I'm not suggesting those with bad breath ... but those who are expelling 2-butoxyethanol fumes should not be passing the chemical on to others... in settings like an airplane where you sit very close to a stranger for a long number of hours... and the same air is being recirculated to everyone.

It is know that spouses and children of the 'gulf war vets,' for instance, have come down with the 'gulf war syndrome' symptoms too. This is a scary thing, but please, please don't take my comments as anything but something to look into. ... as to what you are sharing on. If you were harmed by this chemical ... you would have an all the time exhaustion and depression, too; and others would notice how you fly off the handle a lot. If you don't have that ... don't give it a second thought.

Just very briefly, I had a close family member who worked on the 'bioremediation' experiment of the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup just out of high school. He went on to college, so things I would have notice that had changed in him, I didn't know anything about. Three years ago he had a low red blood cell anemia: 3.9 for red blood cell count ... and the doctor couldn't determine what was going on after a colonoscopy, a bone marrow test, a lymph node biopsy. He showed me the info on Inipol EAP 22 and it said 2-butoxyethanol was a component. June, 02 I started to learn about this chemical, as it is said to cause hemolytic anemia. Ten months later I heard someone talking about the gulf war vets ... you know we all heard that they thought the were sick, and that's about all I'd heard. Well, when I looked at the short list of the 'gulf war syndrome' symptoms, I said,
"I RECOGNIZE these symptoms!"

Although I am not a medical person, I have been spending an average of 6 hours a day EVERY day for 2 years since then learning about groups of people harmed by this chemical. Walter Reid Army Medical Center says the gulf war vets are no more harmed than the general population. That's why I came to these boards, to see if the general population may also be harmed from one of their exposures: 2-butoxyethanol. (Which is a solvent, a pesticide, and a poison) The entire endocrine system is upset by pesticides, you know.

You know, if we look further, we may find there is a connection to Alzheimers Disease. Beyond the fatigue there are a lot of seemingly unrelated symptoms that this chemical causes: MS, joint problems, central nervous system damage is primary. Who's to say the the nervous connections and insulators aren't interferred with? Short term memory loss, and difficulty concentrating are for sure a part of this. So is damage to the testes. Did you know our nation is declining in sperm quality and virility? There are more childless couples and the trend is in that direction? It wouldn't surprise me if this is the culprit ... filtering down on our population out of the jet fuels and other exposures we get. Go to the 4 big news articles written on this topic in 1996: New Yorker, New York Times, Mother Jones, and Esquire ... also USA Today ran articles on this topic in 2000 and 2001: "Reduced Sperm Count"

It is true that a US Coast guardsman has been unable to father children since his monitoring of the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup's 'bioremediation experiment' He shared with me that he has zero sperm ... and there is no medical reason for such.

My husband thinks I'm wasting my time. I don't; I think this chemical is unsafe, and that someone will take things a step further & get the US Congress to add it to the list of approved disabilities for our military; and ban it from use at all. Dear God, help us. We are poisoning our own troops with a common cleaning, degreaser chemical.

.... and we are harming our future generations. This chemical is a teratogen. It harms the developing child in the womb. We will see more special ed in the public schools, and more premature births and failure to thrive. No innocent child, and couple eager to raise a child, should ever endure this unnecessary harm.

I am telling you this is a HUGE unrecognized medical crisis in our nation.  I never expected a study of one chemical to lead me where it has.