A room full of toxic computers

By “E.I.” Jerry Evans

In 1997 an engineer got sickened by the fumes from the room full of new computers shown in the picture.

Keywords:    multiple chemical sensitivity, fumes, computers, flame retardants, plastics, story

In 1997 I had a milder version of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS). I didn’t really know what it was yet; I just knew that certain rooms and people wearing strong fragrances made me dizzy, and that fresh air helped. I was still more than a year away from getting diagnosed by a physician.

That summer I attended a conference in Chicago. The first day I signed up for a full-day tutorial, which took place in a meeting room where they had set up dozens of new desktop computers (see picture).

In those days computers used a lot more electricity, and gave off a lot more heat. The bulky CRT screens each used about a hundred watts. All that heat made them offgas a toxic soup of plastics, flame retardants, and much else.

I couldn’t really smell it and I didn’t know anything about the offgassing yet. At work I had a desktop computer, but it was around four years old, while my own computer at home was a couple of years old. They were not a problem, but now I sat in a room full of brand-new computers.

The morning started out fine. The instructor did his thing and we in the audience could play along on each our computer. Mid-morning I started to feel as if I hadn’t slept much last night. It got worse and I was afraid I was going to fall asleep.

I toughed it out until lunch. Coming back from lunch I felt fully recovered. All the cobwebs in my brain were gone.

That didn’t last long. Within less than an hour, I again felt as if I was falling asleep. I hadn’t heard the name “brain fog” yet, but that was clearly what it was.

Realizing what was happening I left the room and recovered out in the hallway. Puzzled about all this, I took the above picture of the room and then left.

I spent the rest of the week attending presentations and exhibits in other rooms. None of them were packed with equipment like this one, and I only got mildly brain fogged now and then.

As my MCS got worse over time, these sorts of episodes became much more frequent. And I learned the hard way that computers were very toxic when they were somewhat new. Three years later I had to give up my career. Today’s computers are designed to be a lot less toxic than they were in the 1990s. They also run a lot cooler. Of course, nobody admits that these older computers were a health hazard.

About the author

Jerry Evans has a Master’s degree in engineering and worked professionally for fifteen years before he had to give up. He is the author of the two books Chemical and Electrical Hypersensitivity, and The Healthy House Quest. He receives no royalties for his books. He is sometimes referred to as “EI Jerry,” as there are other authors with the same name; they are not related.

More information

More about the history of MCS on www.eiwellspring.org/mcshistory.html.

2024