Living on the Environmental Edge

COLLEGE PARK, MD -- Find out why your bedroom is the second most environmentally dangerous room in your house and what you can do about it. University of Maryland assistant professor Gary Felton and senior extension agent Madeline Greene will tell you how you can make your home and backyard environmentally safer and save money in "Living on the Environmental Edge," to air on Maryland Public Television, April 21 at 6 p.m.

The two devised the program to give viewers an entertaining look at how to eliminate some of the environmental hazards of home sweet home. Ethan Phillips, who plays Neelix in "StarTrek Voyager," will host the program.

A sample of their environmental advice:

Lullaby and Good?night The bedroom is the second more environmentally dangerous room in your home. Air is so tightly sealed, it holds allergens and contaminants, like formaldehyde from carpeting. It doesn't have anywhere to go, so you keep breathing as you sleep.

Solution: Open your windows frequently, clean your furnace filter several times a year.

Best way to control weeds in your lawn? Forget the chemicals.

Solution: Mow the grass more often, and keep it longer, at least 3 inches high.

"But I always fertilize my grass in the spring." Don't. Spring fertilizer grows the blade of the grass, (the part you cut...and cut and cut) and adds nitrogen to the soil.

Solution: Fertilize in the fall only. Even then, use as little as half of the recommended amount. It's cheaper, better for the grass and better for the health of the neighborhood creek.

The environmentally yuckiest thing you can dump down your kitchen sink? Food grease, cooking oil and meat in the garbage disposal. It coats your pipes, clogs up your septic system and makes a real mess at the local sewage plant.

Solution: Put it in a non-recyclable jar or can in the refrigerator, then throw it in the trash when the container is full.

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