Sunday, November 30, 2008

Chemical Sensitivity Research at JMU

university building
The MCS/Environmental Sensitivities Research Team at James Madison University is looking for chemically sensitive persons to interview See their current studies page for details.

Also, read about their team and see the homepage at MCSResearch.net.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Four tips for People Who are Sensitive to Chemicals

A few years back I created a message board on AOL that was interactive. Eventually I had to discontinue it due to spam. But from that board, I saved this 2005 post contributed by a reader named Andy:

Things that helped me with MCS

1- get away from city water - use well or rainwater (get away from chlorine, flourides and a fistful of other surprises)
2- get rid of clothes and wash/dryer machines that have been exposed to regular detergents (can't use washaterias)- buy some new clothes, detox them in baking soda water for a few hours at least, and if you cant afford new machines hand wash with nontoxic detergents. Watch out for "non fragant" labels, sometimes they just mask the fragrances (regular detergent co. new "green" products do this making them actually even more toxic). You want to use companies that never have made regular detergents.
3- eat properly - processed foods are the worst! No sugar, flour, yeast, alcohol, preservatives, pesticides, hydrogenated oils.
4- of course avoid toxic chemicals!

Ten Ways to Feel Better

Psychologist Marvin A. Hoss presented the following tips to the Chemical Reaction Support Group:

In a World Filled with Chemical Smells and Toxic Fumes How Am I to Survive?

The 10 very hard answers to fight depression and anxiety:

  1. Stay healthy
  2. Find substance in life
  3. Fight the daemons
  4. Keep the faith
  5. Resist easy answers
  6. Learn all you can
  7. Look at the positives
  8. Laugh all you can
  9. Know your resilience
  10. Be unafraid

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Tip on CFL Bulb Safety

Any of us could be faced with cleaning up a broken CFL bulb or a broken mercury thermometer, so we need to be familiar with the hazards ahead of time. Read the EPA guidelines now at http://www.epa.gov/mercury/spills/. It's important to note that in cleaning up a broken fluorescent bulb (CFL or otherwise) you should
  1. Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.
  2. Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up pieces of the broken bulb.
  3. If clothing or bedding materials come in direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder, throw it away!
  4. Carefully scoop up glass pieces and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
  5. Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
When CFL bulbs burn out, don't throw them away. The mercury can be hazardous in landfills. Take them to a place that recycles them - Home Depot and Ikea are pioneers in accepting them to recycle.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Migration to Blogspot

This blog has been moved from AOL Journals to Blogspot /Blogger because AOL is discontinuing Journals. Fortunately they worked out a way with Google to make it easy to migrate to Blogspot.

I've always found Blogspot easy to work with anyway. I have a blog called The View from Squirrel Ridge on Blogspot and I update it almost every day.