How to Make Your Home Less Toxic: Amy Ziff, Founder & Executive Director of MADE SAFE

Every single thing you do to remove a toxicant from your environment is a win for your body.

Amy Ziff has been one of my earliest and most powerful inspirations. As the founder and executive director of MADE SAFE®, she’s created one of the most comprehensive product safety certifications out there—really, the gold standard in skincare certification—ensuring that everyday items are made without ingredients known or suspected to harm human health or the environment. I’ve long admired Amy’s dedication, her depth of knowledge, and her tireless advocacy for safer living. And at True Botanicals, we’re so proud that every product in our collection is MADE SAFE® Certified.

I asked Amy to share, in her own words, how we can make our homes—and our lives—less toxic, one step at a time. I hope this inspires you to make a few simple shifts in order to live a healthier life.

Amy Ziff: I'm so happy to share some of the wisdom I’ve learned on this journey since we started. You and I have been on this path together since my very early days, and I’m just so grateful to you and to the entire team at True Botanicals, as well as the whole MADE SAFE® team, for pioneering such a different road.

For me, it all started when my twins came home from the hospital. They were allergic to things I didn’t even know it was possible to be allergic to. As a former journalist, I started doing research and began realizing that we were surrounding ourselves—sometimes willingly, but not necessarily knowingly—with chemicals that can prey upon our health and well-being.

Along the way, I’ve learned a ton about chemicals, chemistry, environmental health, and human health. I’ve had the privilege to study with doctors, naturopaths, experts, scientists, and toxicologists, all in service of trying to answer these questions: How do we help empower people? How do we educate them? How do we work with the brands out there that are also trying to do this—trying to offer truly different, better products for people? And how do we prevent these toxins from getting into our bodies and preying on our health?

And I’ll start with this: I have a lot to say, and it may feel overwhelming at first. But know that every single thing you do to remove a toxicant from your environment is a win for your body. It’s one less thing your system has to work to detoxify from.

I tell people to start with the biggest categories of offenders, which I affectionately call the Poison P’s: pesticides, PFAS, and plasticizing chemicals.

1) Pesticides

These show up on our food, which is why eating organic—whenever and wherever possible—is so important. If you can, grow your own fruits and vegetables. And if you have access, buy from local farms or farmers' markets where you can better understand how your food was grown.

Pesticides aren’t just on food—they’re also in everyday products. Anything labeled “antibacterial” or “antimicrobial” likely relies on them. Ask yourself: Do I really need this? Most people use these sprays all over their homes, often unnecessarily. For everyday cleaning, simple solutions like soap and water, vinegar, or a basic counter spray are more than enough.

MADE SAFE® has a whole list of safe household cleaning products to choose from. Right there, you can begin to remove and reduce pesticide use in your own home.

And one more thing: don’t spray your lawn. Choose native plants instead. You can’t control what your neighbors or parks are using, so take your shoes off at the door to avoid tracking invisible pesticides indoors.

2) PFAS

PFAS is an acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, sometimes called “forever chemicals.” These are man-made synthetic compounds with bonds so tightly formed that they are nearly impossible to break. That’s why they’re called “forever chemicals”—because they stick around in the environment, quite literally, forever. We don’t know how to get rid of them and it’s a massive problem.

PFAS chemicals have been found in human blood—nearly everyone tested. They’ve shown up in polar bears, in wildlife in the Arctic, in places these chemicals should never be. They’ve been detected in tree leaves, in sweat, in urine, in fecal matter. They are deeply in our systems and the information we do have about how these chemicals prey on our health is alarming.

So—how do we take action in our homes?

First off, avoid anything labeled nonstick. If your pan says “nonstick,” make sure it’s not just PFOA-free or Teflon-free, but PFAS-free as a whole. Same goes for couches and rugs with stain-resistant coatings. A study showed these chemicals don’t stay put—they’re only effective for a short time before they start to liberate themselves and move around. They’re no longer doing the job you think they are. It’s better to use a good stain remover and avoid these coatings altogether. You’ll also find PFAS in waterproofed gear like winter boots. You may not eliminate them entirely, but store those items so you're not tracking them through your home.

PFAS are also showing up in personal care products. Anything long-lasting, waterproof, or all-day wear—that’s your cue to ask: Does this contain PFAS? If you don’t know, it's worth exercising caution.

And I should say this too: You need a really good water purification system, because you want to catch these chemicals in your water filter. Any purification system is better than none and there are options at all price points. The truth is, we’ve set environmental pollutants free. They’re in our air, our food, our water—they come down in the rain. Since our bodies are mostly water, and we drink it every day, it makes sense to take that burden off your body. It already has enough to handle.

3) Plasticizing chemicals (aka plastics)

We’ve all gotten used to plastics, and while it’s almost impossible to eliminate them entirely, you can make a huge dent in the amount of plastic coming into your home. A good place to begin is in your kitchen.

Plastics, like PFAS, are coming in through what you’re using to hold your food, how you’re storing it, what you’re putting in your fridge—all of that.

Don’t cook with plastic. That includes avoiding any of those silicone kitchen tools. Instead, use porcelain, stainless steel, or cast iron. But stay away from plastics for cooking and baking.

Once you’ve tackled that, upgrade your water bottles. Don’t use single-use plastic water bottles. These aren’t technically forever chemicals, but they’re going to outlive you. A single-use plastic baggie can last over 100 years before it even begins to break down—water bottles last even longer.

We have a crisis in our oceans with microplastics, which come from all of the abundant plastics we use. Over time, they break down into smaller and smaller pieces—and now they’re in our oceans in both small and large forms. And they are in our bodies, too.

Plastics like these have even found their way into personal care products. They can hide out as acrylates or in different types of polymers. Phthalates are also a plasticizing ingredient, and they’re all over your home. One common place they’re found is in synthetic fragrance, to help the scent linger.

That fragrance might be in a perfume, but it might also be in your laundry detergent or dish soap. If you’re washing your hands with soap and you can still smell it an hour later, there’s a good chance there’s some kind of chemical compound—quite possibly phthalates—making it last that long. Natural fragrances don’t have that kind of staying power. The long-lasting scent comes from added chemicals.

One of the big problems with synthetic fragrance is that there’s no absolute definition of what might be in the one you’re using. Fragrance is considered a black box. There could be as many as 400 chemicals in a single fragrance blend. But what is common across synthetic fragrance are chemicals that are absolutely linked to asthma—asthma triggers, especially.

That’s why Made Safe pushes so hard for transparency—because at the very least, we need to understand what chemicals we’re dealing with when we look at things.

That’s why I do this work. I want to empower people with information. And like I’ve said, it can feel scary and overwhelming to hear all this for the first time, but it’s so important to take note, to act, and to do what you can. Because even the simple act of getting started—that’s a win.