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The images in the 1st It’s Not Personal, It’s The Chemicals were so popular, I decided to make more while my brain was functioning in this mode. Here are a couple that were very well received on facebook, plus a few new ones featuring children and office workers, as they too are being impacted by what we choose to use and put in the air.
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Posted in Accessibility, Brain, Disability, Fragrance, Indoor Air Quality, Public Health
Tagged allergies, asthma, be fragrance-free, brain fog, fragrance-free, hazardous air pollutants, headaches, health, images, It's not personal, It's not you, it's the chemicals, MCS, MCS/ES, migraines, petrochemicals, phthalates, poor concentration, toxic chemicals, toxic trespass
Have you ever noticed how some people get offended when we are disabled by, or get sick from something in the products they’ve used?
What’s up with that?
???
What about those who feign disbelief that we could be harmed by something they are using? Or that they could be using something that is harmful?
While I am not up to delving into the psychological and emotional intricacies of those responses here, or how industry pays big money to create them, I did come up with a few simple images with variations of the following text:
It’s not you! It’s not personal! It’s the chemicals!
Fragrances, personal care, and laundry products
contain toxic chemicals that make it impossible
for some people to be around those who use them.
Posted in Chemicals, Disability, Fragrance, Health, Human Rights, Public Health
Tagged Fragrance, indoor air quality, It's not personal, It's not you, laundry products, MCS/ES, multiple chemical sensitivities, multiple chemical sensitivity, personal care, personal care products, petrochemicals, sensitive to pollution, toxic trespass
The ideas and photos I am sharing are not designed specifically for people with MCS/ES, but they can be easily adapted to meet our needs.
The majority of people who celebrate Christmas do it with decorations, parties, and gifts, perhaps with a visit to church, if possible. For people with MCS/ES, all of these traditions, as currently practiced, can be seriously problematic, if not downright impossible.
Dr. John Molot is a doctor who sees patients with complex, chronic, environmentally linked, and often disabling, health conditions. Although he is retiring from private practice, he is still a staff physician in the Environmental Health Clinic at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto.
He recently released a book, “12,000 Canaries Can’t Be Wrong“, wrote a report in support of the Ontario Centre of Excellence in Environmental Health (OCEEH), and appears in a video presentation about the health effects of common chemical exposures (see below).
Check these out:
12,000 Canaries Can’t be Wrong
What’s making you sick & what can you do about it
Posted in Chemicals, Disability, Environmental Health, Fragrance, Health, MCS/ES, Pollution
Tagged allergies, autism, canaries, cancer, chronic illness, Dr. Molot, environment, fibromyalgia, health care access for people with MCS/ES, Human Rights, indoor air quality, MCS/ES, multiple chemical sensitivities, OCEEH, petrochemicals, sensitivities, toxic chemicals
Here’s a good three minute PSA from Frederick Community College about going fragrance-free:
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More resources:
Fragrance chemical pollution is as harmful as smoke, and has serious short and long term impacts on health and productivity.
There are days that I am not as peaceful as I would like to be… This is one of them…
Despite most of my fantasies being about a world where we all have clean air, clean water, healthy food, safe shelter and clothing, and care about each others well-being, I admit to occasionally entertaining various “revenge” fantasies regarding those who allow toxic chemicals into everyday products and materials, especially those in the fragrance industry…
I have had different fantasies over the years, despite in my heart of hearts, not wanting anyone to suffer…Today another revenge fantasy emerged (since some people just don’t understand the harm their actions cause others, unless they personally experience the same or similar harm):
The people who allow toxic chemicals to be used in colognes and other fragranced products deserve to be locked into a room with no ventilation, to inhale the fumes from 20 opened bottles and packages of those products (like soaps, laundry, personal care and cleaning products) for 24 hours, no matter what happens to them while they are in there.
With their families and friends watching via live-stream somewhere else…
Ok, I’ll be a little considerate…maybe when they go unconscious or delirious, they could be taken to a hospital, to a room filled with toxic sanitizers, PVC/vinyl fumes, perfumed and cologned doctors and nurses… only to be told that their symptoms were all in their head.
Why, you might ask, would I wish such a thing on someone today?
Colleen and her friend Beth discuss statistics and friendship challenges and benefits in another revealing post for Invisible Illness week…
Just like Colleen waited for years to get officially diagnosed with MCS, so did I, and for mainly the same reasons.
I knew that the doctors at the time knew nothing about it (or they would have given me a clue as to what the early signs were years ago).
Eventually I came to realize that statistics ARE important (to decision makers), and if we don’t make the effort to get an official dx (I say effort, because many people go from uneducated doctor to uneducated doctor for years… see my post about good news for Ontario to understand what a major deal the announcement of training 2 doctors in environmental health is) then in the eyes of decision makers, we do not exist.
That means that services for us continue to not exist also…
But when we speak up, things change.
I love how Colleen is speaking up, and how her friends are too!
For day 5 of Invisible Illness Awareness Week, my buddy Beth has agreed to give her perspective of what it is like having a friend disabled from MCS. In a Canadian study, in 2010, over 800,000 people were diagnosed with MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities) an 31% increase in 5 years. Those during the same time period with one or more of Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, and MCS were 1,415,000 (a 25% increase). This study excluded children with MCS and focused mostly on people with MCS diagnosed by a doctor. I personally went undiagnosed for decades. I avoided the triggers of perfume as much as I could. I figured there was nothing a doctor could do for me anyway and why be just another statistic. I now understand how important it is for our governments to have accurate statistics. The more people who give MCS a voice — the more likely we…
View original post 1,076 more words
Posted in Change, Chemicals, Disability, Education, Environmental Health, Fragrance, Friendship, MCS/ES
Tagged community, MCS, statistics
What it can be like having a friend with MCS… from a real friend <3
“I would go through all those steps, put on my safe clothes and Colleen would still say “Nope. Still contaminated.” I wanted to punch something. Here I would do just about anything for a friend, and it still didn’t work. It didn’t dampen her spirits, though. After that happened, she would just smile and say how I had worked harder than anyone else to solve this problem, and it was too bad that it hadn’t worked. That really didn’t help me much. I still felt frustrated.”
This week is National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week. It runs through September 14th. It was suggested to me that I write about my experiences in dealing with my illnesses, and I will – perhaps at a later date. Instead of looking within myself, I thought I would broaden the scope of my focus and talk about an invisible illness that has hit close to home, and changed how I live my life.
To have a loved one succumb to an illness is one of the most painful things imaginable – and that pain applies to friends, as well as to family. What is even worse is when that illness is new, uncommon, or even invisible. This is what has been happening to my friend, Colleen, who has Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, a crippling disease that has rendered her disabled.
I must admit that sometimes I don’t feel like…
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I challenge everyone who uses any products that have fragrance or parfum listed as an ingredient to pour a bucket of fragrance free, non-toxic soapy water over your head, to draw attention to the fact that fragrance chemicals and ingredients in everyday personal care, laundry products, and cleaning products are making people sick and disabling them, and that fragrance-free, non-toxic products are healthier for everyone.
This looks like a it was bucket full of fragrance-free soapy water!
Please donate to these two organizations that are helping people who have been injured by fragrance (and other chemicals) find medically required, safe, non-toxic housing:
http://www.aseq-ehaq-en.ca/ecoasis.html
https://reshelter.org/grant-programs/
♥
Thank you for participating!
P.S. You can use WARM WATER!
Posted in Action, Environmental Health, Fragrance, Support
Tagged bucket challenge, ecoasis, fragrance-free, MCS, MCS/ES, multiple chemical sensitivities, re/shelter, safe housing
If fragrances and the products they are added to didn’t contain so many seriously harmful ingredients which pollute the air we all breathe, the clothing we wear, the water we drink, and the soil we grow the foods we eat in, there wouldn’t be a need to go fragrance-free. Strangely, the fragrance industry has seen fit to include a vast array of toxic, petrochemical pollutants and highly allergenic substances in their products.
Here are some resources to use in making schools, workplaces and homes safer places to be. Some are new, some I’ve already linked to in other places on this site.
Hope you find them helpful.
from The CDC and MCS
The CDC Indoor Environmental Quality Policy from 2009 explicitly states:
“Fragrance is not appropriate for a professional work environment, and the use of some products with fragrance may be detrimental to the health of workers with chemical sensitivities, allergies, asthma, and chronic headaches/migraines.” …
Potential hazards include chemicals, biological agents, fragrant products, and physical conditions that may cause irritation, illness, or exacerbate existing health conditions” …
Posted in Child Health, Fragrance, Health, Indoor Air Quality, Pollution, Public Health
Tagged asthma, autism, cancer, environmental sensitivities, fragrance chemicals, fragrance-free, fragrance-free policy, hazardous air pollutants, images, migraines, multiple chemical sensitivities, pregnancy, scent free, schools
 | 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 