maid causing allergies?

[jdubious]

I do not consider myself to have a bad allergy problem under normal conditions.  I live with my mother and she recently hired a maid service to come clean every two weeks.  When they are finished there is kind of a stench in the air.  It makes my eyes itch, throat sore and i feel as if i have bugs on my skin.  The maids use their own vacuum and I am convinced they are bringing in something.  

I suppose it could be coming from dust or something being stirred up that was in our house to begin with.  We have pets but they have never seemed to be a problem.  When we clean ourselves there is no problem.  Every time the maids come the problem is worse than the time before.  They were here yesterday and i ended up missing a day of work.  Tonight i woke up because i was itchy, every 10 seconds or so a different part of my body has the need to be scratched(i dont have a rash or anything like that)  I have been having a thick nasal discharge.

I have experienced allergy problems only a couple of times before in my life.  I recall when i was in high school i went to Europe with my mother to visit my aunt.  I experienced these same symptoms while staying in her house.  Once in middle school i went to a basketball camp.  A pillow fight broke out and one guy smacked me up side the head.  He left me in a big dust cloud.  This was my worst experience but luckily it was short lived.  That was 20 years ago i and i still cant believe that guy slept on that pillow night after night.  

I have never been sensitive to chemicals,  so i dont think this is the problem.  Other than that im not sure what is causing this or what to do.  i need some advice.

thanks

josh

[jdubious]

Thank you for your reply.

As of this point we have actually fired our maid service.  The dust left behind was only part of the problem we were having.  Now that a few days have passed and the stench has somewhat cleared the house is almost livable again.  

Thinking back their vacuum what pretty plain looking.  i dont remember a filter attachment sticking out the side or anything.  I figure it was the vacuum bringing in dust from other peoples houses.  The service we were using claims to use the environmentally friendly products but there is no such thing as friendly dust clouds.

The plan is to find another service and use our own vacuum if we have to.  This experience has really showed me what allergy sufferers go through on a daily basis.  

[FurballsMom]

What kind of vacuum does the maid service use?  This is very important, because many of those professional vacuum cleaners spew out so much dust it's unbelievable.  Dust is one of my worst allergies, and shows up very graphically on skin tests.  You might want to ask the maid service to start using a vacuum with a HEPA filter.  This greatly reduces the amount of dust going back into the air when the vacuum is running.

As for the chemicals, I would still look into what it is they're actually using.  Some maid services now advertise that they are using environmentally friendly products.  This certainly wouldn't have been the case just a few years ago.  This kind of issue is important to me, since I have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS).  I have been using cleaning recipes made from very ordinary household products that actually do everything that I need to have done.  You can find such recipes on Care2.com.  Use the search bar to look for "natural cleaning" or "green cleaning".  You'll be amazed at what you can do with white vinegar, castile soap and baking soda.  You need very little else, although some of the recipes call for essential oils or castile soap that already has essential oils in it.  Then, all you need is a safe and natural dish soap and you're all set.  There are even recipes for furniture polish, if you have the kind of furniture that needs this.  This is great news, because the commercial furniture polish is incredibly toxic.

I would start with getting the maid service to use a vacuum with a HEPA filter in it.