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Question from Sara

When we buy products from China that contain black rubber parts, they have a strong odor. Two sink stoppers smelled up my kitchen. Leaving them in the sun to gas off did not help. Soaking them in baking soda and water did not help. I don’t know why these and other items with black rubber parts have such a strong odor. Is it a safe odor or is there reason for concern?

Debra’s Answer

I don’t know exactly what they are, but am assuming their composition is something like rubber tires, which contain a lot of toxic chemicals.

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Question from Paula Bond

Please help, I am a housekeeper for over 10 years and my clients are always amazed with my work. However I just recently started on this house with all unfinished wood (meaning) no polyurethane was applied. Now there is so much build up I need to know what I can do to get rid of build up. I know your not suppose to use water base, but I don’t have a sander ….please help me

Debra’s Answer

Readers? Any experience with this?

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Question from Mike

Our home recently had a sewer backup and now my wife has been experiencing some nausea and headaches since, due to a smell she senses, but I do not. She is able to smell it everywhere in our home and on our clothes. Our home tested positive for benzoic acid, but I do not have a baseline result prior to the backup event. What are some good ways to decontaminate her to alleviate her reactions as well as decontaminating the home? We are trying to leave the windows open as much as possible and have purchased two air purifiers. Additionally I changed out the filters in the furnace and had the air ducts scraped and cleaned. It has been almost six weeks since the event and this does not seem to be going away or mitigating itself. My wife feels better when we leave the house, but when she gets a scent off her clothes, she gets a nausea feeling.

Debra’s Answer

I have no personal experience with this. Readers?

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Question from Carol

For Mother’s Day, my mother-in-law wants me to make a cake with a boiled chocolate icing. The icing recipe calls for Karo corn syrup. I’m concerned it might contain GMO corn. What can I substitute for Karo? Would honey work?

Thanks.

Debra’s Answer

Here’s a great article about corn syrup that tells when and why to use it and gives the one brand to use that is organic and non-GMO. Personally, I don’t make anything that requires corn syrup, but your Mother’s Day request sounds like a time even I might make an exception.

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Question from Debbie

I love your website and have turned to it often to help me survive this MCS.

I am having a new shower installed with polished chrome trim (where the water turns on and off), shower doors, and tile. I was told that if I put car wax on the polished chrome and the shower doors that it will not turn spotty with our hard water and will be easy to clean. Do you know of any kind of wax or something else that I could use for this application?

Thank you very much,

Debbie

Debra’s Answer

I don’t know of anything. Sounds like you are aware to not use the car wax. Readers, any suggestions?

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Question from Donna

Hi Debra, Have you ever heard of anyone being allergic to hemp fabric?

I had some organic hemp/tencel roman shades made for my son’s room, as he has asthma. The first night we installed the shades, he started wheezing. He slept in our room the next two nights and was fine. We put him back in his room, and he started wheezing again. The pediatrician said it’s the pollen (it’s pollen season here), but I think it’s the shades. The designer who made the shades said that they are completely organic and not treated with any chemical, but when the sun shines on them, I can smell a very faint, sweet odor.

Thank you! Donna

Debra’s Answer

Anyone can be allergic to anything, particularly if it is a natural material. And if you say that there is a faint sweet odor when the sun shines on it, it sounds like hemp to me.

Hemp used in fabric and marijuana the drug are both the same plant, but they are grown differently for their different purposes. Hemp grown for fabric and other product uses contains very little THC, the substance that makes you high in the drug marijuana.

The bottom line is, if the windowcoverings are making your son wheeze, take them down.

Question from Jamie

Dear Debra,

I am getting mixed messages about my indoor plants. I recently purchased plants that were known for absorbing toxins in the home. One of the plants on the list was a Peace Lily. However, I just read online the Peace Lily emits’ VOC’s into the air and that the plastic containers the plants are coming in emit that as well? Have you heard of this and do you have any suggestions?

Thank you-

Debra’s Answer

Here’s more information about this study:

Study indicates need for further research to determine environmental, health impacts

Apparently plants do emit VOCs as well as absorb them, and they emit pesticides used in growing as well as from plastic pots.

So it makes sense that if you are going to have houseplants, that they be organically grown in clay pots.

It also kind of negates the idea of using plants as air filters because they apparently do not hold on to whatever VOCs they absorb from the air.

Well, good to know.

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Question from Gail

Hi Debra, We are looking to buy a house with hardwood flooring already installed. What do you think about sanding down the finish and putting a non-toxic sealant on the wood? If the floor has been installed for several years, do think that extra step is necessary? thanks for your help, Gail

Debra’s Answer

Probably not.

It really depends on what the floors were finished with, but even if it was the most toxic finish, after a few years it should be mostly offgassed.

The more important question is: are the floors really hardwood, and not engineered or laminate? Both engineered and laminate floors give off toxic chemicals beyond the question of finish.

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Question from duffy1121

I just received a new Actiontec Modem from Verizon a few days ago. It has been outside and wiped w/vinegar, soap, etc and still has strong odor. We had to plug it in b/c my husband needs wireless for his work. We now have it in the back of our home running and the entire room smells like the plastic. Is there a brand of modem that does not off-gas these harmful fumes? I cannot believe this. We have never had this issue before. We now have it in a brown bag, but it still has the entire room full of this toxic odor. I’m afraid the walls, etc., are going to smell like this and we’ll never get it out.

Debra’s Answer

Here is an answer from David Abbot
healthy.environment@frontier.com

There are several possible issues, but by far the most likely is that the circuit board- like virtually all circuit boards in routers, tv’s, radios, CD players, (etc.), is outgasing toxic phenols, which are endocrine-disrupting chemicals that can cause various problems, including but not limited to headaches and nerve irritation in the sinuses and face.

You can’t remove the phenols from the router without damaging the circuit board.

A charcoal air filter that has at least ten pounds of activated charcoal in it, will help remove the phenols from the air in the room, but it will not stop the circuit boards from outgasing, especially when the circuit board gets warm. Put the router as far as possible from you, and put the air cleaner as close to the router as possible, to get as much of the fumes into the air cleaner before the fumes can get into the air that you breathe.

Do not get one of those $10, $20, $30, or even $200 air cleaners. They are a waste of money. As far as I know, all of them have a soft, flexible black mesh “charcoal” filter. The thermoplastic mesh outgases toxic phthalates into the air. That’s right: these are air cleaners that do a cruddy job of cleaning your air, and in some ways they make your air quality worse. At most they contain only a fraction of an ounce of charcoal and because the charcoal is embedded in the thermoplastic mesh, it doesn’t really adsorb any toxins to speak of. If you want a real air cleaner, expect to pay $350 to $1,200 or more.

Do not use any ionic air cleaner for this purpose. It will not work, and most ionic air cleaners outgas phenols. Many people who use ionic air cleaners find they get more sick.

Never put a router in the sunlight, near a heat duct, near a light bulb, or near any other source of heat, because that will make it outgas even more.

Do not expose the router to heat on purpose with the goal being to make it outgas all of the phenols, because it has more phenols than you have time.

Keeping a window or door to the outside open while the router is on, is a fairly good solution.

Here is the best solution:
1. Drill a make a box that fits over the router, that has a 4-inch diameter hole in one side.
2. Attach and seal a 4″ diameter aluminum dryer vent pipe to the hole.
3. Using a hole saw, drill a 4.25″ or 4.5″ diameter hole through an exterior wall of the house, and stick the 4″ diameter aluminum dryer vent pipe through to the outside air.
4. Put an exterior dryer vent pipe fitting on the outside of the house, that the vent pipe goes into.
5. Seal all around the inside and outside of the hole through the wall, with 100% silicone seal.

This will seal off the router from your indoor air, and vent the router’s toxic fumes outside of the house. If you need to be able to access the router to turn it on and off, make the box with a little door that seals, or instead of nailing, glueing, or screwing on one of the sides, tape it on. Then you can cut the tape with a knife to “open” the box and turn the router on and off, then re-tape that side onto the box.