Carpets
Toxic emissions from carpets.
Rosalind Anderson Ph.D. 
Journal of Nutritional and Environmental 
Medicine (1995) 5: 375-386.

Many hundreds of people have felt suddenly ill 1 to 3 days 
after installing a new carpet in their home or office. 
Some noticed that the carpet appeared to be wet - as if 
the manufacturer hadn't finished his job.

We have studied several hundred of these carpets in our 
laboratory. Under carefully controlled conditions, we had 
groups of laboratory mice breath air containing the mixtures 
of chemicals released by these carpets.  Like the people, the 
mice became acutely ill with irritation of the eyes, nose, and 
throat, difficulty breathing, and altered nervous system 
function(showing up as tremors, falling, alered posture, 
paralysis of legs, stupor, and convulsions). Some of the mice 
died as a result of exposure to these carpet gases. The data 
demonstrate that certain carpets release toxic(poisonous)
chemicals into the air. 

Numerous studies have shown that there are over 200 chemicals 
in the mixtures of gases which are released by new carpets.
No one has made a serious attempt to determine which of these 
chemicals is responsible for the acute illnesses which occur 
in certain new carpet owners.

SYMPTOMS 
The symptoms reported by the owners of these carpets were diverse: 
headache, confusion, loss of memory, depression, dizziness, 
burning eyes, nose, and throat, difficulty breathing, fatigue, 
weakness, skin rash, hair loss, etc. For a scientific report 
of our survey of 100 of these individuals and their symptoms, 
send $10 shipping and handling fee for 

Reactions to carpet emissions: a case series.
Julius Anderson.  Journal of Nutritional and 
Environmental Medicine(1997) 7: 177-185.