BEWARE of coming into this facility of the Houston Pulmonary Medicine Addociates PA, Lung and Sleep Center, at 5 Professional Drive in Webster, TX. They believe that it is perfectly safe to inhale toxic bug repellent while a patient is taking a pulmonary function test. This test requires deep inhalation and exhalation. I had a pulmonary function test scheduled for the afternoon today, and after waiting 40 minutes, a staff person finally showed up to tell me that she was the only one there and that the wait would be just a little longer. At the same time, a man from a pest control company came in, gloves in hand, with a repellent canister, ready to spray insect/bug repellent during, or just a few minutes before, I would be taking my pulmonary function test. He told me he was planning to spray the inside and outside of the clinic. When I complained to him and to the woman that insect repellent is toxic, or can cause allergic reactions, they both assured me that repellent is not toxic, even though the man was putting his gloves on to spray both indoors and outdoors. Why bother with gloves if the repellent is safe enough to soak your hands in it and breathe it in? My initial thought was to ask whether either of them had children and whether, as parents, they felt the repellent was non toxic enough to pour into a glass and ask their children to deeply inhale and drink the nontoxic substance. Or perhaps they themselves feel it is so non toxic, they would like to have a glass for lunch. Instead of asking these questions, since I was the patient paying for the diagnostic test, I asked that the insect repellent company gentlemen return after I was gone and had completed my test. The staff woman said that she contacted their manager and that this was not possible. Therefore, despite my own tight work schedule, I rescheduled my test for their other office location in Astoria where I felt it was safer since several physicians...including the pulmonologists themselves are actually located. My thought process is that perhaps when they spray their office on Astoria in Houston, at Medical Plaza 2, they wait until a weekend when no one is in these offices and perhaps the toxic repellent will have settled down enough so that neither the doctors, their staff nor their patients need to deeply inhale it at the very time it is sprayed. The visit to the Webster location at 5 Professional Drive, felt a little like the twilight zone today. Saying this repellent is so safe is like saying the air quality after the Deer Park Chemical fire is perfectly safe to inhale and even take a run while the sky is filled with black smoke. I cannot recall the last time I had insect repellent for any of my meals or inhaled it deeply since it is so safe. This is after all a lung clinic. I feel quite certain that none of the doctors would prescribe that insect repellent be present while a patient breathes deeply in-and-out during a pulmonary function test. Nor would the doctors themselves, or ask their family members, to take a pulmonary function test just as bug repellent is being sprayed. The total disregard for both a patient's time and their oath to "do no harm" is apparently irrelevant at the 5 Prefessional Park Drive location of the Houston Pulmonary Medicine Associates, PA. In case you are interested in scientific facts about allegedly safe insect repellents, I found a 2019 consumer reports report showing how the EPA and The Centers for Disease Control, evaluate whether these repellents are safe or not. Bottom line, is no, and they can cause severe allergic reactions as well. One ingredient is black pepper based and as it happens I am highly allergic to that. So had I stayed and had the pulmonary function test I would have had an allergic reaction during it. The other ingredients in the allegedly safe insect repellent is not safe for children under 3 according to the EPA and Centers for Disease Control. Here is the report: https://www.consumerreports.org/insect-repellent/do-natural-insect-repellents-work While I did not ask precisely what was in the insect repellent canister that the man was going to spray inside the office during patient hours, with patients taking pulmonary function tests and also sleep studies, it makes no difference at this point. Believing that it is medically safe to expose patients to any insect repellent during a pulmonary function test is beyond irresponsible medically. Hopefully in the future, the Houston Pulmonary Medicine Associates, PA can reschedule their insect repellent spraying indoors when their patients, who they swore an oath to protect, are not present. Before your schedule your appointment here, be sure to ask whether their monthly insect repellent spray will happen during your visit. read more