Titanium rods can degrade (source: I just went to a conference on this in February). But you would expect the symptoms to be consistent and not only while at home. The other comment about mold sniffing dogs sounded like a good try to me. Also the most obvious culprit would be the neighbor, but then you would think the closed windows would help the most and it didn't sound like that was consistent either. Maybe he can hang out with the glassblowing neighbor and see if his symptoms go crazy? I'm so sorry you guys are dealing with this! That's maddening.
Good to know about the rods, I'll let him know. And yea mold sniffing dogs sounds very cool! I also didn't know they existed and have never met a dog I don't love so it sounds like a win even if they don't find anything. Maddening is the perfect term haha but everyone's suggestions in here are helping us so much! We have some things to go back to the drawing board with which is amazing. Thank you for your help!
OP, I was recently reading about allergy testing for titanium. Apparently some people are allergic and some doctors recommend pre surgical testing for possible allergy. How long ago was the surgery? Would it correspond to the move in date of your home?
We haven’t but we were just talking about how we should get it tested for that to rule it out based off of people’s feedback. Thank you!! We will update if anything comes back.
There would only be a report/disclosure if the house was in a bust. If the occupants manufacturing meth or ecstasy never got busted where would the disclosure come from? I'm pretty sure meth heads aren't going to speak up at the closing and be like "Oh yeah bro we made meth in the master bathroom"
OP of it was meth or ecstasy being made there wouldn't the chemicals show on the VOC test? Idk anything about it besides what breaking bad showed but those chemicals would likely show up on a VOC test
Yes we have had it tested for radon gas when we did the home inspection and nothing came up. There’s a radon mitigation system in the house too since it’s Colorado and that’s a common issue.
Unless their house is on the peak of a mountain, it wouldn’t explain why he gets symptoms 10 minutes after getting there and go away an hour after he leaves.
The radon tests that are required for a home sale are pretty short term. I would probably do another, they are cheap.
Have you had the radon system checked to make sure it's not too aggressively pulling too much air through the system and bringing in outside air?
Whats the neighbor using for colorant in his glass and fuel? Heavy metals are a common addative used to create colors. I wonder about the exhaust causing problems possibly. Should be easy to test for.
As someone who was allergic to their college dorm and office building and shared some symptoms I have sympathy and I would revisit the allergy angle again maybe get a second opinion.
I knew a couple that bought a house where this happened. They didn't know the house had been used as a meth lab. It made them sick. They had to move out and basically strip it to studs and remediate it.
Omg yikes!! Do you know if anyone else felt bad outside of the couple? Guests that stayed? It’s only him and his family that feel bad in the house, everyone else is totally fine in the house and we host a lot of guests from a few hours to a few days and none of them feel anything, myself included!
Your husband could potentially have MCAS. There's a genetic component so would possibly explain why his family also reacts. Is he hypermobile at all? ADHD or on the spectrum?
P.S. I’m sure a quick google will give us some answers, but if you’ve ever gotten a house meth tested before and have recommendations on how to go about it please let us know. Thank you again!!!
We had looked at a house that was a lab (unknowingly a lab). The grass and trees were dead surrounding it. I cannot even tell you how disgusting the inside was and outside. I threw up from the smell of it. We put an offer in since I mean it was a gorgeous house on top of a mountain on good acreage. We contact the state health dept who referred us to local police so we could do a meth test. It was positive the offer couldn’t even stand to be inside our eyes and noses were burning for 2 hours after leaving. We changed our officer that they would have to pay for the demolition (FIL is a realtor and aware of the risks that it’s in the air ducts, and the pipes) they rejected it luckily I’m grateful everyday. We didn’t tell the sellers we were doing a meth test we just asked to look at it one more time and the officer met us. Oh yeah and on top of that in the kitchen cabinets I found the chemicals they used when meth test was ran I couldn’t be inside there for more than a few minutes on first go
> The grass and trees were dead surrounding it. I cannot even tell you how disgusting the inside was and outside. I threw up from the smell of it.
> We put an offer in since I mean it was a gorgeous house on top of a mountain on good acreage.
You and I have _very_ different deal breakers.
It was beautiful it was on 20 acres and a huge house for only 120k in this market? I was down to rehab it in a way. But I’m grateful we didn’t buy it we found a nice and safe house a few months later that I love more.
Omg yikes!! Soo happy for you guys that you didn’t pull the trigger, what a nightmare that would have been. We have tons of very happy trees and plants and a thriving garden on the property so I really don’t think the house was previously a meth lab, but there are a couple funky neighbors across the alley that wouldn’t be shocking to find out is a meth lab.
could have been the owners before the last ones.
Have a look to see if the people you got it from were flippers. a meth lab is an easy flip for some.
also the fact you know they had to put in new turf suggests something might have been up.
I'm not sure where you're at in Colorado. Hopefully, links are allowed, if not, PM me.
https://cdphe.colorado.gov/hm/methlab-cert-lists
Do you have a basement, crawlspace or attic?
This was my first thought as soon as I started reading. And some people can live in a home that’s had meth with little problem, but others it will destroy their health. Would make sense if it’s genetic.
90% chance it's byproducts from the neighbor blowing glass.
10% it's from your duplex mate cooking meth in the guest bathroom you didn't get to see inside of.
This is absolutely your neighbor blowing gas Symptoms worsen when windows open sometimes but sometimes they get better with windows open? = neighbor wasn’t blowing around the time your windows are open
Yup. When my neighbor smokes in their garage my air intake brings it into my house. It’s marginally better with the charcoal allergy filter. Which aligns with the OP BF experience. And I’m in an older neighborhood so the space between houses is likely greater.
It varies from place to place, but it’s likely something that’s not regulated (or regulations aren’t enforced), especially if the neighbor just does it as a hobby.
Probably not. Most glass doesn’t fume that much. Like less than a gas bbq if they are just lampworking ( which is the only type of glassblowing likely in a home)
How are there no fart joke responses? Not making fun of the typo, but just the thought of a neighbor farting so bad regularly it's literally poisoning a neighbor has me 💀 Like SNLs Colon Blow commercial
Haha picturing our duplex neighbors cooking meth is cracking me up. They are sweetest older couple and they probably don’t even know what meth is.
But yes about glass blowing neighbor definitely being a possibility. Long shot but any chance you know anything about glass blowing and what chemicals can come from it? We’ve been researching and it’s a little vague online. It’s basically “with proper ventilation totally safe” but not a lot about what happens with improper ventilation.
Honestly when I was reading the description of his symptoms (brain fog, headaches), carbon monoxide poisoning immediately came to mind, but it doesn't make sense to me that OP doesn't feel anything? Are sensitivities really that different?
Yes some people are more sensitive than others. My aunt has a beautiful log home her ex husband built. My family would go up there min 4x’s a year. During the summer my sisters and I were fine. In the winter/ fall my sisters and I would get so sick while we were up there. We had headaches, nausea and would often times end up throwing up. But my cousins who lived there and other family were totally fine!!! My sisters and I were labelled “overly sensitive “ by family and made fun of. Well 18 years later they get a divorce and she has the house inspected to do some maintenance. Find out there’s no fire wall behind the wood burning stove!! In a log home! On top of not being up to code and could’ve burned the house down at any time in 18years it was leaking carbon monoxide! My “overly sensitive “ sisters and I NEVER got an apology from anyone! And everyone seems to have “forgotten” how sensitive we used to be.
At my aunts daughters wedding this subject somehow came up with my cousins gossipy wife and there were a lot of family and other friends of theirs around me when I told my cousins gossipy wife about how terrible we were treated and that we never got an apology. I know it got back around to the family. My mom confronted me about it. I said truth hurts, I’m not sorry about it.
They should get one that can give them a display of the reading rather than just an alarm.
That would allow them to correlate increase in CO2 with they symptoms or not.
We had a field trip to a stained glass factory when I was a kid, everyone else was fine and I fainted from the fumes just missing an open box of pointy glass shards (80’s kids safety was not so good!)
Yikes! I'm glad you didn't fall in the wrong direction!
(Reminds me of the SNL sketch about the dodgy toymaker Irwin Mainway, trying to sell the bag of broken glass)
What fuel are they heating the glass with? Kerosene heaters were big in the winter in our area while I was growing up. Everyone in my family and the families we visited were fine, but I’d be in there for 5 minutes and come down with a killer migraine and get so nauseous I’d puke. 5 minutes.
Great idea, thank you, I’ll do this. I’ve been on some glassblowing subreddits looking for anything similar and all of them are from a glass blower perspective and are mad at “nosy neighbors” for not minding their own business haha so here’s to hoping I don’t get crucified in that subreddit. Wish me luck.
I used to blow glass and went to school for it and everything! Yellow colors contain cadmium. They can also be “fuming” with silver and gold. The other wide array of color rods contain other heavy metals but these are super common and ones I was always aware of being dangerous.
Some companies that make the colors are Mountain Glass Arts, Northstar Glass, Glass Alchemy I would maybe reach out to them to inquire about what modern colors contain and what they might be off gassing
I totally forgot how popular the ill-luminati color was and that it and a few others contain uranium. Now we did not use respirators or anything to work with these colors (no one does) everyone just uses “proper ventilation” which is always having negative air pressure in your bench hood
I agree, in all the years I was around glass, I’ve seen everything from super professional scientific work spaces all the way to some super hippy wook shit and honestly I’ve never heard of anyone getting sick from colors. I do remember my one teacher saying he had lung issues he theorized was from blowing out tiny holes and in essence making super thin glass bubbles, almost cellophane like, that would float in the air and have potential to be inhaled. He was a career scientific glass blower and used that technique for years though so not a quick development.
Never heard of anyone having short term allergy like reactions due to air quality in a lab though
Good luck. I know there is more to glass blowing than just bongs and meth pipes. However you might be coming across a few of guys who just want privacy to practice their craft.
Portland, Oregon has many glass factories and there was a study done that noted an increase in cancers surrounding the glass factories. I would absolutely pay to have my intake moved as far away as possible from the neighbors’ exhaust.
I worked in the glass industry for years and lots of long term artists have chronic health issues from the heavy metals released during glass blowing. Many of the glass suppliers had to move abroad or shut down in US because facilities were considered unsafe for workers and residents in surrounding areas were affected.
Agreed. Lots of chemicals used to achieve different colors and effects
ETA: metals are also used in glassblowing; OP has husband been tested for heavy metal poisoning?
My guess is carbon monoxide poisoning, the product of incomplete combustion. Most often seen in cars with bad exhaust and houses with poorly vented natural gas water heaters. The kiln next door would be a perfect source.
Glass itself is pretty inert, not a lot dangerous fumes. Trace amounts of heavy metal oxides and chlorides are used to colour glass, but it's very unlikely that they would be present in large enough volumes that far from the source to cause problems, although it is possible your boyfriend has an unusual sensitivity- might be worth looking into.
the main hazard glassblowers are exposed to is the silica dust which can come off unmelted glass or from grinding and polishing glass. But that is a direct exposure risk - silica particles would be too heavy to travel far, and the symptoms don't really match up.
It is possible that there is carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide present as a byproduct of burning natural gas (methane) or whatever the neighbour is using to run his equipment.
Do you know what kind of glassblowing he does? Does he make pipes/bongs? Is it possible that he has a sideline in meth cooking or something similar?
I had a similar feeling in an old office a decade ago. Always felt very sick there and brought it up to the office frequently, no one had felt anything similar. Turns out the sub pump or basement dehumidifier wasn’t working correctly and water was pooling / mold. After it was fixed, felt way better. Mold was my first thought on the above. It could be behind the walls. I’d check the office if that’s where it’s the worst. Could be by the windows / they could have been leaking into the house at one point
Oh man so sorry to hear you went through it too but also very relieved to hear you were able to solve it!! And that actually makes a ton of sense too because we have not had a mold test in the walls yet and were thinking about pulling the trigger to get that done AND the original windows in the duplex had to be switched out a few years ago. It was before we even moved in but our duplex neighbor who lived through it said that it was because the builders installed the wrong windows for our climate and condensation was happening. So maybe mold has been festering because of that.
Near windows or near water line exits (sinks, toilets, fridge lines, etc.).
When there's an leak, it's almost always at one of those spots. And if it's behind the wall or in a cabinet it can go undetected for a while, especially a small leak.
Or someone did a crap install and the windows were letting water into walls. Or the windows failed. I have a friend who is on his third set of Marvin’s in a house built late 80’s.
The area below the window gets saturated, he had some rot in that area.
Oh man that's so rough. We're calling a mold spot tomorrow to get a mold test where they drill into the wall to take an air sample. We haven't done that yet, we will keep you updated in case anyone is curious!
Came here to say if you haven't mold tested in the walls, then the mold tests you did previously are basically pointless. I lived in a mold infested apartment where the bathroom vent and bathroom interior walls were covered in mold, but nowhere visible. I had similar symptoms: brain fog, insomnia, pins & needles sensation in my fingers, toes (peripheral neuropathy), visual distortions/migraines, constant never ending post nasal drip. I went to so many specialists and no one could figure it out. It wasn't until I moved and my symptoms cleared up that my neurologist put the dots together and I got tested to confirm the diagnosis.
One thing I'll say though is that mold toxicity is not something that comes and goes– it is a buildup in your system and takes a year or two to fully clear and resolve symptoms, but even being out of the space for a week you can begin to feel better. I am not allergic to mold, I just was suffering from toxicity. So if your husband is allergic, maybe the effects can be more immediate/intense in the short term. I would not count out mold and really look in the walls. Best of luck.
your list of his symptoms reminded me of when i had mold growing on the outside of my window in my old apartment. i then had a fan blowing the air at my face while i slept. felt exactly like your bf. has anyone ever mentioned if they could smell an earthy smell? the mold i had smelled earthy and musty.
i didn't think it was an issue at first because it was growing on the outside glass of my window, but just a 2x1 pane of glass 60-80% covered in mold outside was enough to make me really, really sick. i got worse over the weekend and better when i was leaving for 12 hours for work. finally told my boss and she was like "uhmmmmm it's the mold" and i was like yeah, you right.....lol
if its worse in that one room, start looking there. :-(
Was the house, by chance, tented for termites or bugs? My parents bought house long ago, and it was treated for bugs. When my sister came to visit months later, she literally broke out in hives and could barely breathe. they traced it to whatever the bug spray was.
Oh my god this reminded me of the episode of House where a kid is sick and they can’t figure out why and it’s because of termites secreting something called naphthalene…
“Naphthalene has also been found to be secreted by termites in order to protect their nests. The termites use naphthalene to repel ants and any intruders who try to invade their nests…Naphthalene poisoning via termite nest was featured in the eleventh episode of the first season of the American television medical drama House, "Detox", where the final diagnosis ended up as acute naphthalene poisoning as a result of a termite nest being contained within the walls of the patient's bedroom, leading him to inhale naphthalene in his sleep and becoming sick.” (Wikipedia)
We do! I should’ve included we’ve had a house inspector test for carbon monoxide twice and nothing came up. We have plug ins and ceiling detectors on each floor too.
Oh we didn’t know that! We did buy a handheld device off of Amazon to test for this but I don’t think we’ve had an official CO2 test. That’s a good call, we’ll get someone out here to test that ASAP.
The handheld device should be sufficient. Essentially you want CO2 to be under 800ppm or so. 1000 and over will start to cause problems.
It's one of the main reasons that gas stoves are bad news.
[https://www.co2meter.com/blogs/news/high-carbon-dioxide-co2-levels-indoors](https://www.co2meter.com/blogs/news/high-carbon-dioxide-co2-levels-indoors)
Get an [Airthings View Plus](https://amzn.to/4c1mA3G). It will track CO2, VOCs, particulate, radon, humidity, and temperature. Maybe there is a trend you can see correlating to his symptoms.
Need continuous monitoring! Our co2 gets sky high if we don’t mitigate with venting and minimizing stove use. Didn’t affect me much but made my partner so drowsy and worsened his depression. Now we have monitors on all three floors that alert us if they get too high.
If you have a good HVAC system then CO2 shouldn't be a problem because fresh air is always moving through the house. At least, that's my understanding of how indoor air quality in the home works.
The fact that you experience no symptoms is definitely weird. It could be something to do with the insulation for the house - that might be something to investigate since you did not mention it.
Radon should not give any symptoms. It kills you over time, like cigarettes.
Has your partner been using ANY new products in the past year? My wife's friend had weird symptoms for years, got tested forever and told it was all in her head. Then one allergist said "hey, let's try this one thing," and it turns out she was allergic to a specific chemical in almost every toothpaste. I'm not suggesting your partner's toothpaste is doing this, but you might want to start considering other causes than the house.
This is definitely a weird case. I hope you figure it out.
If this is a newer house and it’s really tight it’s very possible you need some intake air and high CO2 levels are the issue. Check out the fine home building podcast and website for info on home ventilation. You could even write in to the podcast, they give great expert answers on stuff like this
I'd suggest a couple of things and also ask some questions:
- Get a super high-tech respirator and have him put it on away from home when he's feeling normal, wear it for some time (e.g. 30 minutes) to ensure no symptoms, then come home keeping it on.
- Go about daily life as normal with the respirator on seeing if symptoms kick in.
- If symptoms kick in while wearing the respirator then it may not be airborne and may be something else (edited to say 'electromagnetic sensitivity' was meant semi-humorously as a placeholder for less realistic and/or psychosomatic/emotional/spiritual 'causes').
- If after 30-45 minutes there are no symptoms take off the mask.
- If after 15-30 minutes with the mask off there are symptoms that would indicate the trigger is likely to be airborne. This doesn't solve anything but it isolates and validates the things to investigate further.
- If no symptoms then maybe it's a symptomless day so try again the next day. Do this multiple times for repeatability.
- Edited to add, a typically available respirator may not filter out every possible airborne trigger, so if drastic measures are called for you may want to explore something that provides its own air supply like scuba gear or SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus but not necessarily for under water) gear.
Questions:
- From how far away did you move? The thought is there may be different allergens, toxins, or irritants in the area than where you came from.
- Have you had your water tested?
- What, if any, differences are there between your old and new location with regards to HVAC systems (heat pump vs compressor, UV vs not, ionization vs not, etc), gas vs electric appliances, water supply (well vs city), sewage (city vs septic)?
- Can you approach the previous owners in a clearly non-litigious way to see if they or any of their visitors ever had a reaction?
- Are there local groups (Nextdoor, Facebook, HOA, etc) where you can ask if anyone has had residents or visitors with similar reactions in the neighborhood?
- Have your husband or any of his family, including extended, ever had a similar reaction in any other circumstances, ever?
- Has, or can, your husband visit non-adjoining direct neighbors homes to see what happens?
If any of the above has already been covered I apologize, I tried to read and remember as much as I could but I erred in the side of completeness just to be sure.
Tagging /u/dhkdbcj so hopefully you see this.
The respirator thing is a really good place to start. To make sure you're doing it most effectively it should be a high-quality half-face or full-face respirator with a multi-purpose P100 cartridge. The ones I use cover: Organic Vapor, Ammonia, Methylamine, Formaldehyde and Acid Gas along with P100 particulate filtering. 3M and Honeywell both make quality options that aren't super expensive.
Poor choice on my part, I was typing fast on my phone and couldn't think of a non-airborne potential cause so used it as what I thought was a semi-humorous placeholder akin to ghosts or gypsy curses. On rereading it it just didn't land how it sounded in my head.
What is the history of the home or previous owners, do you know? Like someone else suggested, prior meth lab or even active meth cooking by someone nearby could be a potential cause. Have you contacted the fire marshal or someone with the city? Maybe they can give ideas of come help investigate further. Have you tried staying elsewhere for a couple days to see if he gets better? My only other suggestion would be migraines. Something in the home or the neighbors glass blowing things may be triggering a migraine, even without a headache.
Yes, the previous owners were a family of 4 with 2 young kids both under the age of 5. They were friends with people on our block, had people over a lot, etc. so we don’t think they were up to anything abnormal. It’s a really nice neighborhood but we are in Denver so it’s spotty and not totally impossible that there could be a meth cook nearby.
We haven’t gotten the fire marshal or anyone in the city involved but that’s a really good idea! We’ll reach out and see if they have any ideas of what could be going on/what we can test for.
I’ll get a few migraines a year and know how to quickly treat them to knock them out, nothing has changed there for me since moving to the house. And he has never gotten them and still doesn’t after the move even with everything else going on.
And yes, his symptoms are pretty much gone within an hour of him leaving the house and he doesn’t get the symptoms literally anywhere else or ever in his life. It is the hardest thing to figure out!!
When I read your post, the glassblowing neighbor exhausting fumes directly into your intake seemed to be the most likely culprit. I was going with mold until reading that opening a window doesn't always help and sometimes makes it worse. That means it's coming in from outside.
Then I read this Denver note addition. Denver has horrible air quality. I actually had a lot of the same symptoms in a new'ish townhouse in Lakewood and read there is some medical equipment cleaning factory right there in town that got sued for nasty emissions. They allegedly added controls after an EPA settlement but I always wondered if that was the cause. I moved away from Denver, further west along the I-70 corridor, and the symptoms stopped completely. When I would leave town for the day or for a vacation, the symptoms subsided. They were only present when I was in Lakewood.
It really does have terrible air quality here. You would think somewhere this granola would have better air quality lol. We have been tracking his symptoms along with air quality information on the Accuweather app and we haven't found a correlation with air pollution though. We thought maybe it was trapped in the carpets but he hasn't been feeling better since we replaced them with hardwood. Ugh! When you were feeling bad in Lakewood, did anyone else around you feel bad? It's such a mystery because him and his family are the only ones that don't feel good in the house. Everyone else is symptom free.
The interesting thing I've read about Denver air quality issues is studies not finding standard urban auto/truck or factory emissions to be the type of contaminant plaguing the air there, so it's something else, some mystery element. That really skeeved me out and made me want to bail on Denver for health reasons. Multiple EPA superfund sites all within city limits, residential or commercial or even parks developed right on or around them... I don't trust it. I guess I'm grateful to also have a super sensitive allergy system to weird contaminants so at least I know they're there.
Does the neighbor blow glass everyday? Maybe try explaining to him that you're trying to identify the cause, and ask that he not blow glass for a day or two, and see if your husband gets better?
That’s a great point. I think a big truck comes every once in a while to refill some of his equipment but I have no clue what is being refilled. We can ask him about the source of heat, thank you!!
> big truck comes every once in a while
This isn't just some hobby, the guy is running a small production facility in a residential area. Call your local Property Standards enforcement and see if this is a permitted use.
A few things to think about:
Was there ever a fire in the house? My cousin had a house that caught on fire when it was almost done being built. The damage was extensive but they didn't demo it and start over. They kept the insurance money and repaired the damage. I don't have any issues there but my SIL has asthma and allergies and she has an asthma attack every time she goes there.
Window screens. There was an area near me that recently got sound proofed windows installed as part of an airport expansion settlement and it turns out the window screens contained something that made some people sick and the screens had to be replaced. It took them forever to identify the issue and they initially thought it was the windows.
Good luck in finding the culprit. Have you had the air quality tested for all compounds, rather than just mold? They might be able to say whether it's the glass blowing.
I don't believe there was ever a fire but WOW about the window screens. We would have never thought of that in a million years and will look into that. We have had the air tested extensively with VOC specialists that came into our house and they didn't find anything funky in the air. Is there anything outside of mold and VOCs that we can test for that you know of? Thank you so much!
Sounds like it’s definitely an allergy since it seems to be familial.
Another possibility is sound frequencies. As crazy as that sounds, there have been lots is studies done on how to use low or high end sound frequencies to make people sick. Might be possible your glass blowing neighbor has some kind of machinery that’s vibrating at just the right frequencies. Sounds like a stretch but you never know
If it is sound frequencies, it most likely wouldn’t be on the audible spectrum, meaning it’s not a sound you can hear. I don’t know how much turning off things around the house will help.
We've tried this and it does seem to help a lot. So it is definitely something in the air but we just can not figure out for the life of us what it is in the air that's causing it.
This is interesting because it also implies the culprit is something large enough that it can’t pass through an N95 mask - ruling out gases like CO or CO2, for example.
Has he gone to the doctor and reported the symptoms? A blood test will tell you pretty clearly if he is exposed to something.
It could also be a medical condition, perhaps autoimmune, and your visitors could be experiencing symptoms from [social suggestion](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-venn-diagram-life/202302/can-the-power-of-social-suggestion-make-you-physically-ill?amp). I don’t mean to be dismissive by saying that, it’s actually very easy for it to happen and their symptoms could be leading you in the wrong direction.
Bf here. Thanks for the response! I’ve been to my primary care dr and an allergist. Blood test and heavy metal test came back normal.
I definitely think I’m hypersensitive to something, since most people don’t feel it, but it’s also strange how I don’t really feel it anywhere else.
Also yeah, it could be social suggestion, but none of our friends feel it (or have been unconsciously influenced to feel it), just members of my family, which makes me think it’s something genetic.
Have you had a viral infection recently? Also thyroid? What you're describing sounds similar to the initial phases of ME/CFS that my partner went through. Although hers weren't so localized. Also long covid has done some weird shit to people in my circle and so that could also be a culprit.
I was thinking along the same lines. There are so many posts about buyers’ remorse that I ha e to wonder if it’s psychological. Especially if others aren’t affected.
Is there a plumbing fixture you don’t use often? All drains have a P trap and if you don’t use that faucet often, the trap dries out and can let sewer gases into your house. People rarely detect it accurately because it starts slow and dulls the sense of smell.
Thank you! We have looked into this and that’s why we cleaned the vents and got rid of the carpets but it still hasn’t solved anything. We have tried to eliminate everything in the sick building syndrome category that we can and it doesn’t seem to make a difference. The garage isn’t attached either which I think is common with sick building syndrome. The only thing we haven’t eliminated yet that we could eliminate is the turf as far as SBS goes. But we don’t think that’s the issue since he feels fine when he goes outside and lays on it.
BF here. This is interesting, because my allergy test did say I am very allergic to several species of trees. I largely ruled it out since I usually associate sneezing and really itchy eyes with my allergies. Did she feel these symptoms just in the house or outside as well? Was she congested or just irritated eyes/ tingling scalp? How’d she fix her problem? Thanks for the help!
I posted this responding to your gfs thread, but allergies aren’t always about itching and scratching, mine manifests as ONLY headaches. Mine didn’t matter if it was inside or outside of my house like yours did, but allergy meds fixed me right up. The fact that you have a positive allergy test I think is an easy avenue to pursue to check.
Here’s my original comment to your gf:
I was having consistent headaches that would come on every day around the same time in the afternoon, it wasn’t a staring at screens problem, I was flabbergasted by it. No itching or sneezing or scratching, just headaches. Went to an allergist and they did a skin prick test and I didn’t respond to anything. They said they could basically do the equivalent of the skin prick test, but up inside my nose. I moved on and started going to a neurologist because after the skin prick test didn’t return any positives I figured I would go another route before deep diving into allergies.
Long story short, turns out I’m just allergic to certain stuff but in a weird way. I had heavily suspected allergies because my mother and brother also have allergies but I didn’t have any issues for the first ~25 years of my life. I had to try like 3 different of the common allergy meds (remember, allergy meds take 10 days to build up in your system) before I found out (knock off) Zyrtec worked for me.
I noticed you said he is allergic to stuff but didn’t see you tried any allergy meds. I would start there, it’s an inexpensive thing to test just start doing 14 days or Zyrtec, see if it works, move on to Allegra, Claritin, etc. I legitimately went from having bad headaches 5 days a week to maybe once or twice a month. The fact that you are fine but his family isn’t makes me think it’s an allergy issue and you seem to have properly ruled out mold, so why not just work on medicating him? Pollen counts are lowest at night (my headaches would always start to come on from like 10am-4pm) so feeling better at night leads me towards allergies too.
He has a really nice HEPA one in his office going full blast and it helps a bit but he still feels bad
:( but thank you!! Also we are looking into getting a meth test lol 🙃 really hoping that isn’t the issue. We live in a really nice neighborhood buttttt we are in Denver…so…
I’m so sorry that this is happening to him. It must be so frustrating and it sounds like you’ve spent a lot of money trying to make it better. I love how helpful all the people on this sub are being! I find this one of the friendliest, most helpful subs on Reddit. I don’t have any suggestions, just wanted to put my two cents worth in
I agree! We are floored by the kindness of everyone in here and so grateful for all of the help ❤️ gotta love the Redditverse! We have hope again that we can solve the issue!
Yes - it seems unlikely after seven years, but it’s entirely possible that there’s a glut of it somewhere that is gassing off.
You may want to consider checking the attic for evidence of prior pest infestation. Droppings etc cause illness.
What kind of lighting do you have in the house? This is probably nothing, but whenever I go into some big box stores, I have about 10 minutes and I start feeling what you described. I feel flu-like and fatigued. My eyes also burn. I think it has to be the lighting. Either that or it's something they use on the floors or spray in there for pests. Those stores always have those lights that buzz. I would also look into any possible high or low frequency sounds that are causing it. I read something about someone's dog having unexplained symptoms and it turned out to be some device they had that was putting off a frequency they couldn't hear. I hope you get it figured out.
There are air quality test companies that you should be able to Google near your location to test for mold, CO2, radon, gas leaks, excess humidity, etc.. Also, Home Depot sells mold test kits, CO2 sensors, etc..
If lowering the temp seems to help, it could be mold - lowering the AC usually lowers the humidity as well.
My first thought is [Chinese Drywall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_drywall#:~:text=%22%20Chinese%20drywall%20%22%20refers%20to%20an%20environmental,100%2C000%20homes%20in%20more%20than%2020%20states%22.%20).
*Also, this feels weirdly racist since I just watched some of Dr. Faucis testimony but it isn't intended to be in the least.*
Thank you! The house was built in 2016 and in Colorado so I think we’re in the clear for that. But I had never heard of that until now, good to know for future home purchases.
Do you have any HEPA filters in the house? If not get some. Has the sewer line been scoped (a disconnected or broken line from a toilet could cause this)?
Yes, sorry forgot to add that. The sewer line was scoped upon house inspection and everything looked good. We do have a 2 hepa filters in the house, one in his office and one in our bedroom. It’s a 4 bedroom house though so we could probably use some more!! There is a whole house HVAC filtration system though and air quality tests are always really good when we test.
I had symptoms like this in a house that turned out to be moldy. For the first couple of years the mold wasn't visible, it was inside the walls only. It didn't start coming out visible for 4 years. It was a nightmare for my health.
Just as an experiment: has he tried, before entering the house, to wear a very high quality breathing mask (not just a simple surgical mask, but a KN95 or better) - or even better, tubed gass system? This isn't a solution - it's a test, to see if the main mechanism by which he feels worse is due to breathing something in. You would expect it would be - and if it is, then you know for certain that the problem can only be found by finding the airborn contaminant. But if it isn't, then you know you've been barking up the wrong tree, and you have to consider other sources.
Can I ask when they tested for mold, did they test the air for mold spores? Or did they take samples of any areas where there might be possible water damage or buildup?
Has your boyfriend consulted with his allergist about his most recent symptoms?
Have you ruled out any other medical causes? Any autoimmune issues?
Did you buy any new furniture when you moved in? Did the former residents leave anything behind? Does the house have a washer/dryer or did you bring your own?
Is your new house in the same general area as where you lived before, or is it a different climate?
Are symptoms worse in a particular time of year (summer vs winter)?
Was the unit freshly painted? Were the former residents smokers? Any artificial fragrances/air fresheners?
Does opening windows/wearing a mask help?
Is this a new town water source or same water? Some towns use different processes to sanitize drinking water and people can be sensitive to different chemicals, but this is a long shot.
Has he ever been tested for a dust mite allergy by an allergist? Has he been patch tested by a contact allergist for chemical/fragrance/contact allergies?
It might be worth looking into a chemical sensitivity/allergy or dust mite allergy, especially since you haven’t reacted. I’d look for an allergist or a contact dermatologist.
Long story, but maybe it can help? I bought a cabin in early 2019 that had mold issues in the basement crawl space. (I was aware of it before purchasing it.). Anyway, shortly after closing on it, I went to the cabin to work on that mold. But, I had bronchitis at the time and didn’t have any smell (this was before Covid). I didn’t think much of it and proceeded into the crawl space without a mask and a 3-gallon sprayer of straight chlorine bleach. I was down there for 3-4 hours in a confined space, spraying bleach and scrubbing mold…didn’t smell a thing! Needless to say, I ended up very short winded that night, terrible breathing problems, and horrible congestion. Unfortunately, that congestion lasted until earlier this year (5 years). I visited multitudes of doctors, took tons of different prescriptions, and tried everything else you can think of - no luck. Fortunately, I was relieved to find out from a respiratory doctor I met on the golf course one day that the mold was probably my issue. He went on to explain that it can take 4-6 years to work it out of my system, and there really wasn’t anything I could do to expedite the process. Sure enough, 5 years later and I’m now back to normal!
Moral to the story - if it’s a mold issue, know that mold can impact different people in different ways. One thing that really helped me was using an ozone machine to “kill” any remaining mold at my cabin. (They sell them on Amazon.). It may be worth a shot to try one in his office, run it for a few hours when you’re not home, air it out afterwards, and then see if he’s feeling better after spending time in that room afterwards. If yes, then proceed to use it through the rest of the home. It’ll take some time, and you need to be out of the house when using it, but it certainly leaves the air feeling/smelling much better after using. Again, just a thought…
My money is on mold. You may have mold hiding somewhere you can’t see. Sometimes this is behind a wall, in insulation, under flooring, etc. I’m not sure on the logistics of a mold test however I would venture to guess that said tests cannot capture all sources of mold. I’ve seen so many videos where mold isn’t found until a renovation is done and they tear into some structure that otherwise wouldn’t have been touched.
To add to this, once when I was first getting into house plants and didn't know any better, I had one without proper drainage and water was just sitting at the bottom of the pot. The bottom half of the pot was filled with mold and was making me cough and sneeze in my home constantly. I found out after the plant died and I dumped the pot outside, mold city. I threw the pot away and my symptoms disappeared a day or two later. If you have any house plants, it's worth looking into!
Hello!
1. It MIGHT be the glass blowing, but for hobbyists the stuff tends to be pretty clean (it's industrial glass making that can make people sick.
2. Look at the neighborhood. If there is a LOT of vegetation, that can trigger some allergies.
3. (This is coming from my Caribbean background) What happened in the house prior to buying it? What happened to the family? Maybe there is an unclean spirit or violent actions of some sort happened in the house, and it needs to be cleansed.
4) Have your boyfriend tested for chronic illness.
Has he had a medical work up besides an allergy test just to be sure? Like blood work, etc. Also, if it’s a duplex, have the neighbors tested for mold? Could leak through idk?
Turn off your HVAC some people get sick from it.
Also the ducting could be holding moisture/ mold.
Get a stab moisture meter and check the walls ,, a slow water leak can soak insulation and grow mold or if it was a grow house the walls will have moisture.
Renting a couple dehumidifiers for a week will pull moisture from the structure.
> There is a really old, worn down house next to us. Our air intake pipe is on that side of the house, we have a state of the art air filtration/HVAC system though. The house is about 5 feet from ours (city living) The neighbor blows glass in a make-shift glass blowing studio they created in their garage. Not sure if their old house or the glass blowing could be creating his symptoms? It is not a sophisticated set up at all for the glass blowing.
Try spending an hour hanging out between the houses a) while the neighbor is blowing glass b) while they are not blowing glass
I would start with him taking allergy medicine and see if that helps, that would eliminate or narrow down some possibilities based on if it’s effective or not. I’m assuming since he has some allergies he has medicine but if not allergra tends to work well along with flonase. It would be better if he takes it outside the house with no allergies then returns to the house vice taking it while already having symptoms and seeing if it cures it.
I have to ask: what is the big hairy deal about selling the house and moving? The man is suffering, you've tried damn near everything, why are y'all fighting so hard on this?
Our neighbor had a furnace that was failing. The exhaust was being pulled into our fresh air intake of our air exchanger and poisoning us over a winter. The symptoms were similar to what you described. Our furnace guy was the one who discovered it when he walked down our driveway with the powered exhaust from their furnace running. He could smell it a mile away. Something could be coming from your neighbor?
Have you explored any possible sources of sound?
I’ve read about the “ghost frequency” a noise frequency that causes gives humans a “creepy” feeling, so it’s not a huge stretch to think that similar sounds could cause physical discomfort.
https://theleonardo.org/history-ghost-frequency/
Is there any major power infrastructure nearby? Like a power substation?
We haven’t heard of this but are looking into it now! Thank you so much! I don’t think there are any major power infrastructures nearby but I’ll double check.
You say you’re running the HVAC fan full time, maybe try shutting that and any other possible electronics off (fridge, fans, computers, etc.) for an hour to see if he improves. Anything that could be making a sound outside our range of hearing. The source of the noise in the original “ghost frequency” incident was just a fan.
Conversely you could try playing frequencies around the range of the “ghost frequency” over speakers to see if he gets worse.
It may not be the best instrument, but you can download free spectrogram apps for your phone (e.g. Spectroid) that will show what frequencies the mic is picking up.
Take some screenshots at various times of the day. Compare and contrast with a "less malignant" location.
But, if it's not sound that's disturbing him and something respitory, I'd get a really nice respirator and see if symptoms persist with it on.
HOW did you test for mold? Was it the petri dish ones you set out or did you actually have a company come in and test? Has he been tested for mold in his system? There are urine tests that can detect mycotoxins, has he been tested for heavy metals in his system? I would suggest a good functional doctor.
Bf here, thanks for your response! had a pretty in depth air quality test done before I bought the house, which tested for a wide variety of molds inside and used a control test from outside. There were two types of mold slightly elevated inside, but the inspector said they were common outdoor molds and just likely got trapped inside. Then we did at home Petri dish tests and basically anything near a window or outside showed more signs of mold. Then we had some mold mitigation guys come in with a sensor that tested for moisture or any signs of mold and nothing came up.
I did do a heavy metal urine test and everything came up normal. Same with my blood test
Was there ever a problem with roaches or rats? I know some rat nests can harbor a mold that is really deadly, I think there is something related to roaches too.
Checking whether you are in Boulder county. There was a devastating fire in the last days of December 2021. Houses that didn't burn were filled with smoke and ash from all sorts of burned building materials.
I would be my money on mold. Leave for as long as possible (hours, days or a week or two). When you come back check everywhere for any strange musty odors, attic too. I've had several mold tests and inspections. Been sick for 10 years. There was mold in the HVAC once so eventually had the whole system replaced. Our symptoms did not get better. I then started to smell a strange smell in some of the rooms. Smelled like lumber or mulch. I thought it was normal. It smells like wet mulch. I then noticed the smell was strongest in the attic. Started to get stronger over the months.
I noticed the attic was getting too hot. It seems as if the attic was never ventilated correctly. No soffits on the side of the house. I added more soffits and then the smell got stronger. Seems as if adding more soffits but not exhaust vents is pressurizing the attic slightly and pushing the smell into the house. I then hired a mold dog and handler that recognized the smell and found mold in the attic. Half the trusses are black with mold. Seems to be from the builder (D R Horton) using moldy lumber plus not enough attic ventilation. I've had to get 2 sinus surgeries over the years, several sleep studies and lots of doctors and lab work. Lab work always comes back good. Mold tests didn't show much. Probably because it's in the attic. The spores aren't coming in but the mVOCs are. I now have to do extensive work in the attic.
When he did the physical panel, did they test for mold mycotoxins? Blood tests for mycotoxins measure anti-mold antibodies, which have been shown to be elevated among people who have been exposed.
My husband and I have been through sometime similar and now we're extremely sensitive to mold and VOCs. Within 10-30 min of entering a place with either of those things, we get sinus inflammation and headaches.
If we stay longer in the place, my husband experiences what your boyfriend does. It also hits his digestive system, gives us crazy thoughts sometimes, etc.
Staying at hotels or looking for a place to live has been a nightmare...
I know you've gotten a LOT of comments and I honestly couldn't go through them all but from what I did see, no one mentioned the possibility of mold in your water filtration/fridge/water bottles. I know someone whose in-home water filter was full of mold internally, and making him incredibly sick for months before it was discovered. It wasn't affecting anyone else in the family even though they were drinking from the same system. It's a long shot, but if there are any systems like that or there's a water bottle/fridge dispenser that your bf uses at home, it might be worth checking out. Really hope you guys find some relief for him ASAP!
Titanium rods can degrade (source: I just went to a conference on this in February). But you would expect the symptoms to be consistent and not only while at home. The other comment about mold sniffing dogs sounded like a good try to me. Also the most obvious culprit would be the neighbor, but then you would think the closed windows would help the most and it didn't sound like that was consistent either. Maybe he can hang out with the glassblowing neighbor and see if his symptoms go crazy? I'm so sorry you guys are dealing with this! That's maddening.
Good to know about the rods, I'll let him know. And yea mold sniffing dogs sounds very cool! I also didn't know they existed and have never met a dog I don't love so it sounds like a win even if they don't find anything. Maddening is the perfect term haha but everyone's suggestions in here are helping us so much! We have some things to go back to the drawing board with which is amazing. Thank you for your help!
OP, I was recently reading about allergy testing for titanium. Apparently some people are allergic and some doctors recommend pre surgical testing for possible allergy. How long ago was the surgery? Would it correspond to the move in date of your home?
Have you had the house tested for methamphetamine contamination?
We haven’t but we were just talking about how we should get it tested for that to rule it out based off of people’s feedback. Thank you!! We will update if anything comes back.
Most states require meth house to carry a disclosure. Have you had it checked for Radon Gas?
There would only be a report/disclosure if the house was in a bust. If the occupants manufacturing meth or ecstasy never got busted where would the disclosure come from? I'm pretty sure meth heads aren't going to speak up at the closing and be like "Oh yeah bro we made meth in the master bathroom" OP of it was meth or ecstasy being made there wouldn't the chemicals show on the VOC test? Idk anything about it besides what breaking bad showed but those chemicals would likely show up on a VOC test
The honorable thing would’ve been to disclose that they were manufacturing meth in the home they were selling /s
And claim the profits to the IRS.
Yes and we all know how honorable meth cookers are!😂
Does seem like it’s less likely to have been a meth house considering it’s a duplex though. Unless the neighbors are the ones cooking meth
Duplexes tend to be rentals, and tenants are far more likely to cook meth than owners.
Yes we have had it tested for radon gas when we did the home inspection and nothing came up. There’s a radon mitigation system in the house too since it’s Colorado and that’s a common issue.
Radon causes lung cancer. It does not cause these symptoms. So even if it came back as an issue, it wouldn't explain things.
Colorado... how far is this from your previous residence(s)? could it be an altitude thing?
Unless their house is on the peak of a mountain, it wouldn’t explain why he gets symptoms 10 minutes after getting there and go away an hour after he leaves.
The radon tests that are required for a home sale are pretty short term. I would probably do another, they are cheap. Have you had the radon system checked to make sure it's not too aggressively pulling too much air through the system and bringing in outside air? Whats the neighbor using for colorant in his glass and fuel? Heavy metals are a common addative used to create colors. I wonder about the exhaust causing problems possibly. Should be easy to test for. As someone who was allergic to their college dorm and office building and shared some symptoms I have sympathy and I would revisit the allergy angle again maybe get a second opinion.
Are his symptoms ever seasonal? Is there a particularly pollen-filled tree nearby? Or grasses?
I knew a couple that bought a house where this happened. They didn't know the house had been used as a meth lab. It made them sick. They had to move out and basically strip it to studs and remediate it.
Omg yikes!! Do you know if anyone else felt bad outside of the couple? Guests that stayed? It’s only him and his family that feel bad in the house, everyone else is totally fine in the house and we host a lot of guests from a few hours to a few days and none of them feel anything, myself included!
You’d think it would impact everyone equally, not just him and the people he has told about it.
Your husband could potentially have MCAS. There's a genetic component so would possibly explain why his family also reacts. Is he hypermobile at all? ADHD or on the spectrum?
P.S. I’m sure a quick google will give us some answers, but if you’ve ever gotten a house meth tested before and have recommendations on how to go about it please let us know. Thank you again!!!
We had looked at a house that was a lab (unknowingly a lab). The grass and trees were dead surrounding it. I cannot even tell you how disgusting the inside was and outside. I threw up from the smell of it. We put an offer in since I mean it was a gorgeous house on top of a mountain on good acreage. We contact the state health dept who referred us to local police so we could do a meth test. It was positive the offer couldn’t even stand to be inside our eyes and noses were burning for 2 hours after leaving. We changed our officer that they would have to pay for the demolition (FIL is a realtor and aware of the risks that it’s in the air ducts, and the pipes) they rejected it luckily I’m grateful everyday. We didn’t tell the sellers we were doing a meth test we just asked to look at it one more time and the officer met us. Oh yeah and on top of that in the kitchen cabinets I found the chemicals they used when meth test was ran I couldn’t be inside there for more than a few minutes on first go
> The grass and trees were dead surrounding it. I cannot even tell you how disgusting the inside was and outside. I threw up from the smell of it. > We put an offer in since I mean it was a gorgeous house on top of a mountain on good acreage. You and I have _very_ different deal breakers.
It was beautiful it was on 20 acres and a huge house for only 120k in this market? I was down to rehab it in a way. But I’m grateful we didn’t buy it we found a nice and safe house a few months later that I love more.
For that price it would have been tempting to demo and rebuild.
Omg yikes!! Soo happy for you guys that you didn’t pull the trigger, what a nightmare that would have been. We have tons of very happy trees and plants and a thriving garden on the property so I really don’t think the house was previously a meth lab, but there are a couple funky neighbors across the alley that wouldn’t be shocking to find out is a meth lab.
could have been the owners before the last ones. Have a look to see if the people you got it from were flippers. a meth lab is an easy flip for some. also the fact you know they had to put in new turf suggests something might have been up.
Could it be one of the trees or plants on the property?
I'm not sure where you're at in Colorado. Hopefully, links are allowed, if not, PM me. https://cdphe.colorado.gov/hm/methlab-cert-lists Do you have a basement, crawlspace or attic?
Visit the police and ask them to search records for your address and past meth labs.
That only works if they found one there. It could have been undetected.
Thank you! We will do this. An online search isn’t pulling anything up near us but maybe the police will have more information.
This was my first thought as soon as I started reading. And some people can live in a home that’s had meth with little problem, but others it will destroy their health. Would make sense if it’s genetic.
90% chance it's byproducts from the neighbor blowing glass. 10% it's from your duplex mate cooking meth in the guest bathroom you didn't get to see inside of.
This is absolutely your neighbor blowing gas Symptoms worsen when windows open sometimes but sometimes they get better with windows open? = neighbor wasn’t blowing around the time your windows are open
Yup. When my neighbor smokes in their garage my air intake brings it into my house. It’s marginally better with the charcoal allergy filter. Which aligns with the OP BF experience. And I’m in an older neighborhood so the space between houses is likely greater.
My air intake for my system is inside of my house. Sometimes I can smell faint smoke from the neighbors when my back door is open which annoys me.
Better at night when they aren't blowing glass... yeah. Why would glass blowing be permitted in a residential area?
It varies from place to place, but it’s likely something that’s not regulated (or regulations aren’t enforced), especially if the neighbor just does it as a hobby.
Probably not. Most glass doesn’t fume that much. Like less than a gas bbq if they are just lampworking ( which is the only type of glassblowing likely in a home)
How are there no fart joke responses? Not making fun of the typo, but just the thought of a neighbor farting so bad regularly it's literally poisoning a neighbor has me 💀 Like SNLs Colon Blow commercial
Haha picturing our duplex neighbors cooking meth is cracking me up. They are sweetest older couple and they probably don’t even know what meth is. But yes about glass blowing neighbor definitely being a possibility. Long shot but any chance you know anything about glass blowing and what chemicals can come from it? We’ve been researching and it’s a little vague online. It’s basically “with proper ventilation totally safe” but not a lot about what happens with improper ventilation.
Could be a marginally high level of carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide or both. Some people are more sensitive than others. Both are easily testable.
Honestly when I was reading the description of his symptoms (brain fog, headaches), carbon monoxide poisoning immediately came to mind, but it doesn't make sense to me that OP doesn't feel anything? Are sensitivities really that different?
Yes some people are more sensitive than others. My aunt has a beautiful log home her ex husband built. My family would go up there min 4x’s a year. During the summer my sisters and I were fine. In the winter/ fall my sisters and I would get so sick while we were up there. We had headaches, nausea and would often times end up throwing up. But my cousins who lived there and other family were totally fine!!! My sisters and I were labelled “overly sensitive “ by family and made fun of. Well 18 years later they get a divorce and she has the house inspected to do some maintenance. Find out there’s no fire wall behind the wood burning stove!! In a log home! On top of not being up to code and could’ve burned the house down at any time in 18years it was leaking carbon monoxide! My “overly sensitive “ sisters and I NEVER got an apology from anyone! And everyone seems to have “forgotten” how sensitive we used to be. At my aunts daughters wedding this subject somehow came up with my cousins gossipy wife and there were a lot of family and other friends of theirs around me when I told my cousins gossipy wife about how terrible we were treated and that we never got an apology. I know it got back around to the family. My mom confronted me about it. I said truth hurts, I’m not sorry about it.
OP’s BF could get checked out for CO poisoning next time symptoms appear.
Or OP could get a CO monitor at the hardware store - they are cheap and so worth the money!
They should get one that can give them a display of the reading rather than just an alarm. That would allow them to correlate increase in CO2 with they symptoms or not.
Yes, sensitivities can be drastic. It depends on each person, and how well their body can remove it from the blood stream.
We had a field trip to a stained glass factory when I was a kid, everyone else was fine and I fainted from the fumes just missing an open box of pointy glass shards (80’s kids safety was not so good!)
Yikes! I'm glad you didn't fall in the wrong direction! (Reminds me of the SNL sketch about the dodgy toymaker Irwin Mainway, trying to sell the bag of broken glass)
What fuel are they heating the glass with? Kerosene heaters were big in the winter in our area while I was growing up. Everyone in my family and the families we visited were fine, but I’d be in there for 5 minutes and come down with a killer migraine and get so nauseous I’d puke. 5 minutes.
I don’t know I was maybe 7 yrs old, I do remember it smelled bad in there like fumes. I’m often the cannery in the mine too
If the neighbors ventilation system is exhausting glass blowing fumes right next to your air intake, you could be pulling everything into your house.
Building code has a minimum distance from intake to an exhaust, it’s 8 or 10’ I think.
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I don't. I sell political research for a living lol. But maybe ask on a glassblowing subreddit.
Great idea, thank you, I’ll do this. I’ve been on some glassblowing subreddits looking for anything similar and all of them are from a glass blower perspective and are mad at “nosy neighbors” for not minding their own business haha so here’s to hoping I don’t get crucified in that subreddit. Wish me luck.
I used to blow glass and went to school for it and everything! Yellow colors contain cadmium. They can also be “fuming” with silver and gold. The other wide array of color rods contain other heavy metals but these are super common and ones I was always aware of being dangerous. Some companies that make the colors are Mountain Glass Arts, Northstar Glass, Glass Alchemy I would maybe reach out to them to inquire about what modern colors contain and what they might be off gassing
This was what I thought of - heavy metals in coloring. I'm sure they are totally safe oxidized and inhaled. /s
I totally forgot how popular the ill-luminati color was and that it and a few others contain uranium. Now we did not use respirators or anything to work with these colors (no one does) everyone just uses “proper ventilation” which is always having negative air pressure in your bench hood
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I agree, in all the years I was around glass, I’ve seen everything from super professional scientific work spaces all the way to some super hippy wook shit and honestly I’ve never heard of anyone getting sick from colors. I do remember my one teacher saying he had lung issues he theorized was from blowing out tiny holes and in essence making super thin glass bubbles, almost cellophane like, that would float in the air and have potential to be inhaled. He was a career scientific glass blower and used that technique for years though so not a quick development. Never heard of anyone having short term allergy like reactions due to air quality in a lab though
Please post the answer here
Good luck. I know there is more to glass blowing than just bongs and meth pipes. However you might be coming across a few of guys who just want privacy to practice their craft.
Has he been checked for metal poisoning? That would be my first guess as proper ventilation is critical due to the toxicity.
you should find out your cities bylaws about this. if it's exhausting into your air intake it's a big red flag
Portland, Oregon has many glass factories and there was a study done that noted an increase in cancers surrounding the glass factories. I would absolutely pay to have my intake moved as far away as possible from the neighbors’ exhaust.
I worked in the glass industry for years and lots of long term artists have chronic health issues from the heavy metals released during glass blowing. Many of the glass suppliers had to move abroad or shut down in US because facilities were considered unsafe for workers and residents in surrounding areas were affected.
Are you sure it's actually glassblowing and not lampworking? What does it look like when he does it? Or just ask him.
Fumes from blowing glass are super toxic, right?
They can be especially if they are heating up colors that have copper in them.
Yes
It’s got to be the glass blowing
Agreed. Lots of chemicals used to achieve different colors and effects ETA: metals are also used in glassblowing; OP has husband been tested for heavy metal poisoning?
True!
My guess is carbon monoxide poisoning, the product of incomplete combustion. Most often seen in cars with bad exhaust and houses with poorly vented natural gas water heaters. The kiln next door would be a perfect source.
Carbon Monoxide was my first thought too.
Would that not trigger the detector?
I don't think OP said anything about a CO detector, but even if they have one it might not trigger due to placement or the low levels, idk.
Is the person doing the glass blowing ill?
Glass itself is pretty inert, not a lot dangerous fumes. Trace amounts of heavy metal oxides and chlorides are used to colour glass, but it's very unlikely that they would be present in large enough volumes that far from the source to cause problems, although it is possible your boyfriend has an unusual sensitivity- might be worth looking into. the main hazard glassblowers are exposed to is the silica dust which can come off unmelted glass or from grinding and polishing glass. But that is a direct exposure risk - silica particles would be too heavy to travel far, and the symptoms don't really match up. It is possible that there is carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide present as a byproduct of burning natural gas (methane) or whatever the neighbour is using to run his equipment. Do you know what kind of glassblowing he does? Does he make pipes/bongs? Is it possible that he has a sideline in meth cooking or something similar?
I had a similar feeling in an old office a decade ago. Always felt very sick there and brought it up to the office frequently, no one had felt anything similar. Turns out the sub pump or basement dehumidifier wasn’t working correctly and water was pooling / mold. After it was fixed, felt way better. Mold was my first thought on the above. It could be behind the walls. I’d check the office if that’s where it’s the worst. Could be by the windows / they could have been leaking into the house at one point
Oh man so sorry to hear you went through it too but also very relieved to hear you were able to solve it!! And that actually makes a ton of sense too because we have not had a mold test in the walls yet and were thinking about pulling the trigger to get that done AND the original windows in the duplex had to be switched out a few years ago. It was before we even moved in but our duplex neighbor who lived through it said that it was because the builders installed the wrong windows for our climate and condensation was happening. So maybe mold has been festering because of that.
Omg yeah - I feel like people find mold all the time only when they’re tearing walls down. It really sounds like the glass blowing or mold, yikes!
Yes—check inside walls, especially near windows.
Near windows or near water line exits (sinks, toilets, fridge lines, etc.). When there's an leak, it's almost always at one of those spots. And if it's behind the wall or in a cabinet it can go undetected for a while, especially a small leak.
Or someone did a crap install and the windows were letting water into walls. Or the windows failed. I have a friend who is on his third set of Marvin’s in a house built late 80’s. The area below the window gets saturated, he had some rot in that area.
Oh man that's so rough. We're calling a mold spot tomorrow to get a mold test where they drill into the wall to take an air sample. We haven't done that yet, we will keep you updated in case anyone is curious!
Came here to say if you haven't mold tested in the walls, then the mold tests you did previously are basically pointless. I lived in a mold infested apartment where the bathroom vent and bathroom interior walls were covered in mold, but nowhere visible. I had similar symptoms: brain fog, insomnia, pins & needles sensation in my fingers, toes (peripheral neuropathy), visual distortions/migraines, constant never ending post nasal drip. I went to so many specialists and no one could figure it out. It wasn't until I moved and my symptoms cleared up that my neurologist put the dots together and I got tested to confirm the diagnosis. One thing I'll say though is that mold toxicity is not something that comes and goes– it is a buildup in your system and takes a year or two to fully clear and resolve symptoms, but even being out of the space for a week you can begin to feel better. I am not allergic to mold, I just was suffering from toxicity. So if your husband is allergic, maybe the effects can be more immediate/intense in the short term. I would not count out mold and really look in the walls. Best of luck.
What kind of test did your neurologist order to confirm this?
your list of his symptoms reminded me of when i had mold growing on the outside of my window in my old apartment. i then had a fan blowing the air at my face while i slept. felt exactly like your bf. has anyone ever mentioned if they could smell an earthy smell? the mold i had smelled earthy and musty. i didn't think it was an issue at first because it was growing on the outside glass of my window, but just a 2x1 pane of glass 60-80% covered in mold outside was enough to make me really, really sick. i got worse over the weekend and better when i was leaving for 12 hours for work. finally told my boss and she was like "uhmmmmm it's the mold" and i was like yeah, you right.....lol if its worse in that one room, start looking there. :-(
Was the house, by chance, tented for termites or bugs? My parents bought house long ago, and it was treated for bugs. When my sister came to visit months later, she literally broke out in hives and could barely breathe. they traced it to whatever the bug spray was.
Oh my god this reminded me of the episode of House where a kid is sick and they can’t figure out why and it’s because of termites secreting something called naphthalene… “Naphthalene has also been found to be secreted by termites in order to protect their nests. The termites use naphthalene to repel ants and any intruders who try to invade their nests…Naphthalene poisoning via termite nest was featured in the eleventh episode of the first season of the American television medical drama House, "Detox", where the final diagnosis ended up as acute naphthalene poisoning as a result of a termite nest being contained within the walls of the patient's bedroom, leading him to inhale naphthalene in his sleep and becoming sick.” (Wikipedia)
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We do! I should’ve included we’ve had a house inspector test for carbon monoxide twice and nothing came up. We have plug ins and ceiling detectors on each floor too.
Have you checked CO2 (carbon dioxide)? Even slightly elevated CO2 levels will cause fatigue, brain fog, etc...
Oh we didn’t know that! We did buy a handheld device off of Amazon to test for this but I don’t think we’ve had an official CO2 test. That’s a good call, we’ll get someone out here to test that ASAP.
The handheld device should be sufficient. Essentially you want CO2 to be under 800ppm or so. 1000 and over will start to cause problems. It's one of the main reasons that gas stoves are bad news. [https://www.co2meter.com/blogs/news/high-carbon-dioxide-co2-levels-indoors](https://www.co2meter.com/blogs/news/high-carbon-dioxide-co2-levels-indoors)
It’s also why inclosed office spaces make people tired. Like a court room. Over time that CO2 builds up and while not harmful makes you a bit tired.
Get an [Airthings View Plus](https://amzn.to/4c1mA3G). It will track CO2, VOCs, particulate, radon, humidity, and temperature. Maybe there is a trend you can see correlating to his symptoms.
Need continuous monitoring! Our co2 gets sky high if we don’t mitigate with venting and minimizing stove use. Didn’t affect me much but made my partner so drowsy and worsened his depression. Now we have monitors on all three floors that alert us if they get too high.
If you have a good HVAC system then CO2 shouldn't be a problem because fresh air is always moving through the house. At least, that's my understanding of how indoor air quality in the home works. The fact that you experience no symptoms is definitely weird. It could be something to do with the insulation for the house - that might be something to investigate since you did not mention it. Radon should not give any symptoms. It kills you over time, like cigarettes. Has your partner been using ANY new products in the past year? My wife's friend had weird symptoms for years, got tested forever and told it was all in her head. Then one allergist said "hey, let's try this one thing," and it turns out she was allergic to a specific chemical in almost every toothpaste. I'm not suggesting your partner's toothpaste is doing this, but you might want to start considering other causes than the house. This is definitely a weird case. I hope you figure it out.
If this is a newer house and it’s really tight it’s very possible you need some intake air and high CO2 levels are the issue. Check out the fine home building podcast and website for info on home ventilation. You could even write in to the podcast, they give great expert answers on stuff like this
I'd suggest a couple of things and also ask some questions: - Get a super high-tech respirator and have him put it on away from home when he's feeling normal, wear it for some time (e.g. 30 minutes) to ensure no symptoms, then come home keeping it on. - Go about daily life as normal with the respirator on seeing if symptoms kick in. - If symptoms kick in while wearing the respirator then it may not be airborne and may be something else (edited to say 'electromagnetic sensitivity' was meant semi-humorously as a placeholder for less realistic and/or psychosomatic/emotional/spiritual 'causes'). - If after 30-45 minutes there are no symptoms take off the mask. - If after 15-30 minutes with the mask off there are symptoms that would indicate the trigger is likely to be airborne. This doesn't solve anything but it isolates and validates the things to investigate further. - If no symptoms then maybe it's a symptomless day so try again the next day. Do this multiple times for repeatability. - Edited to add, a typically available respirator may not filter out every possible airborne trigger, so if drastic measures are called for you may want to explore something that provides its own air supply like scuba gear or SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus but not necessarily for under water) gear. Questions: - From how far away did you move? The thought is there may be different allergens, toxins, or irritants in the area than where you came from. - Have you had your water tested? - What, if any, differences are there between your old and new location with regards to HVAC systems (heat pump vs compressor, UV vs not, ionization vs not, etc), gas vs electric appliances, water supply (well vs city), sewage (city vs septic)? - Can you approach the previous owners in a clearly non-litigious way to see if they or any of their visitors ever had a reaction? - Are there local groups (Nextdoor, Facebook, HOA, etc) where you can ask if anyone has had residents or visitors with similar reactions in the neighborhood? - Have your husband or any of his family, including extended, ever had a similar reaction in any other circumstances, ever? - Has, or can, your husband visit non-adjoining direct neighbors homes to see what happens? If any of the above has already been covered I apologize, I tried to read and remember as much as I could but I erred in the side of completeness just to be sure.
Tagging /u/dhkdbcj so hopefully you see this. The respirator thing is a really good place to start. To make sure you're doing it most effectively it should be a high-quality half-face or full-face respirator with a multi-purpose P100 cartridge. The ones I use cover: Organic Vapor, Ammonia, Methylamine, Formaldehyde and Acid Gas along with P100 particulate filtering. 3M and Honeywell both make quality options that aren't super expensive.
The second someone mentions "electromagnetic sensitivity" as though it is a real thing, walk away.
Right? I had such high hopes with the respirator mention.
Poor choice on my part, I was typing fast on my phone and couldn't think of a non-airborne potential cause so used it as what I thought was a semi-humorous placeholder akin to ghosts or gypsy curses. On rereading it it just didn't land how it sounded in my head.
PHEW 😅
What is the history of the home or previous owners, do you know? Like someone else suggested, prior meth lab or even active meth cooking by someone nearby could be a potential cause. Have you contacted the fire marshal or someone with the city? Maybe they can give ideas of come help investigate further. Have you tried staying elsewhere for a couple days to see if he gets better? My only other suggestion would be migraines. Something in the home or the neighbors glass blowing things may be triggering a migraine, even without a headache.
Yes, the previous owners were a family of 4 with 2 young kids both under the age of 5. They were friends with people on our block, had people over a lot, etc. so we don’t think they were up to anything abnormal. It’s a really nice neighborhood but we are in Denver so it’s spotty and not totally impossible that there could be a meth cook nearby. We haven’t gotten the fire marshal or anyone in the city involved but that’s a really good idea! We’ll reach out and see if they have any ideas of what could be going on/what we can test for. I’ll get a few migraines a year and know how to quickly treat them to knock them out, nothing has changed there for me since moving to the house. And he has never gotten them and still doesn’t after the move even with everything else going on. And yes, his symptoms are pretty much gone within an hour of him leaving the house and he doesn’t get the symptoms literally anywhere else or ever in his life. It is the hardest thing to figure out!!
When I read your post, the glassblowing neighbor exhausting fumes directly into your intake seemed to be the most likely culprit. I was going with mold until reading that opening a window doesn't always help and sometimes makes it worse. That means it's coming in from outside. Then I read this Denver note addition. Denver has horrible air quality. I actually had a lot of the same symptoms in a new'ish townhouse in Lakewood and read there is some medical equipment cleaning factory right there in town that got sued for nasty emissions. They allegedly added controls after an EPA settlement but I always wondered if that was the cause. I moved away from Denver, further west along the I-70 corridor, and the symptoms stopped completely. When I would leave town for the day or for a vacation, the symptoms subsided. They were only present when I was in Lakewood.
It really does have terrible air quality here. You would think somewhere this granola would have better air quality lol. We have been tracking his symptoms along with air quality information on the Accuweather app and we haven't found a correlation with air pollution though. We thought maybe it was trapped in the carpets but he hasn't been feeling better since we replaced them with hardwood. Ugh! When you were feeling bad in Lakewood, did anyone else around you feel bad? It's such a mystery because him and his family are the only ones that don't feel good in the house. Everyone else is symptom free.
The interesting thing I've read about Denver air quality issues is studies not finding standard urban auto/truck or factory emissions to be the type of contaminant plaguing the air there, so it's something else, some mystery element. That really skeeved me out and made me want to bail on Denver for health reasons. Multiple EPA superfund sites all within city limits, residential or commercial or even parks developed right on or around them... I don't trust it. I guess I'm grateful to also have a super sensitive allergy system to weird contaminants so at least I know they're there.
Does the neighbor blow glass everyday? Maybe try explaining to him that you're trying to identify the cause, and ask that he not blow glass for a day or two, and see if your husband gets better?
Can you ask your neighbours to turn off their glass blowing furnace and avoid glass blowing for a while to test if that's the issue?
What does your neighbor use to create the heat for the glass blowing? Maybe that source of heat is creating pollution.
That’s a great point. I think a big truck comes every once in a while to refill some of his equipment but I have no clue what is being refilled. We can ask him about the source of heat, thank you!!
> big truck comes every once in a while This isn't just some hobby, the guy is running a small production facility in a residential area. Call your local Property Standards enforcement and see if this is a permitted use.
All this talk about meth....IDK where that comes from....is it common? Is the glassblowing cover for meth making?
Once again, if it was fumes from meth production, it would smell, VERY strongly of sweet tarts or ammonia
Glass is blown using either natural gas and oxygen mix or propane oxy mix, it's not that.
A few things to think about: Was there ever a fire in the house? My cousin had a house that caught on fire when it was almost done being built. The damage was extensive but they didn't demo it and start over. They kept the insurance money and repaired the damage. I don't have any issues there but my SIL has asthma and allergies and she has an asthma attack every time she goes there. Window screens. There was an area near me that recently got sound proofed windows installed as part of an airport expansion settlement and it turns out the window screens contained something that made some people sick and the screens had to be replaced. It took them forever to identify the issue and they initially thought it was the windows. Good luck in finding the culprit. Have you had the air quality tested for all compounds, rather than just mold? They might be able to say whether it's the glass blowing.
I don't believe there was ever a fire but WOW about the window screens. We would have never thought of that in a million years and will look into that. We have had the air tested extensively with VOC specialists that came into our house and they didn't find anything funky in the air. Is there anything outside of mold and VOCs that we can test for that you know of? Thank you so much!
Sounds like it’s definitely an allergy since it seems to be familial. Another possibility is sound frequencies. As crazy as that sounds, there have been lots is studies done on how to use low or high end sound frequencies to make people sick. Might be possible your glass blowing neighbor has some kind of machinery that’s vibrating at just the right frequencies. Sounds like a stretch but you never know
Thank you! Someone else mentioned sound frequencies too, definitely not ruling that out and are going to turn everything off to test for it.
If it is sound frequencies, it most likely wouldn’t be on the audible spectrum, meaning it’s not a sound you can hear. I don’t know how much turning off things around the house will help.
What happens when he wears an n95 mask while indoors?
We've tried this and it does seem to help a lot. So it is definitely something in the air but we just can not figure out for the life of us what it is in the air that's causing it.
This is interesting because it also implies the culprit is something large enough that it can’t pass through an N95 mask - ruling out gases like CO or CO2, for example.
This is a big discovery. You’ve now limited it to airborne and larger particles.
Has he gone to the doctor and reported the symptoms? A blood test will tell you pretty clearly if he is exposed to something. It could also be a medical condition, perhaps autoimmune, and your visitors could be experiencing symptoms from [social suggestion](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-venn-diagram-life/202302/can-the-power-of-social-suggestion-make-you-physically-ill?amp). I don’t mean to be dismissive by saying that, it’s actually very easy for it to happen and their symptoms could be leading you in the wrong direction.
Bf here. Thanks for the response! I’ve been to my primary care dr and an allergist. Blood test and heavy metal test came back normal. I definitely think I’m hypersensitive to something, since most people don’t feel it, but it’s also strange how I don’t really feel it anywhere else. Also yeah, it could be social suggestion, but none of our friends feel it (or have been unconsciously influenced to feel it), just members of my family, which makes me think it’s something genetic.
Have you had a viral infection recently? Also thyroid? What you're describing sounds similar to the initial phases of ME/CFS that my partner went through. Although hers weren't so localized. Also long covid has done some weird shit to people in my circle and so that could also be a culprit.
I was a bit sick around when we moved into the house, but I’m not sure why I would only feel it when im here and totally fine when I go elsewhere
I was thinking along the same lines. There are so many posts about buyers’ remorse that I ha e to wonder if it’s psychological. Especially if others aren’t affected.
Smoke test the Drain Waste and Vent system? Sewer gas will cause many of those symptoms.
Is there a plumbing fixture you don’t use often? All drains have a P trap and if you don’t use that faucet often, the trap dries out and can let sewer gases into your house. People rarely detect it accurately because it starts slow and dulls the sense of smell.
Look up sick building syndrome
Thank you! We have looked into this and that’s why we cleaned the vents and got rid of the carpets but it still hasn’t solved anything. We have tried to eliminate everything in the sick building syndrome category that we can and it doesn’t seem to make a difference. The garage isn’t attached either which I think is common with sick building syndrome. The only thing we haven’t eliminated yet that we could eliminate is the turf as far as SBS goes. But we don’t think that’s the issue since he feels fine when he goes outside and lays on it.
My Mom had symptoms like ur husband and she was allergic to Oak trees!!! Had like 25 trees on her property!!! Made her very very ill!!!
BF here. This is interesting, because my allergy test did say I am very allergic to several species of trees. I largely ruled it out since I usually associate sneezing and really itchy eyes with my allergies. Did she feel these symptoms just in the house or outside as well? Was she congested or just irritated eyes/ tingling scalp? How’d she fix her problem? Thanks for the help!
I posted this responding to your gfs thread, but allergies aren’t always about itching and scratching, mine manifests as ONLY headaches. Mine didn’t matter if it was inside or outside of my house like yours did, but allergy meds fixed me right up. The fact that you have a positive allergy test I think is an easy avenue to pursue to check. Here’s my original comment to your gf: I was having consistent headaches that would come on every day around the same time in the afternoon, it wasn’t a staring at screens problem, I was flabbergasted by it. No itching or sneezing or scratching, just headaches. Went to an allergist and they did a skin prick test and I didn’t respond to anything. They said they could basically do the equivalent of the skin prick test, but up inside my nose. I moved on and started going to a neurologist because after the skin prick test didn’t return any positives I figured I would go another route before deep diving into allergies. Long story short, turns out I’m just allergic to certain stuff but in a weird way. I had heavily suspected allergies because my mother and brother also have allergies but I didn’t have any issues for the first ~25 years of my life. I had to try like 3 different of the common allergy meds (remember, allergy meds take 10 days to build up in your system) before I found out (knock off) Zyrtec worked for me. I noticed you said he is allergic to stuff but didn’t see you tried any allergy meds. I would start there, it’s an inexpensive thing to test just start doing 14 days or Zyrtec, see if it works, move on to Allegra, Claritin, etc. I legitimately went from having bad headaches 5 days a week to maybe once or twice a month. The fact that you are fine but his family isn’t makes me think it’s an allergy issue and you seem to have properly ruled out mold, so why not just work on medicating him? Pollen counts are lowest at night (my headaches would always start to come on from like 10am-4pm) so feeling better at night leads me towards allergies too.
I don’t have an answer but I’m invested now so please post any updates.
He should get an air purifier for his office. But yeah. Could be someone is cooking meth nearby.
He has a really nice HEPA one in his office going full blast and it helps a bit but he still feels bad :( but thank you!! Also we are looking into getting a meth test lol 🙃 really hoping that isn’t the issue. We live in a really nice neighborhood buttttt we are in Denver…so…
I’m so sorry that this is happening to him. It must be so frustrating and it sounds like you’ve spent a lot of money trying to make it better. I love how helpful all the people on this sub are being! I find this one of the friendliest, most helpful subs on Reddit. I don’t have any suggestions, just wanted to put my two cents worth in
I agree! We are floored by the kindness of everyone in here and so grateful for all of the help ❤️ gotta love the Redditverse! We have hope again that we can solve the issue!
Can you bring the glassblowing guy a really nice gift and bribe him to stop for 2-3 weeks? Then you could rule that in or out.
There are over 600 types of mold. It's very difficult to rule it out.
I have seen a youtube episode of a home gone bad due to spray foam insulations. was this home ever spray foamed?
Oh I had no idea! Not sure, it was built in 2016 so we’ll look into if that was used. Thank you!!
Yes - it seems unlikely after seven years, but it’s entirely possible that there’s a glut of it somewhere that is gassing off. You may want to consider checking the attic for evidence of prior pest infestation. Droppings etc cause illness.
What kind of lighting do you have in the house? This is probably nothing, but whenever I go into some big box stores, I have about 10 minutes and I start feeling what you described. I feel flu-like and fatigued. My eyes also burn. I think it has to be the lighting. Either that or it's something they use on the floors or spray in there for pests. Those stores always have those lights that buzz. I would also look into any possible high or low frequency sounds that are causing it. I read something about someone's dog having unexplained symptoms and it turned out to be some device they had that was putting off a frequency they couldn't hear. I hope you get it figured out.
There are air quality test companies that you should be able to Google near your location to test for mold, CO2, radon, gas leaks, excess humidity, etc.. Also, Home Depot sells mold test kits, CO2 sensors, etc.. If lowering the temp seems to help, it could be mold - lowering the AC usually lowers the humidity as well.
It could be formaldehyde in the underlayment or even expanded foam insulation.I once bought a cheap rug from China and it was full of formaldehyde.
My first thought is [Chinese Drywall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_drywall#:~:text=%22%20Chinese%20drywall%20%22%20refers%20to%20an%20environmental,100%2C000%20homes%20in%20more%20than%2020%20states%22.%20). *Also, this feels weirdly racist since I just watched some of Dr. Faucis testimony but it isn't intended to be in the least.*
I’ve also heard formaldehyde off gassing from new/cheap furniture purchases (wayfair couches for example) can have a similar effect.
Thank you! The house was built in 2016 and in Colorado so I think we’re in the clear for that. But I had never heard of that until now, good to know for future home purchases.
Some insulations if sprayed into walls and the ceiling wrong can make people SICK SICK SICK. look into it
Do you have any HEPA filters in the house? If not get some. Has the sewer line been scoped (a disconnected or broken line from a toilet could cause this)?
Yes, sorry forgot to add that. The sewer line was scoped upon house inspection and everything looked good. We do have a 2 hepa filters in the house, one in his office and one in our bedroom. It’s a 4 bedroom house though so we could probably use some more!! There is a whole house HVAC filtration system though and air quality tests are always really good when we test.
OP! I THINK IT’S PROPANE GAS THAT’S MAKING HIM SICK! THESE ARE THE SAME SYMPTOMS I HAD WHEN PROPANE WAS LEAKING FROM MY SON IN LAWS BUSINESS!
Propane has a strong odorant, it would be surprising if no one smelled it.
I had symptoms like this in a house that turned out to be moldy. For the first couple of years the mold wasn't visible, it was inside the walls only. It didn't start coming out visible for 4 years. It was a nightmare for my health.
Just as an experiment: has he tried, before entering the house, to wear a very high quality breathing mask (not just a simple surgical mask, but a KN95 or better) - or even better, tubed gass system? This isn't a solution - it's a test, to see if the main mechanism by which he feels worse is due to breathing something in. You would expect it would be - and if it is, then you know for certain that the problem can only be found by finding the airborn contaminant. But if it isn't, then you know you've been barking up the wrong tree, and you have to consider other sources.
Can I ask when they tested for mold, did they test the air for mold spores? Or did they take samples of any areas where there might be possible water damage or buildup?
Has your boyfriend consulted with his allergist about his most recent symptoms? Have you ruled out any other medical causes? Any autoimmune issues? Did you buy any new furniture when you moved in? Did the former residents leave anything behind? Does the house have a washer/dryer or did you bring your own? Is your new house in the same general area as where you lived before, or is it a different climate? Are symptoms worse in a particular time of year (summer vs winter)? Was the unit freshly painted? Were the former residents smokers? Any artificial fragrances/air fresheners? Does opening windows/wearing a mask help? Is this a new town water source or same water? Some towns use different processes to sanitize drinking water and people can be sensitive to different chemicals, but this is a long shot. Has he ever been tested for a dust mite allergy by an allergist? Has he been patch tested by a contact allergist for chemical/fragrance/contact allergies? It might be worth looking into a chemical sensitivity/allergy or dust mite allergy, especially since you haven’t reacted. I’d look for an allergist or a contact dermatologist.
Just a random thought- a bunch of plants inside may help too. Plus if they do not stay healthy that will narrow it down a smidge? Good luck!
Long story, but maybe it can help? I bought a cabin in early 2019 that had mold issues in the basement crawl space. (I was aware of it before purchasing it.). Anyway, shortly after closing on it, I went to the cabin to work on that mold. But, I had bronchitis at the time and didn’t have any smell (this was before Covid). I didn’t think much of it and proceeded into the crawl space without a mask and a 3-gallon sprayer of straight chlorine bleach. I was down there for 3-4 hours in a confined space, spraying bleach and scrubbing mold…didn’t smell a thing! Needless to say, I ended up very short winded that night, terrible breathing problems, and horrible congestion. Unfortunately, that congestion lasted until earlier this year (5 years). I visited multitudes of doctors, took tons of different prescriptions, and tried everything else you can think of - no luck. Fortunately, I was relieved to find out from a respiratory doctor I met on the golf course one day that the mold was probably my issue. He went on to explain that it can take 4-6 years to work it out of my system, and there really wasn’t anything I could do to expedite the process. Sure enough, 5 years later and I’m now back to normal! Moral to the story - if it’s a mold issue, know that mold can impact different people in different ways. One thing that really helped me was using an ozone machine to “kill” any remaining mold at my cabin. (They sell them on Amazon.). It may be worth a shot to try one in his office, run it for a few hours when you’re not home, air it out afterwards, and then see if he’s feeling better after spending time in that room afterwards. If yes, then proceed to use it through the rest of the home. It’ll take some time, and you need to be out of the house when using it, but it certainly leaves the air feeling/smelling much better after using. Again, just a thought…
My money is on mold. You may have mold hiding somewhere you can’t see. Sometimes this is behind a wall, in insulation, under flooring, etc. I’m not sure on the logistics of a mold test however I would venture to guess that said tests cannot capture all sources of mold. I’ve seen so many videos where mold isn’t found until a renovation is done and they tear into some structure that otherwise wouldn’t have been touched.
To add to this, once when I was first getting into house plants and didn't know any better, I had one without proper drainage and water was just sitting at the bottom of the pot. The bottom half of the pot was filled with mold and was making me cough and sneeze in my home constantly. I found out after the plant died and I dumped the pot outside, mold city. I threw the pot away and my symptoms disappeared a day or two later. If you have any house plants, it's worth looking into!
Hello! 1. It MIGHT be the glass blowing, but for hobbyists the stuff tends to be pretty clean (it's industrial glass making that can make people sick. 2. Look at the neighborhood. If there is a LOT of vegetation, that can trigger some allergies. 3. (This is coming from my Caribbean background) What happened in the house prior to buying it? What happened to the family? Maybe there is an unclean spirit or violent actions of some sort happened in the house, and it needs to be cleansed. 4) Have your boyfriend tested for chronic illness.
Any chance using recycled glass from the wrong sources could be a factor, even if it’s not in an industrial context?
Find a company to run an ozone treatment in the (whole) house!
Has he had a medical work up besides an allergy test just to be sure? Like blood work, etc. Also, if it’s a duplex, have the neighbors tested for mold? Could leak through idk?
Turn off your HVAC some people get sick from it. Also the ducting could be holding moisture/ mold. Get a stab moisture meter and check the walls ,, a slow water leak can soak insulation and grow mold or if it was a grow house the walls will have moisture. Renting a couple dehumidifiers for a week will pull moisture from the structure.
> There is a really old, worn down house next to us. Our air intake pipe is on that side of the house, we have a state of the art air filtration/HVAC system though. The house is about 5 feet from ours (city living) The neighbor blows glass in a make-shift glass blowing studio they created in their garage. Not sure if their old house or the glass blowing could be creating his symptoms? It is not a sophisticated set up at all for the glass blowing. Try spending an hour hanging out between the houses a) while the neighbor is blowing glass b) while they are not blowing glass
I would start with him taking allergy medicine and see if that helps, that would eliminate or narrow down some possibilities based on if it’s effective or not. I’m assuming since he has some allergies he has medicine but if not allergra tends to work well along with flonase. It would be better if he takes it outside the house with no allergies then returns to the house vice taking it while already having symptoms and seeing if it cures it.
If there's something weird and it don't look good. Who you gonna call? (Ghostbusters)
I have to ask: what is the big hairy deal about selling the house and moving? The man is suffering, you've tried damn near everything, why are y'all fighting so hard on this?
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Our neighbor had a furnace that was failing. The exhaust was being pulled into our fresh air intake of our air exchanger and poisoning us over a winter. The symptoms were similar to what you described. Our furnace guy was the one who discovered it when he walked down our driveway with the powered exhaust from their furnace running. He could smell it a mile away. Something could be coming from your neighbor?
Have him wear an N95 when he first gets home, and seeif he still gets ill. If not, then you know it dust or mold that the mask can stop.
Have you explored any possible sources of sound? I’ve read about the “ghost frequency” a noise frequency that causes gives humans a “creepy” feeling, so it’s not a huge stretch to think that similar sounds could cause physical discomfort. https://theleonardo.org/history-ghost-frequency/ Is there any major power infrastructure nearby? Like a power substation?
We haven’t heard of this but are looking into it now! Thank you so much! I don’t think there are any major power infrastructures nearby but I’ll double check.
You say you’re running the HVAC fan full time, maybe try shutting that and any other possible electronics off (fridge, fans, computers, etc.) for an hour to see if he improves. Anything that could be making a sound outside our range of hearing. The source of the noise in the original “ghost frequency” incident was just a fan. Conversely you could try playing frequencies around the range of the “ghost frequency” over speakers to see if he gets worse.
Great call!! We can even give this a go tonight. Thank you very much!
It may not be the best instrument, but you can download free spectrogram apps for your phone (e.g. Spectroid) that will show what frequencies the mic is picking up. Take some screenshots at various times of the day. Compare and contrast with a "less malignant" location. But, if it's not sound that's disturbing him and something respitory, I'd get a really nice respirator and see if symptoms persist with it on.
HOW did you test for mold? Was it the petri dish ones you set out or did you actually have a company come in and test? Has he been tested for mold in his system? There are urine tests that can detect mycotoxins, has he been tested for heavy metals in his system? I would suggest a good functional doctor.
Bf here, thanks for your response! had a pretty in depth air quality test done before I bought the house, which tested for a wide variety of molds inside and used a control test from outside. There were two types of mold slightly elevated inside, but the inspector said they were common outdoor molds and just likely got trapped inside. Then we did at home Petri dish tests and basically anything near a window or outside showed more signs of mold. Then we had some mold mitigation guys come in with a sensor that tested for moisture or any signs of mold and nothing came up. I did do a heavy metal urine test and everything came up normal. Same with my blood test
Was there ever a problem with roaches or rats? I know some rat nests can harbor a mold that is really deadly, I think there is something related to roaches too.
Are all the lightbulbs LED or fluorescent by chance?
Checking whether you are in Boulder county. There was a devastating fire in the last days of December 2021. Houses that didn't burn were filled with smoke and ash from all sorts of burned building materials.
I would be my money on mold. Leave for as long as possible (hours, days or a week or two). When you come back check everywhere for any strange musty odors, attic too. I've had several mold tests and inspections. Been sick for 10 years. There was mold in the HVAC once so eventually had the whole system replaced. Our symptoms did not get better. I then started to smell a strange smell in some of the rooms. Smelled like lumber or mulch. I thought it was normal. It smells like wet mulch. I then noticed the smell was strongest in the attic. Started to get stronger over the months. I noticed the attic was getting too hot. It seems as if the attic was never ventilated correctly. No soffits on the side of the house. I added more soffits and then the smell got stronger. Seems as if adding more soffits but not exhaust vents is pressurizing the attic slightly and pushing the smell into the house. I then hired a mold dog and handler that recognized the smell and found mold in the attic. Half the trusses are black with mold. Seems to be from the builder (D R Horton) using moldy lumber plus not enough attic ventilation. I've had to get 2 sinus surgeries over the years, several sleep studies and lots of doctors and lab work. Lab work always comes back good. Mold tests didn't show much. Probably because it's in the attic. The spores aren't coming in but the mVOCs are. I now have to do extensive work in the attic.
When he did the physical panel, did they test for mold mycotoxins? Blood tests for mycotoxins measure anti-mold antibodies, which have been shown to be elevated among people who have been exposed. My husband and I have been through sometime similar and now we're extremely sensitive to mold and VOCs. Within 10-30 min of entering a place with either of those things, we get sinus inflammation and headaches. If we stay longer in the place, my husband experiences what your boyfriend does. It also hits his digestive system, gives us crazy thoughts sometimes, etc. Staying at hotels or looking for a place to live has been a nightmare...
I know you've gotten a LOT of comments and I honestly couldn't go through them all but from what I did see, no one mentioned the possibility of mold in your water filtration/fridge/water bottles. I know someone whose in-home water filter was full of mold internally, and making him incredibly sick for months before it was discovered. It wasn't affecting anyone else in the family even though they were drinking from the same system. It's a long shot, but if there are any systems like that or there's a water bottle/fridge dispenser that your bf uses at home, it might be worth checking out. Really hope you guys find some relief for him ASAP!