Borax and Blue Agave (attn. Jules...)

[Guest guest]

> For the record, I have not been able to remediate clothing through

> washing. I've tried everything; cold, warm, hot, diff. detergents,

> baking soda, vinegar, bleach, ... Jonathon, what are you doing that

> works? Or is it possibly a different mold, toxin, concentration?

> I've also tried regular dry cleaning and dry cleaning with ozone

> treatment (same they use for smokey clothes) with no luck. Dang!

Hi Jules --

Well, I guess I have to qualify my answer by saying that I had some clothing and

gear that I washed with me during the two month sabbatical I took

this winter when I first experienced complete remission of symptoms. I went

camping in AZ, CA and Baja for the months of Jan and February --

Brrr. So this is how I know it was ok for me

Basically, there had been an almost three year interval between the primary

exposure and when I finally figured things out. So, a) there was a lot of

new clothing, I threw out anything suspect like wool and heavy cottons or

things that needed dry cleaning. Synthetics and heavy nylons, like

Cordura backpacks, I kept.

For the most part, I used non-scented liquid detergent, and way too much Borax.

I also wanted to keep an array of pretty expensive sport shoes with

me, these had all experienced exposure to the primary contaminated environment,

and were mostly suede leather and synthetic construction. For

these I used the detergent/borax combination, with the addition of Nizoral

antifungal shampoo, as per a protocol I got from Mold-Help.org. Suede

leather is supposed to be the most impossible to clean, but I spoke with the

lead tech's at Restoration Consultants, and they had tested these materials

afte washing and came up with no residual contaminants, so I went for it. I

think it needs to be said that I started experiencing some of the most

wierded out cognitive symptoms after I started in with the Borax, I have some

doubts as to the chemical neutrality of this. There's no question it's a

strong oxidizer, that stuff will tan your hide...

However, I was in daily contact with all of the cleaned materials in a (new to

me, used) closed vehicle for two months, and got better fast. I've

determined that if I isolate myself from all " indoor " mycotoxins that could be

available to respiration, I basically have full functional recovery in 72

hours. This stuff seems to metabolize RAPIDLY. For me, Ingestion seems to be a

non-issue, with the exception of maybe some alcohols -- the

distillation process could be putting concentration levels over the min level

for reactivity? Better Tequilas seemed O.K., though! The problem is

more one of recognizing exposure, it also takes me 72 hours to achieve fullblown

reaction.

All of this being said, 's pretty thorough examination of this leads me to

agree with his statements that individual reactivity levels are going to be

pretty subjective, and that what is clean for one person is toxic for another.

When we're talking about toxic effects in parts per billion, I have no

faith that general testing could provide any sort of consistency in a field

situation.

Be careful, don't clean everything and then move it all into a new apartment.

This last mistake cost me a full lease.