Musty Mold, Pesky Pests, or Stinky Stenches in Your Home?
Jeff May's Healthy Home Tips, a new paperback book, provides many hundreds of tips on how to detect the source of these indoor air quality problems and then eliminate them. His wife, Connie, a former English teacher, provides practical comments and true short stories throughout the book, adding some humor and making her Harvard graduate husband's science more palatable. Jeff is probably the most experienced indoor air quality expert in the United States, and certainly the most widely published. This is Jeff's fourth book on the topic, but my favorite remains My House Is Killing Me, published in 2001, when I began working on indoor air quality projects for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
If you have an allergic nose or allergic asthma (or both), you will find dozens of practical ideas for sleuthing inside and outside your sick home, apartment, or office. Most people who've become sensitized to aero-allergens are allergic to both outdoor allergens (such as pollens) and indoor allergens, such as molds, house dust mites, cockroaches, and perhaps cats or dogs. Molds, mites, and roaches proliferate in moist buildings, so Healthy Home Tips concentrates on finding and fixing the sources of moisture in your indoor environments. An expensive book from the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 exhaustively reviewed the evidence that "damp indoor spaces" often worsens nasal allergies, sinusitis, and asthma, so Jeff and Connie don't spend much time discussing the "cause and effect" relationships - they assume that you bought the book because you are suffering from the effects.
Much of the book is devoted to handy guys who enjoy weekly trips to the Home Depot or Lowe's, and many of the solutions and repairs (aka remediations) are expensive, such as adding a layer of concrete to a basement or crawl space floor which is currently covered in dirt. Some are inexpensive, such as buying a better quality of air filter; many are free, such as always running the exhaust fan in the bathroom when you take a shower; and a few save you money, like "don't buy electrostatic or electronic room air cleaners" and don't pay to have your air ducts "sanitized."
The diagrams provided by Mr. Fix-It (Tom Fezia) were superb, and I would like dozens more. All of the case-studies were fascinating, such as the stinking dead squirrel in the hot water heater vent pipe of a gourmet cook. However, I found the workbook style formatting difficult to read. There are "Do" and "Don't" checklists on most pages, and redundancy within and between chapters. Candid reviews of the resources, supplies, equipment, other books, and websites would have been a great addition. Perhaps Jeff can add these to his website.
In summary, if your nose gets congested, you develop a sinus headache, or your asthma often gets worse after an hour or two at home or at work, buy one of Jeff's books to find the cause and a way fix it (and he didn't pay me to say this).
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: Jeff May, Healthy Home Tips, indoor air quality, allergies, asthma
If you have an allergic nose or allergic asthma (or both), you will find dozens of practical ideas for sleuthing inside and outside your sick home, apartment, or office. Most people who've become sensitized to aero-allergens are allergic to both outdoor allergens (such as pollens) and indoor allergens, such as molds, house dust mites, cockroaches, and perhaps cats or dogs. Molds, mites, and roaches proliferate in moist buildings, so Healthy Home Tips concentrates on finding and fixing the sources of moisture in your indoor environments. An expensive book from the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 exhaustively reviewed the evidence that "damp indoor spaces" often worsens nasal allergies, sinusitis, and asthma, so Jeff and Connie don't spend much time discussing the "cause and effect" relationships - they assume that you bought the book because you are suffering from the effects.
Much of the book is devoted to handy guys who enjoy weekly trips to the Home Depot or Lowe's, and many of the solutions and repairs (aka remediations) are expensive, such as adding a layer of concrete to a basement or crawl space floor which is currently covered in dirt. Some are inexpensive, such as buying a better quality of air filter; many are free, such as always running the exhaust fan in the bathroom when you take a shower; and a few save you money, like "don't buy electrostatic or electronic room air cleaners" and don't pay to have your air ducts "sanitized."
The diagrams provided by Mr. Fix-It (Tom Fezia) were superb, and I would like dozens more. All of the case-studies were fascinating, such as the stinking dead squirrel in the hot water heater vent pipe of a gourmet cook. However, I found the workbook style formatting difficult to read. There are "Do" and "Don't" checklists on most pages, and redundancy within and between chapters. Candid reviews of the resources, supplies, equipment, other books, and websites would have been a great addition. Perhaps Jeff can add these to his website.
In summary, if your nose gets congested, you develop a sinus headache, or your asthma often gets worse after an hour or two at home or at work, buy one of Jeff's books to find the cause and a way fix it (and he didn't pay me to say this).
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: Jeff May, Healthy Home Tips, indoor air quality, allergies, asthma
1 Comments:
Antihistamines-How Safe Are They?
The first five years of my little boy’s life, he was prescribed anti-histamines for allergies to mold. It took me five years of research to finally figure out and prove to myself beyond a shadow of a doubt that is was our house making us sick. We’ve moved out of the building since then and for the last 5 years my son’s health couldn’t be better. Now I know the importance of humidity levels and monitor it carefully. However, what infuriates me is that I was giving my baby antihistamines to open his airways wide so that he can breathe. In the process he must of inhaled abundant amounts of toxins while he slept in this very “sick house” for five years. I’ll bet these toxins overwhelmed his immune system causing him to be lethargic, gave him neurological disorders, bronchitis, asthma, sinus infections, etc. Why wasn’t I told to get an air sample of my indoor air before giving him antihistamines? The more I learn about mold and micro-toxins, the more I just want to cry. When I ask doctors and anti-histamine makers about this issue, I never get a straight answer.
I think giving children anti-histamines to relieve allergic reactions to poor Indoor Air Quality is just wrong. The child’s immune system is trying to keep toxins out of the lungs. But yet, with the use of antihistamines, the child has no choice but to take it all in. Ultimately, trapping mold spores and micro-toxins deep within the lungs. How long will it take for doctors to make the connection? Anti-histamines for allergies to poor Indoor Air Quality are just wrong!
Do you think I’m right? How do I get anyone’s attention?
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