In search of a nontoxic home
From the Los Angeles Times
Sensitive to an array of pollutants, Kathy Hemenway uprooted herself to find a clean environment. Should the rest of us worry?
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-toxic-home-intro27-2009jul27,0,6043259.story
By Karen Ravn
July 27, 2009
No paint on the walls. No carpets on the floors. No TV in the living room. Or the bedroom. Or the kitchen. No TV anywhere in the house.
Kathy Hemenway's home in Snowflake, Ariz., is a refuge from the gases, chemicals and electromagnetic fields that are nearly ubiquitous in our 21st century world.
Her chemical sensitivities began when she was just a kid. "I couldn't figure out why people liked perfume," she says. "It gave me a headache. And fabric stores gave me a sore throat."
Those problems grew more severe in adulthood, so she started making small changes -- using natural, fragrance-free shampoos and soaps; avoiding air
fresheners, fresh paint, pesticides and lawn-care chemicals; and becoming super-diligent about housekeeping, but only with natural cleaners such as
baking soda and vinegar.
Then she started moving -- from homes with carpet to homes with hardwood floors, then from Menlo Park, Calif., where she was a successful software
engineer, to Santa Cruz and a home with all the other safe stuff plus fresh ocean air.
But after an accidental exposure there to nearby lawn chemicals, Hemenway began to have trouble breathing and even more trouble sleeping. She grew
agitated, jittery and depressed, and felt as if she were in a fog, she says. She also became sensitive to many more substances than usual and had to use
an oxygen tank to recover from even mild exposures, such as breathing exhaust fumes on the freeway. She wound up at the Environmental Health Center in Dallas for treatment, which included oxygen therapy and sauna sessions (for detoxification), a special diet (rotated every four days) and nutritional supplements she took orally and intravenously. After that, she says, "I was desperate for a safe home, and that's when I decided to go to the safest place I could find."
She found Snowflake.
"It's hard, frequently devastating, to accept that you're never going to get better unless you move to a whole other environment," Hemenway says of her
leap 10 years ago. But, she decided, the quality of her life depended on it.
The house she built in this remote high desert town is not only a no-paint, no-carpet zone, but also a no-plywood, no-particleboard, no-tar paper zone.
And no pesticides were used on the foundation or on the land before the foundation was laid.
The exterior of the house is made of masonry blocks, and most of the interior framing is made of steel. So is the roof. The floors are glazed ceramic tile throughout the house, and in the bedroom the walls and ceiling are too.
The house has radiant in-floor heating instead of forced-air heating. "It doesn't blow the dust around," Hemenway says, "and you don't have the combustion byproducts of a forced-air furnace."
And not to worry -- she can watch TV. But to avoid its electromagnetic field, she keeps the set in a barn about 200 feet from the house and records programs there, then brings the DVDs inside and plays them on a projection system.
Hemenway is one of millions of Americans who believe that sprays meant to freshen the air actually pollute it, that chemicals meant to beautify our
yards in fact poison them, and that many of the products and materials that make modern life fast and convenient also make people sick. They cite
studies connecting a host of suspect substances to a host of human illnesses, from headaches and sniffles to immune disorders and cancer.
Most people can't move to Snowflake and build "safe houses," of course (and if too many of us did, we'd mess up the air quality anyway). Fortunately,
most are not as sensitive to environmental pollutants as Hemenway, whose condition is recognized by many -- but not all -- medical professionals as "environmental illness."
Still, a connection between health and the environment is widely recognized in the medical and scientific communities. More than 30 years ago, for
example, the Air Pollution Health Effects Laboratory was established at UC Irvine especially to study the connections between air quality and health. Raising awareness of these connections empowers people, says Robert Phalen, the laboratory's founder and current director and also a professor of medicine.
"Within the last year or two, there's been a tremendous awareness about green buildings -- and healthy buildings too," says Peter Sierck, the principal of Environmental Testing & Technology in San Diego, which specializes in testing for mold, moisture, electromagnetic fields and general indoor air quality.
But some researchers worry that consumers' fears are getting ahead of the scientific evidence.
Some have ripped out carpets to avoid chemical releases or renounced miracle fabrics in favor of natural fibers.
Many people have concerns about perfumes, shampoos, soaps and other products that produce odors, says Dr. Ware Kuschner, an associate professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine who practices at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He does
research on the health effects of indoor and outdoor air pollution. "But the link between exposure to these products and serious adverse health effects
is often quite tenuous."
That's because the harm a substance can do generally depends on how much of it you're exposed to and how long you're exposed to it -- as well as how sensitive you are.
Knowing whether to be concerned, or how much to be concerned, isn't easy. Scientists at regulatory agencies spend years making official risk assessments.
Still, it's possible to set some priorities, and you probably shouldn't spend too much time worrying about things that are very unlikely to happen,
says Dr. Philip Harber, a professor of occupational and environmental medicine at UCLA. "Many more people die of drowning in a swimming pool than
die of exposure to mold. . . . It's really important not to overlook the obvious."
health@latimes.com
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First Wireless Free City?
Friday, 24 July 2009 GreenMuze Staff
http://www.greenmuze.com/news/recent-news/1336-first-wireless-free-city-.html
In an unprecedented move, the City of Colwood on Vancouver Island in western Canada, has declared August Electromagnetic Sensitivity Month (EMS).
Although a first for Canada, many countries around the world recognize that EMS is a chronic illness with a hypersensitive reaction to electromagnetic radiation for which there is no known cure. Symptoms of EMS include dermatitis, acute numbness and tingling, arrhythmia, muscular weakness, overwhelming fatigue, headaches, sensitivity to light and sever neurological problems.
Colwood Mayor, David Saunders, explains that relief for EMS sufferers can only be obtained by limiting exposure to radiation-emitting devices such as
cellphones, wireless technology, FM and cell transmitters and CFL light bulbs, which is becoming increasingly difficult in an electromagnetic emission saturated world.
EMS is currently recognized by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the Canadian Government, the Americans with Disability Act and numerous other
international organizations as an environmental sensitivity, explains the Mayor's letter to the community.
The Mayor further explains that the general population is at risk from chronic, long-term exposure to electromagnetic radiation.
Bravo to Colwood Mayor David Saunders.
Visit: http://colwood.ca/
--------------------------------------------------------------------Honey Bees dying and Disappearing. Are scientists really looking for the
cause?
Hi Martin,
I've written a critique on US CCD report:
http://inthesenewtimes.com/2009/07/23/disappearing-bees-and-em-radiation-proof-by-omission/
Regards,
Colin
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Hey stupid! Drop the cell phone and drive
msnbc.com - USA
... and highway safety researchers estimated driver/cell phone-related
accidents to be the cause of 955 fatalities and 240000 accidents overall.
...
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http://omega.twoday.net/stories/5838169/
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EMS Sensitivity Month
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http://omega.twoday.net/stories/5832521/
Crippled calf and electromagnetic radiation
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/5834876/
Mobile phones and health: what do we know?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/5840321/
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http://omega.twoday.net/stories/5836688/
I'm allergic to wi-fi waves
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/5840666/
Residents furious after approval for phone mast near four Crewe schools
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/5835879/
Birmingham planners defy government to block mobile phone mast application
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/5840664/
The case against cellular towers in Cordova
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/5840667/
US Withheld Data on Risks of Distracted Driving
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/5836790/
Scientists Say Wireless Electricity Chargers Only "One Year Away"
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/5842753/
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"Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?
Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?
You covet but do not possess.
You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war.
You do not possess because you do not ask.
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passions."
James 4: 1-3 (James is the brother of Jesus, who became a leader in the
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