It is difficult to detect whether you are sensitive to building materials already used or applied in your home or other environments. Changes in your symptoms when you go into different places, or if you stay away from home, can be indicative, but not always conclusive, evidence of sensitivity to materials.

You can be tested by patch testing or sublingual tests for allergy or sensitivity to specific chemicals. There are also two environmentally controlled units in the UK, which are as chemical free as possible, where rigorous testing for chemical sensitivity can be done.

You can use the Tile Test (opposite) to test specific materials to see if these induce symptoms, but the only reliable way of finding out in your own environment whether materials around you upset you is to remove and replace potential hazards. However, for most people this is impracticable, as well as costly and disruptive. At work or school, it is invariably impossible. Unless you are absolutely confident that materials are the key source of trouble for you, it is wiser first to reduce chemicals from other sources around you – cleaning materials, toiletries, personal hygiene products, clothing, furniture, bedding, flooring before you make significant changes to your decoration or building.

If, thereafter, you determine that you need to change the materials, or if you are obliged to redecorate or do repair work, use low-hazard materials as suggested below and see, after a period of airing, whether your symptoms improve.

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