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["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 1:35 AM, Lynda <lurine AT softcom.net> wrote:
> I'd say carpeting.  Most have enough allergies irritants in them to knock
> over a horse!  In a confined space, probably have recirculated air?, I'd say
> the carpet is the culprit.  Carpets have a bunch of chemicals in them and
> they off-gas like crazy! 4-phenylcyclohexene (4-PC) is the worst culprit.

Yes, carpets are notorious. Back about 20 years ago, we got new
carpeting in our apartment and went from keeping a box of Kleenix in
the linen closet just in case one of us got a cold to regularly
getting a couple of boxes. I was working with an allergist at the
time, and he assured me that anyone can become allergic at any time
and that exposure to off gassing from carpeting was a sure fire way to
become allergic (the difference between cheap carpet and the more
expensive stuff is often just the amount of aging time that the carpet
gets so it can off gas away from the general public. He thought that
formaldehyde was the big culprit, but any small organic molecule could
be effectively allergenic, and I'm sure new ones are added regularly.

I take pseudophed when I get tired of spitting and choking. In the
great scheme of things, my symptoms are not that bad: sneezing and an
overabundance of thick mucus (and a red nose). The increasingly
authoritarian work atmosphere is probably far worse, but the
summbitches are not going to run me off before I'm vested in a year
and a month. That plus what I get from Social Security will about
cover my nut, and I can go back to editing -- which I really like and
am remarkably good at (and which brought in a 6 figure income after
taxes before Jim's health issues became overwhelming and it was either
a job with benefits or bankruptcy) -- and homesteading full time.

I guess my next best step is to give the union a big kick so they get
on checking to see if the filters have been changed since OSHA was
here last. And if that fails I gather signatures from fellow sufferers
to ask for another OSHA review. It's not an ancient building, and one
of this should be an issue.

Oh, did I mention that under EPA guidance, a site across the street
has a huge tent over it while contractors remove residual carcinogens
from an old coal gas plant that was formerly under a parking lot. I
really wonder if it wouldn't have been safer to leave the residues in
place. These types of sites have been allegedly responsible for
childhood cancers in other nearby parts of the state, but I'm not
aware that such has been the case here.

Mother didn't want this for me. I just want to be an editor again
(though, I must say, more and more I'm getting tapped for editing more
than for pushing other bureaucratic paper.

Marie