From: GodsMerciful2Us@aol.com

A friend sent me a link to your site when she ran across the letter from Randy concerning exposure to Chlordane and the symptoms he experienced.

When I was growing up, my father used Chlordane as pest control for our small family operated hardware and grocery store as well as in our home.  I was 13 at the time and worked there for nine years.  When he heard it was being banned, like many, he stockpiled it so that he would be able to continue to use it.  It was used to spray the bare concrete floors inside the store around the shelving where canned good items and other items were setting.  It was also used in the back storage area where extra cases of bottled drinks were stored and also on the floor in the area where a small meat counter was where the sliced different kinds of lunch meats.  My mother and father normally did most of the spraying but I also used it when needed and it was also used for pest control inside of my apartment when I was older.  Direct exposure was limited except when spraying or mixing it but the residue from spraying the shelving and around the drinks did leave ! a possibility for it to contaminate us.  I don't know how long the effects of Chlordane can affect your body once you are away from where it is used.. whether or not it is stored in your body (I read something about it being stored in fat cells and later breaking down) .. and whether exposure to it when i was younger and still developing is an issue.  These are some of the questions I have regarding it.

The reason I ask is that in the last two years... 20 years after my last exposure to this that I am aware of... I have developed health problems that the doctors are not finding help for.  It first began with vertigo spells... there was no pain but sudden room spinning dizziness episodes accompanied by a cold sweat, nausea, paleness of the face.  A couple months after this began, I developed a different type of dizzy spell.. more of a whoozy feeling with intense pain in my ears, an "axe in the back of your head" headache, flushing of the face, and extreme nausea.  The pain cycled from my head to my ears to extreme nausea lasting for about 20 seconds of the headache, 20 seconds ears, 20 seconds nausea.. over and over and over. The onset was sudden and the episode continued in this cycling mode for about 30 to 45 minutes.  It would wake me up in the middle of the night because of the pain even and each time left me in tears.  This eventually evolved in! to a continuous 24/7 headache.. still with ear pain and nausea.. accompanied by the periods of the cycling episodes at random.  After 10 specialists and all kinds of tests and medicines, the closest thing we have come to a diagnosis is that it is possibly migraines, possibly from sleep apnea they discovered recently, or possibly from pseudotumor cerebri diagnosed after a spinal tap (not a tumor but mimics the symptoms of a tumor from what is actually excess fluid on the brain).. It could be one or all causing the problems.   There are digestive problems ranging from diarrhea to stomach cramps to nausea that are on a continuous daily basis.  They also discovered that my antinuclear antibodies are elevated... a ratio of 1:20 being normal.. mine read upwards of 1:1280 and the last time it was 1:640.   They have yet to come up with a reason why for this.. just that for now they are elevated and it's a wait and see game until more symptoms come and ! a diagnosis can be made...The double stranded DNA test showed normal b ut the rheumotoligist said lupus may be one explanation.  I have also developed endometrial hyperplasia over the last two years which is now being controlled by the use of provera.  I have had a history of being susceptible to bronchitis and often had it when I was younger.  I had pneumonia twice when I was older.  I do have problems breathing off and on at times.. it doesn't feel like an obstruction but more that my breathing just gets shallower and shallower and then it's as if i forget to breathe.   As I noticed in some of the descriptions, it mentioned being overweight and that also applies to my situation.  They have repeatedly tested my thyroids but the results are normal each time.

To say that I am frustrated would be the understatement of a lifetime.  Medicines for the pseudotumor cerebri have offered some but little relief.  I am still having episodes with the headaches/nausea/ear pain but the intensity has been reduced some and instead of 24/7 they come and go sporadically... sometimes for an hour.. sometimes for days.  Migraine meds help take the edge off when the pain is too intense but most times it requires great effort to do even simple daily routines.  My life as I once knew it is gone.  My children have missed out so much the last couple years because I just cannot manage to go as I did just two years ago.  I had a daycare in my home.. for a year that was reduced to one child and now I am only able to manage two or three at best... on the bad days.. even that is near impossible.

The only reason I even began to suspect that this may be caused by the Chlordane is that a site i visited listed that as one of the possible causes of the pseudotumor cerebri.  I do not go back to my neurologist until 2 more months... when I do, however, I plan on asking him to run tests to confirm this as a possible source of the problem.    I really don't know if he will be familiar with this at all so if you have any insight or suggestions, please let me know.  I just feel if we could find the reason, then we could find some solutions perhaps.

(How could this happen?  Just read this email and find out one of the reasons this deadly toxin is still in our environment:  Click Here)