Environmental Disease Caused Years of Pain : Allergy Sufferer Shielded From World’s Contaminants

WOODBURY, N.J. — James J. McAdam Jr. no longer vomits 100 times a day, gasping for air and writhing in pain.

Severe allergies sickened him for the first 37 years of his life, but since he sought help three years ago when they became life-threatening, he is finally learning to live with them.

McAdam, 40, spends most of his days in his shiny cocoon of a bedroom, where the walls, floor and ceiling are covered with aluminum foil to keep him free from dust, plaster and chemicals.

“It’s great. . . . I’m almost pain-free,” he said in a telephone interview recently. The phone also is covered with foil.

His voice was thin through a special ceramic filter mask he wears whenever he leaves his bedroom.

Weeks of Tests

Three years ago he went to an environmental clinic at Henrotin Hospital in Chicago and, after weeks of tests, learned that he suffers from what is known as an environmental disease, a universal allergy to just about every man-made substance and many natural items.

Dr. Theron G. Randolph, founder of the clinic and an internist and allergist, said the severity of McAdam’s allergies is “exceedingly rare” but that many people are allergic to common substances.

“Sometimes it’s food, and sometimes it’s environmental chemicals that people encounter on the job, or cigarette smoke,” he said. “They come to me with fatigue, headaches and multiple aches and pains in the joints and the inability to think rapidly.”

When McAdam returned home, he spent 18 months confined to his bedroom in the home in Cherry Hill that he shares with his parents and his sister Laurie, 30, while his body slowly adjusted to an allergy-free life style.

“I’ve come a long ways and I hope to continue to improve in the future,” he said.

Wears 100% Cotton

He reads books and newspapers in a metal-and-glass box, wears only 100% cotton clothes and watches a tiny television for about an hour before the fumes from its plastic parts sicken him.

He shaves with spring water, brushes his teeth with baking soda and a toothbrush with a bone handle, and eats a strict four-day rotating menu of organic fruits, vegetables and meats cooked in spring water in a glass pot.

His mother, Gladys, washes all his new clothes about a dozen times in baking soda and vinegar before he can tolerate them. She also has to treat the family’s shoes because he can’t tolerate new leather.

“I buy him shoes and air them out and put them in the sun for two or three years to age them,” she said.

If friends come to visit, he dons his filter mask and walks to the front porch. His friends stay out by the street because they might have used perfumed deodorant or soap or shampoo.

If it’s a very nice day, McAdam will wear his mask outside for a short time.

Takes Ride on Bike

“Five, 10 minutes, maybe 20. Sometimes not. I can ride on the bike with my special face mask with my Dad if I take my neutralizer medicine and oxygen when I come back” he said.

Even as a youngster, McAdam remembers falling ill at school.

“He used to get sharp pains in his eyes for years. It was from his plastic eyeglass frames. Now he has metal frames,” Gladys McAdam said.

He was never able to work. He would not say how much it costs his parents--his father is a retired railroad worker--to take care of him and keep all four members of the family in a chemical-free environment. But he said they pay for everything with no outside help.

If he continues to progress in his controlled environment, he and his parents think he will be able to resume some of his former activities.