The LPG's got to go!

Anyone else had problems with their bottled LPG? About a year ago we started felling sick from what we thought was a gas leak from the kitchen stove. Got the plumber out but he didn't find anything. We nearly took ourselves to hospital to get checked out. Headache, nausea, dizziness, vagueness, irritability, sore throat and sinus problems.

We had the same effects for a whole year on-and-off. About 2 months ago it started getting worse. We took some bottles back to the general store. We could smell the mercaptan in the bottles even though they were nowhere near empty. One was 3/4 full when it started to smell. Other people around town say their gas is running out quicker - my guess is that they are putting more mercaptan in the bottles and people think they are nearly out of gas and get a new bottle. Sure would be a good way to sell more gas, but they wouldn't do that would they? Or maybe they've changed the odourant.

We turned off the house gas bottle - so of course we had no shower hot water - and would just turn it on for a shower and washing up (this was a bit of a pain as we had to go outside and relight the hot water system each time - but it was better than getting gassed). We stilled got gassed!

We had (until today) a gas fridge - that had started to do this too. We used a double burner cooktop for a few weeks- same deal. Then a single burner for the morning cuppa - same again. All different bottles - different appliances. All seals in place and tight. OK, whats the deal! We did some research and found out about ethyl mercaptan the odourant used in the gas bottles - it produces the symptoms we had. Why is it leaking? Is the higher mercaptan level corroding the seals quicker? What the hell is happening? How do we prove it? This is where we need your help - anyone else notice anything odd?

We chucked the fridge outside, Lisa made a little cooler thing out of 2 eskys (like a hay-box cooker in reverse) and I took the top off the tile fire and we are going to cook on that until we get another kitchen wood-stove. GIVE THE GAS COMPANY THE FLICK! Go solar oven, wood stove and solar hot-water. What we need to refrigerate for winter we'll do without. Milk will be turned into cheese. It gets cold here in winter (down to -10C). By summer we should have a replacement solar fridge for the gas fridge. You can do it too!