Shelter: A Quest for Non-Toxic Housing 507
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."
Arconsanti is the answer (Score:3, Informative)
For those of you.... (Score:4, Informative)
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
Re:Uhm, I think some things need explaining... (Score:5, Informative)
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
Re:Wrong problem (Score:5, Informative)
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
There ARE useful lists that may help... (Score:5, Informative)
These lists often provide a reason for allowance/disallowance of the specific chemicals. Some dangerous chemicals (paints for instance) may still be approved because they simply don't leak into the environment. If this is so, the lists state these reason. This info may be very valuable for these people.
I am not at liberty to provide these lists here, but you might be able to convince some of these industries to help. I work in a company producing color picture tubes, but I can also imagine that you might find help in the chip-industry.
Hope this helps a bit, cause things like this send shivers down my spine...
Re:Erm... (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:toxic housing: (Score:5, Informative)
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
A given cause (Score:2, Informative)
Unlike many cases of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity that I've read about, he actually gives a possible cause in his autobiography page [weblogs.com].
Systemic Candidiasis is a recognized disease [merck.com], and is associated with people whose immune systems are out of whack, most notably AIDS patients. I've no idea whether or not this could lead to MCS; as a number of other posters have pointed out, the existence of MCS is debatable. But I did find it interesting that he gives a possible contributor to his immunological breakdown and subsequent MCS.
Re:it's psychosomatic... (Score:5, Informative)
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).
Annoyed (Score:2, Informative)
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.
Re:Uhm, I think some things need explaining... (Score:3, Informative)
Nitpicking note--germs are not allergens, and bubble-boy syndrome (severe combined immune deficiency--SCID, IIRC) is a result of a person's inability to produce and maintain a healthy population of immune cells. Allergic reactions typically look and feel like a severe overreaction by the immune system--something that you would never see from a bubble-boy sufferer.
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.
Nit number two. Radon exposure in the home is never the result of chemically processed materials breaking down in the home. Radon gas is formed by the nuclear decay of natural radioisotopes in soil. (Since natural clays are used to make bricks, there may be slightly higher radiation levels in brick buildings, as well.)
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.
The airtight buildings of today do concentrate allergens while often simultaneously drying out mucous membranes that would normally keep these nasties out of our lungs, "Sick Building Syndrome" (SBS) may result. Often, the cause of SBS can be traced to one or two contaminants in the environment--moulds in the air system, formaldehyde releases from fresh carpet adhesives, and so forth.
"Multiple Chemical Sensitivity" (MCS) is a disorder characterized by extreme sensitivity to multiple environmental toxins. MCS is still far from being recognized by the medical establishment at large. Here is a good, balanced summary from the American Academy of Family Physicians. [aafp.org] Of particular note is the fact that the AMA, the American College of Physicians, the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, and American Academy of Allergy and Immunology have rejected MCS as an organic illness--but then, they could be wrong.
Re:Bullshit (Score:4, Informative)
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
Re:toxic housing: (Score:4, Informative)
Some more (perhaps unnecessary ) perspective (Score:2, Informative)
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," [sfsu.edu] 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!!!!
Re:it's psychosomatic... (Score:3, Informative)
Phenylalanine is an essential amino acid.
People who cannot metabolize it are rare, born with the condition, and must adhere to a very strict diet because it's present in just about everything. Phenylketonurics are "likely to die" if they continually ingest meat, nuts, or beans - let along aspartame (and the major danger of consuming aspartame in quantity is in neural development problems in infants and young children).
Aspartame is half Phenylalanine, half aspartic acid (another amino acid). There is nothing insidious about this, these amino acids are present in nearly all food.
Re:it's psychosomatic... (Score:3, Informative)
When you take in sugar (or any "ready" carbohydrate, basically anything refined) the body wants to convert it to glucose so you can use it. Insulin is the signal. Glucose controls hunger, as well as being fuel for your body. You may (see parentheses 2 up) become resistant to both glucose and insulin, so it takes more insulin before your body stops producing it, and it takes more glucose before you feel full.
What else can I debunk in your message? Soda does not dissolve teeth in most cases, you can leave a tooth in most colas (let alone less caustic beverages) more or less indefinitely. The sugar is the real problem because it feeds bacteria which cause tooth decay. A diet soda doesn't do that.
Now, aspartame probably is harmful, but this is just FUD for the most part. It's bad for you, but so is sugar the way we use it in America. I just hope that Splenda (sucralose) turns out to be harmless :/
Re:toxic housing: (Score:1, Informative)
The problem with most houses now is that they *aren't* properly built. "Sick house" syndrome and mold issues are becoming a HUGE issue in the contractor's world today, and are proven to be dangerous. Dangerous levels of mold require removal procedures that rival CDC or USAMRIID biohazard procedures.
A lot of this stems from improper installation of ventilation systems or air filters, sometimes it has to do with the flooring or insulation of the house. The fact is that these materials can be dangerous in certain situations, and thinking that these are all "crackpot" theories is the wrong way of going about it.
Re:it's psychosomatic... (Score:3, Informative)
But with regards to baking, I haven't actually heard any time frame but I would imagine within a year they will have a product you can bake with. The main issue with baking is actually finding a filling agent that has a caking property similar to sugar, not the heat.