Oregon

[Lisa Petrison]

A report from 2003:

I ran out of places to stay in Seattle after a year of homelessness, so I accepted an invitation from friend in Ashland, Oregon to spend a month with him (it could've been two months but the Seattle Housing Authority is requiring me to return to Seattle in July for an appeal hearing).

The climate here is wonderful for me so far. Sunny, warm, and dry. Just he way I like it!

I'll keep you all posted on my progress. But so far I've taken out a membership in the YMCA and am swimming and lifting weights on a regular schedule. I bought a new bike and am cycling around town.

I still need lots of rest and recovery time but when I'm feeling up I really feel great. And when I feel down, it's not the suicidal depression inducing dysfunction that has plagued me the last few winters in Seattle. I just feel tired and so I rest until I feel like getting up and moving around again.

-Will

health.groups.yahoo.com/group/CFS_CFIDS_ME/message/308?l=1

[Lisa Petrison]

A report:

So, since being ill, I've all been a few places. Tahoe, Reno, Dallas, and the Bay Area (San Jose and San Francisco), and once we drove from the Bay Area to Portland, Oregon.

I didn't have a good time in Portland. When I visited my sister, my heart was acting up with skipped beats, I felt awful, and I ended up in the local ER at 4 AM after sleeping in her house. Her house is old construction, and I'm sure it has had mold. In fact, even though her basement was professionally remediated before she moved in, in reeked so bad of toxins, paint, and mold that none of us could go down there without holding our breath. She lives in an area that floods about every ten years ago from a river (and also floods just from rain), and the basement is designed with a drainage system/pump specifically for flooding.

[wandered]

Portland is where I was diagnosed with ME. I'd had bad health in other places and suspected mold, but I had a glandular fever and was diagnosed with ME a year later in Portland. We lived in old construction houses, and then out of concern for me, an adobe apartment, and then a LEED apartment in a recent construction apartment building. It was still a pretty miserable place. There are tons of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia patients in Portland -- there are tons of alternative "practitioners" who specialize in treating both maladies and a school that churns them out. It's a bad scene. I don't know what it is about the geography of the place, or the sewer system, or the houses (everybody lives in quaint old falling apart craftsman or victorians), or the intrastructure -- but this place is creating people who are disabled by environmental illness. My first apartment, where my boyfriend had to beg me to stop working because my glands were still popped out of my neck and I was swerving off the road trying to drive to work --- we went down into the basement with the home health aide we'd finally hired when I couldn't give myself showers any more, and there was black mold all over one wall. There was literally a black wall. It was charming before, that there had been bands that left all their stuff in the basement, that the basement was this crazy place... We were all speechless about that. The home health aide put on a mask and tried to clean that. But we moved. It was pretty crazy.

[Lisa Petrison]

Here is a comment that I got from someone with CFS:

>One summer I rented a tiny room in someone's house in Eugene, barely wide enough for my twin bed. Like a monk's cell! The owner refused to have AC so I put a fan in the window at night, blowing right on me, otherwise I sweltered. I used to awake choking from the chemical smells. Maybe from a paper mill, not sure. Anyway it was a hellish nightmare, so I can relate. (((((

[Lisa Petrison]

A comment made in January 2012:

One of the biggest pulls is the weather. I'm really drawn to the drier climate. For a short time I lived in Bend, OR., and the weather was fabulous. (Bend is no longer an option because it's too close to certain family) I felt so much better. I don't know what it is about western Oregon and Washington, but the dampness just does not make me feel well. And the gloominess is becoming more and more unbearable every year.

www.city-data.com/forum/montana/1465403-not-sure-where-i-want-move-2.html#ixzz1xEHLy3t3

[redhummingbird]

Salem: Terrible (1)

Albany: Poor (1)

Corvalis: Poor (1)

Portland: Poor (1)

I have relatives in these cities and feel awful whenever I have visited. I can no longer travel up there because I feel so bad.

Bend: (3)

Parts are really bad. Near the resort Inn at Seventh Mountains is excellent at (5). Other parts are mixed. Hotels are generally terrible.

I visited last year for a family reunion and virtually lost all my "cfs" symptoms when at the Inn at Seventh Mountain.

[chasmyn]

Portland = (1) Poor

Tigard/King City/Tualatin/Sherwood = (1) Poor

I have lived in Portland for the past 2.5 years and I am here to say, this is one of the worst cities I have ever lived in for mold, pollution, lack of sunlight....and all the things that cause me to react. I stayed in a very sick home for a month when we moved here and my health has never recovered living here. I have mold sensitivity, CFS/ME, Fibromyalgia, MCS, tinnitus, etc. Even though this city is amazing as far as culture and being fun and weird and great, it is WAY too painful for me to keep living here. As soon as we can sell our home in July we're going to, and are moving into an RV while we investigate healthier places. I have never been so suicidal in winter as here, and before this, we loved in Langley, BC, Canada. Before that, Redmond, WA. Before that, St. Louis, MO. This city is killing me, and although I love it in every other way, I cannot wait to leave it and be able to breathe again. And move.

I read a post in another thread where someone said something like, "I experienced the worst chronic fatigue of my life. I went for a swim and did yoga..." and I thought, on my BEST days I couldn't manage that. A swim AND yoga? Whoa. So that's what Portland does. DO NOT MOVE HERE if you're sensitive to anything. PDX also has I think the 6th highest autism rate in the country, so there is definitely something NOT GOOD going on in the environment here.

[anncavan]

I spent 4 days, 3 nights in Bend, OR in late August 2014. And I loved it! It's a 4.5-5 for me.

My background, I'm mold and pollution sensitive. But I'm certainly not as experienced as some of the avoider/travelers on this blog. That said, I've a decent "nose."

I have been seeking out locations with the most "green" days per year, as it relates to EPA standards on PM2.5 and Ozone.

Bend was very high on my list to visit as it only as 25-40 days per year that are not green. They are usually related to fires. As crazy as it sounds, I haven't found many other places in the US with that many annual green days. Especially in non-humid climates, and a bit of city offering to boot(it's population is 85,000 but they have a Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Costco and Macy's). When you think Oregon, damp and green usually comes to mind. But Bend is technically Central Oregon, 3000+ft elevation and still desert.

It's either covered in safe grass or trees and smells like pine everywhere. The smell in the air reminded me of Vermont without the humidity.

We made it to Crater Lake National Park ~ 110 miles south, which was also quite clean to me!

[foggyfroggy]

I just stayed in a campground at the beach (at Garibaldi) while trying mold avoidance for a week, and have not felt as good in years. I was doubtful that it would work as the coast in Oregon is not known for its dry climate but I was hoping the onshore winds would be good and it payed off.

[chasmyn]

Update: We're still stuck here until Spring 2015, sadly. My health continues to flail at being stuck here. I have several chronically ill friends who have also reposted drastic declines in their health since moving here , and I keep meeting more and more people this has happened to. There was apparently a nuclear plant that had an accident and was shut down, and there are a LOT of agricultural areas around (pesticides), and the rain keeps washing everything over everything else. And people here keep getting sicker and sicker. Food allergies are through the roof here, which is why it's such a great city to get food - and being on the coast, what effect might Fukoshima also be having here now? And that is all on top of the mold, which is in every building, everywhere. I just want people to be aware that Portland, Scappoose, Tigard, Beaverton, all of the Portland metro area and suburbs are definitely affected.

[kimg]

After reading Lisa's article on ParadigmShift, about the Mystery Toxin, I was finally inspired to write about the locations I've been. It made me realize that these observations really are useful, and not just "anecdotatal" - they are experiential. Big difference, since by listening to and following others' experiences, I've found a path to health.

So, I'm from Western Oregon. Have lived here since age 1 yo. I've had chronic migraines since age 3, what I now know was early CFS from childhood on, chronic severe digestive issues, MCS, fibromyalgia-type pain problems, 8 lung collapses and lung issues, heart probs, autoimmune disease at age 17, hypothyroidism, extreme food sensitivities. Oh, and psoriasis.

My husband and I are finally getting well, at 38 yo, after leaving my moldy childhood home and our belongings behind, in a very low-mold home, and on almost a year of the Shoemaker Protocol with extreme mold avoidance. My husband also has mold susceptibility and a mold allergy on top of that.

I feel pretty amazing now, both of us do. We are now so sensitive to mold exposure that we can notice even little changes in the environment. Also, I've sold real estate for two decades, and have been all over the place. Lots of location experiences. So, in our experiences:

Since getting well-er, and more aware, every garage I've been (all in Oregon) in has been moldy. I no longer go in those, and see the point of not having it attached to the home.

1-3 Eugene, Portland, and pretty much everywhere in between in the Willamette Valley. Much of the valley has been used historically for strawberry and bean fields, both of which were heavily sprayed for Fusarium. I have noticed that I get very ill now if we drive by any old strawberry fields. We stay away from those areas now. Basically, north of Eugene through at least Salem were areas with a lot of strawberry cultivation over the years, and now have extensive spraying for GMO crops. I believe this is the culprit, since I feel much worse in those areas.

1-3 Portland - I've become severely ill in Portland. I almost always get a migraine when visiting, but it's hard to tell how much of that is the drive up there. Portland also has a severe benzene air pollution problem near the freeways - reported in an expose by the Oregonian a few years ago. I believe it might be an added factor. Turns out Oregon is one of the few states that allows gas to be sold with benzene.

1-3 Fernridge Lake and the surrounding areas, particularly boggy ones. We are living on the lake currently, this is our "recovery home", but we discovered last year that there are regulalr toxic algae outbreaks here. This made me very sick, the stuff has a distinct "sharp" acrid-type smell, and it turns out the toxin lasts a long time. The outbreak occurred in about Sept, 2014, and I was still encountering it in ditches and boggy areas through January.

West of Eugene and out of the Willamette Valley:

4-5. The coastal range mountains of Oregon. This is where we lived for many years. Though our home was the culprit, and I can smell different molds throughout the very moist region, I do feel good there. Triangle Lake/Blachly have been good, all the way through Mapleton - though Mapleton changes when you reach the estuary waters of the Siuslaw. Going west on Hwy 126, Walton is where it seems to clear up a bit, and then the air gets really good right before Mapleton. The coastal mountains are subject to frequent pesticide spraying for forestry purposes, and that brings things down a bit, but this lessens as one gets into the nation forest areas. I've lived in this area most of my life and have been there all year.

3-5. Oregon Coast- this depends on the location. In Florence, near the estuary water is funky, but tolerable. Near the lakes Woahink and Siltcoos is not good. Siltcoos is known nationally for it's toxic algae outbreaks, so this may be the culprit. Once we drove inland further, the air was fine. But near those specific lakes was not good. We were here last on April 12, 2015, intentionally "testing the air". Toxic algae season is in the summer, so this may be residue or something else?  When we drove inland and got away from those lakes, the air improved dramatically.

4-5. North Florence all the way to Yachats seems to improve dramatically. Eastward into the mountains, elevated a bit, is excellent. Yachats is also excellent. Even when I was very ill I would feel better there. We're been there many times in the summer and fall of 2013, as well as periodically before that, throughout the seasons.

4-5 Cape Arago. This park is amazing and I've always felt good there. I've only been in the late summer.

East of Eugene:

4-5 - out the Mckenzie Hwy, Leaburg and onward into the Willamette National Forest. I've always felt quite good there. I've mostly been there during the summer for blueberry picking, many years, and sporadically for showing property.

Hope that helps someone! Be well all!

[tiffysquid]

chasmyn - are you still in Portland?

kimg and lisa - thank you for all the reports.

i'm new to the Locations Effects boards. i'm darned convinced that mold is playing a very significant role in my health, at least since summer 2013 and more so since fall 2013, when we had a washer-dryer overflow in our Portland home... which is, as someone described above, a classic Portland Craftsman with a damp-ish basement. i grew up near Eugene, lived in other states/countries for a while, and have mostly been in Portland since 1995. after nearly two years of illness, we are finally ready to abandon our home and this place. i'm the only one of my family affected, as far as we know. we spent six weeks this summer traveling around Oregon in a borrowed travel trailer (during which time i got a lot better). now i'm home and battling it again.

anyway, based on this trip and other travels i've done since getting mold-sick, here are my subjective observations... note also that with mold illness i also got mold allergy, MCS, and a bunch of moderate- to strong tree pollen allergies, so that may be a factor with how i felt.

OREGON - THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY
Eugene, countryside west of town, Gimpl Hill area/Coastal foothills -- i do surprisingly well here, provided i stay out of many buildings! i've been here in all seasons, sometimes staying inside my parents' house, which is newer construction and not moldy, sometimes in a newish trailer in the woods. my parents' house had to be remediated during its construction; some of their friends had to burn down their brand-new $1 million home a decade ago due to Stachybotyrus. nearby cabins, the country church, and other homes have proved too moldy for me. but outside i'm usually fine, even though being rained on and surrounded by trees. i have not noticed much moldiness in restaurants, stores, and cafes in town. i give the Eugene area a 2/10 for inside random buildings and 5-7/10 outdoors.

Highway 99E and 99W between Corvallis and Eugene -- lots of agriculture, so if you're sensitive to pesticides, certain times of year may be tough. i drive these regularly because I-5 is so mind-crushingly dull after you've driven it a thousand times or so. however, on days when the weather feels heavy and thick, as is common in the Willamette Valley, it's a 2/10 for mold. I haven't been in many Corvallis buildings. my friend's house there seemed moldy to me.

Highway 99, 22, others between Salem and Portland east of I-5 -- again, lots of agriculture, and worse moldy-feeling in the air than Hwy 99 Corvallis-Eugene. This area includes towns like Clackamas, Hubbard, and Estacada. i seem to do well near the river sometimes. 2/10.

NOTE: The Kalapooya tribe, native to Oregon for hundreds of years, named it the Willamette Valley... which meant in their language, "Valley of Sickness." they also burned the whole danged thing every year and migrated to other areas for parts of the year... maybe they were onto something.

PDX
Portland -- i can hardly wait for the Portlandia episode where Carrie cross-dresses and makes fun of moldies. you know it's gotta happen! basically, Portland sucks for this stuff. i wear nose filters plus a mask to pick up my kid at Sunnyside Environmental School. the neighborhood is full of moldy houses (he goes inside to play with his friends; i stand out on the porch and talk to parents). the good things about Portland for moldies: people take allergies & sensitivities in stride, there are loads of health practitioners from woo-woo to conventional (though surprisingly few mold experts), health insurance underwritten in Oregon is required to cover naturopaths, many people are more understanding about MCS concerns than they might be in other places. you can follow any kind of strange nutritional plan or food allergy here, find restaurants and people who are doing the same thing. everyone is gluten-free or paleo, knows where to get grass-fed beef and organic fresh tomatoes from the hand of the farmer who picked it. i feel socially supported by this great community. unfortunately, fabulous Portland (sometimes indoors, sometimes outdoors) sometimes paralyses me and incapacitates me. not freakin' worth it. i'm outta here. Portland: 2/10.

THE OREGON COAST
Astoria -- i haven't been back since being diagnosed with mold problems. however, i used to live here half-time, in a basement apartment (sigh) where black mold would grow on the clean toilet seat when i'd leave for a few days. Astoria is very damp and very old; the buildings are contemporaneous with pre-Earthquake San Francisco. i love this town and its lovely rotting wooden jetties and old canneries! but i'm scared to go back now. i'm guessing Astoria: 1-3/10.

Newport -- this central Coastal town may play a role in my illness too. i stayed in a musty, beautiful beach house there just before getting really mold-sick, and spent one day at the Sylvia Beach Hotel, one of the most marvelous places in the world, if you're a reader or writer! but moldy to its core, as i had noticed the smell on my previous visits over the years. i will never be going back, which kinda breaks my heart. recently, i spent a sunny weekend at a Newport campground and did great. so: Newport buildings 1/10. Newport outdoors: 5/10?

EAST OF EUGENE - CASCADES
McKenzie River/ Highway 126 from Eugene to Sisters -- sometimes nice, but i've had a couple nasty episodes out here, not in buildings but while camping on the green, lush, Western side of the Cascades. I think there may be something icky in Blue River Reservoir (nauseating algae?) as well. closer to Sisters, everything gets great for me. in general, i'd give this route and its small, damp towns a 2/10.

Highway 58 from Eugene to Bend through Oakridge -- same climate as McKenzie River, and so some outdoor mold, but i haven't had significant episodes here while camping (Salmon Creek, Salt Creek, Middle Fork of the Willamette). i don't think i've tried to go in any Oakridge businesses since getting really ill, so i can't attest to them. 4/10

CENTRAL OREGON
Sisters:
Well folks, this is where I want to move. However: I know they had a massive flood in the 1960s, so I'm sure there are water-damaged buildings around. A decade ago, I was on a springtime artist residency at Caldera, 20 minutes west of town near Suttle Lake, and had a very severe reaction to this shiny, pretty, iridescent stuff I was finding underneath the snow as it melted—on the burned stumps of pine trees, on the ground, as the previous summer there had been massive forest fires and spraying of fire retardants. It turned out the stuff was snowmelt mold. This has only become significant to me since I became really-sick a year and a half ago. Recently, most of my time in Sisters has been spent in nearby campgrounds, but also a friend's house. I've had no significant mold problems in the buildings here just shopping, getting my car worked on, etc. In the development areas -- I have not spent time in Black Butte or Camp Sherman or Arch Cape since getting mold-sick, so can't rate them. I had no problems outdoors at Tollgate or Crossroads, and a whiff of minor mold in one house in Tollgate. All this was late spring, summer, and early fall. Sisters: 4-7/10.

Bend:
Had no problems outdoors, no problems in public spaces, did react to a friend's basement. Didn't spend too much time here, though. Bend: 4-8/10.

Shaniko:
Pretty depressing to visit this awesome ghost town after getting mold poisoning! I used to love it here. It seems like the driest desert around, but you can smell the mold from 5-10 feet away on some of the old buildings. Still worth a stop; you can eat your lunch in a covered but not walled public picnic area and just look at the cool old Wild West town around you, even if you can't go inside. 2/10

John Day:
Felt dry as a bone, so I did really well outdoors in the town of John Day, pretty well camping on the Middle Fork of the John Day River, fairly OK at the damp-ish state park. But I foolishly tried to visit Kam Wah Chung Museum, the old apothecary, which I'd been reading about for years. DUH. Not smart. I guess I'm still very new to the idea of living my life according to mold avoidance. John Day: mixed! 7/10 in most ways. Oh, and gravity-filtered water from the JD river got pretty meh pretty quickly, in water jugs, whereas water from other rivers on our trip held up for weeks.


THE WALLOWAS
Enterprise, Joseph, Lostine, Wallowa, Eagle Cap Wilderness, Lostine River:
WebMD's allergy app kept showing this area of Eastern Oregon as higher mold allergens than the Willamette Valley. i thought, this app must be high. well, i was wrong. ... the Wallowas are not ideal, from what i could tell. Did pretty well in some high lakes, very far out off the main roads, up in the mountains. Had strong reactions after a thunderstorm and mini-flash-flood near the Lostine river, which is beautiful. Definitely some mold in a friend's WDB basement in Enterprise, despite the general dryness of the climate. No mold at all at the wonderful Lostine Tavern. I will definitely go back, but i wouldn't consider moving out here. 3/10

OTHER EASTERN OREGON
I seemed to do great in Baker City (we were there only 24 hours), Pendleton (one stop), and outdoors in Elgin. So I don't have much basis to judge, but I'll guess 7+/10.


i hope this is helpful to someone out there. i am an Oregonian. i don't want to live in New Mexico or wherever... i want to stay here. i hope i will be able to do it.

[heidi]

I've lived in Oregon on and off for 10 years now. I have ME, MCS, FM from mold and chemical exposures. I've lived in Bend from 2016 to present, and generally do well here, in terms of symptoms (5). I hate the people and attitudes, but that's another story. I absolutely adore Ashland, and have lived there intermittently since 2008. But it's been extremely difficult to find rental housing since 2014, and I feel somewhat less well there (4) because the dampness seems to bring out my FM symptoms. Also, during a recent visit in March 2018, I felt very ill, which I chalked up to allergies and the dryness from the drought in recent years.

Other places I have visited include Portland, which is usually a 1-2 for me (mold, chemicals, toxins near airport, SAD, pollution); Salem (felt super depressed here in 2008); Cascade Locks (a definite 1--felt horrible here in 2016, probably due to still water); Eugene (2-3 during trips in 2008 and 2016--I've heard so many neg. reports about the pollens and dampness here that I doubt it's a good location for people with our illnesses). The OR coast is generally iffy for me, as much as I love it, I've had some times of feeling well and definite times of feeling odd/depressed/sick. I think the ocean is healthy but perhaps the buildings are not so much. I do seem to always do well at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, and that's right on the beach.

People love to dismiss OR as impossibly damp, and I'm sure that's true in the northwest corridor. However, I've done really well in southern and central OR, and am guessing I'd be pretty OK in eastern OR, due to the dryness. Keep in mind that the vast majority of OR is actually a desert climate. So the cliches about rain and dampness only apply east of the Cascades. The nice thing about OR is that we have no fracking and outside of Portland, not a lot of pollution. The abundance of trees also helps the air quality.

[chasmyn]

Jul 31, 2015 1:44:53 GMT -5 tiffysquid said:

chasmyn - are you still in Portland? 

I am clearly answering this three years later, but so much has happened since then. I haven't been on this board in such a long time!

I finally was able to sell our house and move out of Tigard, OR in November of 2016. We bought an RV and began to travel after renovating the RV inside and selling the house. We traveled for almost a year.

At the worst part of my chronic illness I finally found real answers to how and why I got so sick and I finally began to heal. I've been healing for 21 months now and it's been miraculous - I'm getting my life back and finding true health again, and I am so so grateful. That's not what this board is about, so if you want to know more, feel free to PM me.

Meanwhile, I have some locations to update!

[Greg Stoica]

Sept 2, 2014 12:43:46 GMT -5 anncavan said:

I spent 4 days, 3 nights in Bend, OR in late August 2014. And I loved it! It's a 4.5-5 for me.

My background, I'm mold and pollution sensitive. But I'm certainly not as experienced as some of the avoider/travelers on this blog. That said, I've a decent "nose."

I have been seeking out locations with the most "green" days per year, as it relates to EPA standards on PM2.5 and Ozone.

Bend was very high on my list to visit as it only as 25-40 days per year that are not green. They are usually related to fires. As crazy as it sounds, I haven't found many other places in the US with that many annual green days. Especially in non-humid climates, and a bit of city offering to boot(it's population is 85,000 but they have a Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Costco and Macy's). When you think Oregon, damp and green usually comes to mind. But Bend is technically Central Oregon, 3000+ft elevation and still desert.

It's either covered in safe grass or trees and smells like pine everywhere. The smell in the air reminded me of Vermont without the humidity.

We made it to Crater Lake National Park ~ 110 miles south, which was also quite clean to me!