Size of controlled space:
The more air that you have in your residence, the more replacement air you may require for that air to become refreshed. Volume of air will depend on a number of factors including:

• total floor space;
• height of ceilings;
• shape of ceilings;
• wall protrusions;
• enclosed dead space.

CONTROLLED SPACE is an equally relevant factor to volume of space. Even when air exchange devices and procedures are undertaken, unless such interact with all areas --- some spaces may have an air quality more degraded than others. Reduced air circulation and higher degrees of local air pollution sources will produce regions of more toxic air than the remainder of the residence. Areas which are withdrawn from the air refresh system can include these:

• underfloor crawlspace;
• unventilated closets;
• unvented bathrooms;
• segregated rooms;
• dirty clothing;
• outgasing fabrics.

MORE DETAIL WILL HELP CLARIFY THIS.
Spaces which have inadequate air exchange will tend to gradually accumulate heavier-than-oxygen gases: carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides (car fumes), cigarette smoke, cooking gases, moist air, formaldehyde, cleaning solvent fumes, electrically- and smoke-generated ozone, methane, radon gas. EACH of these gases can be fatal in high enough concentrations. Each presents symptoms of toxicity at some level of presence.

COMBINATIONS of such gases can confuse awareness and analysis-by-symptom by their leveraging of the toxic influence while substituting modified symptoms which share nothing with the symptomology of toxic amounts of any of the component gases. Long before a chronic illness is produced, chronic attitude, behavior, and communication deficiencies may threaten relationships with misunderstandings and paranoia. These may spread to unconsciously introduced lifestyle patterns which minimize intimacy and increase intolerance.

AN EXAMPLE:
If you constantly feel tired, achy, irritated, distracted, and nauseous when you are at home ... your brain's Reptilian Structure will encourage you to stay longer at work, become more involved in away-from-home activities, and, to act out with anger when family members seek to interact with you. Consciously, you know this is destructive for these relationships, so, consciously your Ego comes to the rescue with all forms of excuses to justify this behavior. Commonly expressed cover-ups for this lack of awareness include these:

• "I've had a hard day (harder than you)";
• "You caused it (because I wasn't angry before)";
• "You are always on my case (by adding to my stress)";
• "You don't love me anymore (because you are always tired)";
• "Your job, friends, hobbies ... are more important than me/us";
• "You are not the person I knew (who interacted with me)".

This expression of symptoms and rationalizations is seldom an immediate response to entering the degraded environment. It is more like an itch you can't quite feel ... like bright light which is uncomfortable but not yet a glare ... like an objectionable odor you can't quite identify, or, like the buzz of an angry bee on the other side of a pane of glass.

YOUR REPTILIAN STRUCTURE KNOWS what it is --- but cannot communicate that reality to your conscious Ego. Your Ego denies, doubts, and blames the reality on anything but what it does not know --- for it is too proud to admit ignorance and too defensive to admit insecurity. Like many other aspects of hypersensitivities --- indoor air pollution can influence the degradation of one's physical-emotional-intellectual-spiritual health and one's most valued relationships. It doesn't have to. You now have knowledge. You have choices.

UNVENTED CLOSETS allow for the transfer and production of toxins carried by clothing. When clothing which has been worn is stored side-by-side with clean clothing, the potential for a transfer of mold and fungal spores, bacteria, viruses, and a host of other parasites ranging from ticks and fleas to amoeba ... is high.

The presence of sweat stain, body oils, dandruff, fallen hair, natural fabrics, and skin flakes ... in darkness and humidity ... encourage the multiplication and activity of all of these parasites. Their waste products encourage dust accumulation ... and dust mite proliferation. There are a range of options which can improve on this common source of indoor pollution.
They include:

• installing a return air duct vent in the closet;
• storing clean and used clothing in separate closets;
• using painted wire ventilated shelving for shoes & hats;
• providing forced air ventilation directly out of the house;
• cladding the closet with a natural antibacterial cedar lining;
• using multiple mirror sliding doors for unobstructed openness;
• leaving closet doors open during non-sleep or non-visitor times.

UNVENTED or INADEQUATELY VENTED bathrooms prove to be one of the greatest concerns for hypersensitive persons. The inherent production of humidity from showers and baths provides a potential for mildew and mold buildup which is intensified by the following factors:

• frequency of showers and baths taken (number/day);
• number of persons using the bathroom & length of shower;
• presence and length of operation of a ventilation fan;
• cfm (cubic feet per minute) capacity of ventilation fan;
• size of bathroom about which humidity will be spread;
• presence, size, and length of open use of windows;
• type of and cleanliness of floor covering;
• presence of dirty clothes hampers.

ALL UNFILTERED AIR entering a bathroom contains mildew spores. Open windows encourage drying, reduce privacy, and introduce spores and smog. Carpet tile, broadloom, rugs and runners for flooring all encourage bacterial transfer and spore multiplication. Dirty clothes hampers provide a source of all of the contaminants mentioned above for dirty clothes in closed unventilated closets --- enhanced by higher humidity and other potential sources of contaminants. Leaving dirty clothes on the floor, countertops, or wall-hooks --- encourages transfer of bacteria, spores and viruses to surfaces. All that mold requires to grow is a surface, humidity, a little air, and ... soap scum on walls ... bacteria on floorcoverings, countertops, .... How can you win? Here are some options for a healthier bathroom:

• install a one-piece fiberglas tub-shower unit;
• use a quiet, high capacity exhaust ventilation fan;
• operate the fan for twice the duration of your shower;
• use ceramic tile flooring heated with a radiant source;
• keep your bathroom window clean, closed, and locked;
• store dirty clothes in a separate well ventilated area;
• remove dirty clothing in the bedroom and use a robe;
• use washable slippers rather than going barefoot.

SEGREGATED ROOMS are those rooms which tend to be closed off from the common areas of the house.
These include:

• basement;
• crawlspace;
• closets;
• bathrooms;
• unused rooms;
• bedrooms;
• workshops;
• home offices.

To the extent that these rooms are uninsulated or poorly insulated, unheated or poorly heated, unventilated or poorly ventilated --- they will encourage the growth of many forms of parasites. The human immune system detects the presence of other lifeforms as stress. As uncontrollable and competitive stresses increase in magnitude without positive stress relief, the Reptilian Structure begins to mount defences.

WHEN A CRITICAL PERSONAL THRESHOLD of negative stress accumulation is reached --- major defences are called upon ... and hypersensitivity reactions begin to occur. Because a personal threshold of health and survival safety has been exceeded without awareness, concern, or self-discipline --- compulsive, over-reactive behaviors may replace choices.

FREEDOM and CHOICE, OR, restriction and compulsion?
It is your life.
Why not use the choices you have with self-discipline before you lose the freedom to choose.

Oxygen availability:
The air in and around your residence may be clean yet it may have lower than optimum levels of oxygen. Many forms of pollution may compete with you for the oxygen in the air around you, or, may displace the oxygen from your availability. There are some naturally occurring circumstances which may also lead to reduced oxygen levels in the local air. Let's consider some of these and what we can do.

METHANE is a heavier-than-oxygen gas which is produced by decaying organic material and from some inorganic chemical interactions. The most common exposure you are likely to come into contact with is in some marshes and around manure storage areas on farms. Much folklore has arisen about spirits and strange visions happening in forested swampy areas. Usually, this is an extension of the darting, flickering, colorful lights which may appear to dance and dart over the swampy surface during the night.

WILL-O'-THE-WISP and other names are used to describe this phenomenon. This vision happens when the methane gas collecting over the swampy surface spontaneously ignites. Methane is given off by the decaying soil and with the shelter of the trees or surface vegetation and the lack of breezes to disperse the gas --- it collects in concentration near the surface. Parts of the gas may be ignited and this ignition may spread quickly from one pocket of gas to another ... producing an illusion of a light moving. Ignorance, confusion, fear and imagination have encouraged people to identify this with mysterious, malevolent lifeforms.

SWAMPY FORESTED AREAS located in deep, steep-walled valleys or other natural enclosures are hazardous. Humans can be quickly overpowered by the methane gas concentration and fall unconscious. The result can be fatality through a fall, drowning, suffocation, predator attack, or, and eventually lifeforms which feed on carrion. There are many reports of individuals disappearing in swampy areas.

DURING THE KOREAN WAR, a troop of Chinese soldiers pursuing Koreans entered a mountain valley in a very treacherous and largely unexplored region. They disappeared and were presumed to have been captured or killed by the enemy. Decades later, their bodies were found. They had all quickly succumbed to methane poisoning as the entered the methane cloud in the lower part of the valley. Hikers and explorers should always research regions and prepare for the possible before entering them.

In CHAD, Africa, a town and its livestock were overcome by a methane cloud and died in seconds during the 1960's. Their village was located on the shore of a lake which had formed in the crater of a long extinct volcano. Decaying vegetation had collected at the bottom of the lake for decades. The methane gases slowly released from the vegetation collected in bubbles at the bottom of the heavy water column.

GAS CONTINUED TO ACCUMULATE providing greater and greater potential for it to all spontaneously erupt to the surface and disburse as a toxic wind over the land beside the lake and still within the shelter of the crater's inside walls ... grew. When this did happen, most of the people and other lifeforms influenced dropped where they were and died within minutes. This geography is repeated locally and tribal history records that similar occurrences have happened in the past. Pay attention to the history of a region before locating there.

FARMERS with dairy, beef, hog, and other livestock production must regularly house their animals in stables and pens during the cold seasons. The manure (straw bedding, urine, and feces) is frequently collected and removed to an outdoor collection pile. There, it freely dries, composts, and outgases. The methane produced is freely available for dispersal in the open air and by breezes. When manure is allowed to build up in tightly enclosed holding pens that have inadequate ventilation, the air may become heavier with methane and produce drowsiness, lack of attention and headaches --- for both the livestock and their human attendants.

POTENTIALLY FATAL CIRCUMSTANCES can arise when the manure is collected or stored in enclosed tanks or pits. As the tank fills and the manure gases off methane, the airspace may become increasingly filled with methane. Workers who enter the tank for inspection of cleaning may fall unconscious in seconds and die if unaided. This happens because while the person is able to breathe, they are receiving no oxygen. Such workers are best advised to use a supplementary source of air or oxygen at such times.

Outgasing components:
The more that humans have manufactured synthetic products, the more that they have added subtle sources of toxic gases to their lifestyle and environment. As of 1998, these sources include:

• 92% of modern clothing;
• 95% of N. American carpeting;
• 86% of paints and finishes;
• 92% of all forms of plastic;
• all industrial pesticides;
• all industrial insecticides;
• 99% of all solvents;
• 95% of other fabrics.

We fill our indoor environment with these sources and bathe our skin with them.
They rob our environment and our life system of oxygen by replacing it with their presence or by being attracted into and staying in our cells. Like a set of mild drugs and toxic chemicals they increase the degree of alert which our immune system initiates while conversely tranquillizing us and dulling our awareness. More detail on many of these sources will be found on the pages of this site which focus on Clothing, Paints and Finishes, Floorcovering, Insulation, Atmospheric Quality. In the interim, here are some basic pointers for healthy lifestyle and housing design:

• maintain a clean dwelling;
• use quality products to reduce maintenance;
• replace synthetic with natural source fabrics;
• ensure that you have fresh interior air;
• insulate well to reduce power demand;
• be compassionate of others;
• respect your health;
• inform others.