Question from Tracey from Chicago

I just got married the day before we closed on our new house. It’s already been five months, and I have not been able to live in it. I’ve been living with relatives out of state. The new house makes me so sick, I can only visit for a few days here and there, and only when all windows are constantly open and the hvac system is off. My last visit ended with me in the emergency room with difficulty breathing and chest pains. The doctor said it was inflammed bronchial tubes.

It may be left over residue from Ethyl Mercaptan, since there was an undetected propane leak in the home for over two months, before we bought it. OR…it might be the formaldehyde, as I seem to smell it the most when in the basement and near the kitchen cabinets.

We hired odor experts to come in and blast the place with Hydrogen Peroxide Generators for over 24hrs, which cut the fumes by 90% or more, but three months later it is building up again.

Our basement is unfinished with wooden beams on the ceilings, exposed plywood from the floors above, concrete slab foundation and blown-in insulation that is held in place with some sort of a fabric stapled to the studs. The basement is 2,000sf, and the entire house is 6,000sf.

We thought about carbon filtered air purifying systems, but the off gassing has to pass me as it comes out of the materials before it can reach the system…so there will still be exposure to it.

Are there any kinds of really super strong sealants that can be sprayed on…but what about insulation? Is there anything in concrete that would off gas?

Debra’s Answer

This is a fairly complex question that is difficult to answer from a distance. I would really need to come look at it.

What it sounds like is that you have had various treatments to “clear the air” of the pollutants, but the source of the air pollution is still there, continuing to emit.

My advice would be to figure out what is emitting the chemicals and remove or seal it, otherwise it is going to be an ongoing problem.

Also, did something happen between the time you purchased the house and it closed? Was it always this way? Was the problem not apparent when you were initially looking at the house?

It is very very important to consider toxic exposures of a house BEFORE you buy it. Best is to find a home that is nontoxic to begin with, or be sure you know how to remediate any toxic problems before you buy.

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Question from Cathi

When Terminix was here in April, they squirted Termidor in some holes in the wall where the termites were spotted. Now, the condo association does want to tent the building in a few weeks, and the gas that they will use is Vikane Gas Fumigant (Sulfuryl Fluoride). They may also use Chloropicrin as a warming agent. I checked out Timbor, like you suggested. That seems to be more of a treatment to prevent termites, but not to exterminate any existing colonies.

I found Pestcorps which treats termites with this method:

*Advance Termite Baiting Stations.

We will install termite bait stations every 10 feet and monitor them quarterly for the signs of active termites. upon active termites, we will bait the stations using a chemical designed to be carried back to the colony and eliminate the colony.

We recommend this form of treatment since it does not leave a residual chemical barrier in the ground. Also since all baits are only used during times of active termites are in a sealed container inside the locked station providing a double layer of protection for your family and pets.*(there is a one

And I found New Tech Pest Control, which uses this method:

Debra’s Answer

I don’t know how effective these other treatments are, but I would ask the homeowner’s association not to tent and fumigate.

Personally, I would not live in a home that has been tented and fumigated. I am concerned about your clothing and all of your belongings having pesticide residues, and especially your bed! If you have to double-bag your refrigerator, which is closed, why not everything else? They seem to be only concerned about contaminating what might be ingested, and not that which may be breathed into the body or absorbed through the skin. Those routes of exposure are equally important.

When I buy a house, I will not under any circumstances purchase one that has been recently fumigated or needs to be fumigated. I tell the seller I will handle the pest problems and do the research in advance on what they are and make sure I can handle them without pesticides. The house I am living in now I rescued from the exterminators at the eleventh hour. They “just happened” to not show up to do the extermination and I bought the house that very afternoon.

Readers, any experience with this? Any recommendations?

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Question from CStelzer

Your Strawberry Spinach Smoothie sounds good except I wouldn’t think raw eggs are really good for you. your opinion please.

Debra’s Answer

My husband and I have been eating and drinking raw eggs in various recipes for years and have never had a problem. Some people claim that raw eggs are more healthful to eat than cooked eggs because cooking changes the egg in a way that is incompatable with the body. I eat both raw eggs and cooked eggs.

Read Raw Eggs for Your Health by Dr. Mercola. He says “only sick chickens lay salmonella-contaminated eggs. If you are obtaining high quality, cage-free, organically fed, omega-3 enhanced chicken eggs…the risk virtually disappears.”

If this is a concern for you, you can purchase powdered pasturized egg whites at supermarkets and natural food stores to make recipes such as mousses that require raw egg whites. And added to a smoothie, they will make it light and foamy.

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In our consumer-oriented industrial culture, the orientation we are given is to let things break down and then hire an expert or buy a product to fix it. Nature, on the other hand, continuously renews and maintains life forms. And so, following Nature’s inspiration, I continuously am looking for ways that I can continueously renew and care for my body, rather than letting it get to the point where there is a problem, and then trying to solve it.

This kind of self-care maintenance includes things like brushing teeth, eating nutritious food, etc.

For some years I have been looking for this kind of self-care instructions regarding my eyes. Some things are obvious, like don’t look at the sun, don’t poke your eyes with sharp objects, and the like, but I haven’t been able to find information on how to care for your eyes to keep them in good health and to maintain optimum vision.

I use my eyes every day for my work as a writer. It would be very difficult to do what I do if I couldn’t see.

Over the past year or so, for the first time in my life I began to have styes on the edge of my right eyelid. Stys develop when a gland at the edge of the eyelid becomes infected. It is like a small pimple on the edge of the eyelid. When I looked up stye on the internet, all I could find was that they are caused by bacteria. Nothing about how to prevent them. Styes are not a big thing. They come and go in a few days, but they are uncomfortable and not very attractive.

At the beginning of July, I got what I thought was another stye, but it didn’t go away. When after a few weeks it was still there, I went on another internet search and found there is another similar bump called a chalazion, which is an enlarged blockage of the same gland. This can last one to three months.

After two months, I finally went to an eye doctor to get a proper diagnosis and see what I could do to heal it or have it removed. And I got some information that surprised me.

Apparently styes and chalazions are quite common. They are caused by the build-up of oil and debris that gathers around the eyelashes. Our eyes are self-cleansing, but debris that is removed from the eye itself can gather around the eyelashes.

Now, around the rim of the eyelid there are meibomian glands, which are responsible for the supply of sebum, an oily substance that, among other things, prevents evaporation of the eye’s tear film. There are approximately 50 meibomian glands on the upper eyelids and 25 glands on the lower eyelids. When these glands are malfunctioning, the result is not only styes and chalazions, but also dry eyes, a very common eye condition for which millions of dollars worth of eye drops are sold.

When I went to the eye doctor, first a technician tested my eyes before I saw the doctor. I asked her if there was any self-care maintenance I could do for my eyes and she said no. Then I asked the doctor the same question, and she said no. It wasn’t until after the doctor examined my eyes and diagnosed the chalazion and I asked, “What causes chalazions and how can I prevent another one?” did she tell me about the meibomian glands and recommended washing my eyelashes as both a treatment and ongoing preventive measure. In fact, she told me that everyone should wash their eyelashes every day–at least once, if not twice–just as we brush our teeth! And, of course, she recommended an expensive product to use to wash them (I purchased it only because I wanted to heal the chalazion).

Now that I understand how the eye works, that these glands can get clogged, and how important it is to eye health that they function, it makes sense to me to take a minute to clean my eyelashes every day. But it makes me wonder, why is this not as widely known as brushing teeth? Especially since there are so many particles in the environment that come into the eye on a daily basis. Instead of maintaining eye health through simple self-care, we are taught nothing about our eyes and then sold myriad problems to relieve the symptoms that could have been prevented.

I have ordered some books on natural eye care and will be doing further research on this. I welcome any tips and comments or resources any of you have on how to care for our eyes naturally to maintain eye health and excellent vision.

Here are a few websites I found on the subject:

• Hanna Kroger: Natural Eye Care


• Natural Eye Care


• Ayurvedic Eye Care