Question from Colleen

I have multiple chemical sensitivity and am looking for a chemical-free mulch to use on our outdoor flower beds to suppress weeds and keep the soil moist. Pine mulch and cedar are way to aromatic and I haven’t found anything that is chemical-free. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Debra’s Answer

We got a lot of mulch for free from a tree trimming service. They just cut the trees and chip them and deliver. No chemicals added.

I would suggest that you talk with your local tree services, and figure out what type of tree you tolerate. They may be willing to notify you when they are chipping that type of tree and deliver the chips to you.

Another thing to do is grow your own mulch. We have lots of trees on our property, which we trim to make mulch. We have our own chipper and chip our tree waste instead of sending it to the dump. But when we need a big pile of mulch, we get it from a tree trimming service, as mentioned above.

Add Comment

Question from HG

I just received a carseat from a relative (a chicco keyfit30). I am frustrated that it is one of the few brands that has not been rated for its chemical exposures on healthycar.org (a great resource). There is one small area of the carseat canopy that has a clear plastic cover, which I can only assume has PVC in it. I was wondering if you would suggest that i simply cut this piece of plastic off of the carseat in order to reduce the exposure to PVC? This will not affect the safety of the carseat in any way, but I was not sure if cutting the plastic could in any way actually increase the exposure to the toxic properties of the plastic? By cutting it I would have to leave a small part of the plastic still attached to the sides, and I didn’t know if this remaining portion, having been cut, could potentially release even more offgassing than if left intact. Any thoughts? Thank you!

Debra’s Answer

To the best of my knowledge, plastic is plastic through and through unless it is layered with something else, so to cut a plastic film, would not make it outgas more. From looking at a picture of the unit though, isn’t the whole thing plastic? I’m not sure how much difference it would make to cut away just that piece.

Add Comment

Question from S

Hi Debra, How would one know if their flexible duct under the house for your furnace contains pvc? What would be a safe alternative? Thanks s

Debra’s Answer

I think you would need to have someone come out and inspect it.

I haven’t researched ductwork. It might be faster for someone who has had experience with this to answer.

Readers?

Add Comment

Question from Susan

Has anyone ever heard of a method used to refurbish a bathtub known as “epoxy polyurethane oxide”? The company that uses this method would be spraying this solution on the tub that we are hoping to have refinished. I will be bathing my 3 young grandchildren in the tub, and I don’t want to cause any harm to them if this method is toxic in any way. Thank you!

Debra’s Answer

Readers?

Add Comment

Question from Tanya

We recently moved back into our 50 year old house that we had rented out for 8 years. About 9 months ago we had new carpet installed and I thought that this would give the carpet time to outgas. I felt ok the first 2 weeks we were in the house but have gradually starting feeling worse. After a little research I found out that the carpet had been factory treated using Scotchgard Protector Advance Repel Technology. I should have done my homework before I bought this carpet because I think this is what is causing me all the trouble.

The house originally had wood parquet tiles that were glued done. Over the years some of the tiles became loose so we took all the tiles up before we put carpet down the first time in 1993. (This was before I had MCS). Unfortunately the glue was hard and brittle and most of it stuck to the floor but it was not a problem because you couldn’t feel it under the carpet and pad. The carpet we had installed last summer also was installed over the dried adhesive.

Now we are wanting to remove the new carpet and install ceramic tile. I know the liquid removers are highly toxic. I have seen a floor scrapper machine that can be rented but my husband thinks that no matter how we remove the adhesive it would cause a problem for me. My question is: Is there a safe way to remove the old adhesive?

Thank you for all that you do for those of us who with MCS!!!

Tanya

Florida

Debra’s Answer

I’ve removed old adhesive from floors before and I just did it on my hands and knees with a scraper. If you can get the scraper at an edge, it comes right up. It’s probably quite cured by now.

If removing it does cause a problem for you, leave the house til it’s done and the new tile is installed. Ceramic tile and mortar will completely block whatever is under it.

Add Comment

Question from Adrian

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows if ikea sheets contain formaldehyde or any other chemicals. I was told by customer service that they don’t anymore, however upon opening the package I found a somewhat sourish smell which I believe to be formaldehyde. Thanks for your help !

Debra’s Answer

First, I doubt that any of us have inside information on this. If customer service at Ikea says it doesn’t contain formaldehyde, it probably doesn’t, unless the person you spoke to is misinformed, which is always possible. You might call again and ask this question of a supervisor.

Formaldehyde does not have a “sourish” smell, so I don’t think what you are smelling is formaldehyde.

If they are 100% cotton sheets, woven, and don’t wrinkle, they have formaldehyde on them, unless Ikea has come up with some new process to make cotton wrinkle-free without formaldehyde that I am not aware of.

If they are cotton-polyester, again, they have formaldehyde because all polyester fabrics have formaldehyde, unless, again Ikea has come up with some new process I am not aware of.

Add Comment

Question from Annette Tweedel

Hi Debra,

We need to get a new window unit air conditioner for our daughters bedroom. I have MCS, but our daughter is sensitive to an extent also. But, so is my husband. Could you recommend a window unit air conditioner that does not have any smells and hopefully good on the electric bill and not too costly. Any recommendation would be deeply appreciated.

Debra’s Answer

I have a central air conditioner, so haven’t researched this.

Readers, your suggestions?

Add Comment

Question from Anthony

My daughter had dairy issues from the moment she was born. Even though she was breastfeeding, if my wife consumed dairy, my daughter had issues — eczema, stomach pain. When she was 18 months, I read about fluoride affecting digestion, so I took her off our fluoridated tap water (I was filtering the chlorine out already).

In 3 days she was able to consume dairy without issue. Today she is 3 1/2 and the situation is the same — fluoridated water brings about the issues again. Even soaking in it, as in the bath, causes her the same issues.

It turns out that she apparently has Gilbert’s Syndrome, which 10% of the population is estimated to have. It just means they’re low in certain enzymes, and their system gets backed up sometimes breaking down bilirubin, especially when the body is taxed — as during illness. Fluoride kills enzymes, so it reduces low enzyme levels even more.

When the bilirubin gets high, the body tries to catch up, and backs off production of enzymes necessary for fat digestion. This then leads to the dairy issue, eczema, etc..

With my daughter, exposure to chemicals and artificial fragrances causes issues too. It’s probably just harder for her body to detox things in general.

Debra’s Answer

This doesn’t surprise me.

Years ago, when I worked in a doctor’s office, I observed that people with heavy chemical exposures had a lot of food intolerances. When we cleaned up their environments to remove toxic chemicals, they were able to eat the foods they previously could not tolerate. We didn’t treat the food sensitivities as food sensitivities at all.

Add Comment

Question from Melissa D.

I am “newly” chemically sensitive and have a highly allergic child (he’s 18 months old and tolerating only four foods – which is better than no foods three months ago…). He constantly had a bloody nose or yellow snot when is his crib (it’s been misdiagnosed as a sinus infection, etc, for months), and it smelled AWFUL to me. So I “painted” it with AFM hard seal a week ago, and it smells terrible. I have tried baking it in the sun, and right now it is baking in a closed room upstairs (we are staying at my in-laws’ until we replace the toxic flooring in my house, but that’s another story…) with an oil-filled radiator. The smell isn’t going away! Will it ever? I used what I thought was a thin coat. Should I sand it away and try something else?

I am so unsure of what to do. My husband is a full-time grad student and I only work part-time, so we can’t afford a new crib right now – especially since we just had to replace all of our flooring this week (we bought some EcoTimber on sale).

He is in his pack and play for now, but the netting on that smells terrible, so I lined the whole thing in thick cotton towels for now…

Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Thank you all very much.

~Melissa

Debra’s Answer

Everyone, if you have a problem with any product like this, where it seems to make the situation worse, please contact the manufacturer to get it resolved. They know best about what to do with their products.

With AFM Hard Seal, I just want to make a caution. It’s really important to check with AFM first to find out if it is appropriate to put their finish over another finish. Sometimes the finishes react with each other, which is what it sounds like happened here.

I’m not sure if sanding is the right thing, as I don’t know what will be exposed if you sand off the finish entirely. If it is bare solid wood, that’s fine.

Add Comment

Question from Nutmeg’s Mom

I use a plastic shopping bag every day to clean the cat litter box and was wondering if you had a suitable solution to that waste.

Debra’s Answer

Readers, your suggestions?

Add Comment