The women here are all sick supposedly with a cold. The owner wonders why everyone keeps getting sick all the time.
Firstly the air vents for the heat are old like the building so its probably dirty.
Secondly the women don't do.their chores like they should so its not clean clean which always prevents sicknesses from spreading.
Thirdly they worship bleach down here. If you use chemicals too strong concentrations (most Americans do) you are messing up your body's ability to assimilate to the natural environment. Its something I've learned from being chemically sensitive (due to long term damage from that moldy apartment) and being a traveler as well as an urban camper or sleeping in truck rigs.
What makes homes dirty enough for people to start getting sick all the time is a combination of staying in one place too long and the inside of a building not being able to get as clean as nature does for outside.
The only 'dirty' places I've slept outside were dirty due to humans making the area dirty the way we make every place we occupy dirty- the accumulation of germs and bacteria due to repeated use without proper cleaning.
Places in cities where humans have dirtied a particular area that doesn't get cleaned. This is the number one problem as an urban camper outside of authorities making it impossible to camp to begin with. Some of the spaces you have to choose from are hidden so they aren't cleaned by whoever cleans for the city or that business.
But I always noted that it was due to repeated use by humans or animals without exposure to the elements or humans cleaning the area.
The spaces in cities outside as well as your home inside are not movable. Concrete with fixtures in cities can become dirt ridden for different reasons. In places like Boston the age of the area makes it so dirty over centuries that even the elements can't clean it as well as city workers miss these spots.
In newer places like San Diego it simply doesn't rain or snow enough and temps don't get down low enough to kill things. City workers may use bleach or wash with sprayers but that doesn't make it healthy. Bleach certainly doesn't. And bleach doesn't kill lice or mites. Its a joke.
The best remedy is always to assess how healthy a city is for urban camping. Use coverings like cardboard AND tarps and don't let anyone or their gear get too close to you.
Travelers who urban camp seem to do best and I am convinced its due to not staying in any one place too long.
I note that if I catch anything uncomfortable I always can get rid of it simply by hitching a ride to a new location.
Being housed inside a structure set up like most modern Americans live usually makes me ill eventually.
People tend to not clean enough in hard to reach or not used areas but then overuse chemicals in main areas. Its not the dirt in the main area carrying germs its the space behind the toilet and the layer of dust you can't see above doorways on top of high up structures like appliances, shelves etc.
Use of strong chemicals in laundry and in cleaning only give your body more crap to fight and process toxins. UNATURAL crap at that. Chemical companies don't want you to think about nature outside being healthy they want you to percieve it as a threat. Dirt outside in a clean less urban environment isn't going to make you sick. Dirt inside and harsh chemicals is going to make you sick.
Old vents To heat are a nightmare so is carpeting. Who knows what's between the walls or in the ceiling. Its what's in hidden untouched spaces that we don't think about.
They turn the heat up here and that made me sick even before everyone got a bug. After sleeping outside through the night heat up too high is weakening to my body. And my body being exposed outside as well as traveling is what has made me fend off sickness for so long. I wonder about insulation as well. After having to leave my first room here due to my roommate being around it at her construction job I wondered what the hell does it do to us in the walls all over a house!
One of the ideas I came up with in Brighton during Bush was perhaps if houses were self regenerative-if they existed somehow as we do or nature does outside. Always cells dying being wasted and growing anew.
The reason inside is so deadly is becuz inside your home doesn't get exposed to wind, rain, snow or dirt and these things are part of a constant process of 'cleaning'- death and rebirth of materials just like our bodies do.
I looked at my apartment one day, with the all the sick building syndrome it suffered as well as the mold from the burst pipes, and I thought how the structures we live in are akin to dead bodies. Corpses. All the materials used simply rot and have to be replaced and anyone not having money to do that is stuck with a 'rotting' old building. This is what makes people sick in building like that.
The materials that are used to create these environments are toxic also. A chemically sensitive person knows this better than anyone else. The rugs smelt of phymeldihide (I know its misspelled) the paint is also unbearable even from an apartment across the hall. And in old buildings these chemicals used to make an apartment look new actual add to the toxin load humans have to process on top of mold etc in the building.
Unless you clean a structure properly inside as well as making sure the building is healthy all the bleach in the world in common areas wont make a difference. It will only add to your bodies list of things to process and act as a stressor.
Dusting is imperitive and no chemicals are necessary. Carpeting is a horror and my wet dream is ceramic tiling (like all the flooring in AZ is made of) or wood floors kept up or good ol' concrete. You can throw rugs on top of it..and best of all you can throw rugs away or sell nicer ones. No mysteries about what's under carpeting. (Which is disgusting I've seen it. More chemical materials more BS).
Soft comfortable things are disasterous. They can pick up germs, mites etc. Having chairs with any kind of cloth on them in a communal living situation with high turn over is totally unhealthy. Most places I go like this I can't sit in common areas as I feel something crawling and jumping on me in couches and fabric covered desk and kitchen chairs. Dust mites is usually what it is and if you get tested and are allergic you will experience knowing all too well they exist even when many other people don't seem bothered by them.
Cloth, pillows, blankets, couches, chairs, cushions and mattresses- all things that can pick up dirt and germs and keep you sick. People who live with a controlled population (family, friends, roommates, not a lot of strangers) or alone wont experience the repricussions of high traffic communal living inside a structure as I usually do.
The problem with all places that make people sick o have mentioned already. Its either in the building itself, its areas that arent easy to clean or people aren't thoroughly cleaning the inside as they should as well as overusing harsh chemicals.
Lack of ventilation is also a problem. Again you are dealing with being trapped inside a structure that is basically rotting from age. There is no wind, no rain or snow like outside.
If old sick buildings were exposed to the elements they'd prove unfit and be washed away. Rightly so becuz its dead wood and flimsy materials.
I would love to live in a concrete steel building with only Yang materials-glass, marble, metal..things that are hard, solid, stand up to time and are easily washed. Paint wouldn't even be allowed in the house nor carpeting. Simple but practical.
At this point I would rather sleep and live in dirt outside than anywhere (I can afford to live) inside. Dirt at least gets cleaned daily by the elements. Inside a structure everything just sits there and I notice I just start to sit there as well. There's no flow. And a 'nice' apartment with 'nice' people isn't the answer either. Those can be just as stangnant or have health issues. To make Inside more like Outside or to let nature inside, safely would be nice. I am sure there are clever designs that most Americans don't even know about that create a healthier living space. I am sure the construction, mason and other people who make money off of what's already in place prefer it that way.
The main offenses with using chemicals are using too much, not diluting enough, combining chemicals improperly and using them on surfaces not appropriate to the chemical.
One sees examples of misuse in homeless settings where staff are not OSHA trained or disregard it or worse- they allow clients to do the cleaning.
Only the slightly mentally ill would use Ajax powder straight to clean a floor. Then mop with a slightly damp mop. The powder residue afterwards is quite noticable- except to staff. San Diego day shelters do this and its a health hazard. Its illegal I believe in many ways but remember- the homeless population are not
