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."
Erm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Having looked at the site, I can't help thinking that there might be a psychological element to "Environmental illness".
impossible quest (Score:5, Insightful)
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... (Score:4, Insightful)
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 [aafp.org]: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.
A suggestion (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Bullshit (Score:3, Insightful)
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.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Anything from a peer-reviewed medical journal? Or is "the Man" keeping them down?
Re:toxic housing: (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Erm... (Score:5, Insightful)
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:it's psychosomatic... (Score:3, Insightful)
Mud Huts (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:There will only be more of this to come (Score:2, Insightful)
As to medicine ruining the genetic crop, I don't really think it's that big of a deal. First off, if the gene pool is "weekened" because more people are surviving it seems indicative to me of their being a different standard for survival in the modern age. This doesn't mean were all going to get weak and die. Second, evolution occurs gradually. Finally, I think brains are a more important adaption than brawn. The human race also appears to be getting smarter over time.
Healthy housing is simple really. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
The air itself is carcinogenic. Try to relax. (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Uhm, I think some things need explaining... (Score:2, Insightful)
You mean like every object you can buy? Last time I checked, everything was a chemical. Better not wash those Oranges off, after all, water is a chemical!!
Re:it's psychosomatic... (Score:3, Insightful)
Can you really not understand the difference between caution and dismissal? The AMA said at one point "we don't know that ADD exists. We have no evidence for it." That's very different from saying "we don't believe Environmental Illness exists--we have evidence that it doesn't".
The former calls for more information to find out whether there is a problem. The latter calls for a shift to psychiatric treatments of something that is a psychological problem and not a physiological one.
And, BTW, there's still no credible evidence of any problems from aspartame (though it does taste rather nasty). Notice I didn't say that it's safe, but the studies cited widely in certain communities (e.g. the 1960s "FDA is keeping us in the dark!" studies) are certainly worthless.
Sumner
Re:it's psychosomatic... (Score:3, Insightful)
I just wish nutrasweet was more shelf-stable and high temperature stable so I could substitute it for sugar in recipes and not have the diet coke in the back of the fridge go south.
Re:See also, "Safe", a movie about EI (Score:3, Insightful)
How sorry? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Erm... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
We're not doing this guy any favors.... (Score:3, Insightful)
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 [mhsource.com]? 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. [fumento.com] 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.
Re:Non Toxic Housing (Score:3, Insightful)
If you are capable of managing a construction project and being a landlord, you are not disabled an unable to work.
Why don't you post your name so someone can turn you in for defrauding the social welfare system.
Fucking cheat.
Re:Erm... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Not to be a troll, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Another poster in this thread recommended the movie safe [imdb.com], 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.
Re:Nice bunch of tolerant individuals you all are (Score:1, Insightful)
I personally feel this fellow has too much time on his hands and he needs a kick in the pants. He is an *overweight* person on welfare!!! I was very poor growing up and we would occassionally go without food and heat and there are other families in the same situation...why should we finanace this crackpot's living expenses?
Also, I get pissed at folks using the term "illness" so casually (in regards to his state of mind). My mother was a paranoid-schizophrenic and is still institutionalized...that is mental illness. She does not carry on a "woe-is-me" web blog which is simply a person with too much time on their hands.
Stop trying to diagnose yourself... (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Erm... (Score:1, Insightful)
Please check your bias at the door.
Re:Why pound on this guy? (Score:3, Insightful)