Urgent help to remove varnish odour for wife with hooping cough

**Woodgrub** · 20th April 2011, 08:23 AM

One of our club members is looking for help to remove the varnish odour from Baby Furniture for his wife, who is suffering with hooping cough while pregnant.
His letter is below, any help is appreciated.

Woodgrub

Dear fellow members

I am in urgent need of experienced advice please, regarding how to remove the odour from newly varnished furniture. I’m desperate to find a solution urgently, as my wife has had hooping cough, and the odour activates the terrible breath reducing cough she is inflicted with still.

My wife is expecting our 2nd child in 3 weeks, and is booked in for a Caesarean on 12th May . We bought some second hand wooden furniture (Cot & change table) and dear old mother in law organised for the men’s shed in Deniliquin to sand back & revarnish them both. It’s got a high gloss finish of some sort on it (don’t know what was used), it was done 5 weeks ago. I’ve put it outside under the veranda to air for 3 weeks now, and tried bringing it in yesterday. However as soon as the wife entered the room with the furniture in it, the new varnish odour activated her hooping cough, by getting into the back of her throat.

My problem is that in 3 ½ weeks I’ll have;
· A wife with stitched up stomach from a caesarean.
· Possibly with hooping cough still.
· And baby’s room furniture with an odour that will activate the cough, and possibly compromise her caesarean wound.
· Unless I can find a way to get rid of the odour between now and then.

I’m desperate for a solution, a pregnant woman also likes to set up her nursery well before now, let alone 2 weeks before baby arrives. Any ideas please will be greatly appreciated. ( Is there anything that could be rubbed on it? Will heating / cooling it help in big ovens / cool rooms? How do you age a varnish finish?

Thanks in advance
Paul F.

**wheelinround** · 20th April 2011, 09:03 AM

Bowl of warm water with some vinegar has worked for us and my dad in years gone by. close the room but open windows leave it overnight.

**ubeaut** · 20th April 2011, 09:17 AM

Get the stinking stuff out of the house and into a garage or somewhere airy.

Lots of bowls of bicarb soda around the room & sprinkled into carpet should absorb the odors. Lots of fresh air and a smack up the back of the pregnant wife's head and anyone else in the family who hasn't been immunized for whooping cough.

There is a whooping cough epidemic and all people who are or will come in contact with babies are being urged to be immunized their doctor should have done them or at least warned them of the seriousness of being immunized.

**Woodgrub** · 20th April 2011, 09:57 AM

Thank you for your answers.

**ubeaut** · 20th April 2011, 10:12 AM

Might be a good idea to try and find out what they put on the furniture in the first place. Could be something that someone has had lying around for the last 20 years or more, Could be paint stripper from a section that wasn't coated with finish. Goodness knows what they have used or done. I'd definitely be getting on to them for some answers, especially when it comes to health issues and if this isn't I don't know what is. If the aromatics are so strong, goodness knows what they used. He's worried about his wife and rightly so but I'd be more concerned about what those fumes are going to do to a new baby, who is going to be stuck with them for many hours a day.

Possible best solution. Burn the lot.

Cheers - Neil

**Woodgrub** · 22nd April 2011, 07:06 PM

Hi all,

Thank you for your help in this matter.
Below is Paul's reply...

Dear Tony
You and the lads are legends, thank you all for your advice, and especially for the time taken to respond, that is very much appreciated.

P.S. to Ubeaut, I wont “smack the pregnant wife up the back of the head”

as you so wish,
because we all were vaccinated, vaccinations are 85% guaranteed after the 3 shots for baby – 1 for adults, but the 2 of 3 of us were vaccinated and fell into the 15% to contract whooping cough. Just bad odds.
But thanks Neil is it, from Ubeaut?

The real message for me as a husband and father is that;
WHOOPING COUGH WILL KILL BABY'S YOU COME IN CONTACT WITH, IF YOUR NOT IMMUNISED & YOU’RE A CARRIER, & YOU DON’T KNOW THAT, I’ve seen its potential, and it’s called the 100 day cough for a reason. My wife has 30 of the 100 to go, but a caesarean in 20 days.

Again thanks Tony, we’ve stripped it back and will do a water based varnish apparently.
PS how sad is it that Manns Lavi is closing !!!

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