Mold Travel Awareness

One of the outcomes of a toxic mold exposure is vigilance when selecting a home or traveling. One family all too familiar with the hazards of water damage used their recent travel experience to educate State Park officials by submitting the following letter.

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Dear State Parks Office:

We have enjoyed XXX State Park for nearly 25 years and planned a trip with overnight lodging in the cabins for July 29 to August 2, 2013. We were assigned Cabin 20 and found a disconnected PVC pipe under the kitchen sink. The pipe appeared to have been leaking a long time and caused a mold problem.

We have extensive experience with toxic indoor molds. These toxic indoor molds are not healthy for people with routine exposures such as the housecleaning crews and the maintenance crews. If a crew is assigned to clean mold, it is best to use personal protective equipment and to have training.

Photos of the kitchen sink in Cabin 20 are below:

The park office personnel pleasantly took care of our complaint about Cabin 20 and allowed us to look at Cabin 40. Cabin 40, also, had water damage in the bathroom sink cabinet and on the vaulted ceiling beam. We decided it was best not to stay in the cabins, and the park office personnel were nice in refunding the payment.

Photos of Cabin 40 are inserted below:

We left the park and returned the following day, July 30. In the park office, we overheard a guest telling the park office personnel she had a leaky cabin toilet that appeared to have leaked for a long time. It may be necessary to inspect the cabins for water damage and to use extreme caution cleaning water damaged areas. In my opinion, the housecleaning crews are exposed to health risks in Cabins 20 and 40.

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Thankfully, this family knew to avoid these accommodations—a fresh reminder to all of us to check for water damage when traveling.

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Green Travel Tips

Planning a vacation this summer? Would you like to minimize your exposure to chemicals and/or mold while enjoying your hotel of choice?

New construction, plug-ins, dryer sheets, new carpeting, and cleaning products all require the use of harsh chemicals. If you want to "go the extra mile" and call ahead to see if the hotel is a fit for you, consider asking these 10 questions before placing your reservation. Most hotels will not be able to answer yes to all of these, but some may be willing to make changes to help you avoid some of those unwanted environmental challenges.

1. Is your property smoke-free?
2. Is your property pet-free? Do you offer rooms that are guaranteed pet-free?
3. Do you use natural cleaning products? Would your cleaning service be willing to clean with white vinegar only?
4. Are there windows in the room that open easily for ventilation?
5. Do you offer allergy-friendly rooms with hypoallergenic bedding?
6. Are towels and linens unscented? Would your staff be willing to eliminate dryer sheets for bedding in our room?
7. Are there plug-ins on the property? Are there fragrance-free rooms available?
8. Is there a history of flooding or water damage?
9. Has the property been sprayed for pesticides recently? How about individual rooms?
10. Do you have any rooms with brand-new carpeting? How recently have the carpets been cleaned?

Two hotel chains that might be particularly favorable to this list are Hyatt and Fairmont, according to this New York Times article.

My chemically-sensitive daughter traveled to New Mexico recently and requested unscented bedding, and the hotel left out the dryer sheets. They also cleaned with white vinegar. With some ventilation and a diffuser, she did great! Keep in mind, you're the customer—and you never know until you ask!

For more suggestions on low-toxic travel, see the Safer Travel Directory, which is downloadable for a cost of $17.

Interested in practical packing tips? Check out the momsAWARE article, 10 Ways to Use a Plastic Shower Cap.

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Summer Vacation Tips

Traveling this summer? On this month's Toxic Talk Tuesday, Chris and I consider practical ways to take toxic-free living on the road. How do you stick with a healthy diet? We'll hear your ideas and offer a unique list - "10 Ways to Use a Plastic Shower Cap" - on Tuesday, July 23 on Chris Fabry Live! Tune in live at 2:00 p.m. Central time or visit the Chris Fabry Live! website to listen later via the podcast or archived stream.

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Good News for Travelers

Hotel chains are catching on to the growing numbers of people with allergies and chemical sensitivity.

According to the New York Times, two hotel chains, Hyatt and Fairmont, are designating permanent allergy-friendly rooms, with medical-grade air purifiers and chemical- and fragrance-free bath products.

The Times article states:

Thirty-eight percent of hotels offer some kind of allergy-friendly service in guest rooms, a 14 percent increase in the last two years, according to the 2010 Lodging Survey prepared for the American Hotel and Lodging Association by STR, a hotel research company.

The trend toward improving indoor air quality is part of the larger green movement that began with nonsmoking rooms, said Ray Burger, founder of Pineapple Hospitality, which administers a “green” hotel certification program and operates freshstay.com, an online booking site for smoke-free rooms. The Web site plans to add icons soon for hypoallergenic rooms, and to show what chemicals are used in cleaning products, paints, sealants and bath products.

Hyatt recently announced plans to create hypoallergenic rooms in all of its full-service hotels in North America. The rooms, which will soon total about 2,000 in 125 properties, cost $20 to $30 extra a night and are intended to eliminate up to 98 percent of allergens and irritants. A medical-grade purifier continuously circulates air, Hyatt said.

“This was a market really underserved,” said Tom Smith, vice president of rooms for Hyatt.

The number of allergy sufferers is believed to have gone up substantially since the late ’70s, said Dr. Darryl Zeldin, senior investigator and acting clinical director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Roughly half of Americans are sensitive to at least one common allergen. Different testing methods may account for some of the increase, but better hygiene resulting in less exposure to bacteria is also thought to play a role, Dr. Zeldin said.

Brian Brault, chief executive of Pure Solutions, the company that installs and maintains Hyatt’s hypoallergenic rooms, said more than 200 hotels nationwide, including properties at several major brands, had Pure Solutions rooms, but Hyatt was the first to offer them across its brands. Some hotel conference centers also use the technology, he said.

The Fairmont Vancouver Airport hotel has had an entire hypoallergenic floor since 1999, and other Fairmont properties have long provided services to guests with allergies. But the chain is in the final stages of a pilot program for permanent hypoallergenic rooms that it plans to introduce gradually this year.

“We’re looking at the bigger picture,” said Paul Kingsbury, director of housekeeping for the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. The approach will include featherless duvets and pillows and chemical- and perfume-free bath products, as well as in-room mini bars from which all nuts have been removed and room service meals that cater to various food allergies. All Fairmont chefs have been trained to prepare a vast array of special dietary and allergy-specific meals.

Fairmont’s hypoallergenic rooms will cost about $25 extra a night.

Mr. Kingsbury recalled a patron who had a terrible reaction because she saw, through a small rip in a duvet, some fibers that she mistook for down. The duvet contained no feathers, but “sometimes even the perception of an allergen can be harmful,” he said. “Knowing things are set up properly is a big comfort for the guests.”

Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University, said that because more people were being found to have allergies, it made business sense for hotels to provide a greater number of allergy-friendly rooms. But the rooms also have great general appeal.

“There are many people who request special rooms, not because they have allergies but because they believe those rooms will have a higher degree of sanitation and cleanliness,” Mr. Hanson said. “It’s a way for hotels to invest a little bit more for a room but get a premium for both occupancy and rate.”

Mike Piazza, a partner at the law firm Greenberg Traurig in Irvine, Calif., said he did not realize he had allergies until one night on a business trip, “I woke up and I couldn’t breathe.” It turned out he was allergic to down. “I called the front desk to get a foam pillow,” he said. “Then I was fine.”

Lisa Abbott, a marketing consultant for nonprofit groups in Oakland, Calif., who suffers from multiple chemical sensitivities, has learned the benefits firsthand of good air quality in a hotel room.

At home, she rarely takes the morning rush hour train, to avoid “breathing in a soup of fumes and fragrances” from deodorant, hair products and freshly laundered clothing. Traveling, she said, has “always been dicey.” But she stayed in one of Hyatt’s new rooms on a recent trip to Chicago. “The air is purer,” she said. “I slept great. I felt energized both days of conferences. It has just completely opened up my travel options.”

The entire article can be viewed by clicking here.

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