RE: DIG-L: Fw: Help for Methane gas Poisoning

["Leland C Powell" <lcpowell@dukeengineering.com>]

Tanya

You may want to investigate some other cause for the symptoms your family
is experiencing.  Methane is not toxic.  Is your furnace in good working
order, has your house been flooded with the potential for toxic mold, did
the previously tenant have a drug lab?

It is a good thing too that methane is not toxic since methane is produced
in the lower intestine, hence the term 'old fart'.  It is unlikely that a
crack in the foundation could leak enough of any kind of gas to cause a
problem unless you lived near a landfill or over a coal mine.  Very large
amounts of methane can be hazardous when the gas replaces oxygen in the
lungs and temporarily deprives the body and brain of oxygen diagnosed with
symptoms consistent with asphyxiants.  This is not likely to be your
problem since it would also represents an explosive hazard.  In this case,
leave the house until your gas company measures it for methane.

Since methane is not toxic, it is no wonder that you have had trouble
finding information on 'methane gas poisoning'. 'Methane gas poisoning'
appears to be somewhat of an urban legend.  This is often cited as the
cause of mysterious illness in buildings rather than finding the real
problem.  A good source of information on chemical safety can be Material
Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) at http://www.msdssearch.com/msdssearch.htm:

For methane, http://www.airgas.com/documents/pdf/1033.pdf
For carbon monoxide, http://www.airgas.com/documents/pdf/1014.pdf
For hydrogen sulfide, http://www.boc.com/gases/pdf/msds/G094.pdf

Good luck with finding the cause of your illness.

Have a renewable energy day. Regards,

Leland (Kit) Powell
Duke Engineering &Services
PO Box 3004
Richland, WA  99352
509-375-9720
509-375-9710 (fax)
lcpowell@dukeengineering.com



                                                                                           
                    "Don Dame"                                                             
                    <ddame@presse        To:     "Tom Miles" <tmiles@trmiles.com>,         
                    nter.com>            <digestion@crest.org>                             
                                         cc:     <free@goes.com>                           
                    04/04/2002           bcc:                                              
                    10:36 AM             Subject:     RE: DIG-L: Fw: Help for Methane gas  
                                         Poisoning                                         
                                                                                           




I think the first step is to determine if methane gas is really present.
There are "sniffer" instruments available which will detect even small
quantities of methane. Your local natural gas utility has these
instruments, and should be able to test the air in your house. Natural
methane is odorless, unless it comes from a utility pipeline, which
artificially adds the odor.

You can buy carbon monoxide detectors at your local hardware store

If there is some kind of gas present, then you need to fix the problem
mechanically. If there is no gas present, then you have a different medical
problem.

Good luck
     -----Original Message-----
     From: Tom Miles [mailto:tmiles@trmiles.com]
     Sent: April 03, 2002 6:59 PM
     To: digestion@crest.org
     Cc: free@goes.com
     Subject: DIG-L: Fw: Help for Methane gas Poisoning

     Digestion Members,

     Can anyone assist this family? Are there websites devoted to methane
     gas poisoning?

     Tom

     ----- Original Message -----
     From: Hendrickson
     To: tmiles@teleport.com
     Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 6:15 AM
     Subject: Methane gas

     Hi  I was on your site and read an e-mail that you responded to about
     methane gas.  I am in desperate need of further information on this
     subject and carbon minoxide poisoning but most important the first
     one.  My son has been very sick! his symptoms are nausea, abdominal
     pain,confusion, kidney pain,  possible sleepiness and very bad urinary
     problems which seemed to be caused by inflammation (? an irritant) .
     I spoke to someone at poison control who gave me limited info.  The
     house I live in has had a methane leak thru the foundation of the
     house caused by a crack.  The people who were previously here became
     very ill with these and more symptoms.  Finding someone to help and
     direct me on how to test is very diffcult.  Please help!  Poison
     control says  that this kind of poisoning causes all these symptons
     and problems in the urinary tract due to the bodies way of getting rid
     of it.  I would tremendously appreciate any info confirming this or
     not etc.  Oh, he has under gone all testing for the urinary tract.
     The other little boy who lived here before us had similar symptoms.
     free@goes.com   1-908-362-7175 collect is okay.  I do hope you can
     help.   Tanya Hendrickson   address  1188 hwy 94  Blairstown,NJ 07825




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