Reaction to Electric Space Heater

This morning—thankfully it’s the weekend—had some difficulty waking up. Just felt really tired. When I finally got up and looked into the mirror, wow, surprise! My eyes, especially my right eye was very swollen. I knew immediately what happened as this had happened a couple of years before I got systemic candida.

 

swollen eyelid again ... a space heater reaction

At that time, I didn’t have floor heat in my one-room so used a space heater. Then one day when I woke up, both of my eyes had almost swollen shut. I was so ashamed to go anywhere, but did go to the store immediately and bought a long duck-billed baseball cap and wore it low for three days as I waited for the swelling to go down. I also went immediately to the hospital to consult with docs about what the hey was happening. Allergy testing was recommended because I had cats and the docs all thought it was them. Nope, I would have reacted long ago or at least had some hint, but I did test for cats, mold and a couple other things. Nothing! I was referred to some kind of skin specialist and that doctor (arrogant as could be) wanted all my perfumes, shampoos, conditioners, hair sprays, make-up because he was going to do (very expensive) testing to find the one that was causing my problem. I told him I didn't use perfume (one cat was very senstive), only used two shampoos, never used conditioner (makes my hair feel heavy), hair spray was only one brand and in very tiny amounts, and for make-up only used mascara, and none of these things had ever given me any indication of being injurious to me. He basically called me a liar because all females are cosmetic-freaks. [What arrogance, and mostly because his communication was top-down because (1) he spoke English fluently, a high value here and (2) he had the "doctor is god" attitude! Errrgh!] He only listened enough to ask what chemicals I had been around … Ah, there was a good thought! … but I couldn’t think of a single one. He demanded then that I bring all my cosmetics because that was where the problem was. That just didn’t make sense to me and he was so arrogantly insistent that I just left.

A couple days later my eyes were getting better. BTW, I had to sleep for two nights in my neighbor’s one-room because every time I went into mine, my eyes would begin to swell again. Well, after a couple of days I was back home and my cats were happy and I was happy to be with them as I read, sitting in front of my space heater. And then I could feel my eyes swelling again. I turned off the space heater and stayed in a very cold room that day, and then the next day turned on the space heater again. Yep! Sure enough. It was the space heater causing my reaction. So I went online to find out what could possibly be causing that reaction and what I found is rather disturbing—the coils have asbestos and other toxic materials in them. I read in several places online that over time these materials break down with use. Yikes is just putting it mildly! Here are the toxic/chemical materials listed in the coil heating elements—nichrome, iron-chrome, nickel-chrome, nickel-iron, nickel, stainless steel, molybdenum, tungsten, and MoSi2 conductor wire, and the insulation materials are the ones to really question—mica, asbestos, ceramics, fiberglass, and synthetic liquids (and just what are they??? some evil known-to-be toxins that are a trade secret so they don't need to be listed???).

Well, over the past several years I have rarely used the space heater because of my previous reaction, but yesterday I didn’t care to heat my whole apartment as I was just going to be working in front of my computer. So for four hours the space heater was pointed my way, about a yard away, heating me up and putting toxins in my body. BTW, my face was turned away from the heater so wow, it really fed some toxins into the environment, into probably my whole body, and the outcome appeared this a.m. Not good, not healthy, not going to use the space heater again!!

BTW, here's a very detailed account of Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. I am a bit sensitive to paints and air conditioning filters (they're very moldy and should be cleaned often) and some others, but for the most part if I can just get to better ventilation away from those known toxins I'm fine. I wouldn't say that I have multiple chemical sensitivities, but if I don't practive prevention, then I think I could develop some awful sensitivities.