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."

Comments

Erm...

[pubjames]

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".

Re:Erm...

[Christopher Bibbs]

Mortar has really nasty things in it

Really, like, erm, lime, silica and sand?

Where do you buy your building supplies, for flips sake, Dr. Evil?

I don't know where you get your building supplies, but the stuff my contractor showed up with had a long list of US patent numbers for additives that improved the strength, reduced the set time, and cut down on the dust. Anything else those chemicals might do is beyond me, but I can tell you there is more in there than lime, silica, and sand.

Re:Erm...

[JudgeFurious]

You are correct in that there are a number of things in there other than lime, silica, and sand but that would make me ask the question "But does there have to be?"

Wood, bricks, and mortar. If he simply used real natural wood, basic clay bricks, and a standard simple mortar he would get the desired effects I think. I don't know if those are even available today without an additive here or a treatment there but that would be an answer I think.

having said that it seems like the hardest part of all of this would be making sure the contractor was in fact only using the materials you specified. I mean, who's going to check it? You? In this scenario you're the guy who gets sick around the stuff so that's not going to be any fun. On top of that would you know what you were looking at and if you did could you be there during the entire construction to make sure?

Tough nut to crack here.

Re:Erm...

[Reziac]

And as to his quest for an *adobe* house... Adobe is made from natural clay mixes, which particularly in the Southwestern U.S., can contain (and leak) measurable quantities of lead, arsenic, uranium, and in some basin areas, enough selenium to make anyone sick. Not to mention that adobe is not chemically-inert (it tends to dissolve over time, if not kept roofed and whitewashed) and is fairly dusty.

Then he was looking at ceramic-coated steel buildings. Some older ceramics contain lead pigments, sufficient to be toxic. Has he checked that? evidently not.

If discarded UFOs were available as housing, THAT is what he'd be trying to finance.

impossible quest

[Joe the Lesser]

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.

it's psychosomatic...

[egomaniac]

Does the guy wear a tinfoil hat as well?

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:

"[MCS] has been rejected as an established organic disease by the American Academy of Allergy and Immunology, the American Medical Association, the California Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, and the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. It may be the only ailment in existence in which the patient defines both the cause and the manifestations of his own condition. Despite this, it has achieved credibility in workmen's [sic] compensation claims, tort liability, and regulatory actions."

"No evidence based on well-controlled clinical trials is available that supports a cause-and-effect relationship between exposure to very low levels of substances and the myriad symptoms reported by clinical ecologists to result from such exposure . . . . Until such accurate, reproducible, and well-controlled studies are available, the American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs believes that multiple chemical sensitivity should not be considered a recognized clinical syndrome."

"Review of the clinical ecology literature provides inadequate support for the beliefs and practices of clinical ecology. The existence of an environmental illness as presented in clinical ecology theory must be questioned because of the lack of a clinical definition. Diagnoses and treatments involve procedures of no proven efficacy."

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.

Re:it's psychosomatic...

[drooling-dog]

I believe you're right about these illnesses being more psychiatric than physical. However, that doesn't mean that they're not real in terms of the suffering that these people go through. The "crackpot" label is a little harsh. This guy probably has a mental illness, but it's an illness all the same...

Re:Bullshit

[srboneidle]

The bit I like best from this site (fumento.com) is this:

MCS has been rejected as an organic disease by the American Medical Association, the American Medical Council on Scientific Affairs, the American College of Physicians, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and (my favourite) the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

It really just sounds like a nice new way of blaming someone (or something in this case) else for agoraphobia.

Re:For those of you....

[MightyTribble]

Exactly. It's quack science.

Anything from a peer-reviewed medical journal? Or is "the Man" keeping them down?

Re:toxic housing:

[Lumpy]

Your mother is a crackpot. and she is bringing you over to that side.

Yes, MANY things can release som nasty gasses. but your wild ass remark about tyvek sealing it in is proof of a crackpot logic. Does your house have doors and windows? how about a properly installed heating system with the correct fresh air intake and heat exchanger? if the house was correctly designed you change over the air in the home at least 2-3 times and hour.

The new home can have trace amounts of nasties in it's atmosphere, but by the time you move into it, a gas chromatagraph cannot even detect it. and it is alot more sensitive than anything you can gain access to "measure" how dangerous a home is.

My father was a contractor, In college chemistry classes I wrote a thesis on such crackpot theories, and using standard science proved that it's all a bunch of hooey in a properly built home.

Healthy housing is simple really.

[rolfpal]

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.