9 ms·

The scary part is that you become desensitized to VOCs the more you're exposed and people willingly increase their exposure by using air fresheners, scented can

The scary part is that you become desensitized to VOCs the more you're exposed and people willingly increase their exposure by using air fresheners, scented candles, fabric softeners, and incense burners. It gets to the point where they can't even smell moderate amounts. My partner has severe allergies and will break out in hives when exposed to many fragrances so we've cut them out of everything. We avoid most cleaning products and stick to water, salt, baking soda, vinegar, and peroxide for most household cleaning. My MIL is very desensitized to fragrances and my partner has asked her on multiple occasions not to "freshen up" the house before we visit. My MIL swears up and down that she doesn't but the moment you walk in the door it's like a punch in the face. My partner unfortunately will break out in hives and immediately becomes congested.

cmckn 6y ago
Shout out to vinegar! The huge jugs of "cleaning vinegar" changed my life a couple years ago. I still use diluted bleach for the bathroom every once in a while, but vinegar is sufficient for almost everything day-to-day. And it's so much cheaper than most "cleansers".
- cptskippy 6y ago
  Peroxide is a surprisingly good stain and odor remover. I prefer it to vinegar because it doesn't have a pungent odor that masks the odor you're trying to get rid of. But yes vinegar is awesome. It's fantastic at water stains like nothing else.
- KozmoNau7 6y ago
  Acetic acid also works great as fabric softener, and it works against limescale in the washing machine. Anecdotally it also keeps colors vibrant.
briefcomment 6y ago
Having your relatives and friends finally take you seriously is such a relief when you're dealing with MCS.
- cptskippy 6y ago
  It's crazy how dismissive people are. My partner had a comprehensive allergy test done, the kind where they draw a grid on your back and apply different substances in each square. You're supposed to leave and come back a few days later but my partner had a reaction in every square before she left the doctor. They asked if the interns could come take a look because they'd never seen such a complete reaction.
  - jjoonathan 6y ago
    Not sure if it's what you meant, but I had a similar story where I reacted to everything, even the control. The allergist took that to mean "you're really allergic to everything," but I went looking for a second opinion who was able to get both the positive and negative controls to work. Turns out I'm not allergic to everything, the first allergist just didn't recognize benign dermatographia and was a bit too quick to ignore my positive reaction to the negative control. In all, it saved me a good chunk of change and sensitization risks that would have come from having unneeded components in my allergy shots. I don't know the details of your case or if any of this applies, but if by chance you were in the same boat wrt the negative control it might be worth circling back for a confirmation test at some point.
    - cptskippy 6y ago
      I'm exaggerating a little, my partner has extensive allergies but not absolute. I jokingly say my partner is allergic to life but in reality it's just life on earth.
  - sizzle 6y ago
    I had this test done. Your partner needs antigen shots they really help, ask their allergist for this therapy.
    - cptskippy 6y ago
      I'm not soliciting for advice, my partner has been seeking medical treatment for allergies for at least 30 years.
jancsika 6y ago
> My partner unfortunately will break out in hives and immediately becomes congested. normalize_relation(OP.MIL, OP.partner) == partner.mother Right? So, your partner's mom uses products that she knows will cause an allergic reaction to her kid. Kid asks not to use said products for fear of allergic reaction. Kid enters mom's abode. Kid has immediate allergic reaction. So I have to ask-- what is your MIL's reaction to clearly causing her kid to predictably suffer every time you visit? I also have to ask-- why do you two keep visiting?
- tigen 6y ago
  Eh, old people can be weird and stubborn. (Or people in general.) Some don't really believe in something and might even be having early stage dementia (i.e. memory loss). My own mother had a dismissive attitude towards dietary intolerances and even basic hygiene sometimes.
  - cptskippy 6y ago
    Some are just assholes. My aunt told a vegetarian once that she'd get some color back once she started eating meat again.
    - Cullinet 6y ago
      I'm keeping the closest watch that I can on this age and being a default assehole gig that I have heard all my life and am guilty of using myself to blank out some of my parents behaviour that was beyond salvation. I'm 50 now and looking for the SMaaS app I need the Shoot Me aaS when I default to asshole cos of age app is desperately needed in society.
      - ficklepickle 6y ago
        That reminds me, a friend and I made a pact when we were teens. Hopefully he doesn't remember.
  - randycupertino 6y ago
cosmodisk 6y ago
This is me basically, minus MIL with crazy fragrances. Every time I walk past a fragrance shop,I wonder how people survive in there... Bicarbonate soda is an amazing product: we've been using it instead of washing-up liquid for our daughter's cutlery and crockery. Also to clean the bath before she goes in. 5 years ago,we bought a sofa, which came with a massive stench because of VOCs and fire retardants it gets soaked into.. After we complained, they sent in a guy,who pretended he can't smell shit and suggested going to the doctor for allergies.. to my knowledge, California is one of very few places, where furniture foam doesn't need to be soaked in harmful chemicals.
- undersuit 6y ago
  I pour a baking soda slurry on my hair in showers instead of shampoo, sometimes exfoliate my face a bit right after. Rinse it out with some diluted white or apple cider vinegar. Most shampoos had me developing horrible neck and scalp pimples and gave me dry skin. Now if you want to really kick up the cleaning potential you put on gloves and bake the baking soda turning it into Sodium Carbonate which is an adequate replacement for lye in many household uses from cleaning to making pretzels.
mleonhard 6y ago
There are many kinds of VOCs, some harmful and others benign. The human nose is sensitive to certain substances and insensitive to others. For example, the human nose can barely smell 1ppm of formaldehyde [1] or 0.000002ppm of damascenone (the fragrance made by roses and added to many products) [2]. That's a difference in concentration of 500,000. Put another way, an overpowering rose smell shows a tiny and harmless concentration. While a light formaldehyde smell indicates a harmful concentration. So you cannot trust your nose to tell you if VOC levels are harmful or not. I used to be like your partner. A whiff of perfume would trigger nasal congestion, itchy eyes, and irritable mood. It got worse over 5 years. It became unbearable, interfering with my work and personal life. I consulted with an allergy doctor. They told me it was incurable and probably won't get better, just avoid perfume. I started doing my own research. I found a study result [0] showing that perfume sensitivity is psycho-somatic. Then I learned stress-reduction techniques and used them to cure myself. Specifically, whenever I smelled perfume, I would practice slow breathing, go for a short walk, or get a drink of water. Gradually, I stopped feeling stress after smelling perfume. After about one month, I used lightly-perfumed (normal) hand soap at my friend's home and felt no discomfort afterward. My life improved a lot. Allergy is a very specific physical process involving the immune system. Doctors have reliable methods to measure this process. Perfume sensitivity is something different. People develop emotional habits of reacting with fear when smelling perfume. When the body enters that triggered emotional state, it releases stress hormones. The stress hormones cause the symptoms of perfume sensitivity. Your partner can cure their-self, as I cured myself four years ago. After they do it, please reply here so I can point others to this thread. [0] http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(06)01696-4/abstract http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(06)01696-4/abst... [1] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00022470.1969.10466465 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00022470.1969.10... [2] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242146083_GRAS_Flavor_Chemicals-Detection_thresholds https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242146083_GRAS_Flav...
- forgotmypw17 6y ago
  The studies you cite do not list who funded them, but one of the links is ... a website which sells sneakers! One of the worst VOC offenders! Also, that's a nice story, but I already practice stress reduction techniques on a daily basis for other stressors. I also regularly assess myself for stress level so that I know to apply them. When my partner bought a couch that off-gassed from the particleboard for months, I was not stressed by it. I did, however, develop a severe headache, disorientation, and migraine-like symptoms. There's also the correlation of various VOCs with long-term health risks. Do you think that is just stress as well?

cmckn 6y ago

Shout out to vinegar! The huge jugs of "cleaning vinegar" changed my life a couple years ago. I still use diluted bleach for the bathroom every once in a while, but vinegar is sufficient for almost everything day-to-day. And it's so much cheaper than most "cleansers".

cptskippy 6y ago
Peroxide is a surprisingly good stain and odor remover. I prefer it to vinegar because it doesn't have a pungent odor that masks the odor you're trying to get rid of. But yes vinegar is awesome. It's fantastic at water stains like nothing else.
KozmoNau7 6y ago
Acetic acid also works great as fabric softener, and it works against limescale in the washing machine. Anecdotally it also keeps colors vibrant.

briefcomment 6y ago

Having your relatives and friends finally take you seriously is such a relief when you're dealing with MCS.

cptskippy 6y ago
It's crazy how dismissive people are. My partner had a comprehensive allergy test done, the kind where they draw a grid on your back and apply different substances in each square. You're supposed to leave and come back a few days later but my partner had a reaction in every square before she left the doctor. They asked if the interns could come take a look because they'd never seen such a complete reaction.
- jjoonathan 6y ago
  Not sure if it's what you meant, but I had a similar story where I reacted to everything, even the control. The allergist took that to mean "you're really allergic to everything," but I went looking for a second opinion who was able to get both the positive and negative controls to work. Turns out I'm not allergic to everything, the first allergist just didn't recognize benign dermatographia and was a bit too quick to ignore my positive reaction to the negative control. In all, it saved me a good chunk of change and sensitization risks that would have come from having unneeded components in my allergy shots. I don't know the details of your case or if any of this applies, but if by chance you were in the same boat wrt the negative control it might be worth circling back for a confirmation test at some point.
  - cptskippy 6y ago
    I'm exaggerating a little, my partner has extensive allergies but not absolute. I jokingly say my partner is allergic to life but in reality it's just life on earth.
- sizzle 6y ago
  I had this test done. Your partner needs antigen shots they really help, ask their allergist for this therapy.
  - cptskippy 6y ago
    I'm not soliciting for advice, my partner has been seeking medical treatment for allergies for at least 30 years.

jancsika 6y ago

> My partner unfortunately will break out in hives and immediately becomes congested. normalize_relation(OP.MIL, OP.partner) == partner.mother Right? So, your partner's mom uses products that she knows will cause an allergic reaction to her kid. Kid asks not to use said products for fear of allergic reaction. Kid enters mom's abode. Kid has immediate allergic reaction. So I have to ask-- what is your MIL's reaction to clearly causing her kid to predictably suffer every time you visit? I also have to ask-- why do you two keep visiting?

tigen 6y ago
Eh, old people can be weird and stubborn. (Or people in general.) Some don't really believe in something and might even be having early stage dementia (i.e. memory loss). My own mother had a dismissive attitude towards dietary intolerances and even basic hygiene sometimes.
- cptskippy 6y ago
  Some are just assholes. My aunt told a vegetarian once that she'd get some color back once she started eating meat again.
  - Cullinet 6y ago
    I'm keeping the closest watch that I can on this age and being a default assehole gig that I have heard all my life and am guilty of using myself to blank out some of my parents behaviour that was beyond salvation. I'm 50 now and looking for the SMaaS app I need the Shoot Me aaS when I default to asshole cos of age app is desperately needed in society.
    - ficklepickle 6y ago
      That reminds me, a friend and I made a pact when we were teens. Hopefully he doesn't remember.
- randycupertino 6y ago

cosmodisk 6y ago

This is me basically, minus MIL with crazy fragrances. Every time I walk past a fragrance shop,I wonder how people survive in there... Bicarbonate soda is an amazing product: we've been using it instead of washing-up liquid for our daughter's cutlery and crockery. Also to clean the bath before she goes in. 5 years ago,we bought a sofa, which came with a massive stench because of VOCs and fire retardants it gets soaked into.. After we complained, they sent in a guy,who pretended he can't smell shit and suggested going to the doctor for allergies.. to my knowledge, California is one of very few places, where furniture foam doesn't need to be soaked in harmful chemicals.

undersuit 6y ago
I pour a baking soda slurry on my hair in showers instead of shampoo, sometimes exfoliate my face a bit right after. Rinse it out with some diluted white or apple cider vinegar. Most shampoos had me developing horrible neck and scalp pimples and gave me dry skin. Now if you want to really kick up the cleaning potential you put on gloves and bake the baking soda turning it into Sodium Carbonate which is an adequate replacement for lye in many household uses from cleaning to making pretzels.

mleonhard 6y ago

There are many kinds of VOCs, some harmful and others benign. The human nose is sensitive to certain substances and insensitive to others. For example, the human nose can barely smell 1ppm of formaldehyde [1] or 0.000002ppm of damascenone (the fragrance made by roses and added to many products) [2]. That's a difference in concentration of 500,000. Put another way, an overpowering rose smell shows a tiny and harmless concentration. While a light formaldehyde smell indicates a harmful concentration. So you cannot trust your nose to tell you if VOC levels are harmful or not. I used to be like your partner. A whiff of perfume would trigger nasal congestion, itchy eyes, and irritable mood. It got worse over 5 years. It became unbearable, interfering with my work and personal life. I consulted with an allergy doctor. They told me it was incurable and probably won't get better, just avoid perfume. I started doing my own research. I found a study result [0] showing that perfume sensitivity is psycho-somatic. Then I learned stress-reduction techniques and used them to cure myself. Specifically, whenever I smelled perfume, I would practice slow breathing, go for a short walk, or get a drink of water. Gradually, I stopped feeling stress after smelling perfume. After about one month, I used lightly-perfumed (normal) hand soap at my friend's home and felt no discomfort afterward. My life improved a lot. Allergy is a very specific physical process involving the immune system. Doctors have reliable methods to measure this process. Perfume sensitivity is something different. People develop emotional habits of reacting with fear when smelling perfume. When the body enters that triggered emotional state, it releases stress hormones. The stress hormones cause the symptoms of perfume sensitivity. Your partner can cure their-self, as I cured myself four years ago. After they do it, please reply here so I can point others to this thread. [0] http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(06)01696-4/abstract http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(06)01696-4/abst... [1] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00022470.1969.10466465 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00022470.1969.10... [2] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242146083_GRAS_Flavor_Chemicals-Detection_thresholds https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242146083_GRAS_Flav...

forgotmypw17 6y ago
The studies you cite do not list who funded them, but one of the links is ... a website which sells sneakers! One of the worst VOC offenders! Also, that's a nice story, but I already practice stress reduction techniques on a daily basis for other stressors. I also regularly assess myself for stress level so that I know to apply them. When my partner bought a couch that off-gassed from the particleboard for months, I was not stressed by it. I did, however, develop a severe headache, disorientation, and migraine-like symptoms. There's also the correlation of various VOCs with long-term health risks. Do you think that is just stress as well?