Few studies of public places have been as complete as this parents’ report from Wauconda. Similar findings would undoubtedly be made, however, at other schools, universities, laboratories, offices, and hospitals.
Each public place has its own potential dangers. Offices, for example, often contain a variety of possible irritants, including carbon paper, ink, mimeographing and duplicating devices, rubber cement, typewriters, typewriter pads, plastic lamps and fixtures, and perfumes and scents. The new type o? carbonless carbon paper is particularly troublesome to many patients. If the office is new, the odor of freshly chemicalized carpet is often strong. Some offices are adjacent to factories, warehouses, shops, and garages, and share a common heating and ventilation system with them. Many people who are susceptible to chemicals are also affected by tobacco smoke, which can reach heavy concentration in some offices.
Hospitals, on the other hand, have their own peculiar smells: deodorants, disinfectants, and cleansers; ether fumes and other anesthetics from the operating room; odors of drugs and rubbing alcohol; and the smell of rubber draw-sheets and plastic bedding material.
As I have pointed out, the air of supermarkets is often fouled by the odors of insecticides, disinfectants, deodorants, and the like. A peculiar odor often emanates from the freezer sections, sometimes as the result of leaking refrigerants. Ammonia is frequently used in cleaning refrigerators, often while customers are still in the store.
Even churches provide no sanctuary for the chemically susceptible. Gas is often detectable, coming from a well-hidden kitchen. There is also the odor of burning candles (in recent years, mainly petroleum-based rather than made of bees’ wax), incense, perfumes, and the mothball-like smell of furs and outer garments.
Finally, a word should be said about pollution inside factories, although this enormous topic falls outside the scope of this book. In factories, many of the already-mentioned pollutants are mixed with the special odors which arise from manufacturing and processing. The worst offenders tend to be solvents and their combustion products: rubber, plastic, resins, detergents, cutting and lubricating oils, sulfur, chlorine, and similar agents. Large-scale outbreaks of illness have already taken place in electronic plants and other plants where such materials are handled. While traditionalists have ascribed this to “mass psychogenic illness,” some environmental health experts have interpreted it as a sign of chemical susceptibility on the part of large numbers of workers.
*45\110\2*
You must be logged in to post a comment.