7 silly things enough to make us gag

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http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/healing_arts/sneller/8_24_99sneller.html

7 silly things enough to make us gag

As consumers in a free market society, there are a number of things that we

have adopted as part of our lifestyle. These things tend to keep us caught

in a trap that is not always healthy and may help explain the increase in

asthma as society gets more complicated. The best thing we can do is to

laugh at ourselves. Then we can fix the problem. I've listed a few of what I

consider to be problems. If you can add to this list let me know.

1. Medications are drugs; therefore, they are chemicals. Psychiatrists

prescribe medications to bring about changes in the behavior of their

patients, yet are unwilling to accept the reality that chemicals in our

environment can do the same thing. Is this medieval thinking? Go figure.

2. The federal government and auto makers spend countless billions of

dollars enacting legislation and designing cars that will reduce emissions

and pollutants that enter the atmosphere to protect our respiratory health.

Then we come home, park our car in a garage that has no ventilation, enter

the home and let the fumes enter right inside with us. Then we polish the

vast amount of wood in our homes with products that contain and outgas

petroleum distillates. Go figure.

3. Natural gas can kill and so it has an odorant added to it. Gas companies

around the country tell us that they do this so we can tell when there is a

gas leak. Yet, we purchase aerosol pesticides for indoor use that have

fragrance added to them so they will smell like perfume. Go figure.

4. Ozone alerts are commonplace in this country during days of high

automobile traffic and the pollution that results. This is because ozone

causes lung damage and triggers asthma attacks. It also makes a person more

sensitive to allergens. Yet, without proof of how they work, ozone machines

are being sold by the millions to give us " cleaner indoor air. " Go figure.

5. We vacuum carpets rapidly in an effort to save time. The air turbulence

at the mouth of the vacuum cleaner causes dust to be airborne at the level

of 10 to 100 times what it was before we started the chore. Go figure.

6. Scores of chemicals found in fragrances and perfumes are on the

Environmental Protection Agency's hazardous products list and have limits

that workers can be exposed to them in the workplace. Yet we are sold the

same products every day in our effort to smell nice. Go figure.

7. Activated charcoal has been made for a hundred years to filter odors, not

particles, that clog the pores. Yet many manufacturers of portable air

cleaners put the carbon on the outside, which is the first thing the dirt

hits. They pitch that you are getting two for one in this design. Go figure.

Mark R. Sneller, Ph.D., is a pollen and mold consultant to Pima County and

director of Aero-Allergen Research. Send questions to him at Breathing Easy,

P.O. Box 575, Tucson, Ariz. 85702.