This page exists because you have no particular reason to trust me, and because the honest answer to “how does this site make money” shapes everything else on it.
So here it is, in more detail than is comfortable.
How this site makes money
Two ways, and both create a pull I have to actively work against.
Affiliate commissions. If you buy something through a link here, I may earn a percentage. It costs you nothing extra. It also means I have a financial interest in you buying things, which is precisely the problem with most sites in this niche.
Display advertising. Some pages carry ads. I don’t choose them individually and I don’t endorse them. If you see an ad on this site for a detox foot pad, that is the advertising network’s doing, not mine, and the article next to it will tell you the pads don’t work.
Nobody pays me to review a product, mention a brand, or rank anything in a particular position. I don’t accept sponsored posts, paid placements, or “collaborations.” If that ever changes, this page changes first and the disclosure goes at the top of the article, not the bottom.
The rules I hold myself to
These are testable. Hold me to them.
- Commission never decides ranking. The clearest proof: the kitchen section pays the highest commissions of the three main categories on this site, and I’ve ranked it last and told readers it matters least. If I were optimising for revenue, I’d have done the opposite.
- “Buy nothing” is a permitted conclusion, and I use it. A good chunk of the advice here is free — open a window, run the extractor hood, read your water report. Those pages earn nothing and they’re the ones I’d most like you to read.
- The cheap option wins when it wins. Several of the best-performing products in independent testing are inexpensive and sold mainly through Amazon, where commissions are small. They still get recommended.
- Certification over marketing. Where a verifiable third-party standard exists — NSF, IAPMO, WQA for water filtration — I cite the specific certification and contaminant rather than repeating the manufacturer’s phrasing.
- No fear-based selling. I won’t imply a product prevents disease, and I won’t describe an ordinary household as dangerous to make a sale. The evidence gets stated at the strength the evidence supports.
Tested, or researched?
Most product sites blur this line. I’d rather state it on every review.
Tested means I own it and have used it, and the photos are mine. My testing is a person using a product in an ordinary house over time. It is not a laboratory, and I won’t pretend otherwise.
Researched means I haven’t used it, and the assessment comes from independent testing organisations, third-party certification databases, technical specifications and user reports. That’s still useful — certification lookups in particular are more reliable than any hands-on impression I could offer — but it’s a different kind of claim, and it will say so.
Every review on this site will tell you which of the two it is. If one doesn’t, that’s an error. Point it out.
How claims get sourced
Health and safety claims link to a primary source: a government agency, a peer-reviewed paper, or a standards body. Not a news article about a study. Where a paper is paywalled, I link the abstract.
Where evidence is genuinely unsettled, the page says so rather than picking whichever side is more persuasive. The overview page has a whole section devoted to what isn’t known, which is not a normal feature of sites in this category.
Pages carrying claims that can change — regulations especially — show a “last reviewed” date.
When I get it wrong
I will. When it’s pointed out, I’ll correct the page and note what changed and when, rather than editing quietly.
If you think something here is wrong, overstated, or reads like it was written to sell you something, tell me. That’s genuinely useful and I’d rather hear it than not.
Who I am
I’m Adrian. I’m not a doctor, a toxicologist, or an industrial hygienist, and nothing on this site is medical advice.
I started this because I wanted this information for my own house and found the available material split between alarmism and advertising, with very little in between that would simply tell me what the evidence supported and what it didn’t. So I read the sources and wrote it down.
That’s the whole credential. Everything here stands on the sources it cites, not on me — which is why the sources are always linked, and why you should follow them when something matters to you.
Get in touch if you’ve found an error, or start with the overview.