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As some of you know, my Dad died on Nov. 7th, his 88th birthday. He was a lifelong smoker, 2-3 packs a day (and, he hated open windows!) with 38 years of living in that house.
Anyway, I went down to his house a couple of weeks ago and picked up a bunch of stuff that I didn't want sitting in the empty house. I was concerned. thinking what if someone broke-in (knowing the house sits unoccupied) and either trashed it or stole whatever they could carry. There were things that couldn't be replaced and have great sentimental value, so I filled-up the entire Expedition and brought it home. I felt pretty bad that day, physically, but thought it had to do with sadness (he'd died just days earlier).
Anyway, the stuff sat in our garage and garden shed for a couple of weeks until last weekend. I felt like tackling the job of removing photographs from their frames, cleaning Dad's medals, removing buttons from all his uniforms before disposing of them (we'll be burning them) and cleaning all of Mom's jewelry (it was still in the house).
I cleaned and cleaned these items, using really hot water and detergent + ammonia. The dish pan in the sink was emptied multiple times with water that looked like strong tea. Yech, it was the nicotine coating everything from the house.
Neither of us wore rubber gloves (I hate gloves!).
I began feeling really bad, nausea, massive headache and dizziness. Ds felt ill, too, as he wanted to help clean the jewelry. We felt so bad, dh was ready to take us to the hospital!
Suddenly, I thought about what we'd been doing and asked dh to check on the internet about nicotine poisoning. Yup, that was it!! All the symptoms matched perfectly.
We're better now, but felt really bad for a couple of days. When I talked to our doctor about it, he agreed that was what it sounded like.
So, if any of you have to clean things from the house of a smoker, WEAR GLOVES and HAVE GREAT VENTILATION!!!! I really mean this!
And, those of you that smoke, realize that this stuff DOES stubbornly adhere to everything it touches (hard surfaces and soft). It IS a poison and it DOES harm everyone it contacts.
Knowing what it's like on hard, non-porous surfaces makes you scared stiff as to what it does to soft tissue!
uke
Anyway, I went down to his house a couple of weeks ago and picked up a bunch of stuff that I didn't want sitting in the empty house. I was concerned. thinking what if someone broke-in (knowing the house sits unoccupied) and either trashed it or stole whatever they could carry. There were things that couldn't be replaced and have great sentimental value, so I filled-up the entire Expedition and brought it home. I felt pretty bad that day, physically, but thought it had to do with sadness (he'd died just days earlier).
Anyway, the stuff sat in our garage and garden shed for a couple of weeks until last weekend. I felt like tackling the job of removing photographs from their frames, cleaning Dad's medals, removing buttons from all his uniforms before disposing of them (we'll be burning them) and cleaning all of Mom's jewelry (it was still in the house).
I cleaned and cleaned these items, using really hot water and detergent + ammonia. The dish pan in the sink was emptied multiple times with water that looked like strong tea. Yech, it was the nicotine coating everything from the house.
Neither of us wore rubber gloves (I hate gloves!).
I began feeling really bad, nausea, massive headache and dizziness. Ds felt ill, too, as he wanted to help clean the jewelry. We felt so bad, dh was ready to take us to the hospital!
Suddenly, I thought about what we'd been doing and asked dh to check on the internet about nicotine poisoning. Yup, that was it!! All the symptoms matched perfectly.
We're better now, but felt really bad for a couple of days. When I talked to our doctor about it, he agreed that was what it sounded like.
So, if any of you have to clean things from the house of a smoker, WEAR GLOVES and HAVE GREAT VENTILATION!!!! I really mean this!
And, those of you that smoke, realize that this stuff DOES stubbornly adhere to everything it touches (hard surfaces and soft). It IS a poison and it DOES harm everyone it contacts.
Knowing what it's like on hard, non-porous surfaces makes you scared stiff as to what it does to soft tissue!
uke
