Living w/Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Menace To Society

2009-12-21T19:57:00.007-06:00

When you can't leave the home without substantial risk to your health, it changes things. It changes how you think and act, and how you find ways to entertain yourself.

This is my 3-section laundry hamper. Normally I put the dark clothes on the left, bright clothes in the middle, and white clothes on the right. You know what? This week I reversed the order, with whites on the left and darks on the right. Yep, I'm a rebel.

And guess what else. I usually pay all my bills on the third Monday of the month. Not this time, I'm not paying them until Tuesday. That's right ladies, I am the man your parents warned you about. Reckless. Inconsiderate. It's obvious I don't care about society's rules.

And when I mail those payments, I'm not even going to make sure that the stamp is properly aligned in the corner of the envelope so that there's the same amount of white space above and to the right of the stamp. Heck, I might even put the stamp on sideways, or upside down. Now THAT's what is called sticking it to the man. Postal workers will cry when they see the brazen disregard I have for stamp placement. It might even spark riots or trigger the apocalypse.

The fact that I'm still free to walk the streets can be taken as a direct indictment about the failures of modern day law enforcement. Nobody is safe. I might even leave the top button of my dress shirt unbuttoned, or tie the laces of my shoes so that one lace is longer than the other. I am a menace to society. I'm a baaaaaad man.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

2009-12-17T22:22:00.005-06:00

Normally, with fibromyalgia pain I wake up and it's there. Sometimes it's a new pain and sometimes it just moved from a different location.

But when I get a new fibromyalgia pain at night, I know it's going to be VERY painful the next day. I over-did it tonight (is over-did it even a word? That sounds like a hillbilly family name from the Appalachian Mountains "Dat 'der is Over Didit, her twin sister Geton Withit is gittin' some moonshine we'z got stashed by the Pet Semetery place. I didn't kno those Semetery folk much, dey lived to fahr away"). I was asked to do some technical writing today for an impressive organization in New York with offices in a very prime, prime location. With client confidentiality that's about all I'm going to say.

It was a big report, more than twice the size of the ones I normally do. And the material wasn't ready until about 3 hours after I said was my deadline if this team wanted all the work done by their deadline. So not only did I not have a "wind down" period after 6 pm (which is more like "my body quits working properly after 6 pm so I better lay down" period), but I had to delay a sleep med to get through the documentation work and it's now 10:30, about 2 hours past the time I would be getting ready for bed.

About a half hour ago I started get a sharp pain underneath my left shoulder blade. It's not my regular shoulder muscles, the deltoids, it's not my back or spinal column, it's UNDER my shoulder blade. And by UNDER I don't mean below, like half way down my back, it's UNDER the shoulder blade. Do you hear me? It's UNDER the shoulder blade, like in-between the blade and the back portion of my ribs. It hurts like hell because any type of movement pinches it, and it's already that damn pins & needles type pain, which for me is the most acute.

How can fibromyalgia do that? Has it been planning this for weeks? I didn't even think there was anything on the underside of a shoulder blade, let alone something that can hurt like this.

If it wasn't so painful and easily aggravated, fibromyalgia would be rather interesting. Why can't it be a migratory spot of relaxation? Instead of waking up with a pain in your jaw, give us a break man, make us light headed and loopy instead and then have us deal with that for a couple of days....or weeks. At least that way we could laugh once in a while instead of being on the verge of tears. And we wouldn't be afraid to move, in fact quite the opposite, it would actually get us up and around a lot more than normal.

I haven't been awake and functioning this late in a while. Wow, TV at this time of the evening really sucks, even the Food Network. Guess I haven't been missing anything.

And it looks like I have another fake name to put in the repertoire: Pete Cemetery. Get it?

Coping Strategy: Christmas Shopping

2009-12-17T08:19:00.007-06:00

Christmas shopping is another one of the things in life that multiple chemical sensitivity changed drastically. In fact it made it impossible, or impossible to do without getting sick.

The crowds. Oh God, the crowds. That is enough in and of itself to cause a major relapse. Sadly, I used to be a people watcher. Even if I didn't need to do any shopping, I would go to the mall BECAUSE of the crowds. I'd buy a nice cup of coffee, sit back and watch everybody go by, and get an idea for who the people were and where society was headed just by how everyone looked and how they acted.

Now, of course, society is toxic. Perfume, cologne, hair spray, skin lotion, the ubiquitous hand sanitizer, the scented fragrance in the laundry detergent infused with their clothes, the double-deadly dryer sheets constantly leaving vapor trails in the air as EACH person walks by, that's a scary and potentially dangerous and painful thing for someone with multiple chemical sensitivity, especially with the volume of people the holiday season brings to the mall.

And it doesn't end there. The stores' use of air "fresheners", the store staff laden with personal scented products, and even the gifts themselves could be dangerous to us, especially if it's a new clothing item.

Even if we could get through all of that, then we still have to wrap the damn thing. Even the vapors released from the underside of adhesive tape as it's spread over the paper makes me sick. Side note-did you know if you pull the tape from a roll of Scotch tape quickly it releases x-rays? Strange but true.

Last year my coping strategy was to make a list of the 40 or so gift cards that are available at the one of the grocery stores that I get groceries at and email the list to the family, they email me back to say which one they want. Then, when in the small Kansas town of Oberlin I'll buy holiday cards to send them in, because in Oberlin a crowd only forms when there's a tornado coming and everybody drives up to the fair grounds to see it (the town's unofficial tornado viewing location which is, of course, going to be directly in the path of an approaching tornado).

But this morning my Google Hot Trends gadget (which I use to stay on top of current events and get an idea about society with, just like I used to do at the malls. It also helps to keep current when you don't watch TV except for some cooking shows) had a curious entry, "free shipping day 2009".

I had 1 hour left before work started, so I checked it out. Over 700 online merchants have free shipping if the order is placed before midnight December 17th. Some have free shipping on all items, some have restrictions. But NO CROWDS and NO TOXIC VAPORS. Check it out. I'm already commited to the gift cards, and it's 8:57 am here (work commences at 9), but maybe it can help everyone else.

What I'm Giving My Parents For Christmas

2009-12-15T19:20:00.013-06:00

When I first moved to Cleveland, three things really surprised me:

How unbelievably crappy everything in Cleveland is, and by everything I pretty much mean everything, excluding #2 and #3 below.

That it has one of the best farmer's markets in the country (which came in real handy after contracting multiple chemical sensitivity).

That it has the best Cajun food I ever tasted (looks like Karen agrees with me. Wait until she tries the Cajun Buffalo wings).

So when I moved back to Madison, I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised every now and then, besides all of the times I wake up in the morning and think "Thank God I'm not in Cleveland anymore". I had a nice surprise a couple of months ago, it turns out Madison has one of the hottest chocolatiers in the country, David Bacco.

This is the guy they call to make the chocolates for the chocolate industry's conventions and parties. I figured he was good because one day a local online forum about Madison mentioned one of the restaurants he was making desserts for had gone out of business. After investigating further on one of those user review websites nearly every comment ended with "......but the chocolates were freakin' fantastic!" In fact, many of the comments were devoted entirely to his chocolates.

Getting closer......

My mother travelled a great deal when she was younger, she ate at some of the world's finest restaurants all across the world. She's eaten meals in a millionaire's private dining floor in a downtown skyscraper in Caracas, Venezuela. I'm not kidding. One of my dad's business partners at the time was so rich he had a private chef AND an entire floor of prime real estate just for his dining pleasure (owning the building didn't hurt either). Mom & dad have eaten meals as the special guest of the Iraqi consulate to England, in a mansion overlooking the Hyde Park Corner in Piccadilly Circus, London (I was there too, but I was 15 and more concerned about whether or not all women looked like the ones on The Benny Hill Show. Geez, I was a jerk as a teenager).

Mom was pretty happy back then, and all she has now are the memories of those spectacular times. So what I wanted to do with these chocolates is to take her back to those moments, so she can feel special, amazed, and privileged. She's had a rough year, first getting a hip replaced, then cracking a couple of ribs last month. Just a regular Christmas gift this year wasn't going to cut it. And what is better than having some world-class confectioneries just for you? Having one of your children pick out a custom, one of a kind batch, based on your own preferences and favorites? Yeah, that should do it.

With mom, that's easy. She likes the darker, bitter chocolates. So I picked out all of the dark chocolate items the chocolate store had. And every afternoon, my dad faithfully goes up the hill to the town store that sells cappuccino and gets her one. So anything with coffee or espresso, that's going in the box. A couple of the chocolates have wine or a fine liqueur in them, so those were picked. Some of them had both espresso and bittersweet chocolate, like the Espresso Fusion, some had a fine wine and dark chocolate like the Pomegranate Malbec.

Bingo! 1/4th of the box. From top to bottom, left to right: Tahitian Vanilla, Promegranate Malbec, Cinnamon Cappuccino, Cocoa Nib, Fromage de Blue (read the ingredients, you won't believe it....mom likes blue cheese too), Madras Curry, Chai Ganache, and "Aphrodisiac for Her" (so my dad gets some action. It's got another amazing list of ingredients)

Multiple chemical sensitivity with reactive airway disorder freakish ability to detect microscopic amounts of certain chemicals report: The chocolate store was clean but I didn't have any VOC reactions, so it may use non-toxic cleaners. I could smell chocolate in the air but it didn't make me cough, so David Bacco's website claims about using organic ingredients in some of the chocolates may be accurate. The store staff, who was also very helpful and patient with me, were not wearing a noticeable amount of scented products (talk about a rarity in today's age). The staff wore latex and cotton gloves at specific times while handling the chocolates and boxes. On the website there's a section that recommends how to not just eat but experience the chocolate, including using the sense of smell, and I suspect that is the reason for the multi-faceted attempt to have clean air in the store. It's so nothing gets in the way between the person and the chocolate, so their experience is pure. Unintentionally, it also means the place is relatively safe for people with MCS. A MCS-friendly rating for David Bacco Chocolates......4 stars. I can't go any higher because some variables couldn't be isolated, like coming off a chemical exposure just an hour before entering the store (I get a little punch drunk from chems, that or they literally knock me out).

Back to the family. My dad's chocolates have a back story too. He likes spicy meals, partly because his travels took him all over South America and some of the Asian countries which are known for their hot & spicy food. He also eats a lot of spicy food because in his first career as a pro football player, he had his nose broken 8 times (7 times on the field, the 8th time a car more or less fell on it. Now THAT'S a long story). Back when he played ball and had these surgeries, medical science wasn't advanced as it is now. His replacement body parts like the bridge of his nose doesn't work as good as the modern versions do. He has a hard time breathing through his nose normally, but most spicy foods clear the sinuses, so he uses the food as an organic nasal decongestant. He fills his belly with a good meal, and he can breathe again. It's a win-win.

Some of dad's are: Caribbean Fire (with ancho and chipolte peppers and the classic Jamaican
spices, Apricot Marzipan, Madras Curry (Curry!!!! In chocolate!!!! Do you believe that!!!!! Now I know how my grandparents felt when a man landed on the moon), Framboise, Cardamon Truffle, Thai Peanut Butter, (can't remember the next one), Cinnamon Cappuccino, Milk Chocolate Silk, Coconut Rum, Exotic Caramel, and Fromage de Blue (he likes blue cheese too). A couple of the not pictured candies have black pepper, another one of his favorites. He also has an "Aphrodisiac for Him" chocolate, so he can return the favor with mom. It's a good thing I sleep in the house across the street.......

My dad occasionally reads this blog, so it may seem odd that I'm posting about the gifts here, but actually, I'm going to need his help. I want mom's chocolates to be special, a reward for all the things she's done and all the sacrifices she made for her children (which of course, my dad made too). In a way that you just know someone and what they want, and in a way I cannot describe, mom getting a bunch of chocolates just for her and only her is going to make it special, more than just getting some astonishingly beautiful and expertly crafted chocolates by themselves. The same thing happened when I got both mom & dad some local Bavarian mustard that she absolutely flipped out over once before-the next time I bought the mustard I got her her own jar so she wouldn't have to share with dad. They both got a big kick out of that.

I can sit here and not worry in the slightest bit about craving one of mom's future chocolates. I don't want any of hers, I'm not going to nibble a little corner out of every one of them like someone in my family did whenever there was a box of chocolates around. These are her chocolates. Period. But after a 12 hour drive back home over the holidays, when I'm tired, being exposed to more household chemicals other than just a x#%!!!! carpet, and with her pleading "No, really, you can have one, it's OK" like I know she will do, I might not be able to resist, and I don't want to take one of those moments from her. So the solution is obvious-get another box. I won't want any of her chocolates if some are stashed away elsewhere.

I'm not going to lie to my mom, I really don't like to lie at all. However I learned at work that sometimes you can say something in ways that gets the point across but without having to lie. For example I never told a single client, or anyone from my company's regional office in Cleveland, that Cleveland was the worst city I've ever seen, and that the two years I lived there were the absolute worst two years of my life. For one, it wouldn't be professional. And besides, they might like it, or have a wife that works for the city's tourism board, etc. But when they asked what I thought of Cleveland, I would say something like "I haven't had the time to locate all of the great things people told me about Cleveland", which was true. One of my projects lasted for over a year, which is rare for IT engineers, usually we have a little downtime between projects. And besides, I could have all the time in the world, and other than a farmer's market and a small Cajun restaurant, I could never find anything to like in that shoothole. Cleveland sucks so bad the only reason for it's existence would be that Satan wanted to test an entire city the way he tested Jobe, but when it was all over God forgot the reward and Satan just kept punishing the place. Seriously, the only thing that city has produced other than a world wide reputation for pollution is serial killers and porn stars. But I would never, ever, tell a client that. It is true, in a hyperbolic sort of way, but they weren't going to hear it from me in anything close to the manner in which I'll share my feelings about that town with the MCS community. Dancing this fine line of what and what not to say would keep me from having to lie, and left the person fielding the question feeling good about Cleveland, just because of the way the sentence was structured. And of course, the people that originally told me those things thought they were great, so the person asking questions did too......Perhaps that is why I'm finding post-MCS work as a technical writer....(economics and inter-office politics play a factor too, to be sure)

Bikes, it was easy to find classic bikes from the 50's and before in Cleveland.....better throw that one in. It's a good city to get vintage bikes in. Practically everything else will cause you to redefine "horrible".

So I'm not going to lie to my mother, for cryin' out loud. But I want her to have something super-special. So what I'll say will be something along the lines of "These are your own special chocolates, picked out just for you, and I don't want any of them, all I want is for you to enjoy these chocolates because I love you and you're worth it". None of that is a lie. And every time she asks me or dad if she wants one, and we say no, she'll feel more special than before. I just won't tell her that dad & I have a secret stash of our own in order to give her the complete experience of David Bacco chocolates.

Now just like it may seem odd to someone outside of my family that I'll let my mom think she has the only box of gourmet chocolates in town, with my dad it's going to be something different. Because to get the most out of his gift we're going to share it-right down the middle-and split each piece 50/50-sharing each one. Because when we do that, we're going to be talking about the chocolates, cooking in general, his crazy travels, the culture of the places we've been to and how it is reflected in the food, we'll be talking about professional and collegiate athletics, my grandparents experiences in the culinary field, rural life vs city life, you name it, we're gonna talk about everything, just him and me having secret discussions and letting the chocolates be the guide. I know he'll like that.

The price for the chocolates is way out of my league, especially considering all of the trouble my insurance company has been giving me lately by refusing to pay my doctor bills, but I think it's time for me to make a sacrifice for my folks. This is something the insurance companies can't take away. I'm probably going to be fighting the insurance companies for the rest of my life, or at least until they decide to drop me altogether. But I won't always have moments to share with my parents.

Brain Fog Claims Another Victim

2009-12-14T18:41:00.005-06:00

I can't find my electric razor.

I never really liked it. Electric razors often pull on the whiskers, like getting a facial version of a bikini wax, they do a horrible job on the neck and under the chin, and despite yanking some whiskers out it will leave them untouched elsewhere which makes a guy look like he just walked out of Chernobyl after a meth binge.

I feel good! Actually, he was on PCP and drove through Georgia and South Carolina, but you get the idea. Nice robe too

I was always a shower shaver, with a good shaving cream and a multi-bladed razor, but that's one of the many things that multiple chemical sensitivity has changed in my life. I can't use any type of shaving cream or aftershave lotion now.

But here's the deal with the electric razor-it should only be in one place, the charging station in the bathroom. Granted, I didn't use it for about 6 weeks while I was quarantined with the swine flu and then a lung infection, and didn't pay much attention to it during that time, but it's not like I was using it for something else and forgot where it was placed, and it sure as heck didn't grow legs and walk away on it's own.

The idea of an ambulatory electric razor is pretty cool. Then you could teach it to do tricks like flips or to roll over like a dog.

Right now I just want it to come to me when I call, because I can't find it anywhere.

You Know You're In Madison When.....

2009-12-14T19:09:00.003-06:00

Your garage door freezes itself to the ground.

Negative Ion Generator Review And Misc. Follow Ups

2009-12-13T11:54:00.012-06:00

Putting a negative ion generator together. It doesn't have the fancy cover the others have, but it's a 7.5 kv system, the same average power of commercially available stand-alone ion generators

So this weekend I built a couple of negative ion generators and tested them out with a homemade negative ion detector. Here's what I found:

The ions are only measurably present within one foot of the source. Outside of that "bubble" they lose the charge, probably by bonding to something, which may or may not be an airborne particulate. It might just find a grounded object like the wall.
Putting a generator in front of a fan does not result in blowing a significant amount of ions across the room (like some manufacturers claim), it still has the bubble effect. The limited range is probably one of the reasons why commercial air purifiers with negative ion generators have the generator next to the intake side in front of the filter. I confirmed the location with the ion detector and two of my purifiers that has them.
More expensive air purifiers with negative ion generators have a higher ion output than the cheaper ones.
Placing ion generators behind a fan results in nearly zero output, because the metal in the fan catches the ions.
As mentioned previously, generators in front of fans doesn't create a measurable difference in dispersal, however, some ions may float around a bit. I did receive two very light static electricity shocks when touching a metal object elsewhere in the room, but I've received much greater shocks simply from walking around shoeless on a carpet before MCS. I have no way of knowing the if lighter more recent shocks were the same thing or if they were because of the negative ion generators, but the two shocks were so light they were hardly noticeable.
I still have to flush out the carpet-laden apartment air at least once a day.
Six negative ion generators, one fan, two portable heaters used to re-heat the apartment after flushing while keeping the heat at waist level to not heat the carpet, and running two HVAPs will blow a fuse. The reason I say this is because most stand-alone negative ion generators claim they only cost pennies to run.
The most effective positioning for a negative ion generator seems to be directly in front of an HVAP on the input side, similar to the more expensive commercial HEPA purifiers. My guess is that it helps smaller particulates stick to the filter instead of just passing through. Note #1-my HVAP filters are electrostatically charged.
I have not had any new multiple chemical sensitivity reactions since running the negative ion generators. Overall I'd say my condition has improved slightly, but part of that might be the remnants of the "rebound effect", coming off a previous MCS spell.

Final comments:

A negative ion generator may slightly enhance air quality, but not improve it enough for someone with MCS or RAD. IMO, An overpowered HEPA filtered air purifier is still the best overall option.
Because of the negative ion generator's limited range, it's effectiveness depends on it's placement. I see two options for their use - 1) placed very close to a single particulate source, like if slicing an onion (I will test that out next week) or 2) if you can't spread the ions across the room, move all of the air past the ion generators. For example, in my apartment I have two HVAPS that circulate the air more than any other purifiers in the room (both by bigger fan motors and placement). I currently have all the generators surrounding the HVAP's intake filters. This is done to maximize the generator's effectiveness-since they only clean the air close to the generator and I can't build enough generators to clean the air by themselves, the solution is to move all of the air by the generators.
I would not recommend negative ion generators as a stand-alone air cleaning solution to anyone with MCS, although if used properly with good air circulation or possibly by a single pollution source (to be tested next week), it may improve indoor air quality slightly.

And now for the fun stuff.

You know this guy isn't going anywhere, other than to pay what will be multiple tickets for failing to follow wintertime parking ordinances ($60 each)

The wind with the winter storm was so strong that snow stuck to the sides of the trees, rather than on top of the branches

I rode out the storm with a homemade ciabatta bread meat lover's pizza. The outer crust was fantastic but the dough in the very center of the pizza was a bit undercooked. That's what I get for not using a pizza stone

Just Like Grandma Used To Make

2009-12-07T20:06:00.033-06:00

Ever hear of Jean Cristophe Novelli? He's like the European version of Richard Gere in American Gigolo, except with a slick accent and a Michelin Star. He's got a show called Chef Academy on Bravo with all kinds of side stories, like a male contestant who's a porn star that failed to divulge that information before signing up for the season, and a female contestant that bakes penis shaped bread for the challenges out of sheer frustration after trying to quit smoking, the whole question of "Can a successful European find fame in America?", or as Europeans see it "Are all Americans idiots?", but that's not what interested me in the show. He created a tomato sauce from his grandmother's original recipe that was really interesting. I decided I was going to try and make it myself.

That's not quite as easy as it sounds. Jean Christophe Novelli seems to prefer presenting his recipes in video format, and he doesn't always mention the amounts of the ingredients to use (but you ladies will love his accent anyway). Perhaps that's the teacher in him, he also operates a culinary school in Europe that seems to be a big hit. Maybe he omits information so the students experiment and learn. Maybe he just doesn't want people stealing his grandmother's work.

One of my grandmothers was a chef. She kept cooking professionally even after she went legally blind in her late 70's. Unfortunately she took her recipes to the grave. She passed when I was in my late teens and at that time I took her lifetime of experience for granted, as I did just about everything else back then. I thought I'd be a pseudo-prince who always had someone cooking for him, not a guy struggling daily through a chronic illness and having to cook every single meal for himself. But I wouldn't be happy if anyone stole my grandmother's recipes.

Below is what I thought the ingredients might be and how much I used:

2 & 1/4 pounds tomato. I tried to find out what type of tomato is cultivated in France and Italy, thinking that would be what his grandmother used, but I couldn't find any definitive information. I bought some larger than average Roma tomatoes.
1 & 1/2 star anise. WHOLE, not powder. This is important.
2 leaves organic basil. FRESH, not ground. Yeppers, this is important.
1 bay leaf.
1 vanilla bean. I sold out here. I could get everything else fresh and organic, but not the vanilla. I used just a little under one teaspoon of vanilla extract. Be careful with vanilla, it can easily overpower whatever it goes into. I made a loaf of almond bread last month and put in a little too much vanilla and it really threw off the balance of flavors. Sure smelled good though....
1 clove garlic. I wasn't sure how much to use, so I used a bigger than average clove.
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil.
1 & 1/2 teaspoons salt.
1 teaspoon pepper.
1 teaspoon sugar.

Here's a star anise. I added a half of another one later when cooking

Directions:

Core the top of the tomatoes and cut in half.
Heat a 10" pan. I noticed on the TV show they used an enameled porcelain pan, and the students were instructed to use a wooden spoon to stir. I'm guessing it has something to do with the tomato's acidity reacting to the metal.
Put in tomatoes face down. If there's not enough room for all of them and some halves ride on top, it's OK, just stir them around a bit.
Add the salt, pepper, anise, and bay leaf.
After the water has cooked out of the tomatoes, mash them down with a tomato masher. I mashed them well enough for the entire mass to cook evenly, but tried to leave all the skins intact for texture. They'll continue to break apart when stirring, so mash them good once and leave it at that.
Add the sugar.
Allow the tomatoes to simmer and reduce.

Pre-mash in the porcelain pan. It was a thrift store purchase. Paid about $1, and it's got a groovy retro pattern on it

Post-mash and reducing

Now here's where I differed from the show. On TV and the video clip above, the tomatoes are cooking very quickly. I originally chose to let it simmer for one hour, the reason being I was unsure of how the ingredients would come together and I wanted to taste it as it went along, and the extra time would allow me to make adjustments along the way. After my first taste, I really liked where this recipe was headed.

Due to the tomato's high water content, this will reduce down considerably

This next part is where the technique is unusual. In the recipes we plebeians use, you add the garlic, basil, and olive oil at the beginning. Here, you add them at the end, and in that order. I wasn't sure how this would work, or why these ingredients would be delayed, but Jean Christophe Novelli has a Michelin Star and all I have is a debilitating chronic illness and a master's degree in something totally unrelated to cooking, so I did what he said and added them in the final stages, right before plating the sauce.

It worked, in fact, it worked incredibly well. The last minute additions made the flavors more alive and clearer tasting. I also departed from the recipe in a minor way here, I thinly diced the garlic after doing the knife smash trick. I'm sure if Mr. Novelli found that out he'd want to kick me in the nuts, but what I liked about it was that when eating the sauce and chewing the pasta the little bits of garlic would "pop" and explode with flavor, but not in a way that took control of the palette. And the reason you want to leave the star anise whole as directed earlier in the post is so it can be located and removed before serving. You don't want to bite into an entire star anise unless you're a really big fan of the spice.

Another departure from protocol is that I cut the basil. A big winter storm was coming in and I needed to conserve the remaining basil for another recipe, I wouldn't be able to get more until the storm passed. So I cut the two leaves to increase surface area contact and spread the flavor more efficiently

The finished product. Obviously, I haven't been to culinary school and don't know a darn thing

about plating

Verdict: This is an awesome sauce. It's not the grainy, overly sweet sauce that most Americans grew up on. It's a tangy sauce that caused me to contemplate it with every bite. The anise and vanilla complimented each other well, the herbs gave it a smooth, clean complexity and the garlic gave it a base. It smelled good too. If you have a picky eater who only likes one type of tomato sauce, cook this and time it so it's on the stove when the picky eater walks in and gets a good whiff of it. The texture was outstanding and that's probably why the olive oil is added at the last minute. Perhaps the highest compliment I can give this recipe is that I made a more traditional tomato sauce for a ciabatta bread pizza a couple of days later, and the traditional sauce just didn't taste the same. I was missing, and perhaps longing for, more tomato flavor. If it wasn't for Mr. Novelli's grandmother and her recipe, I never would have known the difference.

The other thing is, I could remember how it tasted. Normally, when I have a great food memory I remember the place and the people there and everything else that went along with the meal, but here, first and foremost, I remember the taste of that incredible sauce. And it's easy to fix too!

Note #1: This is what they call simple rustic cooking. Normally a minimum of ingredients are used, and when that happens, the ingredients and the amounts of the ingredients have to be perfect. That means using fresh ingredients, and yes, you can taste the freshness and even feel the difference in texture on your tongue. Think of your tongue as a finger with tastebuds. It's another way to experience a good meal.

Note #2. I would also recommend for newbies like myself, cooking at a slower pace and tasting the way through it to see how everything works together and how the flavors are built.

Note #3-This is a different style of sauce most Americans aren't used to, so kids may not like it but an adult with a refined palette will.

Note #4. I will be cooking this again. There's not many foods that keep me thinking about it days later. I might experiment with the next batch and add a touch of cinnamon.

Winter Blows

2009-12-09T19:41:00.007-06:00

So here's some pics of the big winter storm that blew in last night. We got about 6 inches of snow before the storm hit, and about 18 inches during the storm, but it was the intense wind that made everything so amazing.

This storm affected a large part of the country. Madison and lower Wisconsin was in a blizzard warning

A shot of the backyard from the balcony when the storm started raging

Same view but in the morning after the storm passed. The storm shut down the entire city, but a few people still tried to drive around for reasons unknown. It was deadly quiet when I took this pic. I was thinking, "Is it the reduced outdoor activity that makes it so quiet, does the snow itself absorb sound waves, or is it a combination of them both?" when all of a sudden......BAM!!!! The unmistakable sound of twisting metal that's made when a car hits something hard. Then.....BAM!!!!! again. And then, yes, BAM!!!!!!! Next I heard sirens. Luckily for these drivers, emergency services were still working, and both the police station and fire department was only a block away

Closeup of the tree

I'm guessing that's about a foot and a half of snow

Believe it or not, there's a car under there (not one that was wrecked). There's also a street, sidewalk, and shrubbery that's completely covered

We were supposed to get thunder snow, my all-time favorite winter phenomenon, but it only happened a little east and south of here. Of well, maybe next time............

F#%&!!! CARPET!!!!!!

2009-12-09T20:07:00.009-06:00

Hello carpet soaked in formaldehyde and flame retardant toxic chemicals. I'd like to introduce you to your new friend, 16 pounds of baking soda. You're about to get to know each other very, very well, These are the big boxes, the coin in front is a quarter for scale

Only someone with multiple chemical sensitivity knows how bad and toxic carpet can be. As I reported earlier, the combination of closed windows and heat has been very tough on my health lately.

Coping strategy #1-hyper air purification. It helps, but doesn't solve the problem.

Coping strategy #2-put on a jacket, open the windows, and flush the air out using an air circulator. It clears the air for slightly less than a 24 hour period, but then I have to turn on the heat or else my apartment matches the outside temperature, which right now is about 12 degrees. I have been doing this daily. The sudden drop in temperature has ruined my Italian leather sofa that I bought for pennies on the dollar from an art gallery that was going out of business. The leather became cracked almost overnight, despite a good maintenance schedule. But I have to do it. Just like the first item, it's only a temporary fix. And just like everything else, it's one of the many hidden costs of multiple chemical sensitivity.

Coping strategy #3-cover a huge area of carpet with a thick quilted moving blanket. It's done in a way that you can't see it. It's another thing that helps but doesn't solve the problem.

Coping strategy #4-turn off all the electronic items, move all the furniture and put down a sh*t-ton of baking soda. This will eliminate the carpet vapors, but only for a couple of days when the old soda gets vacuumed up and a new coat goes down. After all the dust settles I take a broom to the carpet to evenly disperse the baking soda and work it into the fiber. You better believe I'm wearing my respirator at this time. I also boil a big pot of water to increase the humidity level which helps pull the really fine baking soda dust out of the air, without it the air will be too acidic and cause other problems. When the water boils down, I then turn on all the high volume air purification, which cleans the entire apartment of airborne particulates in just a few minutes, provided they don't blow the fuses. Then I lay down for a while because of the co-morbid chronic fatigue syndrome.

I did that a couple of days ago, knowing I'd be hunkered down for the entirety of the storm. If UPS can deliver my package of electronics tomorrow, it's time for....

Coping strategy #5-figure out how to build your own negative ion generator, then build a bunch of them.

I've been researching negative ion generators are they are really simple. They're basically static electricity generators. But if you want to buy a commercial unit, they all start around $100 and go up from there. I can buy all the parts for one for $15, so I'm going to try and build, well, uh, six of them. If there's any chance of them starting a fire, my reactive airway disorder will detect the smoke immediately, long, long before the cheapo smoke detector will. And if I electrocute myself, so be it. Life after getting multiple chemical sensitivity isn't all that much to live for. You basically spend the rest of your life trying not to get sick and trying to figure out how such a thing could happen to you in the first place. I used to build my own antennas for wireless networking and long range radio reception, so a negative ion generator shouldn't be too much of a stretch for me.

These should only use 7.5 kv, which seemed to be a good balance between higher than average output but low enough not to create ozone like the high output units are reported to do. Plus, the engineer in me gets to 1) build something 2) test something 3) experiment with something. For example, will a free stream of negative ions clean the air better than a metal grid which is charged by the ions while the air passes through it, like an electrostatic filter?

If that doesn't work, I'll probably try a carpet sealer, but the idea of using a bunch of chemicals to shield me from a bunch of other chemicals seems oxy-moronic to me. Certainly, on a molecular level I could see where it works...but it's still more chemicals. Negative ions shouldn't be that bad, it's basically how our galaxy formed. All the minerals and other components that eventually became planets were originally orbiting the sun in tiny little pieces, but the negative ions drew these items together until they started gaining enough mass to create a gravitational pull. If negative ions can build a galaxy they should be able to pull some toxic carpet vapors out of the air.

Thank You Captain Obvious

2009-12-07T18:21:00.005-06:00

I was researching medicinal use of certain herbs and spices with the idea that some of them can pull double duty-instead of using a spice that has no medicinal value, substitute it with one that tastes similar but has healing properties. Or at least healing properties that have been recognized historically and culturally. Hopefully, not only would I feel better, but I could also put a little twist on some of these great recipes I'm learning and come up with something different.

That's when I came across something called amchur powder, which is basically an unripe mango that's dried and ground. I haven't tried it, but it looks like it would compliment tamarind or one of my all time favorite spices, curry. It also looks like a great ingredient on fish kabobs, called a machli kabob. I might actually buy this spice and test it out just for that purpose over the holidays when visiting the folks. My dad is a grill master, and with all the other cooking I'll be doing at that time, and considering I'll be visiting a non-MCS home, we should probably have something easy to fix in reserve. I've learned from those experiences and won't be so relapse-prone this time, and I sure as hell won't be eating anything like an Almond Joy bar, but once I leave the safe house the risk of relapse will increase.

So over the weekend I was researching amchur powder and I found out that the mango tree is used for all kinds of purposes-the roots, leaves, bark, you name it. That's common in un-industrialized societies that hasn't yet figured out you can do the same things with truckloads of toxic chemicals. Then I saw this:

"Of the mango’s other properties, its dyeing quality is of interest. In India, cattle are fed on mango leaves and their urine is used as a yellow dye, the active principle in this being xanthone. Needless to say, the fabric treated thus has its own special bouquet"

You Know You Have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity When....

2009-12-07T07:25:00.001-06:00

You have to filter filtered water.........

When It Rains It Pours

2009-12-05T19:41:00.004-06:00

My watch, which I've been wearing for a year now, started causing a rash of big red bumps, especially around the band and where the band and watch meet. I moved it up an inch so you can see the watch-shaped outline starting to form where it used to be. Everything else is freckles. Yep, I have freckles. I'm a cutie.

Thrift Store Deca-Score (I got 10 items)

2009-12-05T19:47:00.010-06:00

All this and much, much more, like 4 powerful HEPA air purifiers

Faithful readers, take note: the best thrift store shopping of the year is the first three weeks after Black Friday.

The reasons for this phenomenon are:

1) People buy new stuff and donate the old things that they replaced with Black Friday purchases.
2) Even if they don't buy an exact replacement, they may need to make room for the new items and donate other things.
3) Some people donate at this time because they feel guilty for buying things on Black Friday, or for taking the day off. At my place of work it's not an official holiday, but I think I was one of the few people working that day. I sure as heck can't go shopping on Black Friday, that would be suicide for a chemically sensitive person. Really breathers, it would be suicide.
4) The thrift stores get cleaned out earlier in the year from people looking for Halloween costumes and Thanksgiving decorations, who usually pick up other items while they're there. So a lot of the junk and clutter is removed and the Black Friday donations are easier to find.
5) Most people's buying habits change for Christmas and they stop shopping thrift stores and go to the malls to buy new items as gifts so their family doesn't think they're cheap, so you have all these almost new items landing at the thrift stores but nobody is there to buy them.

With the smaller thrift stores like the single location ones, their donations get put out as soon as the first week after Black Friday. The bigger the organization and the more locations they have, the longer it takes for the donations to get organized in the logistical supply chain and distributed to the right store. For these stores the items take 2-3 weeks to hit the shelves.

I was really fatigued and not feeling well, but I had to find a specific item, something I knew would be in abundance at the thrift stores the weeks following Black Friday: Big, over-powered HEPA air purifiers designed for large rooms.

I've been working from home for about a month now. Since the weather hit the 20's and the snow finally started falling, I had to close all the windows and turn on the heat. Stagnant air and heat is NOT a good combination when you have fairly new carpet. It's supposed to outgas in two months, but I swear mine is still doing it after a year, and it's part of the reason why I've been so sick lately.

Now you might ask, why does a guy who takes tremendous joy in building his own high volume air purifiers need to buy one? The answer is simple: because at a thrift store I can get several air purifiers cheaper than it costs to make one new. And after Black Friday, there will be many air purifiers available. In fact, I bought four for $25. And I also got 6 small items like some vintage cookware, a professional pizza pan, and a cool retro bike for an additional $16, bringing this incredible ten item bounty home for a whopping $41, tax included.

My biggest challenge now is figuring out how to run these four air purifiers along with the four monsters I already have without blowing any fuses, which has happened twice so far. These are big HEPA filtered purifiers whose output nearly rivals my homemade ones which use industrial blowers. I swear to God with all these fans going it sounds like a 747 is landing on the roof. When listening to the radio or TV I have to run the sound through a big stereo amplifier and tower speakers left over from my bachelor days. It's so loud my neighbors must think I've suddenly become deaf, and with all the freakish things happening to me lately that's a distinct possibility. I hope the folks next door like listening to cooking shows and podcasts.

The cheap purchase price will not be remembered when the power bill comes in, but for right now I'm feeling the love:

Kenmore 85254 w/ionizer-retails at $70, my price $7. Condition-like new.
Kenmore 83202-retails at $250, my price $7. Condition-a little dirty, but like new after cleaning.
Honeywell Enviracare 50250-retails at $170, my price-$7. Condition, like new.
Honeywell Enviracare 50250-retails at $170, my price-$4. I got a discount because it's a noticeably older model and the frame had a small 1" piece chipped off, but the filter and everything else is in great shape. It looks like it was hardly ever turned on and the owners only donated it because of the chip in the frame, but to be fair: Condition, used.

Of course, this is the thrift store that sells things so cheap they price clothes by the pound. Here you can see people digging through one of about eight rows of boxes looking for a new set of duds.

And best of all, because I was shopping for donated items at thrift stores weeks after Black Friday and not on Black Friday itself for new items, I never saw people placing the value of material goods over the importance of human life like here (the 2009 edition). I know there's a lot of working families out there struggling to make ends meet, but when you have to get up at 3 in the morning and stand in line for hours just to buy a product that will eventually be disposed of, something is wrong. Black Friday isn't merely a modern economic indicator, it's a sign of how screwed up people's priorities and materialism has become. Don't they understand that need and want are two different things?

How to Build An Inexpensive High Volume Air Purifier

2008-09-14T11:02:00.001-05:00

I have a confession to make: After 6 months of chronic illness, and shortly after discovering that airborne particulates was partly to blame, I became "Captain Respirator". Since the respirator was the barrier between illness and health, I wore the darn things everywhere-work, shopping, restaurants, at home, etc. Everywhere but during sleep (I tried, but they always came off in the middle of the night) and the shower.

It was great to be relatively healthy again. But constant respirator use introduced some problems: They hold moisture, you can't wear one directly after eating unless you want it (and your face) to smell like your food, it was hard to track the number of hours they were being used, the straps behind the masks would eventually rub the skin off the tops of your ears, and you had to take it off to speak on the phone or to someone in person. And finally, they just aren't intended or built for full time use.

Plus, I always viewed home as a sanctuary. The place where you leave troubles at the door. I simply didn't want to wear one when home, and thanks to a shift in work requirements, it looked like I was going to spending a lot more time there. So rather than passively filter the air at a low volume with a respirator, I figured I would buy an air purifier and have it do the work for me.

My apartment posed two special challenges: First, it's an old downtown loft with unusual architectural features-mainly a cathedral ceiling with skylights that is easily 2 &1/2 stories tall, perhaps 3 at it's highest point. So despite the fact the horizontal footage is only about 800 square feet, it has a lot of headspace and a huge volume of air to purify. Secondly, because of the loft layout, the kitchen is in the middle of the apartment where the ceiling is the highest, and the stove doesn't vent to the outside, meaning the high volume air space can fill with particulates quickly when cooking.

First, I went out and bought the biggest commercial air purifier I could find, which was a 3' Holmes tower style purifier. It just didn't have the juice to clean all the air. Then I built a series of ram air intakes to force the air through the purifier (being an engineer rocks!). An improvement, yes, but still not enough. That's when I started building my own high volume air purifiers, and believe me, they work. My MCS is so bad simply being in another room with a sprayer (someone wearing perfume or cologne) makes me sick, even if they are across the room. And I would wake up 20 times a night, coughing, due to airborne food particulates from a meal cooked 4 hours prior to bedtime. But with the new purifier, I can go respirator free for weeks on end, as long as I don't leave the apartment.

Many people with MCS have trouble sleeping because they inhale irritants while asleep. And there's just so many other things around which can aggravate the symptoms, especially if they are part of a large household. Well, building a couple of these should help you resume a semi-normal life around the house, aid your sleep, and improve your symptoms. For those of you without MCS, it still makes an excellent air purifier, dust, and odor control agent. It's cheap compared to regular air purifiers, and it quadruples their output. The whole thing should cost $50-$60 and can be set up in a couple of hours. Construction is extremely simple, and you can get everything you need from a local hardware or department store. All you need is:

Three sheets of foam-backed posterboard.
Packing tape (I ran out on this build and used painter's tape. Any wide tape will do).
An exacto knife or box cutter.
Two HEPA filters of identical size.
A fan or blower (I use the Stanley utility/garage blower because it's compact, stable, it moves a lot of air, and it's quiet. You can find it at Walmart).
A large flat surface to place it on.
A yardstick (optional).

Right now I'm using dual purifiers. One of them had seen better days and needed to be rebuilt, so I took some pics to illustrate how easy it is.

3rd generation on the left, original high volume air purifier on the right.

A comparison of new vs old filter. All that stuff on the right is what I am no longer breathing (Gee, thanks Cleveland! No wonder I developed MCS!). If run 24/7 and just one purifier, you'll want to change filters every 30 days. With two purifiers running off & on, you might be able to squeeze 90 days out of them like I did here. Results may improve if you don't live in Cleveland or have proper kitchen ventilation.

Three foam-backed sheets of posterboard and two HEPA filters.

The heart of the engine, the Stanley utility blower.

Basically, you just cut the posterboard to form the sides and top of a big box with air filters on opposing ends, and then just tape it all together. The posterboard will be in an upside down U shape. The tape should run the entire length of the sides and top to form a good seal. You can see the light shining off the tape in the pic above. You end up with a box with no bottom, that you'll place over the air purifier.

This part is easy-to measure the sides all you do is cut out the exact same dimensions that your HEPA filters are. For example, my filters are 16" X 20", so I cut out the sides to 16" X 20". The dimensions will always be listed on the filters. If you don't have a yardstick to measure with, just size the pieces by holding them next to the filters and mark the endpoints before cutting.

Through trial and error I found the box is sturdier if the top fits over the filters with a little overlap. The ends are flush with the filter, but it fits over the filter itself. For the sides it doesn't matter. Since the filters are 1" in depth, and you have two filters, for this build that makes the top 22". Yours will vary if you use a different size filter, but the top should still end up 2" longer than the sides.

When taping the filters to each end of the box, check the air flow direction arrows to confirm they are both pointing in the same direction of the blower output (See pic #5).

The "power tower". It's ugly, but the darn thing works! Yours will just be one unit high, unless you double the supplies.

Finally, set the blower to the preferred output level (I keep mine at full blast) and tape down the bottom of the purifier on all four sides. This keeps it from moving around and forms an airtight seal. Then just plug it in, take off the respirator, and enjoy clean air. Please keep in mind, this particular model is a two blower, four filter design. All I did was repeat the construction one on top of the other, because I needed counter space. One blower will probably suffice for anyone else's needs.

Since my loft is essentially one big open room, I have my purifiers centrally located to minimize floor space. For those with MCS, I recommend putting the purifiers in the rooms which give you the most trouble, or those you spend the most time in. I also use a 700 (less restrictive) rated filter on the input side and a 1200 (more restrictive) on the output. This temporarily forces more air into the box which is then pushed out the less restrictive back end, then sucked back in through the rear filter once more and sent out the front, which has the effect of scrubbing, or triple filtering the air with just two filters. If your fan is strong enough, the rear filter will actually vibrate very quickly when this happens. It seems to clean the air a little better than two 1200 filters, but that's only an opinion and hasn't been measured scientifically. It's just a result from my experimentation phase when building ram air systems for the first purifier.

If anyone has any ideas to improve the design, or has a purifier of their own, please send it this way. Those of you who are creative could decorate the sides of the purifiers with artwork, posters, or fabric to lighten their ominous appearance. And despite their size, please avoid using them as tables unless you want to rebuild the box every couple of months. But the bottom line is you'll be breathing much easier, and your symptoms should lessen.

Breathe easy, people!

Filter Check

2008-10-15T16:45:00.009-05:00

A little more than one month ago I posted on how to build your own high volume air purifier. After 31 days of around-the-clock action, here's how they're doing so far:

For those of you who have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and still suffer from any of the horrible side effects on a daily basis, I strongly recommend you try building one of these.

Before the diagnosis and treatment I was constantly suffering. I never knew what weird migratory body pain I was going to have, or where it was going to be, until I woke up the next day. Some mornings my energy level was so bad I couldn't walk 15 feet from my bed to the bathroom, I would have to lay down on the floor at the half way point until my body could produce enough energy to complete the trip. Then the migraines would start around 11 am and persist for the remainder of the day. The brain fog was so bad I forgot how to operate the windshield wipers in my truck, the exact same one I had been driving for fifteen years. I wasn't confused, I completely forgot how to use them. That part of my memory had simply been erased.

At the time I was working for a big client who has almost 50 buildings in the Cleveland area. I noticed that each building caused different responses in my body. One would cause intense skin flushing, one would cause blurry vision and bloodshot eyes, and they all caused the migraines and coughing. That's when I realized that it was airborne particulates that was making me sick. That was key to getting the right diagnosis.

Since then I started building high volume purifiers for home use, and always wear a respirator when outside. If I'm very, very careful, or if I simply don't leave the apartment, I am symptom free. 100% symptom free. I've still got MCS, and even a small exposure can affect me for a week or two, but I must tell you, having clean air made a world of difference for me. A huge difference. And I want you to enjoy the same, or at least help limit your suffering. Building a high volume air purifier and running it 24/7 might be what you need.

If you are experiencing daily symptoms from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, please consider building an air purifier or wearing respirators. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about either one. I will try to help you any way I can.

The Move

2009-02-07T23:26:00.016-06:00

OK, I'm currently safe & sound in Madison. Last you heard from me I was unexpectedly spending the night in Cleveland due to a raging blizzard... and I ripped my favorite pair of jeans. Here's the pics (including the jeans):

I can remember when I used to travel I had to pack a suitcase first. Now it's the meds. At least the cellphone and GPS has remained the same...

The very last thing before moving was taking down the high volume air purifier. Here you have a rare inside view. This was from a 90 day run inside a chemical free apartment with double sealed windows. The point I'm trying to make here is that even clean apartments have dirty air, and everyone can benefit from high volume air purification

The inflow and outflow filters. This is stuff that did not end up in my lungs. Granted, you probably aren't in Cleveland, but what do you think you're breathing? Purify your air, people!!! Even the breathers should purify the air!!!

The ginormous moving van getting ready to be loaded during the blizzard. In the time between when I parked it and took the pic before loading, it had a foot of snow on the roof

The street view looking downtown. Normally when you can't see the downtown buildings clearly it's because of pollution. This time it's snow

Pretty little maids all in a row. Loading the bikes into the moving van

The skylights in the apartment, the windows are about 3 feet tall. You can't see outside because of the snow. In the past 2 years this only happened once before, and I sure didn't have to pack a moving van in it back then

Luckily I had saved one meal, although it was intended for the road

The view of the emptied apartment from the top of the loft. I didn't know it at the time, but I would end up spending the night here. I will miss the light from those big windows, each one is 4' X 10', not including the arcs above

My spot for the night. Everything else was in the moving van

The infamous pair of torn jeans, soaked up to the knees from packing the moving van in the snow. Over the course of the next two days (one for the drive and one for the unpacking), the rip was to go down to the ankle. I couldn't change pants because they all were packed away and the organization of moving boxes broke down as the weather related delays got worse and worse. I dried out the jeans by sticking them in the oven

How To Build your Own High Volume Air Purifier (3rd Generation)

2009-02-14T18:17:00.049-06:00

The finished product. This one is longer than previous versions and has a cleaner look

Regardless of the specific scientific field we're in, engineers basically do five things. We:

Design things
Build things
Upgrade things
Analyze things, to determine if they need to be updated or if they can be made more efficient
Wonder why chicks don't dig us. After all, to us we have the best job in the world

Technically, in the IT field we're engineers/consultants, because they technology is very complex and client networks tend to be very sophisticated. Often we have to translate what we're doing technically into layman's terms, because the client controlling the purse strings on the project may only have a superficial knowledge of information networks. But since I have multiple chemical sensitivity, I have to add one more thing to the list: Think of ways to not get sick.

Because it's almost impossible to avoid toxic chemicals in the everyday world (or at least what my body considers toxic), I had two choices: wear a respirator, or get sick. Eventually, through the engineer's processes described above (especially #5, I mean, what else do I have to do?) I created an even better solution; high volume air purification.

After first getting sick I wore a respirator everywhere, and all the time, even at home, and even during sleep. I got much better, and I quickly got tired of wearing a respirator 24/7. They aren't meant for long term use. They filter the moisture out of the air you breathe, drying out your mouth, throat, and lips, but paradoxically, they hold the moisture from your breath against your face, which makes it feel greasy. The elastic straps rub the skin, especially above the ears, where the epidural layer is fairly thin. And you can't eat anything with garlic or else the respirator will smell like it permanently. And if there's anything I love more than tree hugging hippie chicks grooving on a cherry tree, it's garlic. Seafood enchiladas are a close second. Then it's my truck, The Mighty Toyota. Then it's bikes, the concept of a free lunch (FUNCH!), then coffee.

Regular air purifiers won't do the trick for people with sensitivities, unless you've got a truckload of them. They may help lessen the symptoms, but I'm talking about feeling healthy. No symptoms. For that you've got to have high volume air purification.

The advantage of high volume air purification is twofold: You will be less affected by common household irritants that you may not be able to avoid, like carpet, and you won't have to wear a respirator. The purifier performs the filtration in the room and not on your face.

The disadvantage-Your utility bill will increase because the blower needs to be run 24/7. They can be noisy, although I found you get used to it, and if you use a blower instead of a fan it produces a lower frequency white noise which is a little soothing. They can also be big and something of an eyesore.

But here's the best part: You won't be sick anymore. I cannot stress this enough. If you have MCS and are home-bound, and you've detoxed your house but you still get sick, please wear a respirator if you go outside and please consider building a high volume air purifier if you stay inside. High volume air purification will filter your air several hundred times EVERY DAY. With the blower I'm using here, in a 10 foot by 12 foot office the air will be completely cycled (run through the purifier) over 350 times a day. With 2 filters, the entire room of air will be cleaned 700 times a day. If you build a two story, two blower four filter system like I did last time, and you use it in a standard sized room, your air will be filtered over one thousand times, EVERY DAY. I'm serious people, it works.

I just built another high volume air purifier to use at work. It's the standard one blower, two filter system. I've made a couple improvements in the design, both in terms of aesthetics and function (engineers rule!). Since the blower output is so concentrated, the new model is longer to make better use of the front filter. The filters sit inside the box for a better look and a better seal on the tape. It also makes the box you build stronger.

Here we see the old second generation high volume air purifier I was using in Cleveland. The right side has been removed. In the old method the sides were shorter, in the new method they'll be long enough so the sides are flush with the front & back filters. I also noticed how the concentrated airflow from the blower discolored the center of the front filter. The new method lengthens the box so the sweet spot of airflow makes use of the entire filter

This is the third generation HVAP (High Volume Air....aw, you know). That's HVAP v3.0 to you techies out there. This one has to look good because I may occasionally find myself sharing the room with a Director of _____ (something important), and it has to be able to be moved, something else the other versions didn't have. Here's how you do it:

What you'll need:

Two HEPA filters (make sure it says HEPA. If it says "HEPA like" or HEPA quality", it's not HEPA). HEPA filters are 99.97% efficient at catching airborne particulates, and you're going to be using two of them. How's that for filtration? I have to be honest, it's hard to find HEPA filters this big. If you can't find any, try Scotch 3M filters at the 1200 grade. They filter at 93% efficiency and are much easier to find. They are what I normally end up using. I buy the 16" X 20" size filters because most foam-backed poster board comes in a 20" X 30" size. That way you leave the 20 inch side as is and only make two cuts to get the other pieces to 16 inches. That's it, just two cuts.
A blower. eBay and amazon.com have cheap models and may help you find one if blowers are out of season as far as the brick & mortar retailers are concerned. If it's a used blower it shouldn't need to be out-gased. A new one might have to run for a couple days before it doesn't smell like new plastic.
Four pieces of foam board (two are cut, two are left at original size).
An x-acto knife or razor for the foam board, scissors for the tape.
A ruler or yardstick.
A pen or pencil.
A wide roll of painter's tape (Painter's tape doesn't strip the foam board of it's outer layers when you peel the tape to change filters after 90 days).
Since I recently got sick from moving, I chose to wear a vapor-class respirator and eye protection for the foam board and tape glue. You may not need them. I'm also prone to rashes so I wore latex gloves, but you shouldn't need them.

Oh yeah, coffee. Gotta have coffee.

OK, let's get started! Construction shouldn't take more than 30 minutes. These instructions are for 16" X 20" filters and 20" X 30" foam board, adjust accordingly if you've got something different.

Step 1: Drink coffee. Think about starting your own organic seafood enchilada restaurant with lusty tree hugging hippie chicks for waitresses. Put a couple of cherry trees out front in case business is slow at first.
Step 2: Cut two pieces of foam board so they are 16" X 30". These will be the two sides.

The top and bottom are uncut. The two sides are cut to 16" X 30"

Step 3. Cut off one corner in one side piece. This will be where the blower's power cord goes. It will be in the rear of the filter box.

My first cut was too small and ended up being covered by the filter. Make your cut bigger at first or just adjust it later in the build

Step 4: Start building the box. Line up the two side pieces with the bottom and have a couple of small squares of tape ready to hold the pieces in place. One design improvement is to have the side pieces resting on the bottom piece, and the top rests on the side pieces. It's stronger that way.

The unit is standing on end for construction purposes, eventually it will be laid flat

Here's a closer look at the corners and the tape squares. See how the side piece sits on top of the bottom one?

Step 5: Tape down the bottom to the left & right sides. Leave the tape squares on to hold the foam boards in place during this process.

I found if you press with the long side of the scissor handle it forms a good seal and provides a sharp, clean look on the corners

Step 6: Repeat steps 4 & 5 with the top piece. Congratulations, you've just built the box. Now all you need to do is put in the filters.

Here is the box, from back to front. At this stage the two filter sides are empty, but not for long. Notice the corner clipped out of the lower rear side piece?

Step 7: Put the first filter in front of the box. It fits tightly in the box, and the box sides go all the way to the edge of the filter.

The filters will have an arrow telling you which side faces outside the box and which side is inside the box. Since we're doing the front filter, the arrow should be pointing ahead, away from the box.

Step 8: Write the date on the filter. You'll want to change it in 90 days, by which time both filters will be as grey as a dirty ashtray

Step 9: Tape the front filter to the top, bottom, and two sides. Since nothing is holding the filter in place for the first strip of tape, gently pull back on the filter as you push the tape down.

One handed and left handed, no less. I was sipping coffee with the other one. Just kidding, my right hand took the pic and then patted myself on the back for being so damned coordinated

Step 10 (Optional): Use the two left over strips of foam board to make a floor brace for the blower. Do this only if you want to physically move the box after it's built, which you could to to focus purification in a problem area, like if you just got new furniture, or in the kitchen while cooking. If you don't move the box you won't need to do this. If the box isn't moved, the blower won't move, even at full blast.

Cutting the pieces for the brace. There's a couple ways to make the brace, and each model of blower will have different frames, so adjust yours accordingly

Step 11: Tape the floor braces down (optional) and put the blower in the rear of the box (not optional). The blower mouth should be facing forward, to the front filter and front of the box. Before placing the blower in the box, make sure the fan is set to it's highest setting. The first generation HVAP had a door in the top to regulate fan sped, but it weakens the box (the high fan speed creates a vacuum towards the rear of the box which sucks the door inward) and I ended up leaving it full blast all the time anyway.

Now we just need to fine tune the power cord corner cut and tape the rear filter in

Step 12 (Optional): Enlarge the power cord corner cut if needed.

See how the rear filter sits flush inside the filter box?

Step 13: Insert the rear filter, making sure the air flow direction arrow points inside the box. It should point in the same direction as the front filter. Review the previous pics with the word "airflow" in them, the filter's airflow direction arrow will point in the same direction.
Step 14: Tape down the rear filter.

One side down, only three to go and then you're done

Step 15: Plug that puppy in! You've just built a 3rd generation HVAP!!!

Finished view 1

Finished view 2

The eco-concious will be glad to know that this is the only waste or by-product. Everything else went into the build

Let the blower run full blast all day and night. You should start showing improvement from symptoms after the 2nd or 3rd day. Breathe easy!!!!!

High Volume Air Purifier v3.1 - Nested Filters

2009-02-24T20:03:00.021-06:00

Filter check @ 30 days. It's starting to discolor, which is perfectly normal by now. However, this time it's turning light brown, instead of murky grey like in Cleveland. It's most likely my carpet, which is light brown and still out-gassing. In Cleveland it was just air pollution because my loft had polished concrete floors and not much carpet

For me to be 100% symptom free, my therapy has to be perfectly executed. Problem is, right now I can't exercise due to the cold and snow. I'm also not getting the 10-12 hours of daily sleep my body needs, and I'm getting small chemical exposures at work.

The carpet in my apartment is starting to bother me. I doubt it's out gassing any more than normal, it's just that the other things are making me sicker and now I'm more susceptible to it. I've got 2 extra air filters and some spare foam board so I decided to do something about it.

This is how the HVAP is set up now: Two HVAP boxes with one blower and two filters each, both blowing in the same direction.

Sure was nice of the architect and landlord to build this pedestal for me (just kidding, it was already there). I added color matching art work to the non-filter sides of the HVAP to make it less visually obtrusive, if that's even possible

Today I had the idea of reversing the direction of one blower and building a triangular duct to direct the air through all four filters.

A visual prototype of the idea....and ZOMBIES!!!!

However, after doing the math, doubling the filtration but reducing the airflow by half basically delivers the same result, at least numerically. To improve function I was going to have to increase airflow, the number of filters, or both.

Running two blowers 24/7 is enough as far as my energy bill is concerned, I didn't want to add another. So I had the idea to leave the boxes as they are now and flip a newly added filter vertically and build a duct so that the air from both existing filters would pass the new filter on each side, the ingress (inbound) and egress (outbound) side. The airflow would remain unidrectional with this method and pass through both blowers in the same direction.

Another visual prototype. This would produce an additional filter on both sides

Here you see one side about to go on. It also provides a comparison on color between the new and old filter. Remember, the "old" filter has only been up for 30 days. The stuff stuck in that filter is stuff that is not going into my lungs. Anyone who doesn't have a HVAP is breathing it, MCS or not:

This was incredibly easy to make and resulted in zero waste, but.....

Once attached, I discovered that this method greatly restricted airflow. It was partly due to cramming the air from two blowers through one filter, and making the duct too shallow. The reduction in airflow was significant enough to abandon this implementation and skip the other side. That's what I get for emphasizing economy of design rather than efficiency of function.

I might redo this with longer duct work when I change the filters in 60 days. For now I simply stacked the filters in front of the existing pair on the ingress side. It doesn't filter the air as much, but the restriction on airflow was almost unnoticeable.

Just slap that sucker on and tape it down. Hey, wait a minute....."Art Nouveau" can be a good fake name, I'll have to remember that, even if not everybody knows what it means

That's good enough for now. Normally I run two 1200 rated filters on each end, or 700 on the ingress side and 1200 on the egress because the difference in resistance creates a scrubbing effect on the 700 filter (that's a whole 'nother post in itself). This HVAP was only built with 700 filters because the local store was out of 1200 at the time. So at the very least, I've got it back up to near-original specs .

Once You Go Black......

2009-03-10T23:06:00.008-05:00

The black filter is actually a carbon impregnated filter. I've built so many of these HVAPs that this one only took about 5 minutes. In the lower right hand corner of the picture is the neck of my 1950's Columbia Newsboy Special, which thanks to Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, I may never get to restore

About a month ago I posted about building a High Volume Air Purifier for work, when wonderful reader and all around amazing person Liberty mentioned using carbon filters. I found some on Amazon that were really cheap and ordered them after deciding I needed additional relief from my carpet fumes (and the filters being really cheap didn't hurt much either. Plus the daily fatigue gets worse as the new carpet odor gets more noticable, and I'm guessing as the temperature heats up for the summer, the carpet will out-gas at a higher rate).

The filters came in today so I built another HVAP. Since I ran into some airflow considerations on the last build, I decided to make this one a stand-alone unit. I can also move it from room to room to mirror my daily activities.

The filters look rather porous, so I'm not expecting them to catch a lot of dust. But what I want this sucker to do is catch carpet fumes, and the more porous the filter, the less chance that fumes and vapors make contact with the filter when passing through. I'll probably end up nesting these like I recently did the previous HVAP and add another filter to each side.

I'll give it a week or so and then I'll post an update on the results. I wish there was a quantitative way to measure it........

Success!!!

2009-12-04T18:09:00.004-06:00

Today I ate two carrot sticks, two slices of celery, and one slice of toast. This is slightly more than the past two day's amount of food combined. I guess it means I'm getting better.

One of the freakish things that is happening is that despite eating like an anorexic rabbit, I haven't lost an ounce of weight. I'm not bloating, I'm not iodine deficient anymore, and I'm sure as heck not moving around much, but not losing any weight with such a small amount of input seems odd. Plus, even though I haven't exercised in a while I have more (slightly flabby) muscle tissue than the average guy, and with more muscle you burn more calories, even when not moving.

The toast eaten today was from a first attempt at po-boy bread about two weeks ago which I had frozen right after cooking it. Because it was homemade I can calculate the exact amount of salt consumed, which was about 1/8th of a teaspoon. That's still short of the recommended daily allowance, but at least it's a start.

While looking up salt intake online, I found this web page from the Mayo Clinic. The first graphic was pretty scary, not only because of how much salt is put into processed food, but also how much processed food is eaten these days.

Negative Nancy

2009-12-03T18:04:00.007-06:00

Got the results of the tuberculosis test today. It's negative, I don't have it, but they suspect I have a lung infection...just not the exact strain that causes TB.

The infection is causing all kinds of MCS reactions. My theory is that the bacterial or viral colony in my lungs is producing a toxin that MCS is reacting to. It's like having toxic mold, but in your lungs, not the walls of your house. There's no way a respirator can protect you from this.

Fatigue is constant, even with Provigil to compensate. I had fibromyalgia in my ear. My freakin' ear! Even with all the fibromyalgia pain over the years I never knew that such a thing was possible. It was one of the worst fibro pains yet, first starting in my jaw. I guess I'm lucky here because the last time I had jaw pain like that it morphed into a one-sided migraine that lasted over a month. The ear pain only lasted for a couple of days and is starting to fade.

Nausea is bad, in two days I've only eaten two carrots and two sticks of celery. Because the nausea intensifies after eating, I'm seriously considering eating baby food, with the idea it is easier to digest and possibly less like to trigger the feelings of queasiness. And there's a couple of weird body things happening now that completely defy logic and medical science, but I'm too tired to go into that now.

Quite Possibly, The Second-Most Coolest Thing I've Ever Seen

2009-11-24T20:33:00.005-06:00

What do you get when you combine a cultural touchstone like the Star Wars movie franchise with the irreverence of a social network? A few good laughs. Thanks again, Facebook.

Credit: collegehumor.com

Quite Possibly, The Coolest Thing I've Ever Seen

2009-11-24T20:47:00.019-06:00

I'll admit it, I'm a downtown type of guy. At least I used to be, when I could still go outside.

I've lived downtown, near downtown in inner-city sections, in the subdivisions, and way-the-heck-out-in-the-country, in a small rural town. Small town life really isn't as bad as people think it is, but my preference is living downtown. It's where the action is at. It's where the denser populations give randomness the best possible chance to make something happen. Higher body counts also mean that fringe-group interests can afford to visit here and put on a show, be it a 4 string quartet from China, a MIT professor on a lecture tour, or my two favorite heavy metal bands-even if I can't see them anymore (1 and 2). Downtown has what I refer to as a "collision of cultures". And with all of those differences and various things going on, there is a chance to learn and experience something new...or something that may not happen again.

I recently ran across this video of downtown San Francisco in 1905, as taken from a streetcar as it moved through one of the main avenues. It looks like the director manipulated the frame rate to give the viewer a smoother ride, which goes along pretty well with the laid-back groovy music on the soundtrack. But when watching the film, it becomes quite obvious that America will never have this moment of time again, and it's a shame.

It's not just the combination of cultures that San Francisco had back then, but that so many disparate elements could mix and exchange amongst each other so naturally, continuously, and, well.....organically. There's so much spontaneous movement back and forth in front of the streetcar that there's a real harmony in the chaos. The cross section of life on this street moves at unbelievable angles and with unrelenting frequency, but yet it all seems so commonplace and familiar. You'll see people working, playing, walking, riding bikes and horses. You'll definitely see distinctions in social class, strictly defined roles for a person's age or sex, and the entrance of new technologies like the automobile, but there's such life to it, and it's all right out there in the open. Nowadays, if you're walking in downtown San Francisco you better be on the sidewalk. It's nothing but cars, cars, cars on the roads now, and worse yet everybody has their windows up, their cellphones on, and they're rushing to get to a home that's still an hour's drive away so they can plop their lazy thoughtless asses down on the sofa and watch TV.

Every downtown has it's own character, and some are better than others. But I've never wanted to go back to a certain place at a certain time like I did when I first saw this clip. I'd go back and be a streetcar driver, and every day at work I'd have a front row seat to view the amazing, completely honest and unabridged show that life put on. As for now it's late, and I'm going to put my romantically minded and chronically ill body in bed. Screw the TV. Screw the cellphones. I would say screw the cars but I love The Mighty Toyota, it's been good to me. I guess the difference is I don't hide inside it (expect for the chemicals outside), and it serves to take me to experiences (or that it once took me to them before MCS), not isolate me from the experiences that the American automobile has been increasingly designed to do.

AWW C'MON MADISON!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-11-24T18:14:00.006-06:00

So, why does Madison have worse air than Cleveland? It's simple, and these conditions can occur anywhere, so if you have a sensitive respiratory system, here's what you want to look out for:

1) Avoid Cleveland like the plague. Actually, everyone should avoid Cleveland whether they have trouble breathing or not, because that place really sucks. It's full of ill-tempered, inconsiderate, uneducated racists of all colors whose provincial mindset and low self esteem issues cause them to attack anyone who objectively comments on the horror that their aggregate failures have created, you know, like anyone who says "Cleveland sucks". Then again, I've also been verbally attacked simply for saying "Cleveland has poor air quality", "The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is overpriced", and "Even though Cleveland's rapid transit system is better than most American cities of this size, it's not as good as what people have in London". Believe it or not, the last one got one of the most rabid responses. That's how messed up they are.

People in Cleveland are so stupid when they founded the town in 1796 they misspelled the name of the man it was named after, and it was all downhill from there. In this day and age they still struggle with anything that involves any amount of brain activity beyond yelling "Go Browns!!!" This guy from C-town can't spell that well either, nor does he realize that the teabagger's "revolution" is merely a far right-wing sponsored pep rally disguised as a grass roots movement. He also doesn't have a good grasp of history or know that at the time of his glorious youtube proclamation, the worst deficit spending has been by all three of the past three republican presidents. Oh yeah, it's all Obama's fault alright......MORANS!! GET A BRAIN!!!!

Ahh, I digress. Back to air quality. 2) Try not to live downwind of Cleveland or any of the cities known for poor air quality. Air pollution can carry for hundreds of miles. So if you live anywhere withing a 250 mile radius of a city with poor air quality, 3) You should stay aware of wind direction and pressure fronts.

Why not just the wind? Because wind is the movement of air from high pressure systems to low pressure systems (although the earth's rotation causes the exchange to not be in a straight line, but generally speaking, it goes from high to low). Awareness of this will not only give you the advantage of knowing which way the wind is blowing, but it also gives you a good chance of predicting it correctly for the next few days. Besides, wind is local. You want to know what's behind it, long range, from what city it's picking up pollution in and carrying over to you. Awareness of the pressure systems also lets you know when the bad air cities can gang up on you, because right now two high pressure systems encircle Madison, where a low pressure system is situated. Wind is coming to Madison by two different directions, one from each high pressure system. So the wind is carrying in polluted air from Minneapolis to the west, and from Detroit and Cleveland in the west. And our AQI numbers show it.

There's also an attribute that is specific to the pressure system itself you'll want to be aware of. After analyzing the shifts in AQI at Cleveland I bounced this off of an environmental planner and a regional director of the EPA who confirmed this as true: 4) Air quality tends to improve when a high pressure system first moves over town, and it declines as the high pressure system leaves and a low pressure system takes its place.

Think of it as a dome or bowl over your city. A high pressure system is a big bowl and a low pressure is a small one. When there's a big bowl over the city, the air pollution which is usually hot from a source of combustion has a lot higher space to rise through, and more importantly, it has a lot more clean air to be diluted in. AQI is a numbers game, measured in parts per million. With the bigger bowl, there's more air for the pollution to mix in. You can take the exact same level of pollution and the AQI on a high pressure day will be better than on a low pressure day. The amount of pollution doesn't change, just the air pressure and quantity of air relative to the fixed level of pollution. Also, when a high pressure system moves away, the AQI will worsen more quickly than normal. Imagine that bowl again, upside down on a table, with a little pollution floating in it. When you slide the bowl to one side, that pollution is going to group together on the trailing side and pushed downwards.

Something else confirmed by the bureaucrats at the EPA: 5) Air quality is usually worse on Mondays and days after holidays. The reason being many polluting operations shut down for weekends and/or holidays. The burners and chimneys cool and collect soot and the pollution which would normally be discharged into the air. So when everything starts back up you get the regular pollution PLUS all the collected particles that would have burned off more completely if the system was kept hot and running.

And finally: 6) Keep an eye on humidity. It's no coincidence that many of the perenially poor AQI cities (Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Detroit, Houston, L.A.) also happen to be near a big body of water. And to say Madison is close to a couple of lakes is an understatment, we have an isthmus for cryin' out loud. The higher the humidity, the greater the chance AQI will worsen. That's because the airborne particulates combine with the moisture in the air and then they all decide to overstay their welcome. And it gets worse. Humidity is airborne water molecules, H2O. When pollution particulates, which are usually simple sulfur or nitrogen based compounds, combine with the H2O, you can get new compounds. Do you like breathing sulfur? Nitrogen? Let's mix it up with a little hydrogen and oxygen and see what develops.

You can see all of these things happening in Madison right now, and look at our AQI. 102, the worst I've ever seen here. It's still better than the many 11o+, 140+, and 160+ AQI days in Cleveland, but with those days, the exact same conditions were present. It just had worse air to begin with, much, much worse. For Madison, this is just the perfect storm.