If you want to go beyond this and reduce your exposure to chemicals even further, then there is more that you can do. You can avoid contaminants in water and food, avoid using plastics and you can avoid synthetic fibres and fabrics. You can also, if you are prepared to do it, stay indoors totally for the elimination programme and place conditions on what the people who live with you, or come into your home, use and wear. This is really hard-line and does not make you popular, but it can sometimes bring results.

To avoid contaminants in water, use a jug filter for water for drinking, cooking, food preparation, and for washing as far as you can. Alternatively, use bottled water – Malvern, Evian and Buxton are good choices (in glass bottles, if possible).

To avoid contaminants in food, eat fresh, unprocessed food -organic, if possible. To reduce your use of plastics, stop using plastic containers, wraps and bags for food – use glass or ceramic containers, if possible. Cellophane poses no problems. Do not use plastic carrier bags – old ones are usually little problem, but avoid new ones particularly.

To avoid synthetic fibres and fabrics, wear pure cotton clothes, for preference. Make sure these are well washed if they are new. Avoid pure synthetics where possible – polycotton blends are usually better tolerated than synthetics if you have no pure cotton clothes at all. For bedding, use a pure cotton pillowcase, well washed before use, and lay a well-washed pure cotton cloth or sheet over the top of the duvet or blankets if you cannot borrow or replace a synthetic duvet or blankets with others of a different material.

If you are allergic to cotton.

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For wall and ceiling linings, you can use plasterboard which is made from a layer of gypsum dried and hardened on paper. This does not cause sensitivity. You can also use hardboard in some uses. For solid floors, you can use concrete, wood or stone.

In general, it is better to avoid built-in furniture, or surfaces with veneers if you can, since these will usually be constructed with particle boards. If you instal fitted furniture, do so on solid wood frames, and use glass or solid wood doors and sides. If you need to replace a fitted kitchen and cannot afford to use solid wood throughout, one way to cope is to leave the old gassed-out chipboard frame in place, and to replace doors with glass and solid wood doors. Alternatively, you could use boards such as fibre building boards, plywood or block-board. These are much less troublesome than particle boards and cheaper than, and sometimes technically preferable to, solid wood.

Fibre building boards (such as hardboard, medium board or soft-board) are made with a natural bonding process, using the lignin present in wood fibres as an adhesive. They contain no formaldehyde resins and generally very few chemical additives (except for some which contain bitumen as a water repellent – avoid using these). They can only be produced in relatively thin widths – up to 4 mm (1/8 inch) – and thus have limited applications, such as linings for walls or ceilings, or thin work on furniture. Medium-density fibreboard (MDF) is a particle board, not a fibre building board and has a high resin content.

Plywood is made from thin sheets of wood, usually softwood, bonded together with resins under heat and pressure. The grain of each sheet is set at right angles, so that it provides a very strong and stable material at low thicknesses. The resins used are formaldehyde resins, at very much lower concentrations than those used in particle board. Plywood uses a different process of manufacture and if the manufacture has been correct, it does not release free formaldehyde as particle boards do and thus can be used without problems. A well-aired plywood sheet, used in moderate quantities, should not give problems. Plywood is available in thicknesses similar to chipboard and has similar applications.

Blockboard is made by glueing a veneer with resin to a core of solid wood blocks, usually of softwood. Like plywood, formaldehyde resins are used but, if manufacture is correct, do not release free formaldehyde at all. Blockboard can be used for kitchen cupboards and built-in furniture.

If you are sensitive to pine wood, you can obtain plywood or blockboard made of hardwood from DIY shops. If you want to specify a particular wood, you can order woods of your choice through the trade.

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Of the higher efficiency filters, two medium-size ones receive very positive reports, the Biotech 500 and the Anatomia Filtaire 300.

The Biotech 500 is an oblong, desktop device – compact and light, more portable than the Anatomia Filtaire 300. It has an electrostatic filter, and a thicker carbon layer than the smaller devices. It has an optional ioniser, which is useful if you want the possibility but do not want one in operation the whole time. It is very quiet in operation, with no vibration, and its hard plastic case does not give off fumes. It is noticeably effective on particles and good on chemicals. It makes a very real difference to air quality. It is large enough to clean the air effectively in a large bedroom or living room. Prices are quoted at between £110 and £135 (1992), with replacement filters costing £8, renewable every six months. It is available from Air Improvement Centre or The Healthy House. The Anatomia Filtaire 300 is made of a plastic casing which does not give off fumes once aired well. It is circular, about 30 cm (12 inches) in diameter and 23 cm (9 inches) in height. It draws in the air through round, revolving thick fabric filters, and pushes it out into the room through a thick wad of activated carbon. It has two speeds of operation. It is extremely effective for its size and price, and receives consistently the best reports for removing both particles and chemicals. Some people find it very noisy and do not like to run it if they are in same room. The noise is probably more subdued than a fan heater, but louder in volume. This device is more bulky and heavier than the Biotech 500, or the smaller filters, but is still readily portable by car, or in a strong bag.

The fabric filters need vacuuming and washing once every two to three months, unless you are very sensitive, when you should wash them as often as you need. The fabric filters need replacing every nine to twelve months and cost £7. The carbon filter needs replacing every eighteen months to two years and costs £18.

The Anatomia Filtaire 300 is priced at between £155 and £165, available from Ascot Heath, The Healthy House and Patent Filtration.

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House dust mites are tiny living creatures that co-habit in human environments. They are about a third of a millimetre in size and can just be seen with the naked eye, although they are indistinguishable from a speck of dust. Their features and movements cannot be detected without magnification. They are one of the most common causes of allergy, resulting from inhaling minute debris from their body or of their droppings. Tests have shown that over 80 per cent of people with allergies show positive skin test results to house dust mites (although only a share of these may have positive clinical symptoms of allergy).

The most common symptoms resulting from house dust mite allergy are nasal symptoms, including sneezing, runny nose, rhinitis (hay fever), as well as sinusitis, with related headaches and ear blockages. Breathing symptoms, such as wheezing, dry persistent cough, tightness of breath and asthma, also commonly result. Eczema and dermatitis are frequently caused by house dust mites. Some people sensitive to dust mites report joint pain, swelling of tissues, and muscle aches.

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In theory, any substance can be an allergen. In practice, some substances are inherently more ‘allergenic’ (likely to cause allergy) than others and consistently cause more problems. The antibodies of the immune system need a physical handle to grasp on to, and certain chemical structures provide this better than others – proteins, in particular, are more allergenic than other types of molecule. Wool, for instance, is a protein, as are pollens, and these cause allergies more readily than molecules such as cotton, which is not a protein. In the case of foods, proteins are more likely to cause trouble than, say, fats or oils.

A molecule has to be above a certain size for the immune system to react to it. Chemicals are too small to trigger the immune system by themselves, but they can combine with other, larger molecules and form ‘haptens’, which can then trigger the system.

Anything that can be absorbed into the bloodstream can be an allergen. This means anything inhaled, swallowed, injected or absorbed through the skin or mucosa. It was commonly believed that the place where your symptoms occurred was the site of initial sensitisation. This is not now thought to be the case, since symptoms such as asthma can, in some individuals, be shown to result from substances that have been swallowed rather than inhaled. Allergens are carried by the bloodstream until they meet the place where the mast cells are located, and it is there that the reaction occurs. The most common allergens are shown in Table 1 (see Part 4 for further details). In this book, the word ‘allergen’ is used wherever possible to mean a substance that causes true allergy. If a food or other substance causes intolerance, or some other sensitivity reaction, they will be called ‘substances that cause reactions or sensitivity’.

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