Ventilation

WASHINGTON -- Here's an idea about nuts that sounds really nuts.As if they didn't have enough to worry about, airlines now have to think about establishing peanut-free zones on their flights.The Department of Transportation has offered to the major United States airlines a new set of guidelines to answer complaints from passengers with peanut allergies.In the past, most airlines did not serve peanuts to people who did not want them, for whatever reason. That may no longer be good enough. According to the Wall Street Journal, the guidelines would require each airline crew to establish a peanut-free perimeter with a buffer row in front and back, meaning at least three rows would have to be peanut free.

Q: Will stapling inexpensive aluminum foil under the roof rafters really reduce the heat inside my house?A: Installing a radiant barrier (foil) in your attic can dramatically lower your air conditioning bills and improve your comfort. You can easily install it yourself in a few hours with common hand tools.Even if you air-condition seldom or not at all, a radiant barrier can greatly improve your comfort level, especially in second-floor bedrooms.A radiant barrier is a material that blocks radiant heat energy.

Wall treatments invariably stamp a house with their era. Think about the bright (even garish) mixed-pattern papers used in Victorian design, or the bold geometric papers used in the '30s, '40s and '50s. Or the ubiquitous off-white paint that dominated ,, the '60s and '70s. Knotty pine paneling was popular in the '50s and '60s, especially for dens and club basements. The look can be quaint or dated, but most people who buy an old house long to update the surfaces.That's the goal of a reader who said in an e-mail message, "I have some knotty pine paneling I'd like to paint, rather than replace with drywall.

I've recently been diagnosed with genital herpes and treated it with the prescription drug Zovirax.I would rather use something more natural.Have any of your readers found alternative treatments that cure it? I read in an herbal book that olive leaf extract works. Is this true?Herpes infections are caused by a virus that resists cure even by the prescription drugs that control it effectively (Famvir, Valtrex, Zovirax).These antiviral medications speed healing and, if taken preventively, dramatically reduce the number of outbreaks.

IF YOU LIVE in a part of the country where spring is about 10 minutes long, and then summer comes roaring in, you may already have started thinking about the approaching air conditioning season.If you live in an old house, you may also already know that retrofitting can be a problem.However, you do have a number of options.The easiest solution is to simply install window units. The advantage is that they are economical to use: You cool only the room you want, and only when you want it.The disadvantages are that they are unsightly from the outside, and hard to seal against the weather so they usually need to be removed and reinstalled each season.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The dim street lamp at the intersection of Del Paso and El Centro Roads was no help to Bobby Hurley Sunday night.The road was dark, and little did the Sacramento Kings rookie know, it was not deserted.On his way home from a game, he turned left into a speeding car, was ejected about 75 feet into a drainage ditch and yesterday was breathing with the aid of a ventilator after eight hours of surgery to save his left lung.Hurley suffered two collapsed lungs, broken ribs and facial, knee, wrist and back injuries.

When a child died after falling from a town house bedroom window in 1982, the County Council enacted a law requiring "child-proof" screens on windows more than 3 feet above ground level.Under a proposedrevision to the county's building code, David M. Hammerman, the chief of the county's inspections and permits department, is requesting elimination of the "child-proof" screen provision, citing fire safety reasons.Hammerman said the law requiring residential window screens to besecurely fastened is unique nationally and conflicts with the national model building code, which "requires windows be easily opened without a special tool by an occupant in event of escape, rescue and ventilation in case of a fire."

Among the demands for updated equipment that poultry growers routinely hear about from their companies, none is so popular, costly or controversial as "tunnel ventilation," a system of high-powered fans designed to keep air moving on hot days.Some processors, such as Perdue, are so convinced the system improves performance -- both for them and for the growers -- that they pay for half the cost. But even then, farmers often need a new loan for the equipment. Company reimbursements don't include interest, and a grower's contract can be cut off before reimbursement is complete.

Q: I recently learned that plywood contains formaldehyde, which I understand is a health hazard. I'm concerned the plywood panels I had installed on one wall of my bedroom might be harmful. What do you advise?A: According to "The Healthy House," by John Bower (Lyle Stuart Inc.), a sort of bible for healthy-house advocates, most plywood is held together with formaldehyde-based glue.The glue is also often used in particleboard, flakeboard and hardboard, which are other building materials. Particleboard, for example, is frequently used for inexpensive cabinets and other furniture.

As you seal up your house for the winter, think about what you're sealing in as well as what you're sealing out.All houses collect pollutants in indoor air: lead and asbestos from paint and insulation, radon from underground; ketones and aldehydes that vaporize or outgas from furniture and building materials; pesticides such as flea spray that are used or stored inside; volatile organic compounds from paints, solvents and glues; combustion contaminants from...