The special needs of policies for operation of campgrounds and sites to accommodate those with chemical disabilities is critical and often constitute standards quite a bit higher than what is currently found in both private property and public lands accommodations for the general public ....R.V. Parks, campgrounds, open terrain camp sites.

Furthermore, the location and preservation of "the best of the best" of our remaining public lands sites needs a specialized program fired by an educated and aware element of our public. (note here that Smart Shelter has not been able to identify a single public lands administration planner, director or biologist with design certification in Permaculture...the most sophisticated and effective methodology of lands use ever devised...not a single one). For that reason "Legacy Lands Sites" are being selected and developed as a part of the EI Land Steward Program...what good would it do to build this state of the art tool and not have anywhere to use it?

It will probably be found that accommodation of the chemically disabled (often mandated under ADA requirements, especially in Federal, State, County and Municipal facilities) produces standards of far superior quality recommendable both to the more aware and health conscious community not yet showing signs of chemically damaged immune systems and insistent on their rights to non-exposure as a condition of use, but also to the general public at large...many of whom are already allergic and either are completely unaware of it, have yet to have it accurately diagnosed or have diagnosis of the cellular conditions of allergy (chronic fatigue, ADA, fibro-myalgia, etc.) but have not yet traced the chemical damages causing that dysfunction.

It is assumed here that the reader has a thorough understanding of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, the accumulation and threshold phenomenon and aversion criterion. These are all explained in depth in the Smart Shelter Publication: The E.I.. Standard (click this link to access that resource file). If you do not have that knowledge you will be lost or unconvinced by what follows here. Spending time with the E.I.. Standard will also provide those to whom this perspective is new an opportunity to self diagnose the probability that they themselves are E.I.. (or their family or friends), which is the best single tool in doing the only known effective immunization against contracting or developing this disability ...which is to prevent it in the first place (by removing the "chemical soup" in which we live).

What follows here is a developing list of standards for creation and administration of camping facilities (also applicable to permanent living conditions) intended to give the E.I.. and chemically conscious public safe and equal access to facilities ...which is a law. There will likely not be a time when this standard is complete, since our knowledge of the disease is only now growing to a comprehensible and effective stage of development. This standard must be referenced again over time for updates ...especially for those actively or officially engaged in provision of E.I.. Standard camping facilities.

Attempt here is not just to provide an arbitrary and cryptic list of rules, but wherever possible to explain the reason for the requirements and successful, cost effective methodologies to provide those standards...which should be the bottom line for us all.

Ironically, as overwhelming as this list may first appear to an interested public lands manager, in the long run, we find that the cheapest, easiest and most effective provision for equal access accommodation for those with chemical disabilities is simple, facility-free, solo camping areas, safely away from contaminants and in a regional area declared, enforced and maintained as "Chemical-Free". The provision of these spaces at low or zero cost to the public lands administration is the focus laid out in detail and under development with the Smart Shelter Land Steward Pilot Programs currently underway in Western Colorado. We only need to understand thoroughly the disease ...discover the easy ways to accommodate the need ...and skillfully rearrange policy to provide the facilities. Those provisions are all encompassed based on accumulated experience and communications with private facility operators and public lands managers as the Smart Shelter E.I.. Land Steward Program.

E.I.. Campground Standards

Proximity to other Campers...The crux and distinction of "Legacy Sites" we consider here is their function (which far surpasses that of "feed lot" commercial campgrounds)...which includes introspection, deep integration with the biosphere, wildlife impacts and restoration and many spiritual issues...the total of which have a critical and important function in the creation and maintenance of American Lifestyle. This function is even more important today as population and the loss of land ethic combine with the motorization of the less aware and respectful elements of our culture to create "gang warfare" and Urban Psychotic abuse on our public lands (if you think these are exaggerations, have a look at Smart Shelter's documenting video series viewing actual experiences with the public on public land...it's not...it's a fact)

"Legacy Lands Sites" are identified with a long, sophisticated, historical and bio-sperically based set of criterion as the best of the best which deserves not just preserving but restoring and rejuvenating.

Much of that motivation would appear to be for the benefit of the the flora and fauna of the wild...which is true. But the real motivation is for the benefit of that portion of humankind responsible, intelligent and spiritually developed enough to realize that without the continued deep experience of natural integration, the retie with the land and nature...our intuitive functions and health will eventually go the way of "The Urban Psychosis" (discussed in a treatise by Smart Shelter).

For that reason, and with the time-old observation that the essence of nature is stillness...silence...solitude (especially in the mountains and deserts of the American South West)...the right to silence and its respect is the tantamount bottom line in all high-ethic land use policy. Only in the silent still awareness of nature does our primal tie reknit ourselves...and to a large extent...that meditative connection is the source of all brilliant insight...political, sociological, scientific, spiritual. The great thinkers of our times (and those past) as well as the leaders of industry, politics, culture and design will unanimously acclaim that their capacity to produce the extraordinary comes literally from that portion and capability within themselves and their personal lives to find stillness as the avenue to perception and creative insight on a regular basis.

To preserve this primary ingredient on "Legacy Sites" as their primary function and service to society, we go well beyond the "sandwiching" and "mutual pollution" utilized in the planning of paid public lands (we refer to them as "feed lot") campgrounds.

Contemporary inundation of the vast reaches of the South West's public lands has no background in entitlements or basis for rights, prosecutions, protections and administration. Part of the function of the Smart Shelter "EI Land Steward" Program is to develop those regulations and policies along the lines of The Highest Achievable Standard (obviously created by the most insightful and integrity based ecologists) rather than The Lowest Common Denominator which is painfully all too often the criterion employed by current land managers and planners in trying to please and accommodate everyone...regardless of the criminality of their abuses of the land (such as personal motorized recreation...with its noise and nightmare track record for shredding the land and stripping responsible users of their right to pristine experience).

To begin...once a "Legacy Site" has been designated...an inherent temporary ownership/occupancy/entitlement right is established by the first authorized and responsible user to occupy it. What that means (which is discussed in detail elsewhere and as policy is developed along with experience) is that...for the allowed duration of occupancy on the site, the first occupant automatically attains jurisdictional right to a proximity (currently set at 100 yards radius from the domicile) to the site.

No other camper may occupy a site within that radius without the consent of the prescident camper. This proximity is not ideal in terms of preventing privacy and noise/visual impacts, but sufficient to support them provided adjacent occupants are responsible, quiet and respectful while still servicing the obviously important other side of the equation, which is to maximize the the number of users each site can sustain.

Further more, in terms of incursions, privacy and property rights, all possessions within that owners site and perimeter are protected by equivalent, competent jurisdiction as if it was a privately owned parcel. What that means is that anyone who, without authorization from the occupant enters that site or tampers with or removes any possession there is subject to the same kinds of legal prosecutions for theft, trespass or criminal threat we enjoy in our homes. To some this may seem excessive and unnecessary. Real experience with violations of these boundaries and rights on public encampment sites by an increasingly numerous, irresponsible the "Urbanely Psychotic" element of society has led to the conclusion that indeed not only are they necessary, but long overdue and unless we enact them, responsible users will eventually loose their legacy right to enjoyment of the public lands to the marauding, the intoxicated and the criminally beligerant...which is happening today was we speak on a maddeningly fast pace.

Law enforcement, remote location, the use of force and entitlements are included elsewhere in this discussion, or will be as they develop.

Campfires The damages to public lands from out of control campfires and unsightly fire rings is common knowledge. What isn't currently a popular issue is the air quality and allergic problems campground fires create and the critical need of the E.I.. not to breath these carcinogens and pollutants. Any flame, no matter the fuel source (candles, pilot lights, gas burners, stoves, camp fires, wood burning stoves, coal furnaces, fireplaces, etc.) produce formaldehyde as a part of the combustion process. There are no exceptions. If there is fire, there is formaldehyde. The reason for this is simple (and well known to any knowledgeable chemist): Formaldehyde is a very simple, small hydrocarbon molecule, which is contained in the structure of myriad organic compounds (wood, candle wicks, propane, gasoline, wax). Combustion ...fire ....flame is simply an indication that those compounds are being rapidly broken down into their parts and converted to gases ...smoke. Where there is fire, there is formaldehyde (and a lot of other particulates none of us, already overloaded with urban dust and automobile pollution should be inhaling into our already overtaxed respiratory systems. (asthma increased 300% in America during the 1990's alone ...U.S. Dept. of Health decadal demographic study)

E.I.'s are prohibited use of any camping facilities where fires are permitted by simple exposure to combustion toxins. They are neither safe, nor increasingly advisable, to an increasingly urban influx population by the most part completely unaware of fire safety and methods for building more nonpolluting fires and fireplaces (like the Nautilus fire pit...see Smart Shelter Resource files).

This isn't a plea for complete fire banning on public domain. There are locations where they are appropriate and the archaeological fascination and relationship of man with fire are so primal and fulfilling that a blanket prohibition is not wise. Almost every E.I.. known to Smart Shelter builds a fire to enjoy once in a while. They have to be carefully controlled in size and positioned down wind and controlled in proximity to be safe for an E.I.. to use. This is possible in "solo" camping conditions. This is impossible once you add one more camper with their fire to the area. It is health threatening to the E.I.. at the fire-permitting public campground level. Their reactions to the universal allergen formaldehyde can impair their use of the facility ...and in extreme instances, produce anaphylactic shock or respiratory collapse ...which is quite literally life-threatening for the Alpha two or Alpha three E.I..

We have "solo" camping alternatives left in some places regionally, though they are vanishing rapidly with the closure of road access to individual sites, privatization and mandated centralization of campgrounds. Part of the Land Steward Program seeks to develop a "solo" camping permission and maintenance program...see the index page for link to that program info.

What we don't have is campgrounds safely permitting clean air ....making them E.I.. accessible ...by banning fires completely. E.I.. designated camping facilities must by necessity permit no fires under any condition and especially where camping is located downwind from such sources. These E.I.. Safe facilities need to be signed with explanatory text and reference to other information. Placing the E.I.'s themselves in a reporting role to solicit law enforcement for violators is as essential to maintenance of camping safety as the creation of the areas themselves.

In the long run, campfire free areas are much healthier and safer for all of us ...the general population included. The propensity for the less informed and flexible parts of the public to give up their campfires is slim. This condition is accommodated by leaving existing facilities where that is permitted in place and creating or designating campfire free zones as additional facilities ...endeavors which fall easily and cost effectively out of the rest of the Land Steward Program.

Noise Pollution It is difficult for anyone not suffering from MCS to get pragmatically just how irritable and hypersensitive Environmental Illness can make another human being. Senses of smell are elevated in the E.I.. to levels of 10 to 1000 times that of the non-damaged person. (I tell people that my nose is now equivalent to that of a slow, dumb dog...not a real smart one...but a lot keener than yours). The same phenomenon occurs in regard to noise pollution. All of our senses are "focusing"... that is, they magnify their sensitivity level at the control of our focus of attention. Concentrate on a dim object and your eyes will dilate. Focus on a strange sound and the sensitivity of your hearing will increase many fold.

This is not volitional with most E.I.s. One of the physiological side effects of Environmental Illness is that our entire array of senses ramps up to deafening levels of intensity. This phenomenon is not well understood, but is commonly seen in other human conditions ....arthritis sufferers, the chronically ill, the elderly, those recovering from the pain of surgery or freshly escaped from the dentist's chair. We get irritable and hypersensitive when we're injured or impaired ...especially when that impairment is chronic ...long term ...which E.I.. is (it never sleeps- 24 hours a day- for life- without reprieve).

Anyone who has lived with an E.I.. will tell you that this hypersensitivity to smell, sound, taste, temperature, motion is not within the sufferer's control and it is not psychosomatic ...it is real ... and over time, it is very taxing and debilitating.

The only solution for the E.I.. is to ramp down the environmental irritants ....including noise.

This leads to what would hopefully be a common public policy (and indeed now we are beginning to see that administered in some public facilities) ...the protection from noise pollution.

Much of the ancestral and inherent benefit of the public lands experience for the seasoned (divested of the urban psychosis discussed elsewhere) sojourner to the native environment is the silencing, spiritual atunement and natural return to the silent state. This is critical to attaining the baseline human benefit from the natural environment hopefully preserved on our public lands ...the silence.

It is very hard to convince the loud car stereo camper with blaring rock and roll attempting to blow off the steam from accumulated Urban Psychosis that they will find what they seek by being silent over time. It's a fact, but escapes the minority ....the noise polluters. This must not, however, impair the rights of the majority who know this to attain what they came for, which is the sanctity of silence on public lands.

God only knows how many times one violator's loud and disrespectful ghetto blaster has ruined the quiet campground ambiance for hundreds of other campers ....all sitting in their lawn chairs with white knuckles and grinding teeth ...unwilling to go make the confrontation they came camping to avoid.

For the E.I.., this experience often means leaving the facility. Their experience of the invasion of stray and unnecessary sound is several times more impacting than for that of the non-debilitated public.

Control of sound and empowerment of the public to enforce it should be universal policy in all public arenas and certainly on public lands. It is so easy to accommodate. There are now entire headphone sets with the fm radio and stereo cd player built into them. Limiting sound devices to those inaudible to anyone but the player are mind numbingly simple solutions to the disrespect and damage to public lands environments the polluters inflict. Unfortunately, the minority in this category got there because they are obviously incapable of that level or perception and reasoning, making the instigation of noise pollution standards necessary.

Signage, policy and enforcement empowerment of the E.I.. community ...E.I.. facilities where personal sound devices only are permitted ...necessary policy for safe E.I.. facilities ...certainly recommendable as a universal social standard everywhere in our society. What we loose annually as an entire culture to the irritation and defocusing effects of noise pollution would be staggering if ever evaluated economically ...and so easily and cheaply eliminated as a cultural erosion factor.

Law Enforcement in Remote Locations

Much of the structure of the Smart Shelter "EI Land Steward Program" and definitely in the case of the "Legacy Sites" selection and policy development occurs against the background of a geometrically escalating growth impact to the previously pristine and unknown legacy of Western Colorado/ Eastern Utah lands simultaneous with a rapid and widespread deterioration in Land Ethic among the fled urbanites wanting to use it...and if that formula wasn't critical enough already...the Federal and State's government eternally slashing land management and enforcement budgets annually.

As a result, it is not uncommon among area BLM management districts (we deal with 4-6 in the Smart Shelter service region) to have 1 million acres under the surveillance of one law enforcement official....that's right (we call this the "one to one ratio"...more as a joke than the pathetic commentary it really is).

Quickly, in on-the-ground assessment of impacts and transgression, it becomes apparent that the future of this game will be played...as it once was historically...and probably should be again today...in the hands of the responsible public.

Prior to the beginning of the 20th century, the open lands bought from Spain and France just set there. We purged them of Native Americans and native species and opened them for homesteading. Those portions which couldn't be farmed or urbanized were left open and when they started causing problems, the responsible public created the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, State Parks and Wildlife jurisdictions, etc. to administer them.

In the past 100 years since there enactment, much has changed and the condition today brings that to a head.

Current trends end in a public lands grab by large scale corporation interests wanting to gas drill, develop, campground or log them at no cost. Japanese recreational vehicle manufacturers want to sell billions of dollars worth of dirt bikes and atvs to low IQ Americans and can't unless they can lobby or bribe land managers and politicians into turning their heads while their users shred the common public asset (it is currently impossible to spend more than 15 minutes on the land without witnessing the illegal off-roading environmentalists have wasted the last 15 years hearing the "responsible" element of "motor heads" claim they could prevent.

Obviously, the responsible and land-ethic based portion of the American population needs one more time to take the situation back into their own hands and reformulate and empower the "The New Land Ethic". We need to do that for one simple reason...current policy has failed (its archaic) and if we don't develop a new, effective one, we are going to loose our public asset to criminal corporate abuse (note here that the Japanese engineered and manufactured jet skis, atvs, dirt bikes and snow mobiles...are All illegal in Japan).

Not only are their no effective policies in development on our public lands, but they are not (obviously) published, advertised or administered so at least the uneducated public has a chance of conforming.

A further complication recently achieving life-threatening status in a public campsite incident involving encroachment by teenage vandals...is the fact that even if competent policy was intact and enforceable (which it is not) it is a fact that many of these locations are so remote that even cellphone connection is impossible or the hours of driving time distance render law enforcement drastically inaccessible or effective...even if it was available...which it isn't.

We find ourselves, then, in the instance of remote location intrusions in exactly the same situation our pioneer ancestors experienced a hundred years ago..."the only justice in the universe is that which you create". A gun and an ethic. It could get to that quick, if it hasn't already.

Once again...lest you think this painting of the scenario is reactional or unreal...watch the Smart Shelter documenting videos of an Easter Weekend gang warfare of encamped vehicles intentional shredding the public domain, 20 juveniles invading a campsite and commandeering equipment at their whim and Moab Independent newspaper article testifying to a paid campground attack in which in the campers absence a 4 wheel drive pickup trampled not only her possessions on the site, but also shredding her tent...apparently accidentally not containing her sleeping body at the time. This is real and it is at crisis.

Smart Shelter's "EI Land Steward" program seeks to first produce "safe havens" accessible only by demonstrably responsible users in its "Legacy Sites" selections. But then it continues to avoid what we cannot obviously afford...the lapse into anarchy and vigilantism we know won't work...by creating workable and foresight-oriented policy which will curtail this...including a new law enforcement, documentation, prosecution and judicial system.

The crux to this program is the re-assumption of responsibility and forward action by the responsible user. One element utilized with the Land Stewards themselves is the development of documentation of abuses with digital video cameras and working out submission and qualification procedures and criterion with public lands law enforcement. Also an element of this program is the restructuring ( and privatization) of the judicial process for this criminal prosecution along the precedent lines of "Restorative Justice" currently in successful development with DUI prosecution, Wildlife Poaching programs and Domestic Crimes prosecution. Basically, it effectively prosecutes offenders through vigilant citizen observation, awareness and documentation and then turns the offenders back over to Land Steward education and supervision to effect the comprehensive restoration of their own damages as well as that of a lot of others.

Unless this new concept of law enforcement enablement is effected...and done in a realistic, effective way which creates revenue from the offenders and places their possessions, time and money back in the hands of the positive forces on the public domain, we will quite literally loose it...and loose it to moron level criminal abuse...(unfortunately now universally condoned).

Much is to be developed here in terms of the policy that works, but it is erecting itself daily. What is obviously critical at this juncture is re-enablement of the currently passive or intimidate (or indecisive) responsible public lands user...who know is, basically de-facto, left with sitting silently by gritting their teeth and internalizing dangerous outrage as they witness these daily atrocities without recourse. What remains is their empowerment and encouragement out of their current ineffectual stance and empowerment through the "New Policy" to regaining effective administration of our common asset and that of our Legacy...the future....and our children.

Hopefully what you'll find posted here in the future is the boilerplate enactments we effect with the administration...that is well into development, but so preliminary at present (and so volatile in terms of the number of officials who need to have input) that to publish it now would probably in the future leave us with no more that a lot of blind alleys.

But the key is this...and this is something you and I can do today...we can start thinking through and getting vocal and confrontational about the bottom line in terms of entitlements and violations of basic bio-spherical and social common denominators on our public lands. Our government and social order have taught us to be submissive and silent in the face of the corporate-generated and profit-driven atrocities. The solution lies in a number of us not swallowing that pill. It doesn't take millions...only an active, determined and vocal few.

What lies before us is to create human and natural rights in this jurisdictional void...before its all "feed lot" paid campgrounds, banned other uses...and you and I as the singular most knowledgeable and responsible presence on the land...a presence our policy should be encouraging...exiled into toxic, angry, disillusioned victimization. If ever there was a time to turn a paradigm around...this is it and the time is now.

We have a right to proximity protection, freedom from noise encroachment, integrity of the biosphere, protection of our personal property. Obviously we're not getting it now. That means current policy has failed. In democracy, the ruled govern the rulers. The ball is back in our hands once again.

 

Herbicides Damages and health impairment issues regarding the use of chemical herbicides is dealt with thoroughly elsewhere in this program ...no need to be redundant here. As a bottom line, all chemicals, including herbicides and pesticides, must be completely ruled out for use within an E.I.-safe camping facility and for some safe distance in the locale which surrounds it. Pest and invasive species control through non-chemical means is also dealt with elsewhere in this publication. Signage assuring the E.I.. of chemical free designation of the site must be prominent. Site-available publications/ handouts explaining the reasons, techniques being used and E.I.. itself will help increase everybody's awareness and effectiveness in controlling these...the most highly suspected originators of Environmental Illness itself.

Pesticides We have in Western Colorado several hundred Alpha Two E.I.s and several Alpha Threes. One lady, right on the border between level Two and Level Three camped on the river way near Moab in a BLM facility in her camper shell, in belief (as so many of us dismayingly still carry) that she would be safe from herbicides and pesticides on public lands far from the urban terrain. In the middle of the night she awoke to her vehicle being drenched by an herbicide/pesticide spray truck drenching the campground (apparently attempting a cooler application time of day, since many of these chemicals carry temperature warnings that above 90 degrees, they will kill the applicator). She spent the rest of the night in the Moab hospital while three nurses medically cleansed the chemical residues from her hyper-reacting body. The author of this present piece had his truck drenched with malathion parked on the main street of Paonia by a maniacal mosquito control district teenage applicator and had to drive with windows down 10 miles to the Hotchkiss car wash and spent $7.00 to get the vehicle clean enough to settle his respiratory collapse.

We are well beyond any hope that applicators can be trained in respectful, knowledgeable, much less civil-rights-protectable use of these chemicals. We are well at the point where only the most misinformed or the least capable of viable mental processes will deal with them...leaving us with the bottom of the barrel for applicators....which is equivalent to placing chemical warfare agents (check the U.S. Department of Defense listing of Chemical Warfare Agents against the ingredients in the Round-Up you're using...it's listed, buddy) in the hands of morons and turning them loose on the public. (an act that the citizens of Paonia now literally treat as acts of terrorism and are beginning to respond accordingly)

It is unconscionable to use any of these chemicals anywhere on public lands, in the eyes of those of us whose lives have been shredded and impaired by them. Certainly provision on public domain for spaces which exclude them to protect the usability of that asset for the chemically-imp aired is mandatory (and, in fact, the law). Again, signage and explanation.

Fragrances In a recent encounter with those sickening fragranced bathroom "air fresheners" in the heat of a road-travel bladder attack...I found myself in the Paonia Reservoir campground john breathing highly toxic air before there was cognizance or the freedom of choice removed by necessity at my disposal.

Campground restroom (and other) facilities should, under no circumstances ever use synthetic solvent cleaning agents, urinal or toilet bowl chemical sanitizers or those hideous toxic-fragranced room "fresheners". These are known widely to be health impairing to the general public, they are anathema to the E.I.. community, who will either have to hold their breath or use the open terrain ...a counterproductive policy it seems in light of the reasons we put the bathrooms there in the first place.

That encounter lead to a very productive conversation with the Colorado State Parks Manager (who also manages the Crawford Reservoir Facility). In the course of that long conversation it became very apparent that the manager himself was an Alpha One E.I.. and had ostensibly been thresholded into reactive memory loss and concentration impairment (along with other common allergic symptoms) simultaneous with the building and occupancy of the park headquarters building itself. (World Health Organization terms this phenomenon "Building Related Syndrome" ...which is another causative sector of concern in the broader scope of Environmental Illness ...the ones triggered by the toxins in building materials ...especially molds, electromagnetic fields and carpets).

The carpet out gassing was still so prominent that I had to cut the conference short. EMF meter readings showed an ambient high-level magnetic field (illegal under the National Electrical Code) and the typical huge EMF saturation from the ballasted fluorescent tube lighting.

Apparently enough awareness and education was garnered during that conference to remove the fragrance sources from the Paonia Reservoir bathrooms.

The real dangers of these fragrances (100% of which tested in 1993 contained methyl-ethyl ketone and toluene...both known carcinogens and widely used to fuse plastic...because they melt it...and brain cells ...on contact) (Note here also that the chemical fragrance corporate industry arranged removal of all scrutiny and federal regulation in 1990 ...meaning they can put anything they want to into your lungs or on your skin). ....but the real dangers of these substances are to the janitors cleaning those facilities ...who breathe them daily and are typically the least informed regarding their dangers.

The alternatives are cheap, readily available, healthy and simple. Vinegar, baking soda, borax ....the application and uses of alternatives to toxic chemical cleaning agents and the need itself for fragrances are discussed thoroughly in the Smart Shelter E.I.. Standard (click this link to be taken there).

There are people identified in the E.I.. community regionally who would experience a complete respiratory collapse with exposure to the level of fragrance chemical toxins that were in that overheated, closed up bathroom facility at Paonia State Park that day. They could quite literally die within minutes of that contact ...further complicated by the distance an unattainability of help. If you have trouble understanding the severity of what the E.I.. experiences when exposed to synthetic fragrances (which are just about all the fragrances you can buy today ...and don't believe for an instant that they are really "natural" ...since there is no definition or enforcement of that term) .... have your neighbor choke you with both hands for five or ten minutes. This isn't an exaggeration. Oh, and then if you want a real thrill ...once they let go, or even while the choking is going on, try having a reasoned, calm and patient conversation about your right to breathe.

Posting on the exterior of the door to any public facility, certainly enclosed and private restrooms, and absolutely in the case of E.I.. accommodating facilities must contain the signage... "Chemical-Free Facility". Addition of the explanation: "No fragrances or chemical cleaning agents used" is a great source of encouragement and indication in the eyes of the enlightened of the beginning of a hopeful dawn.

Allergenic Plant Species Hypoallergenic reactions to (especially) nonnative plants and trees is widespread in this region, often unidentifiable to the sufferer of seasonal hay fever, skin irritations, respiratory impairment, etc.

The single most common culprit in creating these allergies is the Russian olive. Learning to identify this invasive species tree and watching for its thick, sweet-fragranced prolific yellow blossoms in early summer and testing that appearance with onset of your allergies can often save hundreds of dollars in testing and produce a simple cure quickly, benefiting not only the allergy sufferer by the watershed and environment itself....which is to irradicate the trees, which were introduced into our bio-regional climate through landscape nurseries, who sold them as fast growing shade trees. The sale and planting of Russian olive are now illegal in Colorado. Unfortunately, we are stuck with ruined watersheds and infested government campgrounds needing irradication ...one of the most dismaying is the Ridgway State Park/ Dutch Charlie camp ground where some very far behind park planners managed to plant prolific olives in a time frame when their allergic and environmental damages were well known. That infestation is rapidly spreading to natural areas in the park ....which desperately needs a hand irradication program.

Grasses and other flowering plants are often allergens specifically impacting to the E.I.. whose immune system is already in a state of hysteria. The removal or absence of these allergens is an important ingredient in provision of E.I.. safe recreational accommodations.

There is a class of allergy sufferers who are, every year, dismayed at the onset of fall hay fever when they thought they were well beyond the pollen season. The singular most likely culprit to allergies in September and later is Rabbit Brush, with its prolific yellow/brown blossoms which erupt in that timeframe and are particularly powerful allergens.

So, we see that the native species do not escape identification as allergic sources. But on the broader scale, the non-natives are the typical culprits on an order of around 6 to 1.

The best strategies for planning to accommodate not only the E.I.., but the larger segment of the population allergic to these species is to: (a) plan camping and recreation facilities away from identified allergenic species infestations (b) use the E.I.. Land Steward Program or a similar vehicle to irradicate the offenders in that facility locale. Use of any chemical in securing this removal is anathema. The residues, taunted by manufacturers to biodegrade rapidly, in fact stay residual in the soil for years and provide direct health threats to us all, especially the E.I.. The Dioxin (the most toxic substance man has ever created and key ingredient still in many herbicides) which we used as a defoliant in Vietnam is now producing genetic birth defects as an epidemic and is now known to be a dangerous soil contaminant in those areas of that country for the next 400 years.

Electro-Magnetic Field Sources The single most damaging aspect of E.I.. and the one least understood by the American Public (although the Germans certainly do) ...and consequently the one most frequently discounted by disbelievers, the uninformed, the insecure or those simply lacking the cortex power to understand and credence what they can't see is that of electromagnetic Fields. The Germans call this phenomenon "Electro-Smog" ...a dangerous pollutant indeed, but so difficult to deal with because it can't be seen, touched or smelled.

Every single one of us lives saturated with massive electromagnetic fields on a daily basis. These fields (see the Smart Shelter E.I.. Standard for deeper discussion) are present whenever electricity is present. In specific regard to E.I.. safe recreational facilities, the ingredients needing attention are power lines, service drops, electrical services to camp sites, underground wiring, underground parking lot service and appliances in service facilities as well as proximity to microwave, radio and cell phone towers (as well as the cell phones themselves.

It behooves all of us to become familiar with the health effects of EMF, because we all react to them, not just the E.I.. However, it is well known, for instance in the long-standing academic research circles in the German Universities which identified and have studied E.I.. since we leveled their country in W.W.II and rebuilt it with highly formaldehyde-toxic American building products (and essentially their entire population experienced toxic immune reactions) that at least 50% of those with hypersensitive immune systems are also hyper-reactive to EMF, especially alternating current fields.

It is of tantamount importance in the creation of E.I.. safe facilities that EMF be eliminated, especially in areas where we sleep (which is one third of our daily lives). The creation of sleep disorders, escalated general reactivity levels, psycho-tropic mood disorders, concentration and memory impairment as well as the life-threatening forms of cancer, leukemia, asthma, etc. have all been well-documented to have potential origins in overexposure to EMF.

Although it is seldom feasible to identify exactly what in the toxic soup which poisoned an E.I.. and produced their thresholds, it is highly suspected among a number of us (and substantiated with time of exposure synchronization of onset) that EMF can, indeed, create Environmental Illness itself.

It is very simple, especially given the current progress in availability of off-grid technologies with the "Micro" research and development and the now easily available (even Walmart and Home Depot have them) alternatives to ac, grid powered, emf generating electrical services.

Ideally, a designated E.I.. safe location or campground would require that all camping equipment be off-grid (that it provide its own power). This radically decreases development costs for these facilities, forgoes the monthly power bills draining land management budgets and leaves the E.I.. with the highest surety of EMF-Free spaces...which is that the grid simply does not extend there.

In primary selection of prospective E.I.-safe sites, avoidance at long distances to existing power lines and buried cables is a necessity. If you are engaging in such considerations, and question whether distances are sufficient, only meter testing is adequate. Warning, power companies will feign testing for EMF, but their standards and consequent recommendations are consistently discredited by the E.I.. community as being severely underrated...by factors of hundreds, perhaps thousands. This is not conjecture, this is the accumulated conclusion of many of us over myriad incidents and experiences. There is one professional EMF tester with advanced equipment known in Western Colorado and trained by reputable practitioners knowledgeable in the German EMF criterion (see the Smart Shelter Web Site Green Pages listing for EMF). Smart Shelter itself will provide limited, preliminary meter testing and field advice to those serious about such inquiries free of charge and by appointment.

In the long run, the criterion and techniques used in creating EMF free camping facilities for E.I.s should be adopted for facilities designed for the general public. In the past three years, case studies with several people not normally diagnosed with E.I.. (yet) have shown invariable affects in sleep and mood patterns from EMF exposure. We now strongly suspect that, because the entire molecular anatomy of the human body is electrical in nature, that there is no such thing as a homo sapiens (or any other creature, for that matter) who doesn't react to EMF. The challenge is to remove yourself to known safe areas long enough to ramp down those reactions and then know what to watch for when you reintroduce them.

Smart Shelter is now conducting scattered test studies with, for instance, arthritis sufferers to gauge effects of EMF on other immune disorders. In the mean time, elimination of grid power and conversion where electrical power is needed to dc/ 12 volt sources is so easy and cost effective. Solar panels are now available everywhere and eliminate the exorbitant costs of power line extensions, not to mention the alienating view destruction their installation inflicts on our public lands....an issue in which we find the public increasingly intolerant. The excess automobile electrical energy generation system which powers all of the Smart Shelter Nomad "Micro" takes solar electrical sources a step further in terms of whole-systems analysis developing methods of capturing and using energy wasted in our other transportation and living systems. All of the Nomad "Micro's" off grid power comes from the truck that transports it....no solar panels at all. Required off-grid E.I.. camping facilities and public education opportunities these facilities provide help encourage and educate the E.I.. and the general public to sustainable, renewable, and recapturable energy sources.

Cell Phones studies linking cell phones with leukemia and brain cancer are prolific in Europe (where the corporate stranglehold on regulation is not as pathetic and insidious as it is in the U.S.) making provisional banning of these units in areas in which E.I.s can be exposed to their high intensity magnetic radio frequency waves advisable. Their disturbance to quiet and their glaring misuse and compromise of privacy make them inadvisable (in the eyes of many of us) anywhere. The elevated conversational levels of users is particularly inappropriate to public lands facilities. The towers servicing them have been railroaded into western Colorado by AT&T with little or no supervision or permitting process incorporating the input of residents and private property owners. No location of an E.I.. safe haven should be in proximity to these facilities....probably on the order of one mile distance.

Molds

Dust

Cleaning Products the singularly most problematic toxification of breathing air after herbicide applications making public spaces unsafe for E.I.. use is that of the solvents and synthetic fragrances used in public restrooms, laundries (including detergents, fabric softeners and dryer anti-cling sheets) and meeting rooms. The solutions (much cheaper by far as well as being vastly more healthy and certainly not as impacting on disposal water processing) is the use of the "Big Four": baking soda, vinegar, laundry soda, borax and Dr. Bonner's castile soap. (there were five, right? just checking to see if you're awake still). These products are pretty much universally known by the E.I.. community to be E.I.safe, therefore recommendable to the healthy public. Their specific uses for laundry detergent, bathroom cleaners, deodorizers, sneaker reek remedies and personal body care are dealt with in detail in the E.I.Standard (should we live long enough to finish writing it.) These products are vastly superior in effectiveness to those of us with senses of smell 10 to 1000 times as sensitive as the beta or general immune system public. They are so cheap and universally available that their cost alone, not to mention the long-term health consideration for janitors and lands management staff exposed to these toxins daily. It needs to become unconscionable and unprofessional for any management to allow employee and public exposure to synthetic and fragranced cleaning products. To those of us with elevated smell levels already due to immune system damages, the stench of these products is very alienating and does not speak well for the level of awareness or competence of the management and staff that proffers their use.

Air Fresheners ...forget it, especially the ones you plug into electrical outlets...these things are highly toxic. They even permeate clothing and wood and their stench can remain residual for months, especially to an E.I..

Waste Disposal-Toilets

Light Pollution

Automobile /Vehicle Exhaust

Generators...in this, the era of solar technology, not only are fuel operated electrical generators for recharging RV batteries an unthinkable nuisance, noise destruction source for the environment and other occupants, but they are pathetically archaic. The silent, efficient and sustainable solar panels and regulators of today are vastly superior, require no fuel and produce no pollution (noise or exhaust). It's a no-brainer that a hard bottom line is that fuel based electrical generation systems are not allowed on Legacy/ EI approved sites.

In the instance of the EI Micro, even the pricey solar panels are not necessary. By bridging the conventional automobile operating battery with additional deep cycle batteries (including an extra connected to the in-micro electrical system in the Micro itself), the excess 12 volt direct current electrical energy typically unneeded and dumped by the auto power system within a few minutes of operation is stored for later residential use. The Micro-equipped EI literally creates their own power by driving to town or work and then plugs their car into their home on return as the domicile's electrical source...which is, of course, infinitely rechargeable, graphically more efficient, cost effective on the order of 10 to 1 over both fuel and solar power...and the big cyncher for both the EI and the more intelligent and informed not-yet-debilitated portions of the public...the bane even Thomas Edison himself warned us about when George Westinghouse and Nikoli Tessla brought 110 volt alternating current on line to the American household...that it would kill us (or at least make us good and sick)...which indeed it has. 12 volt DC replaces "Pig Power" AC grid power as the saner, quieter, healthier sources for state of the art off grid lifestyle.

(Note- See the "EI Standard" for more information about EMF effects of conventional AC Power...and the big culprit...the field emitting automobile)

Wind Directions and Off-Site Pollution Sources

Signage and Handouts this is an area of incredible potential for public education, in assisting E.I.s who are not properly diagnosed and for staff. Posting warnings asking that hair tonics, fragranced lotions, perfumes, colognes, conditioners and commercial soaps and shampoos, etc. not be used in designated E.I.. Safe of chemically-free spaces gives the public a non-confrontational opportunity to absorb the complexity of a new awareness and in the long run, protect themselves from an E.I.. threshold, which is an inevitability for all of us unless we curtail the chemical soup in which we swim.

Very hope-instilling results have been achieved (for instance with the contra dances in Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs) simply by making available a brief pamphlet warning of the health effects of fragrances and asking that we all abstain from wearing them in public as well as web accessible further information. These handouts coupled with notices in emailed dance schedules attaching the phrase "Please help us make this dance fragrance free for the health of us all and especially those of us already chemically allergic" ... have in less than a year's time rendered a horribly overdosed perfume crowd to one very nearly safe and unobjectionable to E.I.s. Not a word has been said. The pamphlets, signage and warnings are simply left on the refreshment table for perusal and individual digestion or to take home. The success of this approach over time has made it the singular most effective tool in the E.I.. safeguard tool kit. It is believed that people are inherently sensitive and seeking information about what is appropriate in a new public space or strange crowd creating an ideal opportunity to create an identity for a space or event as fragrance-free. These subtle, non-personal, non-confrontational signages and take-home pamphlets have created a visibility of the Contra Dances (800 year old scottish-irish renditions of square dancing ...and a clumsy hoot for any age) as fragrance-free events, without a single verbal announcement to that effect.

Encountering informed and helpful documentation, warnings and referrals on E.I.. safe premises places the management in an immediate level of regard and competence far above the norm. Over time, of course, this will become the public lands and facilities standard. That's because, given the current escalation of chemical allergy thresholding (we in the E.I.. community now identify it as the epidemic practitioners warned of 15 years ago...based on the requests we receive now from people ramping up into Alpha One and Alpha Two ...not to mention the new generation of infants now being born with Alpha One active without prior exposures) ...in 10 to 20 years there won't be anyone left in this culture who isn't a diagnosed E.I.. ...and we do not consider that an exaggeration.

Network/ Locale Information (for local EI's)

Local EI maintenance and facility adoption programs

What is proposed here in the "EI Land Steward" Program is not a "free access" idyllic set of undeveloped campgrounds as an antidote against the land management and planning onslaught to commercial, develop and fee public lands camping and take away the legacy, historic right of those of us for whom "feed lot" camping with forced fire smoke inhalation, loss of privacy, jeopardizing of possessions and impossibility of solitude stolen by misadministration are unacceptable. In fact, access to "Legacy Sites" is probably deemed one of the most expensive camping experiences we have. It entails a commitment for self maintenance and significant education and restorative work as a entitlement to uses of the land as also as the only permaculture-based, bio-spherically sophisticated hope of restoration our damaged and endangered lands have.

As part of the "Legacy Lands" program, extensive time and work is spent screening sites for historic, archaeological, sustainability, invasives and impacts criterion. Rights to access and use of those sites then hinges not on how much money someone is willing to pay someone who doesn't know what they're talking about to police...but who are willing and actually will demonstrate their level of integrity and knowledge by performing that work on the site as a condition of their stay and to undergo the training necessary to do that effectively.

The no-cost, administration reduced viability of this program automatically gives us the criterion that only the most responsible and empowered gain entitlement to the best. This is a formula which will work. In fact, it you think it through...it's the only one which should. The idea that even criminals in our society have the same rights to access (and shred) the single most valuable of our assets (the public domain) is as insane as handing out $100 bills to anyone who arrives at the front door of a mall...which is about what current policy is doing today.

"Legacy Sites" accessible only to trained Land Stewards which are also policed, restored and maintained by them reserves the best of our public sites in the best condition and promise the responsible public and future can sustain.

Land Steward Micro/ Housing Locations... At present, it appears that a careful balance between the law enforcement deterrent garnered by a visible Steward presence is offset by the privacy needs of the Steward and also the freedoms of approach which must remain preserved for the public. A "Micro" located in too obvious a place presents a glaring or deterring image to the responsible user and compromises the privacy of the Steward, who needs isolation for the lifestyle functions of their living environment...as well as protection from inundation by curiosity seekers and their private lives.

A site location which produces indication of a visible presence at distance serves to insure the awareness of irresponsible users that there is a watchful presence...this augments the deterrent function of the program.

The site should be separate from general parking and roadway/ trafficways so as not to curtail the feeling of freedom or encroachment for the responsible public.

Protection of the Land Steward and their property is also enhanced by isolated, but visible locations.