CLEVELAND -- You may have heard of sick building syndrome, but what happens when the building that is making you sick is your own home?

You may not give a lot of thought to the air circulating in your home or the elements in your soil, but one Parma Heights woman's life has completely changed because of where she lives, reported NewsChannel5 consumer specialist Angie Lau.

Going out in public is rare for Toni Temple. She is the president of the Ohio Network for the Chemically Injured, and she has dedicated the last 15 years to educating others about the harmful effects of heavy metals and chemicals in the environment.

"When I had the house tested it was loaded with copper and arsenic and other things," said Temple.

The heavy metals had gotten into her soil from a nearby fence that was treated with copper. It invaded her home and made her sick.

She also was dealing with zinc chloride exposure from a water conditioner.

"That's how I got to know the manufacturers of the Niton equipment," Temple said.

Bill Radosevich works for Thermo Scientific in Minnesota. He uses the Niton Analyzer to detect heavy metals.

"We look for lead and we also look for arsenic. It's very common to see arsenic in inner outer ring suburbs where former apple orchards used to be because they used a lead arsenate as a pesticide," Radosevich said.

Dr. Kathleen Fagan from University Hospitals specializes in environmental health, and she said lead and other toxins can create long-term problems but it affects everyone differently.

"Some people develop sensitivities to either metals or chemicals and start to have symptoms at much lower levels than other people," said Fagan.

Temple's symptoms were through the roof. She suffers from multiple health problems that range from anemia to blood clots.

For years, no one knew why Temple was getting sick, but now we are learning more every day.

"We now have more tools available to us to understand our environmental exposures we now have more tools for testing," said Fagan.

Temple said, "The most important thing I could stress to your viewers is reading the labels. Just because it's there doesn't mean someone has checked and it's OK. Many people think because it's in the store and you can buy it, it's safe. That's the misnomer."