The Organic Office

• Talk to management about using green cleaning products.     • Stock supply closet with VOC-free glues and permanent markers.     • Keep plants on your desk.     • Open windows for ventilation.     • Bring a reusable water bottle.

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reening everything in your home when pregnant can leave you feeling safe at a vulnerable time. But eventually you’ll have to go outside – and, sadly, most destinations won’t be as green as your home.

Run-of-the-mill offices (we’re talking cubicle farms, not hospitals, factories, or say, nail salons) are notoriously ungreen. The air – likely recirculated – is filled with a heady cocktail of probable carcinogens, neurotoxins, lung irritants, and the like, thanks to flame retardants in electronic equipment, fumes from toners, ink cartridges, and office supplies, industrial cleaning product residues, pesticides sprayed to combat rodents and roaches, and off-gassing chemicals from paint jobs and particleboard furniture. Ick.

Don’t panic or feel like you have to quit your job. Even in a work environment, employees can make – or at least ask for – changes.

Office Supplies

• Speak with a manager in charge of purchasing and tell them you’re interested in having the company use green cleaning products, supplies, pesticides, and the like. If they’re not responsive, see if your coworkers are. There is strength in numbers.

• If you know the office is about to paint or buy new computers, or furniture, speak up en masse. Suggest no or low VOC paints, computer manufacturers that restrict their suppliers’ use of the most toxic chemical flame retardants (like Dell), and solid wood or metal furniture. 

• Ask that large machines like photocopiers be kept in well-ventilated rooms away from workers.

• Suggest that the supply closet be stocked with VOC-free glues and permanent markers, plus water-based correction fluids. The questionable chemicals in conventional versions can be absorbed through skin as well as inhaled.