We all know the philosophical question: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? The whole sick building question is pretty much the same question: If nobody is sick in the building, is it a sick building?
Health reactions to a building environment are dependent upon the occupants. When it comes to potential environmental problems, we are each the sum of our genetics, health history and current health. The buildings don’t get sick, the people do.
It’s like Mr. Rogers of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood would say at the end of every show: “There's no person in the whole world like you”. That also goes for your health and what factors can influence your health.
As an example, Legionella has a 5% infection rate. That means that 95 out of 100 occupants of a building harboring the bacteria will not get Legionnaires Disease. That could mean that the building may never be identified as a “Sick Building”
What can Make the Occupants of a Building Sick?
It can be mold, off-gassing from the thousands of new and untested products we put into homes, combustion or industrial gasses or the myriad of bacteria, viruses and other contagions that can be brought into any building. That complexity of possible causes of illness complicated by individual occupant reactions to different exposures makes environmental investigations “CSI for buildings”
Environmental Risks and Hazards are not a New Problem
We shouldn’t ignore the old issues of centuries ago. Leviticus 14 of the Bible discusses mold in homes. World history includes plagues and diseases that almost wiped out major segments of past civilizations.
We can only eliminate environmental hazards that can affect people when we identify them. We need to put up our hands and demand assessment and testing when health reactions lead us to suspect them.
We now know that water problems can be a source of mold. Sewage can harbor the diseases that devastated civilizations. We have developed understanding about those issues, but still often fall short in avoiding these contaminants in individual cases.
Lead is credited as a major factor in the fall of the Roman Empire, yet we have lead in the water supply of major cities like Flint and Pittsburgh. Imported dark color plastic toys, decorations, mascara, china dishes and crayons are still often sources of toxic lead.
Protecting From Communicable Disease as Printed H2H.pdf It seems like a bad science fiction movie, or maybe if you like the stuff a “good science fiction movie” made real. You know the story, new virus, bacteria, nasty chemical, whatever contaminant emerges and there is not any way to stop it. Or so it seems, except for the heroic discovery of the scientist who is helped by the government agency security person that stops the evil perpetrator of the biological threat to all of humanity.
The truth is that we are fighting newly evolved viruses and bacteria. We live longer and survive with diseases and conditions that would have killed the last generation. The cost of that survival is often weakened immune systems.
To give a gift of continued life, we take organs out of one person and give them to save a recipient. Then we lower the immune system of the recipient so that their body does not attack the new organ.
The problem is that we have slowly been creating some of those superbugs in the course of the practice of modern medicine. Evolution is a part of the natural plan. We may kill most of the bacteria or virus that made someone ill, and a couple of the little bugs survive. These stronger biological nightmares reproduce. Repeat treatment, repeat strongest bug survive and bingo…. bango pretty soon penicillin no longer saves the day. New treatments evolve and at some point the bacteria or viruses get ahead of medicine.
Add to that the evolution of existing “bugs”, some of these afflictions such as HIV or Ebola that first prey upon our close genetic relatives like the monkey and then “come on over” to mankind. The Center for Disease Control’s latest infection health crisis is CRE, a Colistin resistant form, of E. coli. In some cases, this superbug kills up to 50 percent of the infected patients. This is one of many new infectious agents. This particular one started with pigs in China.
We live in a society where we travel across continents in a day in close quarters carrying each of our biological exposures along with us for the ride. CRE is now in the United States.
We learned from the news stories of the UPMC organ transplant program deaths that mold exposure can result in death of the organ recipient. We need to consider that If mold can be deadly in a hospital, it can be deadly in the home when a patient leaves the hospital.
The tricky thing is that the most likely to acquire a disease or infection are the same people who are the most difficult to cure. Many of us are exposed to serious health threats each day. As an example, the infection rate for Legionella exposure is less than 5%. More simply put, 95% of those in contact with Legionella do not get sick.
MRSA, C-diff, Hepatitis, Rotavirus, flu, Pneumonia, Meningitis and Strep Throat are some of the many diseases we face. Health issues from molds and other chemical contaminants get added to the lists of threat to public health.
Those most likely to get ill from a biological exposure
If you listen to the news, Americans care more than ever about what we put in our bodies. Fats, additives, cholesterol, too much sugar, and on and on have become big media and legislative issues. We are paying a lot of attention to what is eaten
On the other hand, we don’t spend much time thinking about the water we drink. Make no mistake about it, we are way ahead of previous generations and past civilizations in the safety of our water. History is full of whole armies, societies and populations that have been decimated or even ended by drinking water contaminants and diseases. We are a far cry from that state of affairs, but not completely safe.
If you think about it, the amazing and at the same time disgusting fact is that the water in your spigot may contain water treated by an upstream sewage plant, and yet we drink it.
America has one of the safest water systems in the world. On the other hand, we have seen serious brain damage and other health problems can occur in places like Flint Michigan. The scary part is that the damage to many lead poisoned children is now a health and developmental problem that will live with them and those around them all of their lives.
The rest of the story in Flint Michigan is that even if the water quality is corrected, the pipes themselves are now chemically damaged and will continue to leech lead into the drinking and cooking water of the residents. Digging up and replacing the underground main service line pipes, hot water tanks and damaged pipes in homes has been estimated to have a cost of between 20 and 200 million dollars in that city of 100,000 residents. Many of those residents can simply not afford to do the needed work in their individual homes. Cost of replacing the damaged underground municipal system is claimed to be 1.5 billion dollars.
If the water of Flint was properly treated, the poisoning and permanent physical damage to the people drinking the water would have never occurred. The big question to ask as you stare at your own glass of water from your tap should be: Is my water safe?
The EPA requires that each municipal water treatment system provide an annual “Consumer Confidence Report” (abbreviated CCR) and make that report available to the consumers of the water. It only took minutes for me to look up the report for the local water authority that supplies our home. The good news is that the water was pretty good……in this case. The bad news is that I had never checked that information on the water we drink before today. All of us need to take a look at the report for our homes. Click for download of full PDF article http://goo.gl/BM9Skv
Click for download of full PDF article http://goo.gl/BM9Skv
Avoiding Environmental Hazards, Our Health and “Figuring it Out”Click Here to Download a PDF Copy of this Article about Environmental Hazards.pdf
“Avoidance” is the overlooked treatment for health problems. By that, we simply mean getting away from things that negatively affect our health. Avoidance is actually a listed treatment in many physician treatment guidelines. However, the task of figuring out what to avoid “is complicated.”
We have gotten aware enough to understand the importance of “avoidance” when it comes to colds and flu. We have seen the world explode with recognition about avoiding diseases such as Ebola. We don’t often think about things like asthma triggers, chemical problems and carcinogens.
Our health care providers understand the role of our environment in our health, but can’t follow us around as we go through our daily lives. The fact is that becoming a part of each patient’s daily activities is not practical.
Why We Often Can’t Figure it out for Ourselves
Reactions to health and environmental problems occur in time delay. If we are exposed to carbon monoxide, mold, pet allergens or any other trigger, we do not usually react right away. It may be 6 hours, or it may be a day or even weeks before we react. Our brains are wired to react immediately to problems. We touch the hot stove we are immediately burned. We cut our fingers, it hurts. Reacting to time delay environmental effects is difficult.
Everyone can react differently. The best example that I have is that some children can eat a single peanut and become deadly ill. Most children could live on peanut butter and jelly. This can be confusing to the person that is not getting ill from an exposure.
Individual health histories make each of us different in our reactions. There are medications and illnesses that make us more sensitive to certain exposures. As an example, there is one common mold that can affect organ transplant patients on immune-suppressant drugs, and be of little consequence to most other persons.
Time of exposure can differ. One family member that is in an affected part of the home longer than the rest of the family can have more serious reactions. We use the words “time loading” to describe this factor. As an example, many municipal water systems actually have arsenic in their water. Our bodies can handle those small exposures. However, if I give you multiple exposures from several sources, you can become very ill. More exposure over more time can make one person ill, and not affect other family members.
We are affected by the sum total of our exposures. Homes, cars, schools, workplaces, grocery stores, places of worship are a part of most of our lives and one of those exposures can increase sensitivity to other exposures. As an example, medical facilities are a common source of exposure to environmental hazards.
We just do not know what substances are hazards. Who would think that a new foam mattress or a new furnace installation could cause us health problems? Well, these and many other common materials can be a source of problems. The wasp nest blocking the gas dryer vent could make us sick. The new interior french drain is often a source of mold and can allow gases previously trapped under the home to vent into the air we breathe.
We often don’t do anything about what could be affecting our health. Many times people will not have a home checked or hazardous items repaired for their own heath concerns. It is common for the action to come from concern for a child, spouse or a pet that has become ill.
Sometimes our solutions to environmental concerns make us sicker. Examples would be some of the fragrance “plug ins.” They can have formaldehyde as a vehicle to help the odor go into the air and often contain a class of chemicals called esters that can be irritants. One anti odor product that was being inhaled by a client contained Ethyl Alcohol, which can damage the nervous system when inhaled. Another example is the ozone generating air cleaners. These can damage lung tissue.