I see people from time to time asking about what dryer sheets and fabric softeners do, how they work, and what people can use instead to get rid of static in their laundry. I thought it was high time to address this issue. Fabric softeners and dryer sheets and bars perform similar functions. They coat […]
I’ve written previously about staying in hotels with chemical allergies, but there are times when staying in a hotel just doesn’t work. One time my husband forgot to leave the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door and housekeeping cleaned the room unsafely after the first day, right before I came to join him. Sometimes hotels […]
About a month and a half ago, I was sick. You know that horrible, draining, coughing, phelgm-y, awfulness that was going around? Well it hit no one in my house except me. My throat was so sore and swollen that I didn’t speak for three days. I couldn’t cough because it hurt too much, and […]
One thing that the development of my propylene glycol allergy has done is to make me a human detector of certain chemicals in food. I haven’t figured out all the quirks of my condition yet, but a closing throat is a pretty clear symptom. I have read recently about the conditions of Chinese-grown organic foods […]
This is a follow-up to my initial post discussing the possible causes of chemical contamination, particularly with propylene glycol, in commercial eggs, especially North American eggs. I mentioned in my first post about eggs that I wanted to try some unwashed eggs from free-range, organic birds to test to see whether the level of chemical contamination […]
My grandfather is ill and dying, and I sit here, at home, writing. I sit because I’ve been searching in despair for three days for some kind of vehicle that might help me travel 10,000 km, across mountains and plains, forests and straits, and not have my skin peel off or my throat close up. […]
There are anecdotal reports of nickel in sweat causing contact dermatitis, but I wanted to look into the science of this phenomenon to see if it had any scientific backing. Google is my friend. Here’s what I found: The first study I came across examined the incidence of nickel in bodily fluids after people were fed […]