My name is Paul Upp. After commuting for 2 to 3 hours per day for
past 13 years I finally realized one of my lifelong dreams…. an opportunity to work from home. I now had more time with my loved ones. The ‘honey do list’ was now getting shorter rather than only growing impossibly longer. The dog would no longer growl at me as though I was a stranger. This was great.I set up my office with a nice view of garden. I scheduled my time so as to maximize my effectiveness. And I started to read quite a bit of material on working from home. My next goal was to bring my wife Tami, home as well. I was truly having a great time.
And then POW!
I came across an article referencing a National Cancer Institute study that found that people working from home had a 54% greater risk of cancer than those working outside home. It was absolutely amazing to me that energy efficiency of today’s homes coupled with high toxicity of a huge number of our household products has us living in a toxic time bomb. To make matters even worse I now find out that numerous studies have linked asthma, headaches and even learning disabilities such as ADD/ADHD with exposure to toxic chemicals.
Well now I am really angry. We have a child with learning disabilities and as a parent, one starts questioning everything they have done and everything they could have done differently.
But I think what angers me most is realization that somewhere along I “sold out”. In sixties and seventies I was totally against big business and their constant focus on profits at expense of consumer health and safety. But somewhere along line I fell into role of a typical consumer. I would go to store and buy products with a total ignorance and blindness as to what I could be doing to my family, our environment and myself.
