My article “Invisible Barriers, Invisible Disabilities, Invisible People” is now available to read in the
Special Issue on Ecopsychology and Environmental Sensitivities:
Chemical, Electrical, and Beyond
All the articles in the entire special issue will be available for free until Sept. 5 2017, which is unprecedented access!
Please check them out and share as widely as possible!
Table of Contents:
Posted in Disability, Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Human Rights, Public Health
Tagged chemical sensitivity, ecopsychology, EHS, environment, fibromyalgia, Gibson, health, invisible disabilities, MCS, MCS/ES, multiple chemical sensitivities, Ontario, petrochemicals, Research, systemic discrimination, toxic chemicals, toxic trespass
While following the events at Standing Rock, I ran across something that impressed me that was shared from the “Dancing Earth” fb page, and so I began following them (please do check them out if you like powerful dance images).
At the end of April, just before MCS/ES Awareness Month was to begin, Dancing Earth posted the image below, and it made me stop in my tracks (as I scrolled through my fb newsfeed). I returned to it over and over again, and I finally asked for permission to share it here, and for the back story about how it came to be.
This image!
“Songs From The Extraction Zones”
Rulan Tangen at Santa Fe Arts Institute
…
I kept hoping to find the words to describe why I find it to be such a powerful image, and why I feel such a personal connection to it, but I’ve been struggling from the effects of too much pollution on my brain. Pesticides, laundry products, and who knows what else have been taking their toll on my ability to string words together to do this the justice I feel it deserves, so this will not be as eloquent as I had hoped it would be, but I still want to share this with you, and maybe you will find some of your own words, or just sit with the feelings.
The canaries are still waiting!
“We issued a report (in 1985) that identified existing, publicly funded means of diagnosis, and accepted various methods of patient management, including avoidance of offending agents.
We did not feel that more research was needed before these and other measures were introduced to protect patients from being caused harm through inappropriate labelling or the denial of reasonable accommodation.”
Excerpted from this letter by Judge George M. Thomson, B.A., LL.B., LL.M., who chaired the extensive report by the Ad Hoc Committee on Environmental Hypersensitivity Disorders for the Province of Ontario in 1985:
Posted in Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Human Rights, Pollution, Public Health
Tagged canaries, chemical sensitivity, Fragrance, fragrance-free, hazardous air pollutants, health, invisible disabilities, MCS, MCS/ES, multiple chemical sensitivities, petrochemicals, toxic trespass
These images are available on facebook. Feel free to download the appropriate one and use for Awareness Month, or at least for May 12th Awareness Day!
Posted in Accessibility, Action, Education, Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Friendship, Images, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Support
Tagged allergies, asthma, chemical sensitivity, EHS, environment, invisible disabilities, masks, MCS, MCS/ES, multiple chemical sensitivities, petrochemicals, sensitive to pollution
MCS Awareness days, weeks, and months, along with government proclamations have been going on since at least 1998!
It has taken a lot of effort from a lot of people over a lot of years, and for some of us, it doesn’t seem to have made a great deal of difference in our daily lives.
Marie Leblanc, an artist from Winnipeg who is living with MCS/ES herself, is compiling information and statements to put into an MCS awareness project. There are two ideas to contribute to.
The easier one is to share shorter personal statements about your life with MCS/ES and related environmentally linked health conditions, which will be projected onto walls in a way similar to the photo below.
Many of you are familiar with Amelia Hill, either via my blog, her blog, from her facebook group, or from the several articles she has written or appeared in, where you can read about her most challenging circumstances and how she has worked so hard to not only survive them, but to overcome them and to help others who are hidden away going through similar challenges.
Amelia Hill
Amelia’s awesome mom Danija has contacted me to say that Amelia’s health has taken a real turn for the worse, and that she and her family have run out of funds to get her the very limited, specific foods and medical care Amelia urgently needs now.
A friend has started up a fundraiser where there are more details about what has happened and what is needed.
Please contribute if you can. ♥ Every little bit will help.
https://www.gofundme.com/amazingameliahill
If you can’t donate, then please keep Amelia in your hearts and prayers.
P.S. I will keep you updated in the comments when I have more news to share.
I’ve previously posted about a research project Pamela Gibson from the James Madison University in Virginia was undertaking. She has been asking for women aged 65 and older who have experienced environmental sensitivities (chemical and/or electrical) to participate in an online study of how their needs are being met as they grow older with sensitivities, but due to a lack of participation from women over the age of 65 (does anyone want to guess why?) she has opened up the study to anyone over the age of 21.
WOMEN OVER AGE 65 STUDY MODIFIED TO INCLUDE PERSONS 21 OR OVER WITH ENVIRONMENTAL SENSITIVITIES
(CHEMICAL OR ELECTRICAL)
Alison Johnson has a new video coming out about the need for fragrance-free policies.
From her website:
Card available from Alison Johnson
“This film covers not only fragrance issues but also presents an overview of multiple chemical sensitivity. It features Dr. L. Christine Oliver, an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and former Co-Director of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. The film also contains footage of an interview with the former Commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Dr. Ronald R. Blanck. People with MCS in the film include Gulf War veterans and survivors of the 9/11 WTC attacks, as well as people from all walks of life.”
.
You can watch the trailer here:
Posted in Accessibility, Air Quality, Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Fragrance, Health, Human Rights, Public Health
Tagged Alison Johnson, allergies, Anne Steinemann, asthma, chemical sensitivity, Chemicals, fragrance-free, hazardous air pollutants, IAQ, MCS, multiple chemical sensitivities, petrochemicals, video
MCS/ES is not new. Over 30 years ago, the Province of Ontario created the “Committee on Environmental Hypersensitivity” and appointed George Thomson, a former provincial court judge, as chairman, with a mandate to study and “advise the Ministry of Health on the occurrence of environmental hypersensitivity in Ontario and on current methods of diagnosis and treatment. Further, the committee was to make recommendations to the ministry concerning future approaches to treatment and research that should be taken”
From the the Legislative Assembly of Ontario Official Records for 17 December 1985:
Hon. Mr. Elston: Members of this House may also recall a six-member committee which was appointed in November 1984 to study a disorder which is known as environmental hypersensitivity, or 20th-century disease. The condition has been described as multiple sensitivities or allergies to a wide range of foods, chemicals and environmental substances.
 | linda @ Seriously "S… on MCS/ES |
| linda @ Seriously "S… on The CDC and MCS |
 | Tabatha Schnorr on MCS/ES |
| Tabatha Schnorr on The CDC and MCS |
| linda @ Seriously "S… on MCS and Housing |
| linda @ Seriously "S… on Hospital Protocols for People… |
Seriously "Sensitive" to Pollution 