cars, newer models can vary con­siderably on environmental and energy efficiency, so compare both fuel effi­ciency and emission controls before buying or leasing.

Technology can only help so much, though. We need to reduce the number of vehicles and the time they spend on the road. One way is to hike the price of gas. As the David Suzuki Foundation points out, in Europe, fuel costs two to three times more than it does here, and European consumption is one-third less.

This is also an urban planning issue, since the growth of suburbs has extend­ed commuting times. So we need to halt sprawl and encourage people to live downtown or close to where they work. This means greater density, with more condo high-rises along subway and bus routes. To get people out of cars, you also need better public transit, as well as more bike lanes. Businesses need to be encouraged to provide secure bicycle racks, plus showering areas.

But in the shorter term, what can you do this summer?

- Carpool, use public transportation, walk or bike (if it’s not a smoggy day). One car commuter uses as much energy as a transit rider uses in 10 years. Viewed another way, if you take public transit instead of a vehicle for a year, you can save nearly a tonne of pollutants, including carbon dioxide.

- Avoid idling. Ontario stats show 3 per cent of fuel is wasted by idling.

- Tune up your car. If we all did it on a regular basis, we could reduce Nitrogen oxides by 12 per cent and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a key part of smog, by 30 per cent.

- Keep tires properly inflated. Each 5 per cent of under inflation in a tire translates into a 1 per cent increase in fuel consumption.

- Fill your gas tank in the evening, as this a major source of VOCs. If they combine with other gases in the sun, they create smog.

- Consider fuel efficiency when you buy a car. See www.fueleconomy.gov to check gas consumption and emissions.

- Buy a hybrid. Enjoy the sound of silence as you push the button that starts the electric-powered motor. You might qualify for Ottawa’s new rebate for hybrids – up to $2,000. They’re expensive, but what’s the price for breathable air?

- Retire the energy-guzzling clunker. A program called Car Heaven offers a free car tow and eco-friendly recycling.

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