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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."
...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
What is "Environmental Illness"? I've never heard it before in my life.
Basically, from what I have read, it is one step below bubble-boy on the allergen list. Instead of being suceptible to germs, these people are susceptible to gasses and chomicals that most of us tolerate fine.
What does "toxic home" mean in this context? I've never thought of lampshades as dangerous. I'm left guessing here.
It means that every piece of anything chemically processed that you have in your home slowly breaks down over time, and gives off noxious chemicals. Everything from formaldehyde to radon.
Most of us dont notice, but it apparently makes some people _very_ sick. Couple this with todays "need" to make homes virtually air tight, and you have a place that makes reactive people really, really sick.
Obviously I can look these all up (and I will). But any other reporting source would've explained these concepts in some detail.
He kinda does on a another page.. but you have to dig a bit to find it. It apparently involves moose, alaska, and nOrthern Exposure.
Maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
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.
BZZT:! Wrong answer. Gypsum is bad for anyone who has respiratory issues, because it is such a fine dust, and anyone with any kind of silica allergy has serioius problems with it.
There are several woods that are downright toxic.
Line a room with Cedar and make the house airtight and see how long you survive. The gas given off by it is not only toxic to Moths, it is toxic to people also. But the little blocks you keep in your closet dont release enough to sicken you, unless you are highly reactive to it.
Bricks are also not inert all the time. The JIRR
had an article on a brick in Boston that was carrying syphillus. (yes, that was meant to be humorous, but its true).
Yeah.. I know i'm feeding a troll.. but your misinformation is staggering.
Maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
Modern wood isn't very chemically "safe" -- various treatments involve chemicals you wouldn't otherwise like to be exposed to. One of the primary agents used in pressure treated wood is aresenic -- and there's some evidence that it does leak out into the surroundings (although still at a non-harmful level). Engineered wood (plywood, pressed wood, OSB, etc) often contains formaldehyde, along with other chemicals used in the bonding process (again - low levels - less than 1% of the mass is the bonding agent).
Modern wood floors are coated with polyurethane and aluminum oxide. I've done more furniture finishing than I care to think about and poly isn't the nicest thing on earth.
There are various chemicals used in the tinting of bricks and mortar, which I can imagine would be problematic. Modern concrete is also nasty - there's a reason they warn you not to handle with bare hands, since you can get chemical burns in short order.
Glass would seem to be relatively inert, but who knows.
Paints and wallpaper all have fun and interesting chemical compounds.
There probably are some psychosomatic symptoms in this illness, as there are in many, but I doubt that covers all of it. There's a high likelyhood that he actually does have severe negative reactions to a vast amount of chemicals -- although why this is is an interesting question. Genetic defect? Too many antibiotic sprays and cleaners as a kid (yes -- overuse of these is bad and reduces the overall effectiveness of your immune system)? Exposure to some high doses of chemicals that caused a trigger effect?
And while he claims the need for EI-friendly housing is "extreme", it's extreme only in a very, very, very small community. I won't question his need for it, but I do question the number of people in need. And the fact is, it's going to be expensive. Hideously so. Removal of modern building methods and resources means a lot of human intensive labor along with some very specialized resource requirements. An adobe home for $125/sq ft may be one of the cheaper alternatives.
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.
Your assumption that there is a "huge jump in lung cancer in the last 20 years" is wrong, or at best misleading.
Age-adjusted lung cancer rates have declined significantly from 1990-1999--age-adjusted rates are the only ones that are really worth looking at, they're what for instance the CDC and other bodies use since they account for increases in lifespan. Preliminary data for 2000-2002 seems to indicate this trend is continuing. If there is an increase over the last 20 years it's because an earlier increase (1983-1989) hasn't been wiped out yet.
Remember that cancer rates lag smoking rates, too, so if smoking was halved today that would show up more and more over the next decade(s) rather than showing up immediately.
http://seer.cancer.gov is one good resource for this data.
Sumner
rage, rage against the dying of the light
Nutrasweet aka Aspartame IS safe. My dad works for the Merisant corporation which makes Equal, the largest consumer of Nutrasweet. If Nutrasweet is not safe, then certainly the solution to the problem will be darwinism. My dad and all of the other executives drink the stuff with every beverage. If they're at a restaurant that doesn't have Nutrasweet, they request it, and so on. All of the studies have shown there is no link to aspartame and any problems, and it has been one of the most studied substances on the planet. Something like 7000 studies I believe. And Merisant is NOT paying anybody off.
As far as "Formaldehyde and Methanol" being such a problem, let me remind you that an eating an apple releases much more methanol into your system than the equal in your tea.
And actually for the most part I think ADD and ADHD are just names for normal kids who want to sedate for our instutitional learning facilities (I do believe there are some true cases, but the vast majority).
All allergies are *not* "in one's head."
Of course not. But Environmental Illness is.
In your case, you had a placebo control: you didn't know there was milk in the hot dogs and you still got sick. That's a good indication of a legitimate illness.
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. And general EI has been shown to fit that category in numerous studies (there are some other allergies that sometimes get grouped in with EI that _are_ legitimate, but that's another story).
Sumner
rage, rage against the dying of the light
Well, wish any of them luck in building a house without a well-engineered wall system - vapor barrier and permable wrap - Tyvek is not airtight - it is a liquid barrier bus allows moisture to migrate back out of the insualted wall, while a sealed barrier makes sure the moisture stays out of the house interior. Leave these two out and good luck fighting off the mold that will be inside the walls in short time. Short of straw-bale adobe, it's pretty necessary. Also - don't seal the ground with a well-engineered basement or barrier or vent system, and you're blind to radon infiltration, which is not a syndrome - it is a proven and measurable health risk.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."