Summary-line: 1-May wilcox@cis.ohio-state.edu #Re: chemical sprayed in office *** EOOH *** Return-Path: Date: Wed, 1 May 91 02:14:41 -0400 From: Patricia P Wilcox To: bitter@allegro.tti.com Subject: Re: chemical sprayed in office Cc: immune@weber.ucsd.edu Cypermethrin. "Potent synthetic pyrethroid insecticide." Used against flies on cattle. (Merck #2775) Looking at the chemical structure, it's not surprising it affects you badly. Pyrethrins (from daisies, chrysanthemums) bother me a lot -- in fact, I got sick when my mother-in-law had a pot of chrysan- themums in the room. The reason I believe us "wimps" get so sick so soon from these things is that we have a genetic deficiency of one of 10 or 12 enzymes that affect the creation and transport of a tripeptide called glutathione, which participates in the normal mechanism the body uses to neutralize exogenous toxins (like insecticides and organic solvents). At least 5% of us, and maybe as high as 15%, are born with such enzyme deficiencies. Usually this doesn't cause any noticeable effects, but it's a time bomb waiting for the right chemical trigger to set it off. Besides a genetic lack of some glutathione-related enzyme, I believe I have an acquired deficiency of P5N, which is the thing that's destroyed by lead poisoning, and I think is also destroyed by the methyl isobutyl ketone solvent in dry-erase whiteboard markers. This is all just guess- work, but I've sent a lot of blood to a lab that will measure all these enzyme levels in red blood cells (white blood cells are probably even more wildly out of kilter, but red cells should show *something* wrong), so in a week or so I'll let the mailing list know the results. While you're yelling at your company facilities department anyway, tell them to get rid of all their *&^&%$#@! dry erase markers (dispose of them as toxic waste) and replace them with Sanford Expo II ("low odor") markers, which are not really non-toxic but they're about a thousand times less toxic than the regular ketone-based markers. Good luck to you. I never did convince my company to change, so eventually I left, after a 3-year-long splitting headache. Quite a few of the people who are still there are having serious health problems. --Pat Wilcox (wilcox@cis.ohio-state.edu)