What help is available to me? My parents, 80 and 70 something have begun using toxic fumes to make me weaker. At various times, exhaust fumes, natural gas, and dust enter my bedroom - even while I sleep. I don't have the income to move. They leave something in the bathroom drain that makes me gap. They have allowed a leak from the shower to persist for about two years. I think they use things that can't be seen so if I complain or report them I'll be deemed crazy. I'm tough and didn't graduate from college to do anything but run away - if and when I can. There are too many trails and mountains to climb to let them drive me to... I just can't hike trails in a wheelchair.
time to call APS to intervene / get help.
At very least, to get situation evaluated.
Their motives for doing things, or if they do them deliberately, none of us can evaluate here--but your cry for help is clear!
YOU need help.
That would be APS; or you could call 911 to report unknown fumes in home, when those are happening, to get officer and/or Social worker to come to house, to smell them as they happen. Though, it's been my experience, in our rural area, that calling 911 got our local volunteer fire dept. person, who was entirely cavalier about a bad kerosene or oil spill in our vicinity that had such level of fumes it could have caused explosion, and definitely caused breathing impairment---he came to door and spoke of it as if was a minor issue.
APS could get you out of there if needed.
What might be "normal" cleaning chemical fumes to many people, could cause serious breathing problems for many others.
OR potential gas leak could be something elderly noses can no longer detect---which maybe no malice to you, but could indicate their beginning dementia, over-using those----like: Mom tried to clean her commode by leaving bleach sitting in it in her closed, 80 degree warm room, as she sat in there--nearly knocked me out next time I opened her door---yet, supposedly she had all her wits.
If elderly parents have become demented at all, this could be signals they, at some level, know you need to find a safer place to live, instead of where you are now with them---they also might they need safer place to live....elders who take this route somehow know you must still be able to think more clearly than they can, and that you're smart enough to call for help they can't figure to do anymore.
For instance, Mom kept complaining she hated the color blue. We rent: not allowed to paint her room, which was blue. In the end, finally understood her hating blue was tangled up in her ideas of wanting to move elsewhere.
Elders who start losing ability to communicate thoughts clearly, sometimes try to tell those thoughts in some unusual ways--including doing some behaviors that are unacceptable.. In your case, it's possible they could be trying to make "home" so unpleasant that you actively look for better place to live.
They are aging fast: at some level, they want you to be safe, even if they have to make you miserable first, to accomplish that goal--they aren't thinking straight!.
Some people learn inappropriate ways of communicating complicated feelings and thoughts that they may have struggled with their whole lives, resulting in all sorts of odd or even abusive behaviors.
Please call local authorities for help, and keep us posted here how things work out.