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  • Anyone else sensitised to fumes ?
  • zippykona
    Full Member

    I spent nearly 30 years painting cars. When I started you wore no breathing protection.

    Times changed and we started wearing all the gear. However the workshop was a really smelly environment with the fumes from body filler probably the worst.

    Fast forward to 2 events where I have become delirious and passed out after inhaling fumes from cheap candles.

    First time I didn’t know what it was but I was down wind of a candle ,  the second time was a restaurant lit entirely by candles.

    As I now deal with quality candle companies I’ve been educated to all the crap they put in cheap candles.

    So yesterday we arrive at our rented holiday house and I can straight away smell the burning plastic fume that sets me off. It must have been from something they mopped the floor with. It ends up with me starting to get delirious and us ending up in a premier Inn.

    Anyone else afflicted or am I just a needy drama queen?

    wrightyson
    Free Member

    I had an incident with bleach probably 15 years ago. We were using it to clean down some ceiling tiles. The fumes became stupid to the point of nearly passing out so i sacked it off. Now whenever using spray bleach flash bathroom etc) it sets me off coughing big time. Maybe something and nothing but it definitely irritates me badly now!

    martymac
    Full Member

    There’s all sorts of shit being pumped into the air, all over the world, from many types of everyday items.

    it stands to reason that long term exposure might affect some people in a noticeable way.

    i work in the bus industry, a few months ago, i rode my bike the 33 miles home after work, this involved going through perth, and heading towards the forth bridge via the old road (bridge of earn, glenfarg, milnathort, kinross, kelty etc.

    ive got to say, buses **** stink.

    now, I come from a farm, so am well used to the smell of diesel exhaust, but i am now starting to wonder if the long term exposure to it is starting to have an affect on me.

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    Kryton57
    Full Member

    I often think I can smell cigaratte smoke in the evening.  Non of us are smokers, and several iterations of neighbours have come and gone but the pattern is the same.  Then again my mum thinks she gets it and its caused by a visitation fromy my late grandmother who was a heavy smoker.

    Drac
    Full Member

    Wrightyson bleach is bloody horrible stuff and if mixed up with a lot of other has hold products with give off fumes. Those spray bleach things are a crazy idea vaporising bleach.

    its caused by a visitation fromy my late grandmother who was a heavy smoker.

    Errrr Ok!

    alpin
    Free Member

    There was a report on the news the other day that exposure to everyday chemicals/cleaning products could be equivalent to smoking or limited cities.

    avdave2
    Full Member

    When I was around 8 or 9 my had a small outdoor freezing cold school swimming pool. One day the caretaker messed up with the chlorine and my eyes were stinging and watering all day, I could barely see for the rest of the day. Of course this was the 70’s so there was no question of sending me home or actually getting any medical advice. It didn’t seem to affect anyone else as badly but my eyes have been very sensitive since. Even just getting water in them stings so I’m sure the exposure you’ve had over the years may well have left you sensitive to certain chemicals. Personally though I quite like Premier Inns and don’t think you really need to be delirious to stay in one.

    Stedlocks
    Free Member

    Those plug in air fresheners get me…..my nose stings and eyes water if I even enter a house that uses them.

    joshvegas
    Free Member

    Spray deoderants. If I walk into a changing room I sometimes haven’t even let go of the door before I have to leave.

    If some knobber decides to empty an entire can of lynx in my presence I’ll be doubled over coughing a lung up.

    Houns
    Full Member

    Yes, immensely so.  Not looking forward to family event today where my mother will bathe in perfume before attending.

    It’s a symptom of my Aspergers (I’ve found out)

    i cant get my head around people lighting these stinking candles and using plug in air fresheners, they’re just releasing a whole load of chemicals in to the air to breathe in

    bowglie
    Full Member

    Back in my previous life I used to work for the air pollution dept of the Environment Agency, and from personal experience of long term exposure to high levels of NOx in particular, I know it can have some odd effects – and the type of solvents used in loads of stuff, including car paints and fillers are the type of things that can increase sensitivity to other compounds.  I get bad headaches and mild nausea from the scents used in some shampoos, soaps, air fresheners etc., and never used to until my 30’s.

    The main part of my job at the EA was to follow up on complaints about air pollution from factories & industrial estates – so ive heard a lot from people who’ve been directly affected by fumes from industrial processes.  The other part of our job was to monitor air pollution in areas around industrial plants and power stations, however, the dirty big elephant in the room was always air pollution from road transport.  The problem was (& I guess still is) was how to separate out the traffic fumes, and their effects, from the industrial fumes and other potential sources.  I’m well over 20 years out of date with the scientific research of this, and the effects of various combinations on human health – but no, IME, you’re not being a drama queen, there is something in this.

    bowglie
    Full Member

    Oh, as a p.s.  By choice, we now live in a rural village next to a large forest (for the air quality!).  Definitely noticed some health benefits of the clean air, but the sensitivity to fumes is still there, but the range of things and level at which it’s triggered may have decreased a bit (difficult to quantify latter tho).  This week we are having a city break on the continent, and I’ve started coughing with the traffic fumes.  My own theory is that the human body might be able to recover from exposure to various unhealthy stuff, but only if it can do so in a clean air environment – and unfortunately, in the petrol/diesel fuelled transport era we’re in at the moment, there’s not enough clean air for the body to recover.  Someone needs to pay me a vast amount of money to set up a research group to study this though 😉

    slowster
    Free Member

    Zippykona, what you describe sounds very unusual to me.

    In the context of occupational health, sensitisers are either skin sensitisers (e.g. potential to cause dermatitis) or respiratory sensitisers (e.g. potential to cause asthma). As you are doubtless aware, the two pack iso-cyanate paints used in car paint spraying are a respiratory sensitiser and a major cause of occupational asthma.

    One of the biggest problems with these substances is the sheer unpredictability of what level will cause a person to become sensitised. Some people may become immediately sensitised as a result of a very short term exposure – lasting only minutes – to a relatively high concentration. Conversely people may become sensitised with little or no warning after exposure to relatively low concentrations over a period of many years.

    The main issue with them is that once the body has become sensitised, that is very likely to be permanent. Thereafter even exposure to very small concentrations of the sensitiser may trigger an attack, e.g. of asthma. Consequently, someone who has become sensitised is often no longer able to work in that environment/type of workplace ever again, not even with full personal protective equipment.

    Zippykona, what you describe is unusual, in that the substance(s) in question are triggering an effect on your central nervous system. There are lots of substances which can affect the central nervous system, but I have never heard of one acting as a sensitiser, with the result that symptoms are then experienced at extremely low concentrations, such as the levels presumably in those candles.

    If I were you, I would want to get a proper medical diagnosis to understand the condition better, and know what the possible implications of the condition might be. However, I suspect that you would need to identify a specialist in the field for that, and I’m not sure the average hard pressed GP will do that for you.

    dmorts
    Full Member

    I often think I can smell cigaratte smoke in the evening.

    I had this. Tracked it down to the shaving gel I was using. King of Shaves aloe vera stuff.

    Next time you smell it cover your top lip and see if the smell goes away. It was very strange before I realised what it was

    senorj
    Full Member

    I am – worked in some proper sh*tholes!
    One of my apprenticeship “trials” was to endure the stench in a very nasty part of a 1980’s fatty alcohol/amine plant. I vomited after three minutes!
    I love the smell of bleach though,but like kimbers ,cheap/nasty perfume not so much! bizarre eh?

    tthew
    Full Member

    I worked in a chemical factory for 18 months as the sandwich year from my engineering degree.

    The main process was called the Ammonia Soda process, sure you can imagine how pleasant the local environment was in a 100+ year old, ex-ICI plant suffering from under investment.

    When I do a monthly check of the vacuum pumps at the power station I now work at, the smell of the drains takes me right back to my early 20’s. Probably more de-sensitised to it that sensitised, but I was probably lucky that I was only there for a relatively short period.

    zippykona
    Full Member

    The cleaner came today as we were leaving the house.

    She said that she only used Ecover on the floor and Febreze. I sniffed the Ecover and that didn’t have the bad smell. Can only assume it was the Febreze.  A quick google says it’s full of bad stuff. Plenty of people come out in a rash but none have my symptoms but I guess not many of those people painted cars.

    Have found out that some candles contain Toulene which I remember having a warning label for on the paint tins.

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