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Shelter: A Quest for Non-Toxic Housing
Crocuta writes "Many of the geeks on /. voluntarily confine themselves to their homes for vast
stretches of time, but what happens when your home becomes your prison? Eric Hunting
suffers from Environmental Illness which perpetually confines him to his home, which even
as carefully furnished as it is, is still slowly killing him. His website, Shelter, is both a plea for help and a guide
documenting one man's quest for non-toxic housing."
Hell to think that I was happy my crayons and paste were non toxic........oh crap! is playdoh?
Money not found! A)bort, R)etry, D)eclare Bankruptcy
Arcosanti is housing project designed and developed by Paolo Soleric
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
Erm, wood anyone? Bricks and mortar? Glass?
Having looked at the site, I can't help thinking that there might be a psychological element to "Environmental illness".
I remember seeing a story several years ago
about an entire apartment complex that was
built specifically for people that suffered
from this "illness". Much desing and research
went into making the complex non-toxic. Only
problem was that when these people moved in
the complained that they felt worse than when
they lived in their previous (toxic?)
environments.
when your home becomes your prison you have done a very bad thing. however, the thing you did was so bad and high profile (ie genocidal chilean dictator, high ranking mafia boss etc), that you dont have to prison like a normal criminal. you get stay at home and watch kilroy all day. a punishment worse than death
this sig steers like a cow. and i can prove it
The article poses the question: What Is Environmental Illness? It then goes off about Northern Exposure, which was a very funny television show, but is not a well established authority on immunological disorders.
It's a psychosomatic condition. Get a subscription for paxil and go the fuck outside.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
...too lazy to dig deep enough, here's a description of the illness from the site:
What Is Environmental Illness?
In 1990 the CBS television series Northern Exposure introduced America to a little known community of disabled people through the character of Mike Monroe, a lawyer afflicted by an illness known as MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity) who sought refuge in a peculiar geodesic dome home on the outskirts of the eclectic Alaskan community featured in the series. Mike was 'allergic to the 20th Century' and suffered a variety of symptoms in response to the most minor exposures to chemicals. Though writers of this series took much liberty with the facts of this ailment, the essential social condition of people with this illness was well portrayed, in particular the alienation and social anxiety associated with having an illness that no one really comprehended, least of all those in the medical community who would normally be relied on for understanding and compassion.
It is unclear precisely when MCS first emerged because misdiagnosis and politically motivated denial have consistently accompanied it to the present day. But over the 1980s physicians throughout the industrialized nations of the world began reporting a steadily growing number of cases of people developing a host of chronic symptoms, sometimes vague, sometimes plain, and sometimes dramatically life-threatening, which seemed to have no obvious pathology other than an association with the presence of common household industrial products or pollution. Symptoms ranged from things one might normally associate with conventional flu or allergy -such as asthmatic, skin, and gastrointestinal reactions- to neurological effects both subtle and dramatic -such as cognitive difficulty, numbness, trembling, twitching and spasms, and partial to total paralysis. Some patients claimed sensitivity to things well beyond the conventional clinical sphere, such as electromagnetic fields produced by appliances and electrical wiring. And there were few symptoms any patients had consistently in common other than a general progressive malaise dubbed 'chronic fatigue' and a vague chronic muscle or joint pain labeled Fibromyalgia. Many could trace the onset of their illness to a trigger exposure to some specific chemical product which resulted in a sudden flu-like illness and rapid break-down, though therafter their reactions would come in response to exposures to a vast assortment of things, including foods and sometimes natural contaminants like pollen, fungal spores, dusts, and natural fragrances.
Most MCS suffers tended to succumb to the condition in mid adult-hood and are often female with middle-class backgrounds. In the US there is a preponderance of them from northern and eastern urban/suburban regions, suggesting an association with general environmental pollution levels. Male cases were rarer and more often associated with specific industrial chemical contamination or industy-related pre-cursor illnesses such as the Systemic Candidiasis which is common among brewery workers. (GWS suffers, as noted below, are veterans and mostly male, their trigger exposure related to whatever they were subjected to in the Gulf War) Children were the rarest group but also a rapidly growing one, due perhaps to an increasingly sedentary and sequestered lifestyle that keeps children exposed to more indoor air pollution coupled to a steadily decreasing quality of diet for children in industrialized countries.
These cases proved immediately politically controversial because of the implication that they could be related to ubiquitous consumer products. These 'human canaries', as some physicians had dubbed them, were a potential threat to corporate interests and the government agencies charged with establishing safety and health standards. Thus there was a tendency by the medical establishment to at first dismiss the growing number of reports and then to promote a psychosomatic explanation that effectively blamed the patient -or the
Steps to finding a non-toxic home:
1. MOVE OUT OF NEW JERSEY
The rest will be much easier once step 1 is complete.
Well, without building a treehouse and moving there.
Anything chemically processed is a potential source of 'toxins', not to mention possible natural toxins that may get trapped in your house instead of floating around in nature.
This quest, like the quest for a bacteria free home (lead by those lysol nuts), are not realistic.
What you can do is get outside and exercise/experience the real world more often, and this exposure to a wide variety of things should help one's body recover from being sheltered inside a closed system that contains toxins.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
What is "Environmental Illness"? I've never heard it before in my life.
What does "toxic home" mean in this context? I've never thought of lampshades as dangerous. I'm left guessing here.
Obviously I can look these all up (and I will). But any other reporting source would've explained these concepts in some detail.
ike I did, and don't worry about. Living virtually is more than virtually living.
better to have lived virtually, than to not have lived at all....
We're like rats, in some experiment! -- George Costanza
My mom just built a house. She has spent upwards of 20 years designing it to be mostly passive solar, and was very careful about what went into it. (She is, honestly, just this side of whacko when it comes to believing "industry safety" and pays much attention to the very non-publicized reports in things like science news, etc).
Helping with the house, I learned a _heck_ of a lot about what I dont want in my house. The stuff that you put in and never give a thought about is incredibly dangerous! From the formaldehyde released by everything from your insulation, plywood, and flooring to your couch and carpets, added to the fact that todays houses are usually wrapped in Tyvek or some other non-permeable barrier means you are breathing deadly gasses the entire time you are home.
This is scary stuff! I have to personally wonder how much of the "cancer rise rates" are directly related to things like this.. especially the huge jump in Lung Cancer in the last 20 years. It certainly is not only due to smoking, as smoking levels have been decreasing steadily.
It's kind of scary what "they" can get away with selling you as "safe". There are huge warnings on certain exotic hardwoods that the dust created by them is toxic, and some people can have allergic reactions to them, but CCM and CCA pressure treated wood is regularly used by people to build raised bed gardens. (Nothing like having chromium, arsenic, cadmium, and other fun things leaching into the soil around your tomatoes!) I honestly think if most people knew exactly how they make PT lumber, they would _never_ use it for their kids to play on or in their homes. But lots of people do. This stuff is going to be the Love Canal of the future.
*sigh*
People like me, however, when I bring it up, are just labeled "paranoid". The thing that REALLY annoys me is that things like Cedar and Redwood are naturally just as resistant to decay, and a fully renewable resource.
Maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
He needs to watch more Northern Exposure. They had a good couple of episodes with a character who suffered from the same thing. As usual, TV provides all the answers.
Cunning linguists
From what i've read/seen on the topic of people with multiple personalities, many of the personalities have sicknesses that other personalities don't. Some wear glasses others don't. Could this mean that like multiple personality disorder this person has created his sickness?
Gypsum, plaster, brick, wood, steel are inert. If you can't handle these natural substances then too bad. Fate is not always kind. Life is not fair. Perhaps you have a psychological problem. Maybe a psychiatrist would be your best bet.
At present my work time is being occupied by the pursuit of three housing strategies; rent supported multi-unit housing, home-brew modular construction, and the most recent addition of relocating and adapting a Lustron home. Unfortunately, none of these seem to be coming together.
The first of these is the result of a colleague in the mortgage brokerage industry discovering that I had a very good credit rating despite a lack of income and suggesting the idea of mortgaging the construction of several small rental homes or a multi-unit home so that the rent from most of them would cover the mortgage on the whole. This is a simple strategy that has been exploited by many but my situation complicates it due to the regressive restrictions of the Social Security Administration on what SSI recipients can do with their property. SSI recipients are prohibited from owning any kind of 'investment property' and thus in order for this idea to work I would have to have all my rental units on the one single piece of home property I am allowed. Because the needs of my disability require a relatively remote location free of pollution, the only likely tenants are people with my same health problem. This means that all the housing units have to be built to the same non-toxic construction standard and as a result are much more costly than they might otherwise be. This, in turn, creates the dilemma of needing immediate 100% occupancy because the higher construction cost means less principle can be reserved to make mortgage payments while waiting for tenants. My colleague in the mortgage business tells me that it would be impossible to make this work unless I can have tenants signed up before the mortgage application is even made.
Demand for non-toxic housing is extreme in the US. HUD receives hundreds of calls a month by desperate EIs looking for this kind of housing. So as long as the rent rate is reasonable, it is guaranteed that tenants will be found no matter how remote my location may be. The problem is that there is too much variability among the mix of sensitivities EIs have. It's relatively straightforward to make a home that is suitable in composition for some 90% of all EIs. But no one location in America can likewise match that because of the subtle ubiquity of pollution here, particularly from domestic sources. As a result, most EIs will not sign a lease for a home unbuilt because they cannot be sure they can tolerate it until they have tried it for at least a week. This problem has proved unsolvable so far.
A colleague in the EI community in Arizona recently referred me to key individuals in HUD with the intent that they might be able to offer a solution to this problem through a HUD guaranteed loan that might offer more flexibility in repayment terms. But it turned out that HUD does not offer such things to anyone but large corporations and non-profit organizations. They showed great interest in my project and have asked to be kept updated on its progress but they offer no help. HUD seems to have a sincere desire to find a solution to the non-toxic housing crisis in this country. They can't ignore the huge number of calls they receive about this problem. But they want a solution on their own terms -which basically means a single turnkey solution that works for 100% of all EI patients. They have tried to build non-toxic public housing in the past but it had poor results because they relied on a project team of EI patients with no construction experience and insisted on an urban location no serious EI sufferer could ever tolerate. They did try to offer me some useful information on what they mistakenly believed was non-toxic housing which was displayed in an exhibit on the National Mall in 2001. Called the Solar Decathlon, it was in fact an exhibition of solar pwoered prefab housing designed by university students. On examination, it turned out that not a single one of these could even come close to being suitable as non-toxic housing due to a common reliance on a large assortment of chemical laden materia
When I was a poor student, I lived in a basement suite that had a problem during heavy rains... Namely that the floor became a bit squishy in areas...
Fortunately I moved out, however I did at one point find something resembling a truffle growing in a dark closet corner... Needless to say, I'm sure _that_ environment wasn't doing me any good.
N.
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
Studies of such "syndromes" as sensitivity to EMF have revealed that the people in question are utterly able to distinguish the presense of radio waves or whatnot. It's bogus -- they're scaring themselves to death.
I quote from The American Academy of Family Physicians website:Sorry to be insensitive, but until I see some better evidence for this being a real disorder, I'm going to assume that he's just another crackpot hypochondriac.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
This "illness" reminds me a bit too much of the condition footsie as described in the Judge Dredd comic books. It's labled as "future shock," wherein the sufferer can't deal with living in the necessarily confined spaces with large groups of individuals for long periods of time without it taking a physical and mental toll on the body--result being eventual madness and death. Of course the best idea is for this guy to (a) see a shrink, and (b) get out of NJ.
Everything I've read about "Environmental Illness" suggests that it's psychosomatic. The amount of money this guy is spending on a special house and medical quackery could buy an awful lot of psychotherapy.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
I think it's so lame that some /.ers are slaves to their computers. Go outside once in a while.
In the near future, environmental problems will come home to roost - a direct result of the short-sighted environmental policies persued by both governments and corporations.
You may dismiss this as "tree-hugging BS", that's your perogative, but illnesses such as childhood asthma, leukemia, allergies, etc are all on the rise. And, as much as they try to hide it, pollution does maim and kill thousands, if not millions, every year.
Arguably, modern medicine is to blame as well. By curing the sick and the weak, modern medicine has prolonged the lives of people who would have otherwise died (including me). Don't get me wrong, I'm not against treating sick people but it's an inescapable fact that by allowing the weak to live you're weakening the gene pool.
Harsh facts but the facts all the same.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
we would go out into tut forest and hack our huts out of the very trees themselves. and be thankful for it at the end of the day. aye, people today dont know how lucky they are
this sig steers like a cow. and i can prove it
If *all* the major peer-reviewed medical associations call it quackery, then it's Quackery with a capital "Q".
MCS/EI folks need good shrinks, not safe houses.
Lrnu, gunaxf, V nyernql ernq gur gbc bs gur cntr. Erqhaqnag nff.
i love how people can take a look at an incredibly complex system, and say "x" is causing "y". is more pollution the only thing that's changed while these illnesses have been on the rise? yeah, i didn't think so.
instead of saying that pollution is causing all this, how about going with a much more likely cause? that the average fitness of people has fallen through the floor. people are more sedentiary today than ever, and eat worse as well. guess what? medical science has proven that a fit individual who eats well is significently more resistent to disease and illness. i donna know, but that seems like a much better answer.
Is anyone else annoyed by this whiner? I'm sorry he has issues, but many people do.
However, this guy mooches off the state and does nothing but bitch and moan about how he doesn't get enough money out of my pocket.
He seems very annoyed that he can't live well off of our money, and is shocked that he'd have to try and find a job.
Maybe I'm callous, but he sure seems ingrateful.
Admittedly, I scanned through the article pretty quickly, but - why can't he find an outdoor job??
If every environment makes him sick, he might as well be sick and working rather than sick and sitting on his butt at home living off of me.
I have built a few "Healthy Houses" for clients that were both environmentally sensitive and for non sensitive people.
The simple fact of the matter is that buildings are made of stuff, and some of this stuff gets on our skin and into our lungs. If the stuff is bad for you, why use it. This problem is worse in energy efficient houses.
Just the same as we know now that smoking is bad for you so:
It makes sense to avoid building materials that produce toxic dust (silicone, asbestos, fiberglass)
It makes sense to avoid materials that offgas formadehyde gas or other noxious organic compounds. Materials such as particle board, cheap carpet, urea formaldehyde foam insulation offgas significant amounts of formaldehyde, formaldehyde is good for some things, but not increasing your lifespan.
It makes sense to minimize the potential growth of toxic or allergic natural pests such as mold, dust mites, spiders, ants and wasps.
nothing is real
My medical opinion is that this guy has a bad allergy to Pyrimidines and Purines. He probably should watch out for those Phosphorous compounds as well. I suggest he move to a place far away from these dangerous chemicals.
It's a fact that the air we breathe, even in the cleanest environments is composed of a large percentage of free radicals. That's a basic fact of life on Earth.
The people who created the original microbial test for cancer later became its loudest critics when it was found that almost anything in excess can cause cancer. The air itself is toxic without any form of man made pollution.
I'm all for prolonging life through stem cell reasarch, cloning, genetic repairs, whatever. But trying to avoid, rather than repair, cellular damage is ridiculous. You can't do it.
Playing the blame game just keeps money in lawyers pockets. Don't participate in that crap.
There are three large cohorts, the Vietnam Vets,the Gulf War Syndrome, and the Japan nerve gas subway survivors. All three have Chemical Sensitivity symptoms. Essentially, pesticide is a toned down nerve gas. It is oil soluble. It is designed to kill stuff. Nerve gas and pesticide is the same chemical family. Since it is oil soluble it is difficult for the body to excrete. And yes it acts as an immune system adjuvant spurring the immune system into hyper alertness.
When we bombed Saddam in the last war we bombed his chemical agent factories. Our troops were down wind. Thousands of nerve gas sensors went off. BUT the US claims that these nerve gas sensors were defective. Why is the same nerve gas sensor still in our arsenal??? Why hasn't the manufacturer been sued??
Even the expensive gas spec and mass spec loaded on pick up trucks detected nerve gas.
During the 1950's the breast cancer rate was 1 in 20. When I was in Med School a decade ago it was 1 in 11. Today, the breast cancer rate is 1 in 8. There is a Long Island Breast cancer cluster. WHY?
Isn't there some curiosity, that the animals that live in polluted waters have all kinds of tumors???
Part of the cover up occurs when you follow the money. The liability runs very high. Lawyers are called in. Has anyone watched "A Civil Action"??
Would the rammed-earth tire design of earthships cause this guy problems?
I grew up with this sort of mindset presented as the normal way of life. My mother self-diagnosed herself with EI, MCS, Lupus, and other assorted disorders which never seemed to be confirmed by traditional medicine. This was always presented by her as proof of the shortcomings of the allopathic community.
:-) Strangely enough, the longer this went on, the less and less sensitive I became to my environment, to the food I ate, to the air I breathed. Now, as I sit here at my glue-ridden wooden desk in my carpeted office, breathing the air of one of the worst polluted cities in the country, the transformation is complete. I understand perfectly that people in my mother's mindset will say that I have "deadened my senses" to the surrounding toxins. My opinion is that, like any exercise in biodiversity, increased exposure to a variety of envioronmental substances makes one's system more able to cope with foreign invasions. The attempt to sterilize our living environment while growing up simply made us react more strongly to any small variation in that environment.
We lived out in the middle of the country, in a house made with a purposeful absence of traditional building materials. Non-treated wood, cedar shakes, etc. In spite of this, my mother seemed to grow constantly more sensitive to her environment, and put more and more safeguards in place to attempt to purify it. Ionic air filters were everywhere, including one in the car to attempt to reduce the effects of hydrocarbon emissions. She pursued a macrobiotic diet in order to attempt to balance her body and eliminate toxins taken in through food. Nothing seemed to improve the situation. Strangely(?) enough, as the years went by, both my sister and I both started exhibiting similar sets of symptoms.
12 years later, I have a very strong feeling about what actually happened during that time of our lives. After I moved out, I started presenting a plethora of external insults to my body in the form of poor environmental conditions, a [comparably speaking] junk food diet, and ingestion of various chemical substances. I called it "college."
As an addendum, my mother is still attempting to isolate herself from the known universe. In spite of this, she is still having the same difficulties. Given my experience over the past decade, I really have to wonder if the cure is a substantial portion of the disease.
IIRC they test newborns to see if they are "PK babies" right away, since they'll die before they ever get their first diet coke due to phenylalanine exposure in regular foods.
There are three large cohorts, the Vietnam Vets,the Gulf War Syndrome, and the Japan nerve gas subway survivors. All three have Chemical Sensitivity symptoms. Essentially, pesticide is a toned down nerve gas. It is oil soluble. It is designed to kill stuff. Nerve gas and pesticide is the same chemical family. Since it is oil soluble it is difficult for the body to excrete. And yes it acts as an immune system adjuvant spurring the immune system into hyper alertness.
When we bombed Saddam in the last war we bombed his chemical agent factories. Our troops were down wind. Thousands of nerve gas sensors went off. BUT the US claims that these nerve gas sensors were defective. Why is the same nerve gas sensor still in our arsenal??? Why hasn't the manufacturer been sued??
Even the expensive gas spec and mass spec loaded on pick up trucks detected nerve gas.
During the 1950's the breast cancer rate was 1 in 20. When I was in Med School a decade ago it was 1 in 11. Today, the breast cancer rate is 1 in 8. There is a Long Island Breast cancer cluster. WHY?
Isn't there some curiosity, that the animals that live in polluted waters have all kinds of tumors???
Part of the cover up occurs when you follow the money. The liability runs very high. Lawyers are called in. Has anyone watched "A Civil Action"??
In my teenage years I often worked with my father during the summer. He was a private contractor, did everything from building houses to putting on siding.
A lot of what I have seen of "bad house syndrome" was caused by either human error or nature.
One woman had asthma problems every year around the same time (early spring). She said it was the heat baking some chemical out of her roof (or something). A look into her heating and air system showed a lot of built up dust. So, it could have been a mold or mildew that went crazy around that time of year. Cleaned the air system and the danker sections of the house - her problem disappeared.
Another house had problems with a child being sick, especially after he had been in the basement. It turned out that the supports down there were full of termites. Apparently the kid was allergic to something produced by the termites.
Then there is human error. One new house (not Dad's work, he was called in) had a distinct chemical smell. During the construction somebody had spilled something and it had soaked into the subfloor.
Honestly, a house with the correct setup does circulate the air pretty well. Plus, while building material may give off fumes for years, how much exactly are we talking about? Even in nature we are constantly subjected to small amounts of all sorts of things. The key is amount. Here is some information about formaldehyde from the EPA: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/formalde.html. In fact, check out their whole section about indoor air quality.
Andrew Borntreger
Champion of cinematic disasters
Okay. I agree. The author, in all likelihood, has a kind of psychosomatic disorder.
So, how does this translate to 'crackpot hypochondriac'?
Let me be more specific. I believe that there are a great many common illnesses that are psychosomatic in nature. However, the pain is real. This guy is in pain, its clear to see. He's pursued this untenable solution to his pain for most of his adult life, according to the site. He's endured a fair amount of ridicule for thinking he's 'allergic to the 20th century'.
Just think about what that must be like. He believes firmly that the world is ignoring his pleas. Which is true, because his pleas are bogus. He doesn't know that. He just gets labelled 'crackpot'. He has no way out, really.
I guess, maybe just a little more sensitivity, guys? He may be nuts, but he's also sick, and I don't see the difference between this and any other mental disorder. If a paranoid schizophrenic thinks the world is after them, we don't (hopefully) decry them as purposefully nuts. We try and help them. If helping this guy find an adobe hut will make him think he's better I say give him an adobe hut.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
There are three large cohorts, the Vietnam Vets, the Gulf War Syndrome, and the Japan nerve gas subway survivors. All three have Chemical Sensitivity symptoms. Essentially, pesticide is a toned down nerve gas. It is oil soluble. It is designed to kill stuff. Nerve gas and pesticide is the same chemical family. Since it is oil soluble it is difficult for the body to excrete. And yes it acts as an immune system adjuvant spurring the immune system into hyper alertness. When we bombed Saddam in the last war we bombed his chemical agent factories. Our troops were down wind. Thousands of nerve gas sensors went off. BUT the US claims that these nerve gas sensors were defective. Why is the same nerve gas sensor still in our arsenal??? Why hasn't the manufacturer been sued?? Even the expensive gas spec and mass spec loaded on pick up trucks detected nerve gas. During the 1950's the breast cancer rate was 1 in 20. When I was in Med School a decade ago it was 1 in 11. Today, the breast cancer rate is 1 in 8. There is a Long Island Breast cancer cluster. WHY? Isn't there some curiosity, that the animals that live in polluted waters have all kinds of tumors??? Part of the cover up occurs when you follow the money. The liability runs very high. Lawyers are called in. Has anyone watched "A Civil Action"??
Though I didn't believe it was related to chemicals in the air. I would vomit constantly, especially while at school, and would be sick almost 24 hours a day. I would get nauseated in the mornings and afternoons, and would have severe cramps in the evening.
I went to school in a variety of buildings. My illness was debilitating. I couldn't go out with friends or anything. My girlfriend started to get frustrated because I could rarely go out with her. I was sick so often that a lot of the time I would go to her apartment (which had a strange, musty smell, which must have made me sick) and vomit several times while I was there.
I gradually started to cope with it, though only a little bit. I was still sick, but it was relatively predictable, and I could run to the bathroom when I knew I was going to vomit. I started getting ulcer-like symtoms because of my stomach trouble. I constantly felt like I had the flu, and doctors had no idea what was going on.
So I went on medication: Paxil. Turns out I have a social phobia that causes me to become severely ill whenever I am in social situations. It is PURELY PSYCHOLOGICAL, but manifests itself physically by causing me to have flu-like symptoms (fatigue, headaches, nausea->vomiting).
I've been taking Paxil for 4 years with an outrageously enormous amount of success. I go out with my friends often, and haven't felt extremely ill because of my phobia for 4 years. It hasn't completely gone away, I still suffer in some form or another when I have other, unrelated stresses in my life, but it's mostly manageable right now.
I'm not about to rule out his "environmental illness" as psychological. I think it's a definite possibility. The same illness that plagued him for years did the same to me for years -- for as long as I can remember. It was debilitating, I couldn't go out, couldn't do anything.
I fail to see any substantial evidence that lends creedence to his claim that this is physical.
Note: Posted A/C because there are still those who don't understand what, and how common, mental illness truly is, and would persecute those who have it. It's all in your mind folks, and we all have mental problems to some degree. You have to look at is as an obstacle to overcome, not as a condition over which to scorn a person.
http://www.harvesthomes.ca/
Looking at the various comments, it seems to be a genereal groove going "It's in your head, get th fuck outside. Houses are made of bricks and wood. Can't be nothin' wrong with that?".
../~howard
I must admit that being from Norway, Europe, I often lean to the statistics saying that quite a large portion of the US have very low education. Now, I have family over there, and I know there are smart people there, but come on?
Concrete gives out huge amounts of fumes, wood is soaked in chemicals to withstand water etc, insulation is a whole book in itself on chemical hell. Are you aware of how much NASTY stuff is in everything we surround ourselves with?
NJ sounds like a really shitty place to live, and the way this guy's been treated doesn't surprise me one bit. If the easiest way to handle a problem is to resign, then people will very often do that! As seems to be the case with the whole of NJ.
I hope you guys don't consider general pollution a figment of imagination too? Go suck on the tailpipe of your car for an hour or so after a good run in the park!
I think we will see an increase in these illnesses in the coming years, as things start to backfire. Here in Europe at least more and more people are reacting to electromagnetic radiation. A cellphone nearby can be enough to cause illness! Schools has actually been shut down for a period of time here in Norway because of chemical fumes in the building.
It's just plain scary when you start to realise what steps people are willing to take just to make money. Killing a few people is low on the list. Mass Pollution is a picnic in the park. We're currently strugling with The Sellafield Nuclear plant in England, as they dump their waste directly out in the sea, killing our coastline.
I'm not really sure where I'm going with all this, but please, sit down and think!!
Just because you can't see it doesn't indicate that it's not real...
phew...
It seems to me that everytime I code for 6 weeks straight without going outside, that when I finally do go outside something seems to cause me great discomfort and pain. I am not sure what it is, its so bright out there. Hard to figure out what it could be with that damnable "day-star" burning the hell out of me.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
I agree with the others who say this guy needs to see a shrink. The idea that he condition has become so severe because of all the time it went "untreated" is laughable. It really is a sign of the culture we live in that *no one* seems to want to face reality or accept responsability for their own problems. As for his other interests they all seem to be involved with getting off the Earth or land for the most part. Lots of Pie in the Sky type stuff that in reality we will never see in our lifetimes. Maybe he should get a hobby, like knitting, to take his mind off his self created delusion. Ever wonder why the net is so slow? Worms, Viruses and people like this guy who waste perfectly good webspace with self indulgent tripe. He's more flaky then a Head and Shoulders convention.
It take more faith to believe in evolution than it takes to believe in God
Yvfgra, lbh tbq qnzarq pbpxfhpxvat shpxvat juber, vs lbh qba\'g fgbc ebg13\'vat Fynfuqbg cbfgvatf V\'z tbvat gb pbzr bire gurer naq xvpx lbh va gur phag naq hfr lbh nf n jngrefxv!
"The dose makes the poison."
Everything is toxic in the proper amount.
...By indulging his hypochondriac fantasies. I glanced over his autobiography, and here's what I think (I am not a mental health professional, but I know plenty of mildly crazy people)
1. He's had trouble getting a job because he keeps on bringing up his fantasy 'handicap' (though he surely believes it's real), and he finds no employer wants to deal with a handicapped IT person.... I think it would be more accurate to say no company wants to deal with a crazy employee in any proffession.
2. His entire autobiography, he paints himself a victim of this 'syndrome.' (and peer abuse, and being overweight) Never anything more than that. True, his weblog is about 'non-toxic' housing, so he may want to keep it on topic, but it really seems to be more of an entire 'pity me' diatribe than a tale of his life thus far. Certainly he takes no responsibility for the over-eating and inactivity that made him fat, and is responsible for his low stamina. (News flash: Fat people can't move fast, or far. Remember, KE=M*V^2!)
3. I bet his doting, single mom raised him to think he was always sick- ever heard of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy ? Tell a kid something long enough, and he's likely to believe it. Drag him around to all sorts of doctors starting in infancy, and you might start to think you can never be healthy.
MCS, as many other posters have pointed out, is a fantasy illness. Michael Fumento, a respected health writer, has written a number of articles on the subject that can be found here. Incidentally, I reccomend browsing through his articles for any other topics that might be of interest to you.
So here's my (albeit non-proffessional) advice to this gentleman:
A. Stop eating.
B. Start Exercising. Cardio-Vascular and weight training. Do it till you drop. Guess what? You'll find that every week you keep it up, you'll last just a little bit longer. I'm not slim (6'1", 255lbs so not grossly obese either) but I've started exercising regularly- trust me, it won't be long before you start noticing the improvements. Maybe weeks. The fatter you are, the more you need to start right now.
C. STFU. really. No one cares about your problems, except fellow hypochondriacs who are looking for reciprical support on their bullshit illnesses. Any given ailment can be exploited for a very limited amount of sympathy. Coming up with new ailments all the time will just piss off the people around you, and turn sympathy into mild disgust.
Buddy, it seems to me your mom screwed you up from the start, before you even had a chance to know better. Blame the doctors for prescribing too many anti-biotics? Blame your mom for bringing you to so many doctors and insisting on medication. Up until the mid 90's, anti-biotics, especially weak ones, were the classic 'go-away' prescription, since doctors can't exactly prescribe sugar pills to crazy patients, or patients with crazy moms.
Oh yeah, the bad thing about over prescribing anti-biotics is that it makes the pathogens more resistant- they don't do much to you except a little diarehhia, because they kill helpful intestinal bacteria. But you must of missed that news report.
Your mom screwed you up. It's high time you got over it.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
Actually at all the bridges here you have to PAY to get out of New Jersey. It is free to get in, however.
Maybe this is just mother nature's way of getting rid of this guy?
Common houseplants can filter a number of chemicals in the air. See the Nasa study:
Even the very rich have a hard time affording a completely toxin-free environment. See the epochal Romero/King documentary Creepshow for a prime example. Wealthy industrialist Upson Pratt was killed by his living environment, and not very slowly either.
If this guy is really as bad off as he makes out, playing Everquest 24/7 may well be within his means. At this rate assuming he has any gaming skill, he should be able to start selling some l33t equipment on Ebay shortly. I'm not an expert on this financial model, but certainly someone who is restricted to his home and has a high-end PC should see a fantasy world (where he can aquire wealth that may transfer to the real world) as a posibility. I wish him the best of luck even if his bio is a bit "poor me".
You can only be young once, but you can be immature forever.
http://www.zone10.com/wsdocs/tech/NASA/fyh.htm
its chilling, but the outside of the place looks like a standard cell at the yuma state prison.
does this mean that all MCS patients are just autoimmune patients waiting for a Dx??? No. Nor does it mean that MCS does or doesn't exist as a separate medical entity... but it does mean that there are certainly cases where allergies and sensitivities can be induced by other causes.
Incidentally, there are also illnesses that are actually being proven to exist, like fibromyalgia, where the complex list of ailments is also real... again, NOT to be taken as evidence that every ailment with such a laundry list of symptoms is genuine yet unproven, in fact this is the exception, rather than the rule. This list of ailments comes up with almost any new toxin. It came up with"Electricity Allergy," where the patient claims to have an allery to Electromagnetic fields which can even break the devices that bear the fields. Again, cases where the patient does the describing and the diagnosis. *shaking head* Doesn't anybody believe in double blind studies any more??
i hope this fellow gets better. I hope that people stop referring to empirical- science based medicine as 'allopathic,' which is a label that only self-stylised 'holistic' pseudomedics seem to use. I just wanted to point out the exception or two where the symptoms are diagnosable, distinct, testable, and can be demonstrated not to be psychosomatic. I didn't read anything that leads me to believe that he's had all the tests to rule such things out. Medicine is NO PLACE for shoddy science!!!!
"I'd say 'Have a good time,' but arson is still illegal.
All of these "allergies" or sensitivities started showing up after I had a bad bought of bronchitis is '98 and was given heaps of drugs, including brochodilators. I am in the peak of health - 500+ annual hours of aerobic and anaerobic activity, VO2 max in the top 5% of the population, resting HR below 50 bpm, below 20% body fat, etc. Yet everytime I go for a bike ride through agricultural regions near where I live, my legs are covered with welts for days afterwards (likely due to the chemicals used in farming).
While there's lots of people out there who want you to believe you're sick, sick enough to give them money for some wonder product, I also believe that there is too much of... everything.. in our daily environment. Our bodies are reacting more and more to compounds found in nature, let alone those crazy man made chemical products. So you tell me what the hell's going on. Why has everyone I know developed some sort of sensitivity in the last 5ish years?
"Content's a bitch."
Many of the current building materials may seem relatively inert to individuals without compromised immune systems, however many can be transformed into deadly materials quite simply.
For example, when vinyl siding burns, it releases a chemical so deadly that it is frequently responsible for the smoke inhalation deaths in building fires.
Many building materials cannot be disposed of safely and ecologically, like PVC pipe, and the long term effects of exposure to complex chemicals are just being studied.
We know how to produce safe materials, and we know how to produce environmentally sound materials. Why not start now?
-- Bird in the Bush: The Renewable Energy Blog http://www.birdinthebush.org
Environmental Illness is a psycological disorder. If it really existed as a physical condition it would be very well studied and there would be a very expensive treatment because it nearly always afflicts middle-upper-class white women. It would also be much worse in homes built in the 50's than newer homes since in the 50's many more chemicals and much more toxic chemicals were used. Most people that suffer from it claim to react to newer buildings.
For a non-toxic house why not make something completely out of steel and concrete? That has to be pretty cheap. Or why not just live in a cave?
Galium Arsenide is the material of the future, and always will be.
and i'll puff
and i'll blow your house down
I work for an environmental laboratory that does testing for this very thing. This guy's whining aside, many folks' houses are more polluted than the outdoors.
There are quite a few factors that can cause illness to those living in such a place. Many older paints contain lead, older carpeting and padding can give off fumes of organic solvents, a lot of older linoleum and drywall contains asbestos, mold can grow in moist areas and squirt bits of mold particles all over, basements contain radon in many areas, oh and it clings to smoke/dust particles which lets it lodge in your lungs and sit there emitting harmful ionizing radiation directly into lung tissue. Granted, much of this stuff is just allergens, but constant allergies can lower your immune capability. And some of this stuff is downright toxic or carcinogenic.
Get your house tested. It really doesn't cost that much. Do it sooner rather than later, especially if you have children...this isn't a plug to drum up business for my lab, you really will be amazed at what kind of crap is in your home.
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
While I tend to agree that there may well be a psychological *component* to the symptoms being described, it's a rather neat solution to go from 'this person may have some psychological issues *in addition to* some real medical ones' to 'this guy's a nutcase'.
Consider:
1. The 'normal' curve -- we have peanut allergies, dairy allergies, bee sting allergies... is it so far-fetched that someone might actually be allergic one or more of the chemical compounds used in modern buildings? It might be rare, but the odds are almost certainly much better than 1 in 5 billion. And how much more likely would you be to discover your allergy if you were living in one of the most heavily-polluted/polluting countries on earth?
2. A good friend of mine has been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Are there psychological factors involved? Probably, they had a really messed-up childhood. Are they crazy? No. Are they normal? Yes. Do they experience concrete, physical symptoms that are completely debilitating? Absolutely.
Maybe MCS is simply a confluence of psychological and physical circumstances that tip someone over an invisible sensitivity ledge. It doesn't necessarily make someone crazy, it makes them in need of a great deal of help.
MCS is kind of aligned with the same people who feel that radio waves harm them.
Now, allergies to about everything, individually, _are_ considered medically viable and clinically verifiable. But MCS, which proposes that one disease makes you allergic to almost all chemicals, doesn't seem to pass muster.
Here is a compilation of views of medical associations towards MCS. Nobody says it is complete bunk, but everybody agrees that there aren't any good studies that proves it does exist.
Jack Valenti and the MPAA are to technology as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone
"...that give off formaldehyde, among other things, for years and years."
Not to be flippant, but I live in a house built in 1905. There isn't a speck of pressboard or plywood in the place. In fact, the only environmental hazard I can find (building-products related) is lead paint.
Solution? Buy an old house. Kinda helps on the whole overdevelopment / landfill / pollution stuff too...
Everyone will start to cheer when you put on your sailin' shoes.
This guy's site is not doing much to help those who are environmentally sensitive. He's got all the warning signs of an chronic hypochondriac (read his autobiography; he goes out of his way to portray himself as a martyr and a victim of pretty much everyone and everything he's ever encountered). I think he's got some serious attention issues, and will prejudice the casual viewer against against ES sufferers.
Another poster in this thread recommended the movie safe, and I couldn't agree more. ES syndrome is a complex, daunting problem that is often equal parts biology and psychology; you can't treat the psychological factors without giving some relief for the physical symptoms, but the problems will never truly go away until you address the mental component of the disorder. A patient often has some kind of severe sociopathology (extremely needy and demanding of attention, or fearful of social interaction), and attendant phobias or OC fixations. It's pretty amazing to see somebody break out in hives when you just *tell* them that there are painters in the other half of the building; this is a disorder of mind and body that Western medicine's reductionist approach is more or less powerless to address.
I was just yesterday talking to some friends about Earthships.
Packed dirt not only offers thermal mass to help with heating and cooling costs, but also might be "hypo-allergenic".
/* TAANSTAFL */
Bwahahahahaa.
Yeah, ok. If I contrive my own disease not recognized by science or medicine, can I have my own Slasdhot story, also ?
the card says moops
Why I am not surprised that Slashdot readers sympathize with a paranoid loser who walls himself up within his own house?
That was a pretty funny comment.
At risk of sounding overly harsh, you know, there are some medical defects that really should not survie long enough to introduce into the gene pool, its a bummer and all, and i suppose the good natured part of me says ahh live and let live, but really, its a modern industrial world...
Besides the fact that it tastes like shit, nutrasweet gives me a headache even in modest quantities.
So yeah, the solution is darwinism: the idiots who ingest the stuff will die off.
they're all bullshit too!
(For the second time, since the last one got moderated into dust. I guess some people can't handle the truth afterall!)
I am a Chemical Biologist (PhD) and specialize in the chemistry of natural products. Natural products are compounds made by living organisms. Examples include penicillin (made by a mold and a bacteria), erythromycin (made by a soil bacteria), and taxol (anticancer compound made by a Yew tree). The thing I question about MCS syndrome is the fact that we are surrounded by varying environmental toxins continually.
For example, soil contains tens of thousands known carcinogens. Furthermore, these bacteria are very mutable and are constantly evolving chemical structural variants and the like. The very "smell" of soil is caused by a compound called geosmin, a terpenoid compound. Complex bioactive chemicals are everywhere and produced at fairly high levels. It is difficult for me to understand why man-made chemicals would be any more dangerous or insulting to a human immune system than natural product molecules. Nature makes more nasty molecules with greater constantly varying structural variety than any chemical factory or synthetic chemist could ever hope to make.
If MCS is real, there should be no solace for people afflicted with it, short of moving into a granite cube filled with synthetically synthesized, purified air.
Does this guy live in a bubble?
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
But just cause no body knows why the symptoms are present doesn't mean they don't exist. See the link for a theory on MCS...
l l/ pall_mcs.htm
http://molecular.biosciences.wsu.edu/Faculty/pa
If, on the other hand, you claim to be allergic to a certain chemical but don't develop symptoms when you're exposed to it unless you are told that it's there, that's psychosomatic.
Yeah I think this is all in this guy's head too.
The problem I have with this is that everything is made of chemicals. The air, the sea, the ground. His head. All chemicals.
And since plain wood and brick and stone are okay, it seems that it's only modern chemicals he has a problem with. Interesting how his disorder can check patent dates on-the-fly.
Get this guy some counseling. The toxins will go away.
Weaselmancer
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Your link to impeach bush makes me wonder how credible your arguments really are.
I opened the link, and it seems that these geniuses want to impeach bush because of the probability of war with Iraq. If one took that seriously, then a serious argument could be made that we would have to impeach Bush if he DIDN'T consider war with Iraq.
He seems reasonable...all he wants is a completely self-contained home with "satellite broadband service". Oh, don't forget the "Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion Bathroom Unit"
And a boy's gotta ride: "converted conventional vehicle, new or used, with factory installed interior replaced with non-toxic materials and air purifier unit added."
Since he's got all this time on his hands and the job assembing radios fell through, perhaps he can become an EQ god and sell items on e-bay, or maybe just pimp his skills on a site like elance.
I guess that would be too easy and would require him to take personal responsibility. After all, everything is not his fault...
Before Edwards was on ER, he was on the best show ever, North Exposure, who played a character who had MCS.
Modern society allows people with disfunctions or disabilites (like this guy) to (sometimes) not only function but also thrive.
;-)
No offense to anyone, I'm just trying to be analytical, but I guess many people who would've probably died -- or at least have been at a big disadvantage -- from their disabilities now are able to live a happy, productive life, mate, breed and (in some cases) pass their disabilities on. I myself have asthma and often depend on medicine to breathe, and both my siblings have other problems, so maybe all of us would have been dead, or maybe have a very hard time mating and breeding (now hold on... is this why geeks have a hard time getting laid?
So I ask, what is this causing to the human race and its genetic pool? Are we becoming physically and maybe even mentally weaker?
OTOH, who knows the parameters for what is actually best? Maybe it would be good if we all were shorter, fatter and dumber. Or taller, thinner, weaker, smarter, geekier, wear glasses, who knows?
/* TAANSTAFL */
Everyone nowadays is on a real kick. They think that they can diagnose every single illness and problem with themselves. Without any knowledge other than what the internet says or a book says. Well I have one thing to say to them. Stop trying to diagnose yourself!
One important thing was said to me during my psychopathology class and it has stuck with me ever since. (Roughly):
"You are going to learn about many different psychological diseases, their symptoms and causes. Just because you learn about it though, doesn't mean you are qualified to diagnose yourself. Your problems always seem amplified to yourself, so you never really get to see the actual picture of what you are doing and what's happening to you. So, right now I am going to tell you all, you very likely aren't bipolar, don't have any personality disorders, aren't schizophrenic, and don't have any of the diseases the book talks about. If you feel you do have any of them, go and see a professional and don't diagnose/treat yourself. It's that simple. You will avoid a lot of hardship that way."
Well, I think that applies to all of these people who think their bodies are hosts for bug larvae, or people who are determined that every big evil corporation is actively trying to kill them, or that their small problems in their life are so huge that the world must be collapsing and the sky must be falling...
You likely aren't sick, but if you honestly feel you are, go see a qualified professional and get it checked out properly. At least that way you can try to find the root of the real problem, and not live your life in fear and horror of these imaginary deamons that are haunting you. Stop attacking these windmills blindly.
Also, I would like to point out that there isn't a giant conspiracy orchestrated by the doctors and psychologists to steal your money and keep you sick/kill you.
~ kjrose
----------snip----------- ...and are historically made only of naturally occurring chemicals then painted. In the last 20 years man has created all sorts of wicked additives to make these materials more water resistant, last longer, fire resistant, termite resistant, etc....
And since plain wood and brick and stone are okay
----------unsnip---------
----------snip-----------
it seems that it's only modern chemicals he has a problem with
----------unsnip---------
modern chemicals implies recently discovered or man concocted chemicals. A large percentage of these chemicals (naturally occuring chemicals as well, cobra venom comes to mind) are very toxic.
Hydrocarbons (foam, manmade fiber carpet, plastic, vinyl, basically everything plastic, rubber, polyester etc) are very recent developments and can be considered "modern chemicals". These chemicals permeate our lives and homes.
No one knows the long term effects of these man made hydrocarbon chemicals(or leached fumes) on the body because they have not been tracked or studied. In the 60's people used to breathe asbestos dust, and back then, the doctors sounded a lot like you do now when people started having problems.
I would not dismiss this stuff so easily. This guy might just be hyper sensitive to this stuff and could possibly be an early indicator of the types of long term problems all of us, who have existed and been inundated with these chemicals for our entire life, will have one day.
This guy may be legit, but there is just as much of a chance of him simply being a sissy boy phony who wants attention. With out the data and actual research, we can make no assumptions.
I think its funny that Northern Exposure not only introduced this "illness" to a wide audience but it also showed that in the end the entire thing was in the characters head.
If you remember he was "miraculously cured" and went off to join Greenpeace. The very fact that his "illness" spontaniously disappeared was indicative that his character was never sick. He suffered from the same psychosis all the copy cat illnesses do.
(n/m)
...poured into stay-in-place styrofoam forms (insulation), would be the answer. With an airtight vapor barrier and careful selection of interior finishing components this fella would be in business. Needless to say that an air exchanger would be required in said airtight house. Air exchangers are excellent for any home for that matter, stagnant air is not healthy. The only other alternative that I can think of is a steel building. (that is if you discount having the poor chap live in a big plastic (non-allergic) bubble. /. rules!!
I agree, actually. This Environmental Illness sounds like another illness of psychological origin. I know a bunch of you are going to react to me saying this, but you need to dig deeper to see that there are so many things that are caused by the relationship between mind and body. Allergies are just one small example.
In any case, this guy really shouldn't reproduce.
Not just sedate them, but sedate them with a dangerous narcotic.
Of course, ritalin is perfectly safe when doled out by public skool administrators.
The average reaction is either "yeah this guy is right, we're all being poisoned" or "this guy is a nut, it's all in his head". Extremism is common in the world.
I think from reading through his web site, it's clear that:
1) This guy has spent a significant amount of time looking at interesting architectural experiments, and has done a lot to write these up in an accessible way to those who believe that there is something better possible than 2x4 stick built houses with gypsum board and vinyl flooring. Just look at his "simplicity and pavilion architecture" site.
2) Stress kills. No joke. Even if his primary problem is psychological, he suffers real physical problems from the stress caused by the psychological problems. Try living under continual stress conditions for a while (ie. barely able to pay your creditors, or on the run from the law, or being held as a POW or something), you'll see what I mean.
3) There really are toxic environmental issues that we should be aware of. For example, for the longest time Atrazine was a popular approved weedkiller. People thought DDT was a good idea at one point. People even though smoking was harmless at one point.
Pressure treated lumber IS dangerous, primarily for those who cut it, but leaching levels in the soil are measureable. That's why it's being phased out. Formaldehyde offgassing levels CAN be measured. No it's simply NOT true that standard forced air heaters exchange the air several times an hour, that would be WAY too expensive.
Take a look at the contents of a water resistant drywall spackling compound container some day. We had our bathroom done recently and I still can't be in that room for very long. I just hope when the swanstone goes up over it, it seals in the damn chemicals.
Often people claim that things are completely safe, but these claims are based on expected usage. All you have to do is put a piece of software in the hands of one of your users to know how easily people can do the unexpected...
Toxicology is about studying the levels of toxins that produce statistically unmeasureable effects. But LOTS of things confound statistics to make measuring effects difficult.
Oh and by the way there are major differences between the toxicity of volatile organic compounds and the toxicity of minerals like arsenic embedded in adobe. For one, you can't avoid VOC's by simply not licking your walls.
Does this guy have a real problem? Sure. What is it, biochemical or psychological? Are you all philosophical dualists or can we agree that psychological problems can have biochemical origins?
Anyway, I just want to thank this guy for putting together an interesting web site...to hell with the rest of you who feel they have to debunk his illness.
((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x))) http://www.endpointcomputing.com a scientific approach to custom computing.
they're all bullshit too!
Fibro-Myalgia most certainly is not bullshit.
As for ADD/ADHD.. I really hope you are blessed with a kid who has this "bullshit" affliction. And I really hope you try to beat it out of him like my teachers did.
Maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
It might be so that there is a psychological element as well. Though I can only speak for myself since my experiences differ only in the way that I am an atopic and suffer from different sorts of rash and skin diseases cronically. And in my perspective it is *all* due "environmental" reasons. Every time the humidity lowers or rises, temperature fuxuates or then just the air pressure changes radically my skin starts to react.
:)
The only solution in my case would be to move to the mediterranean or the tropic...
The "Shelter" got all my sympathies, I wonder, are there others who feel the same way? Any fellow atopics among the geeks here?
- Voice of Ambience -
- Voice of Ambience -
Read the life story. His immune system was crippled by overuse of prescribed antibiotics during childhood, a key development time for any human. This still happens to people today, sadly.
Without a good immune system, you're susceptible to all sorts of strange problems, especially at point-of-contact with the world: sinus, ears, throat, lungs. Chemicals in the air can weaken a struggling system further, making it easy to be overrun with even the most primitive bacteria, which most of us resist easily.
Those quick to say 'Its in his head' likely take their fully-functional immune systems for granted.
"I'd say 'Have a good time,' but arson is still illegal.
There is a small market for environmentally safer building materials out there, but for most of us they are really hard to find and very expensive (due to transport costs, if nothing else) when we do find them.
Suggestion: Work to make this market bigger. Maybe you can't afford it either, but at least tell joe at the lumberyard that you are interested in that kind of thing.
One source for info: http://www.oikos.com
Actually... care to check whether your dad's hands are shaking while trying to hold 'em still?
I've noticed those who quaff the stuff by abt. liter per day have the most shaky hands I've ever seen..
And no, none of them smoke tobacco.
And yes, I know it isn't known to be harmful nor harmless, whether it is or not is not the issue, it has no nutritional value and has very poor taste, doesn't taste sweet but bitter. If I don't know what it is then I am not going to risk my health using it, you shouldn't either. It just isn't proven to be anything yet.
There is actually something I heard about it though that should be considered though. Usually when eating food rich with sugar your body starts to develope insulin to burn the glucoses from your blood and transform them in to more useful forms of energy for your body to use up. Now if you fool your system by giving it aspartame instead it again starts to develope insulin to break up the sugar. But what happens when there is no sugar to burn? As we know aspartame doesn't contain glucose.. what silly things might happen in our bodies then? This is one of the reasons I prefer to use real sugar and not something I am not sure of.
- Voice of Ambience -
- Voice of Ambience -
Expensive (in the US), but it doesn't get any more non-toxic than that....
Shut up you fucking faggot hypochondriac.
I wonder why someone has to drink that much soft drinks per day... heard of milk? ..water?
- Voice of Ambience -
- Voice of Ambience -
Dunno if anybody else posted a link to this, but it's a pretty darn good flick that might improve your understanding of the situation: Safe
this is just a bunch of tree-hugging BS
Just move out into Bumfuck Nowhere (tm) in the desert, grow your own grass (it doesn't take too much water to grow straw), and use the grass and mud to make an adobe house. For roofing, fell a few trees thyself (perhaps out of area and import them), make planks, and use a thach/plank roof.
So what if it leaks in the rain? It's nice, 100% natural building material. If your psychosomatic illness demands it, it's possible to do.
Test your net with Netalyzr
Hate to tell you this but your immune system can be destroyed by continual exposure to varying types of chemicals. You then become violently ill based on exposure to significantly less chemicals. It's quite bad if you know someone that has had a problem with this type of illness.
... == reality is they bomb (preemptive strikes) anyone they please, they are trying to become the next empire (guess they dont read history books) and they sure as shit help no one (medical, social programs, etc ...)
I guess people who think everything is "bullshit" are lacking the empathy until it happens to them or someone they care about.
Sounds like a Republican to me.
Here's how:
1)republican == christian right
2)christian religion preaches help everyone, turn the other cheek,
3)republican party == hypocrites
Keep lying to yourselves, maybe someday you'll believe the "bullshit" you put out.
Seriously...I grew up in NJ...I was sick all the f'ing time...I was picked on all the f'ing time...I was WAY smaller than everybody my age and WAY smarter. Here is the deal, I had mono-nucleosus twice and that is supposed to be impossible...I was sick all the freaking time going in and out of hospitals and at one point they thought I had a wierd form of AIDS that they couldn't detect yet. I wound up being one of the first diagnosed cases of Epstien Barr syndrome and well there is not one damn thing you can do about it. So what did I do...I stopped feeling sorry for myself got off my ass and started making things happen for myself...I started to demand that people pay attention to me instead of being a passive doormat and I started to just force myself to do things no matter how bad or sick I felt...and you know what....I am a normal human being now with a normal life...I am 6'2 and I am very athletic...and I am not athletically gifted at all but I keep trying at something till I get it no matter how stupid I look in the process...Get a freaking spine...Seriously...Get off your ass and start f'ing doing something no matter how bad you feel. or how small it is. Self-loathing and self-pity are disease unto themselves...don't tell me I don't know because I haven't been in your shoes, I was you and probably much worse. I was out of school with mono for 6 months once when I was in 5th grade and then again when I was in 8th. This guy is just running a scam and needs a kick in his ass!
You'd think a guy who wrote, "With little disposable income and a Damaclese Sword of imminent homelessness perched perpetually over my head..." would be trying to get a job. Instead of a long page of things he wants people to donate he should have a long page of why someone should hire him to work from home.
Maybe it would be good for him to end up homeless. When he realizes his "illness" doesn't kill him, he could make some money appearing in "Bumfights".
actually, mold has become a pretty big deal. Mold doesn't hurt you, but the spores can cause illness in humans, even a few documented deaths. The lawyers are already sharpening their pencils over this...
"However, all molds produce spores when they reproduce, and some of those spores produce mycotoxins, or poison."
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." --Benjamin Franklin
"reality is they bomb (preemptive strikes) anyone they please"
I didn't know that Clinton was a Republican. That brings me back to the all important question... does CAT really spell DOG?
"Glass would seem to be relatively inert, but who knows."
:-)
There you go! how about an all glass house. I know i've seen one in an architecture magazine. it was pretty cool, and not necessarily transparent, either. The walls were made like a foot thick, with 1" thick panes of glass stacked against each other. Hypoalergenic, and kindof cool looking. I can't find a link right now but there's some cool pictures out there somewhere, i think it was Architectural Record. (no i don't mean the Farnsworth house, or that one from the movie. Of course the furnishings would have to be all glass too. I'm sure they could be cast into nice non-sharp, form fitting shapes...
the only unplesentness would be the view of the glass pipes from the upstairs bathroom running through the glass interior wall, especially when in use...
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." --Benjamin Franklin
I used to be one of those people who would drink diet sodas in great amounts (I drink a lot. I drink at least 3 ltrs of fluids per day.. now imagine if 3/4 was diet soda). Then I started to get migraines which pretty much left me immobile while under the effects (I breathe: it hurts). Through trial and error, I realized I'd developed a sensitivity to aspartame and now can't even chew a stick of gum without getting a migraine.
.
It's always fun to find out what foods contain aspartame by whether I get a migraine after eating them
Before, my dad would tell me about the holes in rat brains that were fed aspartame. I even read studies done by the University of Washington about spacial awareness before and after aspartame intake (which showed that rats could not find a platform and drowned in a water tank after injesting the aspartame). I figured that I was lucky in that I didn't have any symptoms...
I am aware of at least two other people who are aspartame sensitive (even more so than I am). It is doing things to people and there *were* very shady things going on to get it past the FDA.
"Would you rather have a playstation addicted dork wearing a star wars t-shirt?"
was caught out making house bricks out of toxic waste recently. When old industrial estates get bulldozed, where do you think the rubble ends up?
Many natural toxins are just as nasty as artificial ones - however, if they were a major source of death/evolutionary failure, we'd have greater resistance to them (like the mongoose). Of course, this "environmental illness" thing is quite different from a very real acute reaction like that, say, produced by an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor ("nerve gas"), which will either kill you, leave you hospitalized for a few months until your body can produce new AChE to replace that irreversibly bound to the toxin, or not reach sufficient levels in your blood to produce an effect.
Did you glance at my sig before calling me a right wing christian?
I regard myself as intensely compassionate; I am a secular humanist and a libertarian socialist. If someone is delusional, they need help. Encouraging their delusion, especially if you profit from it, is not a compassionate act. Those doctors who maintain that MCS exists, and I can see this clearly because I have seen the primary data involved, are profiteering off of the mental illness of unfortunate individuals like the man who posted the original article.
When I see someone, even an unfortunate delusional person, promulgating their delusions on a public forum such as this, I think of the damage this can cause, on two fronts, and I become upset, which is entirely fitting.
The human cost is clear. This man's insanity is ruining his life for no good reason. This sort of posting encourages other sufferers to barricade themselves inside their houses instead of seeking psychiatric help.
The cost to the legitimate causes of environmental activism is indirect. Your immune system can be damaged by exposure to a number of environmental chemicals - most of these are chlorinated organics (PCBs being a prime example.) There is actual, indeed, extensive scientific evidence for this. However, unlike PCB poisoning, MCS is not scientifically validated. The more "mindshare" is given over to delusional diseases like MCS, the more ammunition is given over to those who are trying to subvert science to ignore actually existant threats like PCBs.
I realise that I may come across as a sophist, since many arguments similar in overall structure are proferred to justify horrendous acts of inhuman behavior, in an effort to conceal selfish motives. I point to the fact that I am a computational biologist who studies evolution and protein topology; I have no material interest in believing as I do. In fact, I could probably make good money developing "treatments" for MCS, as do those doctors who believe it is a disease with a physical basis.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
I mean, it is an interesting problem to search for MCS housing, and I wish him the best. However, did anyone take a moment to read through the lengthy autobiogrpahy section? He may be a really great guy, but excerpts from his diatribe make him sound like a psychopath.
The Amish do not use building codes; they use common sense and that is the most healthy living condition.
...or wait... :)
Wood, nails, non-electric hand-tolls, and ol' fassion'd sweat and toil: environmentally safe living.
We Amish people do not accept the English world's building codes. We are sovereign, in these respects, and consider all accomplishments achieved in less time always to have a negative effect in some way. Nothing, not chemical additives or other dangerious ingredients, will improve life like a Amish-style house.
Meat, Potatoes, Milk, Pie, Eggs, Bacon, Oats, and Water; every day is the Amish way.
But who am I to know...I can't be Amish, on slashdot,
There are diseases out there that become more severe the longer they are left untreated. Hyperthyroidism is one (where your thyroid puts out metabolism hormones despite the feedback system that is telling your system to stop). My doctor explained what it does to your metabolism to be like cruise control on a gas pedal that once it's turned on, it slowly increases the speed until you're at risk of heart attack due to your metabolism. It takes longer time and more drugs to bring it back down to normal levels the longer it is left untreated.
Malignant cancer is another.
"Would you rather have a playstation addicted dork wearing a star wars t-shirt?"
I was reading a magazine about pest control, and the magazine's author (unknown) provided information that astounded me: mix a small ammount of nutrasweet with sugar, spread on window sills or entrance ways which ants invade a building, and the ants die from consuming nutrasweet-contaminated sugar.
To the geeky slashdotter, it is found that the process which kills that ants is the nutrasweet residue is spread onto the sugar, the ants eat the sugar granules that have the nutrasweet residue, and durring ingestion the nutrasweet releases a foul, incidious, and most evil gas that causes the ant's stomach an intestines to *BURST* and thus the ant's thorax and abdomen simply rip appart to release the expanding gasses caused by Nutrasweet(TM).
The big question is:
WHAT IS NUTRASWEET(TM) DOING TO YOUR HEALTH WHEN IT IS OBVIOUS NUTRASWEET(TM) DISAGREES WITH OTHER VARIOUS *LIVING* ORGANIZMS?
Pretty normal based on my observation of relatives. They are too disabled to do anything except what they want to do. Then, they have no trouble at all doing it.
----- There are two kinds of people in this world, my friend; those with loaded guns, and those who dig.
Green shelter is made out of people, PEOPLE!
Though it may have been drafted by a nut case (I admittedly don't really know much about Ramsey) this does not mean Bush isn't guilty of the acts listed. I am an American and love my country. From what I can see, Bush and his administration are destroying everything this country stands for.
Zak: No, it's mostly about what went on (and is still going on) with Afghanistan. My largest concern is over my rights which I feel are under attack.
Honestly, I don't think Bush will be impeached, however I do feel this would be a fairly strong message to congress that many people are not happy with Bush. The reason I put this in my sig is because of the many people who sit in these forums and bitch about "Bush this and Bush that," but they don't write their reps or try to communicate to anyone with any political power.
-Derick
Uhm, KE=1/2*M*V^2.
When I eat a lot of refined sugar I notice that I feel worse in the morning.
When I drink a lot of alcohol I notice that I feel worse in the morning.
When I drink caffeine I notice that I get a headache if I don't drink it the next day.
When I don't drink enough water I get a headache.
If I eat a vitamin on an empty stomach I get nauseous.
When I eat too much salt I feel swollen and uncomfortable.
And so on...
This guy could be sitting around drinking coca-cola every other day wondering why he feels like crap. Perhaps he should start just by eating better and see what that gets him first.
The solution to a TON of health problems are really fucking simple, but people continue to abuse their bodies and wonder why they feel like crap, pumping more crap into their body to compensate for the crap they ate an hour ago and blaming everything other than their own behaviour.
Weak people like this just suck the resources out of society. He lives off of our taxes and plays victim.
If all of these "sensitive to everything" people just die off without reproducing, the world will be stronger. This is just plain Darwinism at work. Coddling him weakens the human race.
"darwanism" - without all the political or ethical bullshit.
"let he who is without sin cast the first stone." but since I usually shit bricks at people, Darwinism is what allows me to survive being hit in the head when people throw shit back at me.
Adapt or Fail. That is all.
-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-
following my instincts not a trend...
One of the things that hamper Linux's climb to world domination is the
shortage of bad Computer Role Playing Games, or CRaPGs. No operating system
can be considered respectable without one.
-- Brian O'Donnell, odonnllb@tcd.ie
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