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Did you know? Carpet can actually have a positive impact on allergies if proper
carpet cleaning is performed. Dust mites, mold, mildew, fungi, and allergens are easily removed with proper
carpet cleaning. The carpet industry initiated a voluntary chemical emission testing program to assure consumers buying carpet that carpet chemical emissions are among the lowest of any household product.
Carpet and Chemical Emissions
Recently, after building and moving into a new office, I developed a seizure disorder, in which I began to have 12-15 seizures per day. Everyone was baffled, including my physicians. The standard answer from these physicians is "you have seizure tendencies"--duh. The only change in my lifestyle that I could differentiate was the new office, even though I had been in the office for about 6 months. Having been involved in chemical emissions research, I began to rule out various products, which I knew had been tested and understood their emission decay curves. After about 8 days of seizures, I had eliminated every product in my office. The weather had recently turned cold and my office remained tightly closed for about 3 weeks. This complicated matters. Then I began to look at my gas heater. I had been using the heater intermittently for about 2 months, but once the weather warmed I would open the windows. During this 3 week cold snap, I was unable to introduce fresh air. I purchased a carbon monoxide detector from Home Depot that displays actual CO readings and found that high readings reached 408 part per million (PPM) about 4 times the alert level on most monitors. My physician concurred that continued exposure to moderate levels of carbon monoxide could create these seizures. I removed myself from the office for 10-12 hours and the seizures disappeared. If I had not been involved in the carpet chemical emissions testing program, I would have read prior published literature (that has since been disproved) and would have immediately blamed carpet for this malaise. I would have been off track from the start and if I had replaced the carpet and the symptoms did not disappear, I would have begum to rationalize that I was permanently harmed. This was not the case, because I did not stop my search for the true culprit for these seizures.
Carpet has been used in homes, schools, corporate facilities, retail establishments and restaurants, hospitals and healthcare,
Some individuals, who consider themselves to be sensitive to chemicals, have begun to search for explanations for allergic-type reactions, which occur in some indoor environments. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) studies show that indoor pollutant levels can be 4-5 times higher than outdoor levels because of inadequate ventilation or poorly selected interior products. More than 90% of our time is spent indoors, and as a result, interior pollutant levels continue to be of particular concern.
The study of airborne chemicals or volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) is a fairly new scientific discipline. While the characterization or identification of specific chemicals found in an indoor environment is fairly easy to discriminate, the evaluation and prediction of perceived health effects remains elusive.
The concepts of MCS originated in the 1950’s with the theory that modern-day synthetic chemicals could produce symptoms of depression, irritability, mood swings, inability to concentrate, poor memory, fatigue, drowsiness, diarrhea, constipation, dizziness, sneezing, runny nose, wheezing, itchy eyes and nose, skin rashes, headache, chest pain, muscle and joint pain, increased urinary frequency, swollen body parts, weight gain, psychotic While it is completely feasible that exposure to a specific chemical may produce a sensitivity to that specific chemical for an individual, the basis for MCS theory suggests that exposure to that specific chemical produces sensitivity to all chemicals. This is where the medical and scientific community fail to reach a common conclusion.
The mainstream medical community has been unable to reach agreement on the impact of low-level chemical exposure, if any, and, as a result does not recognize the diagnosis of multiple chemical sensitivity as a legitimate
diagnosis. The point of disagreement is that MCS advocates suggest that exposure to one chemical can make an individual sensitive to ALL chemicals. Opponents of the
MCS diagnosis believe that many of the The primary complaint with regard to the damages caused by low level chemical exposure and the lingering effects is advocates of this theory have chosen to use the "paranoia" defense. Since no long-term studies have been performed to assess the contribution of long-term, low level chemical exposure, advocates surmise that since the theory cannot be disproved, the theory may have a valid place in medical diagnoses. One would only have to examine the history of cigarette smoking in our society to establish a long-term comparison. The average cigarette smoker is exposed to more than 50,000 chemicals in each cigarette. Low level exposure to these chemicals over a 20-30 year cigarette smoking life-cycle has never produced one example of a cigarette smoker coming forward with complaints of MCS. While cigarette smokers inevitably die, most of the damage caused by this addiction is related to particle levels that damage the lungs, not exposure to chemicals. While lung cancer may be a contributing factor of these chemicals, a significant percentage of lung cancer patients were never smokers. The low level exposure to various chemicals in cigarettes over time has never produced an MCS diagnosis. While the theories of MCS have been hotly debated, much effort and scientific resource has been dedicated to search for solutions to these issues, but at this time, the medical community is divided as to the proper approach in diagnosis and treatment. The most common approach initiated by the medical community has been that of chemical or allergen avoidance. However, since these chemicals occur naturally in the environment, reactions may occur at any time. While human nature encourages us to look for a direct source of emissions, a direct cause and effect relationship has been difficult to reproduce in controlled studies.
In exercising the practice of avoidance, it is imperative to be aware of the chemical emission properties of the products introduced into the environment. Many products such as office furniture
or equipment (copiers, printers, personal computers, etc.), while not typically attribute The carpet industry has taken a proactive approach in identifying the amounts and types of chemicals emitted from its products. Carpet products are routinely submitted for emissions testing under approved protocols for ASTM Standard D5116 All materials approved under the standard must comply with the low emitting standard. Under the program, products must not contribute more than: · .05 mg/m3 of formaldehyde, · .5 mg/m3 of TVOC (total volatile organic compounds), · .005 mg/m3 of 4-PC (phenylcyclohexene). While carpet does not contain formaldehyde, a possible carcinogen, the industry continues to test for its presence due to continuing erroneous media reports.
Complicating FactorsWhile a significant amount of dubious research has been performed regarding the impact of carpet on chemical sensitivities, controlled studies have yet to establish a direct cause and effect relationship between carpet emissions and sensitivity reactions. Much of the publicity surrounding carpet and chemical emissions has been initiated by two well-publicized incidents.
The first incident surrounded a 1988
carpet installation at EPA’s Waterside Mall facility in the
Washington D.C area. This incident became the first highly publicized case of what has become to be known a
In Dr. Anderson’s evaluation, which was actually a modification of an accepted laboratory practice (ASTM E981), lab mice were fitted with restraint collars and placed in a confined exposure chamber to monitor changes in breathing rate. Carpet samples were placed inside the chamber (a fish aquarium in Dr. Anderson’s case) and heated to 140°F. The animals were exposed to this elevated temperature for a period of 60 minutes, twice a day for two days, totaling four hours. The original ASTM E981 does not allow for repeated exposures and as a result, half of the tested animals died during subsequent exposures. Anderson reported that these deaths were attributable to chemical emissions from carpet samples, but it was later learned that no autopsies were performed to establish the cause of death. Follow-up testing revealed that the animals were none to pleased to be returned to the elevated temperature environment in subsequent tests and autopsies suggested many of these animals may have died from asphyxiation and/or broken necks, apparently from struggling to escape the confined chamber.
In an attempt to better understand the work of Anderson Labs, EPA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) worked in conjunction with
Anderson Labs. In this collaboration, EPA, two independent labs, and Anderson Labs conducted blind, round robin testing on carpet samples deemed “toxic
At the conclusion of this evaluation, the scientific community assessed her findings as another instance of “junk science”. Yet, enormous publicity was generated by the media of Dr. Anderson’s preliminary findings, but no other labs (including EPA) were able reproduce her findings. However, the media never reported these findings and never attempted to correct the misperceptions created in earlier accounts. Anderson Labs reported similar results from other products such as power cords, mattresses, computers, and telephones
A number of lawsuits were initiated as a direct result of samples submitted to Anderson Labs. In one-such case in the U.S. District
Despite the inability of other labs to replicate Anderson’s test results and the inadmissibility of Anderson test results with regard to legal challenges, Anderson Labs continues to evaluate a variety of materials, and in some cases may impact product selection based on the flawed and unreliable protocol .
[1][1] Bendetti, P. and T.W. Orme, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, published by American Council on Science and Health [1][2] Barrett M.D., Dr Stephen, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A spurious diagnosis, http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/mcs.html [1][3] Powell,Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy, Environmental and Products Liability Group, http://www.pgfm.com/newsletter/1trend/airquality.html
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As a by-product of this research, the term “multiple chemical sensitivity” (MCS) was developed to describe people with numerous symptoms attributed
The second catalyst for focusing attention on carpet, in respect to IAQ complaints, also was well publicized by the media,
but the final outcome was never reported. This incident surrounded Dr. Rosalind Anderson’s flawed protocol for evaluating the effects of chemical emissions on lab mice.
