Home sickness -- indoor air often worse, as our homes seal in pollutants
[one is formaldehyde, also from the 11% methanol part of aspartame],
Megan Gillis, WinnipegSun.com: Murray 2006.06.01
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1352

http://winnipegsun.com/
News/AirWeBreathe/2006/05/29/pf-1603680.html

May 29, 2006

Home sickness: Indoor air often worse
Our homes often seal in pollutants
By MEGAN GILLIS megan.gillis@...

Linda Nolan-Leeming and her daughter Allison lived in a string of new
houses as beautiful as the award-winning interior designer
and her builder husband could make them.

But their lovely homes had ugly health effects.
Nolan-Leeming remembers what it was like before the family fled
the last of three new houses.

"It hurt to breathe in the house," she says. "I spent a whole winter
sleeping on the living room floor in a sleeping bag in front of a partially
open door."

She lost weight and couldn't work.
Allison, seven at the time, was too sick to go to school.

"I was desperately ill and so was my child," Nolan-Leeming says.
"We finally had to leave our home."

Nolan-Leeming blames typical construction materials - particle board,
carpets, paint - all oozing chemicals such as
volatile organic compounds and formaldehyde.

"I believed if those products were on the market, they must be safe,"
she says.

Surveys show we consider outdoor smog a threat to our health but
we don't think about the air we breathe at home.

Experts say the air inside can be far more polluted than the air
outside - even in the smoggiest city.

Our homes are tighter than ever, sealing us in with pollutants,
biological - mould, dust mites, animal dander and bacteria - and
chemical - cigarette smoke, heating or cooking appliance gases,
building materials, furnishings and cleaning and hobby products.

It was a Canadian study a decade ago on pollutants such as
formaldehyde that turned attention inside,
Lung Association air quality manager Brian Stocks says.

Researchers put portable air monitors on volunteers and had them log
where they went. The volunteers were exposed to
more formaldehyde - a potential carcinogen - indoors than out.

"That got people thinking about indoor environments and exposures,"
Stocks says. Studies by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
have since found levels of a dozen common organic pollutants double
to five times higher indoors than out.

The EPA also found that 80% of pesticide exposure happens inside
because they're tracked inside, poorly stored and found in everything
from bug spray to disinfectants.

"We spend 90% of our time indoors - a study in Canada showed
that," says Nicolas Gilbert of Health Canada.
"We spend 65-70% of our time in our own home."

Levels of outdoor pollutants such as ozone are lower inside than outside
but there are pollutants unique to the indoors.

The problem isn't energy-efficient new homes, which are often designed
to bring in fresh air. It's homes that have been retrofitted
without adding ventilation.

"The more you insulate your home, the more you have to care about
the air quality of your home," Gilbert says. "Several indoor air
pollutants matter more if your home is well-insulated.
If your home is not airtight, natural ventilation will take care of
excessive humidity and the chemicals that will off-gas
from building materials and consumer products."

The Healthy Indoors Partnership (HIP), formed by groups to fight
inaction on indoor air, has pressed Health Canada to take the lead on
indoor air quality and fund research to probe the link between indoor
air and illnesses such as asthma. It has successfully lobbied for the
revision of exposure guidelines for substances like cancer-causing radon.

"The government is very reluctant to regulate indoor
environments - particularly homes, a bastion of personal freedom,"
says Jay Kassirer, HIP executive director. "You have an agency like
Environment Canada that has a responsibility for the outdoor environment.

No one department has been given the responsibility to ensure
indoor environments are healthy and safe.
"Workplaces are regulated, homes are not."

Last month, Health Canada revised residential guidelines for formaldehyde,
found in products from medium-density fibreboard
to permanent press drapes.

The one-hour guideline remains 100 parts per billion but the long-term
limit was reduced to 40 ppb because of research linking formaldehyde
in homes to health effects, including the hospitalization of babies and
pre-schoolers with asthma.

Health Canada found evidence formaldehyde can cause cancer
but concluded it's a risk at much higher levels.

The department reports that formaldehyde levels ranged between
two and 81 parts per billion in tests of homes in P.E.I. and Ottawa
three years ago.

The EPA, however, reports levels in homes with lots of new pressed
wood can be triple Canada's one-hour guideline.

But critics say the impact of the guidelines is questionable.
"There is no regulator on residential indoor air," Gilbert says.
The exposure guidelines are just guidelines.
It would be very difficult to enforce such regulations."

Experts stress it's up to us to improve indoor air by butting out,
maintaining appliances, stopping mould-causing dampness
and examining what we do and buy.

Even seemingly benign products can be serious pollutants,
says Dr. Deniz Karman. The Carleton University engineer spends
most of his time studying pollution from cars but says we're
more likely to be exposed to pollutants at home.

Candles or a smoky fireplace can create
more fine particulate - like in smog - than diesel buses
on a downtown street.
"I get up to 150,000 particles per cubic centimetre in my dining room
with a single candle over the course of an hour.
On (a busy street) 150,000 (would be) the peak I measure there,"
he says.

Smoky fireplaces are even worse.
"There's always some seepage," Karman says.
"Your fireplace is probably the No. 1 source of pollution."

Hobbies or home-based businesses can be dangerous, too.
Stocks had one patient who was woodworking in his basement
without a mask. Another was using silica powder to make ceramics
at her dining room table. A third cleaned car parts inside with gasoline.

"People think their home is their castle," Stocks says. "We do things
that put our respiratory health at risk without even thinking about it."

The good news is we can improve the air we breathe at home.

The not-so-good news is that experts admit there isn't a lot of research
to prove clean indoor air improves our health.

Dr. Judy Leech, a respirologist, has patients with chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma who gasp
when their house is painted or full of dust.

For them, avoiding toxic paints or construction dust can head off
asthma attacks or wheezing.

The indoor air link is less clear for healthy people, Leech says.
"If you do a drug study, you can do a double-blind study but if I
change something in your house, how can we measure how it affects
your health? And how do I blind it? We make suggestions for things
that will lower indoor air contaminants with the jump that less indoor
air contaminants equals better health. It's a tough thing to prove."

For Linda Nolan-Leeming, the link is clear. Now the president of the
local Allergy and Environmental Health Association, she says her
symptoms and those of her daughter lifted when they moved to an
older home that had stopped off-gassing chemicals.
"We literally have our lives back," she says.
"We need healthier, sustainable environments for people to live in."
*******************************************************

http://www.aeha.ca/
Allergy and Environmental Health Association -- Ottowa

President Linda Nolan-Leeming (613) 274-7820 president@...

Executive Director Mary de Bassecourt
AEHA Hotline (613) 860-2343 office@...

http://www.aeha-quebec.ca/ aehaq@...
(514) 683-5701 Fax (514) 683-2468

http://www.environmentalhealth.ca/
Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia 1-800-449-1995
http://www.environmentalhealth.ca/links.html

http://www.ehabc.org/index.php
Ecological Health Alliance
Allergy & Environmental Health Association of Canada
British Columbia Branch 250-658-2027 info@...

http://www.chemicalsensitivityfoundation.org/
Chemical Sensitivity Foundation
3 Larrabee Farm Road Brunswick, ME 04011
207-725-8570 info@...

http://www.on.lung.ca/ 1-800-972-2636
enewton@...
(416) 864-9911 Fax: (416) 864-9916 olalung@...
Brian Stocks, Air Quality Manager,
The Lung Association 519-256-2872 bstocks@...

http://www.healthyindoors.com/english/home/home.htm
Healthy Indoors Partnership
Jay Kassirer Executive Director
Healthy Indoors Partnership 61 Forest Hill Avenue
Ottawa, ON K2C 1P7 (613) 224-3800
kassirer@...

Craig Jobber Chairman of the Board National Air Technologies
(416) 292-7600 cjobber@...

Deniz Karman 613 520-2600 ex. 8914 deniz_karman@...

Dr Judy Leech. 761-4636 Pager: 593-9319

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/alt_formats/hecs-sesc/pdf/pubs/air/formaldehyde/\
in-formaldehyde_e.pdf
42 pages
Proposed residential indoor air quality guidelines for formaldehyde
August 2005 Author: Nicholas L. Gilbert
[ Air Health Effects Division, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
nicolas_gilbert@... ]

[ Sadly, no mention is made of the fact that the human body always
turns ingested methanol into formaldehyde, and then formic acid, or
that aspartame diet sodas and dark wines and liquors convey similar
levels of methanol, which, converted into formaldedhyde, are the main
cause of "morning after" hangovers.

The same omissions were in a detailed USA EPA review:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1108
faults in 1999 July EPA 468-page formaldehyde profile:
Elzbieta Skrzydlewska PhD, Assc. Prof., Medical U. of Bialystok,
Poland, abstracts -- ethanol, methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid,
acetaldehyde, lipid peroxidation, green tea, aging, Lyme disease:
Murray 2004.08.08 ]

ABSTRACT
In the 1980s, Health Canada and the Federal-Provincial Advisory
Committee on Occupational and Environmental Health (CEOH)
developed a series of indoor air quality guidelines that were published
in 1987 in a report entitled Exposure Guidelines for Residential
Indoor Air Quality (CEOH 1989).

For formaldehyde, target and action levels were set at
60 ug/m3 (50 ppb) and 120 ug/m3 (100 ppb), respectively.

However, since then, a significant amount of research has been carried
out and published on the health effects of some of these substances,
warranting a reassessment of the scientific basis of the guidelines and
potentially a revision of the guidelines themselves.

The purpose of this document is to revisit the guidelines developed for
formaldehyde in view of epidemiological and toxicological studies
published since 1987.

Based on human clinical studies and on animal experiments, the primary
effects of acute exposure to formaldehyde are the irritation of the mucosa
of the upper respiratory tract and the eyes.

The no observable adverse effects level (NOAEL) and lowest observable
adverse effects level (LOAEL) for this outcome are
615 and 1,230 ug/m3, respectively.

Epidemiological studies on the effects of chronic formaldehyde
exposure consistently found respiratory and allergic effects at levels
below 123 ug/m3.

In one study, formaldehyde levels in homes were associated with increased
risk of atopy, after ruling out confounding from
other indoor air pollutants.

In another study, formaldehyde levels were significantly associated
with hospitalization for asthma in children
aged six months to three years, again after ruling out confounding from
other indoor air pollutants.

No effects were found in children exposed
to 10 to 29 ug/m3 and 30 to 49 ug/m3 formaldehyde,
a non-significant increase of risk was observed at 50 to 59 ug/m3
and a significantly increased risk was observed at 60>_ug/m3.

An association between low-level exposure to formaldehyde and the
development of allergic sensitization and/or asthma is biologically
plausible as it is consistent with observations in animals.

There is evidence from toxicological and epidemiological studies that
inhaled formaldehyde is carcinogenic.
However, formaldehyde-induced carcinogenicity appears to be a
consequence of proliferative regeneration following cytotoxicity,
and the risk of cancer associated with formaldehyde levels sufficiently
low to prevent irritation and inflammatory responses
appears therefore to be negligible.

The following guidelines are therefore proposed for formaldehyde:
* a guideline for short-term (1-hour averaged) exposure at 123 ug/m3 (100
ppb); and
* a guideline for long-term (8-hours averaged) at 50 ug/m3 (40 ppb).
*******************************************************


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1349
NIH NLM ToxNet HSDB Hazardous Substances Data Bank
inadaquate re aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid):
Murray 2006.06.01

"Of course, everyone chooses, as a natural priority,
to actively find, quickly share, and positively act upon the facts
about healthy and safe food, drink, and environment."

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@...
505-501-2298 1943 Otowi Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
group with 71 members, 1,352 posts in a public, searchable archive
http://RMForAll.blogspot.com


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1143
methanol (formaldehyde, formic acid) disposition: Bouchard M
et al, full plain text, 2001: substantial sources are
degradation of fruit pectins, liquors, aspartame, smoke:
Murray 2005.04.02 [ Canadian research group ]


http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/f?./temp/~HwoSfJ:1
HSDB Hazardous Substances Data Bank: Aspartame

ASPARTAME CASRN: 22839-47-0
METHANOL CASRN: 67-56-1
FORMALDEHYDE CASRN: 50-00-0
FORMIC ACID CASRN: 64-18-6

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1307
formaldehyde from 11% methanol part of aspartame or from red wine
causes same toxicity (hangover) harm: Murray 2006.05.24

Dark wines and liquors, as well as aspartame, provide
similar levels of methanol, above 120 mg daily, for
long-term heavy users, 2 L daily, about 6 cans.

Within hours, methanol is inevitably largely turned into formaldehyde,
and thence largely into formic acid -- the major causes of the dreaded
symptoms of "next morning" hangover.

Fully 11% of aspartame is methanol -- 1,120 mg aspartame
in 2 L diet soda, almost six 12-oz cans, gives 123 mg
methanol (wood alcohol). If 30% of the methanol is turned
into formaldehyde, the amount of formaldehyde, 37 mg,
is 18.5 times the USA EPA limit for daily formaldehyde in
drinking water, 2.0 mg in 2 L average daily drinking water.

Any unsuspected source of methanol, which the body always quickly
and largely turns into formaldehyde and then formic acid, must be
monitored, especially for high responsibility occupations, often with
night shifts, such as pilots and nuclear reactor operators.


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1106
hangover research relevant to toxicity of 11% methanol in aspartame
(formaldehyde, formic acid): Calder I (full text): Jones AW:
Murray 2004.08.05 rmforall

Since no adaquate data has ever been published on the exact disposition
of toxic metabolites in specific tissues in humans of the 11% methanol
component of aspartame, the many studies on morning-after hangover
from the methanol impurity in alcohol drinks are the main available
resource to date.

Jones AW (1987) found next-morning hangover from red wine with
100 to 150 mg methanol
(9.5% w/v ethanol, 100 mg/l methanol, 0.01%,
one part in ten thousand).

Pharmacol Toxicol. 1987 Mar; 60(3): 217-20.
Elimination half-life of methanol during hangover.
Jones AW.
Department of Forensic Toxicology, University Hospital,
SE-581 85 Linkoping, Sweden. wayne.jones@...

This paper reports the elimination half-life of methanol
in human volunteers.
Experiments were made during the morning after the subjects had
consumed 1000-1500 ml red wine
(9.5% w/v ethanol, 100 mg/l methanol) the
previous evening. [ 100 to 150 mg methanol ]
The washout of methanol from the body coincided
with the onset of hangover.
The concentrations of ethanol and methanol in blood were determined
indirectly by analysis of end-expired alveolar air.
In the morning when blood-ethanol dropped below the Km of liver
alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) of about 100 mg/l (2.2 mM),
the disappearance half-life of ethanol
was 21, 22, 18 and 15 min. in 4 test subjects respectively.
The corresponding elimination half-lives of methanol
were 213, 110, 133 and 142 min. in these same individuals.
The experimental design outlined in this paper can be used to obtain
useful data on elimination kinetics of methanol
in human volunteers without undue ethical limitations.
Circumstantial evidence is presented to link methanol or its toxic
metabolic products, formaldehyde and formic acid,
with the pathogenesis of hangover. PMID: 3588516


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1286
methanol products (formaldehyde and formic acid) are main cause of
alcohol hangover symptoms [same as from similar amounts of
methanol, the 11% part of aspartame]: YS Woo et al, 2005 Dec:
Murray 2006.01.20

Addict Biol. 2005 Dec;10(4): 351-5.
Concentration changes of methanol in blood samples during
an experimentally induced alcohol hangover state.
Woo YS, Yoon SJ, Lee HK, Lee CU, Chae JH, Lee CT, Kim DJ.
Chuncheon National Hospital, Department of Psychiatry,
The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
http://www.cuk.ac.kr/eng/ sysop@...
Songsin Campus: 02-740-9714 Songsim Campus: 02-2164-4116
Songeui Campus: 02-2164-4114
http://www.cuk.ac.kr/eng/sub055.htm eight hospitals

[ Han-Kyu Lee ]

A hangover is characterized by the unpleasant physical and mental
symptoms that occur between 8 and 16 hours after drinking alcohol.
After inducing experimental hangover in normal individuals,
we measured the methanol concentration prior to
and after alcohol consumption
and we assessed the association between the hangover condition
and the blood methanol level.

A total of 18 normal adult males participated in this study.
They did not have any previous histories of psychiatric
or medical disorders.

The blood ethanol concentration prior to the alcohol intake
(2.26+/-2.08) was not significantly different from that
13 hours after the alcohol consumption (3.12+/-2.38).

However, the difference of methanol concentration
between the day of experiment (prior to the alcohol intake)
and the next day (13 hours after the alcohol intake)
was significant (2.62+/-1.33/l vs. 3.88+/-2.10/l, respectively).

[ So, the normal methanol level was 2.62 mg per liter,
and increasing that by 50% = 1.3 mg per liter to 3.88 mg per liter
caused hangover symptoms. The human body has about
5.6 liters blood, so adding 1.3 mg per liter gives an estimate
of 7.3 mg added methanol, as much as 4 oz diet soda.

Diet soda is about 200 mg aspartame per 12 oz can,
which is 22 mg (11% methanol), 1.83 mg methnol per ounce.

This suggests that alcohol drinkers are more sensitive to methanol
than the average diet soda drinker, some of whom find symptoms
from a third of a diet soda.]

A significant positive correlation was observed
between the changes of blood methanol concentration
and hangover subjective scale score increment when covarying
for the changes of blood ethanol level (r=0.498, p<0.05).

This result suggests the possible correlation of methanol
as well as its toxic metabolite to hangover. PMID: 16318957
[ The "toxic metabolite" of methanol is formaldehyde, which in turn
partially becomes formic acid -- both potent cumulative toxins
that are the actual cause of the toxicity of methanol.]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/870
Aspartame: Methanol and the Public Interest 1984: Monte:
Murray 2002.09.23

Humans suffer "toxic syndrome" (54) at a minimum lethal dose
of <1 gm/kg, much less than that of monkeys, 3-6 g/kg (42, 59).

The minimum lethal dose of methanol
in the rat, rabbit, and dog is 9.5, 7.0 , and 8.0 g/kg, respectively
(43);
ethyl alcohol is more toxic than methanol to these test animals (43)."

As a medical layman, I suggest that evidence mandates immediate
exploration of the role of these ubiquitious, potent formaldehyde
sources as co-factors in epidemiology, research, diagnosis,
and treatment in a wide variety of disorders.

Folic acid, from fruits and vegetables, plays a role by powerfully
protecting against methanol (formaldehyde) toxicity.

Many common drugs, such as aspirin, interfere with folic acid,
as do some mutations in relevant enzymes.

The majority of aspartame reactors are female.


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1291
European Food Safety Authority to decide aspartame safety by May:
caffeine diet drinks cause female hypertension, WC Winkelmayer et al,
JAMA 2005.11.09: PubMed lists 50 items for "diet soft drinks" since
2004 Oct.: Murray 2006.01.24

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1279
all three aspartame metabolites harm human erythrocyte [red blood cell]
membrane enzyme activity, KH Schulpis et al, two studies in 2005,
Athens, Greece, 2005.12.14: 2004 research review, RL Blaylock:
Murray 2006.01.14

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/939
aspartame (aspartic acid, phenylalanine) binding to DNA:
Karikas July 1998: Murray 2003.01.05 rmforall
Karikas GA, Schulpis KH, Reclos GJ, Kokotos G
Measurement of molecular interaction of aspartame and
its metabolites with DNA. Clin Biochem 1998 Jul; 31(5): 405-7.
Dept. of Chemistry, University of Athens, Greece
http://www.chem.uoa.gr gkokotos@...;
K.H. Schulpis inchildh@...; G.J. Reclos reklos@...;

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1271
combining aspartame and quinoline yellow, or MSG and brilliant blue,
harms nerve cells, eminent C. Vyvyan Howard et al, 2005
education.guardian.co.uk, Felicity Lawrence: Murray 2005.12.21

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1329
aspartame or MSG affects circadian rhythms in rats, two studies,
P. Subramanian, T. Manivasagam et al 2004:
Murray 2006.04.27

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/925
aspartame puts formaldehyde adducts into tissues, Part 1/2
full text Trocho & Alemany 1998.06.26
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona : Murray 2002.12.22

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/915
formaldehyde toxicity: Thrasher & Kilburn: Shaham: EPA: Gold:
Wilson: CIIN: Murray 2002.12.12 rmforall

Thrasher (2001): "The major difference is that the Japanese
demonstrated the incorporation of FA and its metabolites into the
placenta and fetus.
The quantity of radioactivity remaining in maternal and fetal tissues
at 48 hours was 26.9% of the administered dose." [ Ref. 14-16 ]

Arch Environ Health 2001 Jul-Aug; 56(4): 300-11.
Embryo toxicity and teratogenicity of formaldehyde. [100 references]
Thrasher JD, Kilburn KH. toxicology@...
Sam-1 Trust, Alto, New Mexico, USA.
http://www.drthrasher.org/formaldehyde_embryo_toxicity.html full text

http://www.drthrasher.org/formaldehyde_1990.html full text
Jack Dwayne Thrasher, Alan Broughton, Roberta Madison.
Immune activation and autoantibodies in humans with long-term
inhalation exposure to formaldehyde.
Archives of Environmental Health. 1990; 45: 217-223.
"Immune activation, autoantibodies, and anti-HCHO-HSA antibodies
are associated with long-term formaldehyde inhalation."
PMID: 2400243
*******************************************************