If a chemically susceptible person has a gas-fired heating system, he has to consider changing it, or changing houses, regardless of the immediate cost. The reason is that it is difficult for a susceptible person to remain in anything resembling good health if he is subjected to the fumes of such a system.

An oil-fired heating system may also present a danger, since the fumes of the oil and its combustion products can often make their way into the living quarters of the house. If the oil is accidentally spilled, it is almost impossible ever to remove it, and fumes and odors will continue to contaminate the vicinity of the burner and beyond.

The ideal solution is to remove the heating unit from the house and locate it in a separate area or building of its own, so that only the hot water pipes enter the house. Installing electric heat, with or without solar heat, is another alternative.

For those in apartment houses who have a choice, it is best to live as far from the boiler room as possible. Steam or hot water radiators, on floors other than the ground level, are fairly good ecologically. It is a good idea to clean the radiators periodically and to give them an especially thorough cleaning in the fall before the heat is turned on.

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A second major factor is the imprecise nature of diagnosis. Names may be given to diseases – ‘rheumatoid arthritis’, for example, or ‘migraine’ – but this does not mean that they are single, .clearly defined conditions, in the way that infectious diseases such as measles or cholera are. Doctors suspect that, although the symptoms look similar, there are a multitude of different disorders sheltering under such umbrella terms. One of the ways in which medicine advances is by-recognizing different subgroups within such diseases, and giving new names to the symptoms shown by those subgroups – ‘classical migraine’ and ‘common migraine’, for example. But in many diseases, there are no obvious subgroups, even though it is clear that the patients are not all the same. This is particularly true in food intolerance.

To overcome these problems in medical trials, it is important to study as large a group of patients as possible. Because the patients suffering from a disease can be so diverse, a new treatment may only be effective for, say, 10 percent of them. A study that only includes 20 patients should, in a perfect world, include two patients who will respond. But when numbers are this small, die laws of chance dictate that there could easily be no patients of this type in the group. So a group of 100 patients may be needed to give a convincing result -but such large-scale trials are costly and difficult to organize.

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As alternatives to cane or beet sugar, which are the most common sugars to which people react, you can try date syrup or maple sugar or syrup – available from Foodwatch International or health food shops. Some health food shops also sell pure corn syrup.

Honey and fructose are derived from various foods as a base. Treat these as separate foods from other sugars, and rotate them if you are on a rotation diet.

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Sniff any product gently before buying to see if it upsets you. You can sniff fabrics, clothing or footwear as well as cosmetics and other products. If you find the smell distasteful or it gives you strong symptoms, do not buy it. If you find the smell peculiarly alluring, even addictive, this is also an indication of sensitivity.

To test a product you already have at home, remove the lid and place the container in a glass jar. Alternatively, soak a small piece of cotton lint with a chemical you want to test, and place it in a glass jar. Seal the glass jar and leave it for a few days. You get the best results if you can totally avoid the product you want to test during the period of waiting. Open the jar carefully and sniff gently. If symptoms develop, do not use the product.

The Patch Test

To do a simple patch test at home, take a tiny dab of chemical and place it on the skin behind your ear or on your forearm. Try to use an area that you have never tested on before, and which is not inflamed if you have sensitive skin. If you have nowhere left in these places, get someone to help and use the skin in the centre of your upper back, between your shoulder blades. Mark in pen beside the spot where the product has been applied, then wait for 24-48 hours. If the area has reddened and is raised or swollen, it is wise not to use the chemical.

Patch tests can give false positive results, particularly if you have very irritable or sensitive skin. False negatives sometimes result as well, so a negative result does not mean that you tolerate the chemical. Patch-testing is not foolproof, therefore, and not totally reliable. However, it can be a help and at least some indication of whether or not you are sensitive to something.

If you are just starting out and want advice on how to carry out an elimination programme, primarily to test out what does or doesn’t upset you, read on from here.

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You may feel worse and have a few new symptoms (for instance, headaches, muscle aches, sometimes nausea) for the first few days when you stop using products. This is withdrawal as the chemicals clear from your body. Some people do not notice any withdrawal symptoms at all, while others can feel quite ill for a few days.

Monitor any symptoms for the week that you do not use products, allowing for withdrawal. If you experience improvement, either continue not using the products or reintroduce them one at a time, not more than one a day, preferably one per week, and see if any change in symptoms results.

If total abstinence is too radical a step for you, then you can try either not using one product for a week and then reintroducing it; or switching to a hypoallergenic alternative and trying it for a while. These are often more tolerable approaches and less disruptive, but they can give you misleading results and some people find that they end up taking more time and effort than a short, sharp programme.

Rather than buying a product before patch-testing, ask the shop assistant to apply a sample for you from a product or apply a patch from samples on display.

You can also write to manufacturers or suppliers to ask for samples to test.

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There are various kinds of fillers. Two basic kinds are reasonably trouble-free – acrylic fillers used to fill gaps and cracks, providing ahard surface once §et, and cellulose fillers used to fill finer holes, providing a less hard surface.

Acrylic fillers can give off fumes on use and can cause sensitivity at the time, but do not usually cause problems over their life. Brand names are Unibond, Evo Seal, W. H. Smith Do It All Acrylic Filler.

Cellulose fillers cause no sensitivity problems, although the dust can irritate. Brand names of these include Polyfilla and Tetron. Most DIY chains have their own-label cellulose filler.

Expanding fillers are based on a foam which hardens once in place. They contain isocyanates and are best avoided. Exterior fillers contain resins and can cause reactions. Use only if essential

Dry-lining a wall with an insulating layer can help solve persistent condensation problems on external walls (see Insulation, below).

Floor Sealants

For varnishes and lacquers to seal wood and cork floors. If you need to seal quarry tiles, use linseed oil. This is available by post from Livos. You can also use linseed oil as a sealant on cork floors, as well as varnishes and lacquers.

Grout

Grouts for tiling often contain fungicides and these types are best avoided. Grouts are either cement-based or epoxy-based. These can burn or irritate the skin on contact when using them, but do not cause persistent sensitivity. Cement-based grouts are less troublesome on use. Cement-based grouts without fungicide include Polycell Tile Grout, Evostik Wall Tile Grout and Evostik Floor Tile Grout. The colourings in coloured grouts are usually minerals and do not cause sensitivity.

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It is hard to avoid nickel in daily life. It is found in metal coins, jewellery, wristwatches, spectacles, fastenings on garments, pins and metal buttons, metal handles, wire supports in bras and other support garments. It is also found in some medical uses such as the needles of hypodermic syringes, orthopaedic implants, some prostheses, heart valves, electrodes, and in some kinds of contraceptive intra-uterine device (coil).

Tapwater can also contain nickel, leaching from pipes and boilers. Filtering water will remove this. Stainless steel contains nickel, but it is only released when in contact with water or a liquid that is acid. Cooking acid foodstuffs, such as apples or rhubarb, in stainless steel utensils can cause nickel to be released. Some detergents, and sweat, also have the capacity to release nickel from stainless steel. For these reasons, although stainless steel is usually free of problems, it is probably best avoided for cooking utensils. Ceramic utensils are a good alternative. For avoidance of nickel in daily life, it is best to try and avoid wearing metal jewellery, watches, fastenings, buttons or anything else next to the skin, or even where sweat may carry it through a garment.

Some jewellery is labelled hypoallergenic (low-allergen) but other jewellery may contain nickel (for instance, some gold jewellery). Often jewellers will not know if a certain type of gold contains nickel or not. Wearing earrings particularly pre-disposes to nickel allergy and people sensitive to nickel should only wear stainless-steel earrings (which do not release their nickel) or more costly gold earrings free of nickel. Having the ears pierced only with stainless steel needles, and wearing stainless steel earrings for at least three weeks after piercing can help protect against nickel sensitivity developing, as can avoiding piercing ears in early childhood.

Chromates

Chromates are compounds of the metal chromium. They can cause allergy through contact in industrial and occupational exposure, and in daily life where chromates are used in tanned leather, in various toiletries and cleaning products, as a mordant in fixing dye to some fabrics, and a number of other uses, including in some match heads.

Chromates are a significant problem in allergic reactions resulting from exposure at work. One of the most common causes is cement in the construction industry. Other occupations that are vulnerable include printing, dyeing, photography, rust-proofing, enamelling, tanning, and handling wood treated with chromates. There may be no way to avoid these problems at work, although wearing face masks and gloves can help.

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