Sick Furniture, John Travolta and Me
You’ve heard of Sick Building Syndrome? It’s when a new building furnished with carpeting, furniture and other equipment full of toxins makes the new occupants sick. When actor John Travolta’s teenage son died last week, there was immediate speculation that the boy had developed Kawasaki disease because of exposure to carpet cleaning chemicals. Since 1982, scientists have debated whether the connection between carpet cleaning and Kawasaki is real. But I can tell you this: I got a brand-new couch recently and from the moment it entered the door there has been a strong chemical odor and my face has gotten itchy and red whenever I’m near the couch. The odor has faded some, but when I called the company to complain they said the foam in the cushions was responsible for the odor. They told me to take the cushions off the couch and stomp on them to help the ‘off-gassing‘ happen quicker. I did that, and it helped, but that’s crazy! How toxic is this stuff anyway!? Are furniture manufacturers getting away with poisoning us? Has anyone out there had any similar experiences?
January 5th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Yes, many years ago, I worked for a cable company as a CSR, and they had recently redecorated their office with the then-popular 1980s black-teal-mauve color scheme, including new carpeting. The offgassing from the carpets made everyone in the office sick for a month. The color scheme left everybody sick for the next 20 years.
January 5th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I have had similar issues. I have asthma and allergies anyway, and I have always had problems with certain furniture and certain stores. There was a store named Hills where I grew up-it was kind of like Target. Every time I went in there I had a problem. I got a new chair at work a few years ago that off-gassed for weeks. The only thing that took the smell away was Febreze. I hated using another chemical to mask a chemical, but I tried everything else. Some people it doesn’t seem to bother at all (or maybe it does and they just don’t realize it) and then some it makes incredibly ill.
January 5th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
As far as I know it is probably giving off formaldehyde – lovely huh?
January 5th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Awful. What really bothers me is that the odor is one thing, but how toxic is this stuff even after the odor subsides?
January 5th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
In buildings that are sealed, the health effects can last for years, but I’m not familiar with anything that says the effects are permanent or cause chronic illness. Many health problems reported in NYC after 9/11 were the result of further toxic fumes and dust from the burning office furnishings, and some of those cases have been debilitating, but those were pretty unusual circumstances.
January 5th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Yikes! Not that I would have personal experience with this seeing as how I haven’t bought new furniture in years, but I can’t believe this is a good thing. Just the term ‘off gassing’ sounds toxic. And I’m with you, Rhea, odor is one thing, it’s the effect of whatever is responsible for the odor that worries me.
January 5th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I live in a brand new house. New carpeting, floors, glues, toxins, etc. I left the windows open for months, but every once in a while, you get that ‘old’ whiff.
But what can you do? I bought a ‘green’ cleaner this past weekend to wash down my floors rather than use Mr. Clean. Needless to say, it did not clean my floor and the smell gave me a headache for hours. So much for trying to use cucumbers to clean with (as is one of the ingredients)! I have to re-do everything with Mr. Clean.
What are we to do? I don’t know anymore.
January 5th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Twenty years ago my sister, with her young baby, and I were at our mother’s house. The ground floor was being recarpeted and we were all upstairs. The baby was on my sister’s lap.
My sister suddenly shouted, What’s the matter with her? We looked and the baby was limp. Panicked, we took her downstairs and laid her down in a newly carpetted room. She was completely limp, began to turn blue, and was clearly not breathing.
Luckily my mother’s instinct made her shout that we should get the baby outside. She wasn’t thinking about carpet — in her desperation she was just thinking about good old fashioned fresh air. They took the baby outside while I called an ambulance.
First the fire department, then the police, and finally an ambulance arrived. By then the fresh air had begun to take effect and the baby was reviving. She spent the night and next day in the hospital and the next six months on a monitor for babies at risk of SIDS.
I am quite sure that if she had been in her crib instead of on her mother’s lap she would have died, and I am also pretty sure it was a reaction to the chemicals in the carpet. We could all smell it, but we didn’t think. The baby never had another such episode.
I don’t think children — or sensitive grownups — should be around the kinds of chemicals in new carpets and maybe new upholstery too.
I tell this story whenever something similar comes up. I am not even remotely kooky about medical stuff and I believe in evidence. I know it might have been a coincidence, but I just don’t think so. What I saw was so striking — a baby who was dying in front of us inside the house and who revived outside.
In any case, I would never take such a chance again.
January 5th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Bad stuff. Those foam pillows and mattresses are toxic, too.
January 5th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
This is scary. Why do they use those chemicals, especially formaldehyde, in furniture and carpets? It’s a miracle we are alive between that and the food industry.
January 5th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
That’s why I NEVER do any kind of remodeling in the winter!
I won’t even paint or shampoo the carpets if I can’t have the windows open.
January 5th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Joy, I have got to agree with you.
January 5th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Duchess, that’s one scary story.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I have lymphoma and I can tell you that moth crystals, certain cleaning products put my immune system in a tailspin and I am sick for days . Unfortunately we should all be using only thepurest organics and they are all very expensive..sk
January 8th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Interesting, Sandy. None of us should be exposed to the stuff.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:41 am
I’ve never had new furniture, but one office I worked in remodeled the entire floor with new carpet and those fun fabric dividers to make cubicles. (Think Dilbert.) I was sick for 3 months until the smell wore down. This is why we don’t have carpet in our house.
January 13th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Terrible that you were sick. Why isn’t this stuff regulated?