Category Archives: Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

Friendship and Fragrance

There are reasons people choose and enjoy isolation, but developing disabling adverse effects from the toxic chemicals in everyday products and materials is seldom one of them.

Do you know someone who says fragrances bother or disable them? Chances are pretty good that you do, now that 34.7% of the population experience adverse effects, ranging from mild to severe and disabling, from fragrance exposures.

When your friend, family member, or colleague informs you that something you use has an adverse effect on them, how would you respond?

Do you choose the friendship? Or the product?

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Canadian Recognition of MCS/ES (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities/Environmental Sensitivities)

The Canadian Human Rights Commission

Policy on Environmental Sensitivities

Individuals with environmental sensitivities experience a variety of adverse reactions to environmental agents at concentrations well below those that might affect the “average person”. This medical condition is a disability and those living with environmental sensitivities  are entitled to the protection of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. …

UPDATE 2013: see Canadian Human Rights Documents Archived

Ontario’s Human Rights Code

What is disability?

“Disability” covers a broad range and degree of conditions, some visible and some not visible. A disability may have been present from birth, caused by an accident, or developed over time. There are physical, mental and learning disabilities, mental disorders, hearing or vision disabilities, epilepsy, drug and alcohol dependencies, environmental sensitivities, and other conditions.

The Code protects people from discrimination because of past, present and perceived disabilities. For example, the Code protects a person who faces discrimination because she is a recovered alcoholic. So is a person whose condition does not limit their workplace abilities, but who is believed to be at greater risk of being able to do less in the future.

http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/disability-and-human-rights

CERA the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation

…While environmental sensitivities are not well understood by the general public, they are recognized by Health Canada, the Canadian Health Network, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Canadian and Ontario Human Rights Commissions, the Ontario Medical Association and the Environmental Health Committee of the Ontario College of Family Physicians – among others….

http://www.equalityrights.org/cera/?page_id=674

Environmental Health Clinic

The Environmental Health Clinic is a unique multidisciplinary clinic, and the only one of its kind in Ontario. It was established in 1996 by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to be a provincial resource in promoting environmental health, and to improve health care for people with environment-linked conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and multiple chemical sensitivities.

The Environmental Health Clinic is the clinical part of a joint clinical and research program of Women’s College Hospital and the University of Toronto.

http://www.womenscollegehospital.ca/programs-and-services/environmental-health-clinic469/

This post is in response to a request.

If anyone can provide other links, including the sources mentioned by CERA, I will add them.  Thanks in advance.

HRV and MCS… an update

The HRV (heat recovery ventilator) broke down in March.

September 25th was the 1st time they came to install the new one. At that time it was discovered that neither the people ordering the HRV, the people selling HRVs, or the people installing them thought to ask if the intake and exhaust vents would be in the same location on the new machine as on the old machine.

They were not.

After a lot of humming and hawing it was decided to keep the new unit and build out more ducts to make it fit. The duct material had to be ordered in. Apparently it was special and not in stock.

They finally came back, Friday the 16th of November. Now that it is too cold out to open windows without the heating system coming on (or freezing, I still don’t have adequate safe warm clothing, but that’s another story) they came back.

And wouldn’t you know it, there is something in the new system that isn’t good for me, and, it gets sucked through the ducts whenever the heat goes on, even if the HRV is turned off.

It might be because

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MCS/ES Housing Resources From CERA

This information can now be found in the Property Manager’s Guides to MCS

Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief for People with Chemical and Electrical Sensitivities

(Thanks to Mary Lamielle)

Providing Services for People with Chemical and Electrical Sensitivities (CS/ES) in Emergency Management

Educate yourself and your agency or organization about the needs of people with chemical and electrical sensitivities (CS/ES).

Identify and work with the CS/ES in your community to determine how to best meet their needs.

Provide notification to people with CS of any toxic event so that they can take precautions or evacuate as necessary.

Establish a registry as a means to provide advance notification.

Keep the needs of those with CS/ES in mind as emergency preparedness plans are developed.

Work to ensure emergency services and shelters are accessible for people with CS/ES.

Be prepared to respond to any emergency affecting the CS even if the balance of the population is not significantly affected.

Provide for the safe evacuation, if necessary, for those who cannot use public transportation.

Provide outreach to people with CS/ES who are unable to get to or be accommodated in a shelter.

Prohibit smoking in the vicinity of people with CS and protect those with CS from exposure to combustion sources including gasoline and diesel exhaust, propane, and similar exposures.

Use least toxic/allergenic cleaning and maintenance products and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices with least toxic/low impact products, if necessary.

Adopt and promote best practices policies that restrict the use of fragrances and the purchase and use of fragranced and scented products in emergency services.

Restrict the use of cell phones, smart phones, and similar devices in the vicinity of people with ES.

These tips were provided by Mary Lamielle,
National Center for Environmental Health Strategies, Inc.
“Addressing the Needs of People with Chemical and Electrical Sensitivities and Fragrance-Free Policies in Emergency Preparedness,”
New Jersey GAINED, January 25, 2012.

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Laundry Decontamination Protocols

Safe clothing can be a huge challenge for people with MCS/ES. Most clothing is not chemical free. Even organic clothing can be treated and finished with the same toxic chemicals found in regular clothes (see link at the end of this post for more details)

Sometimes it is possible to detox regular clothing. For mildly sensitive people it might just take a few regular washes with a tolerable detergent. For more sensitive people, a more involved protocol may do the trick. For others, we often end up without much in the way of clothing and bedding, because even the trace chemicals can be too much.

Here are some methods many people have used to successfully detox their clothing. As always, individual results may vary according to personal sensitivities, water conditions, products available, and whatever might be in the clothing to begin with.

Updated Version of Ellen’s Laundry Decontamination Protocol

Originally posted at MCS-Canadian-Sources and at The Canary Report        (copied with permission)

When I joined the MCS… list in 2005, I learned what other members of the list were doing to decontaminate their new clothes. I made some changes, the main one being that I soak the new items in plastic bins, rather than soaking them in my washing machine.

I have an expensive front-loading washing machine, with a maximum soaking time of 35 minutes, which is totally inadequate for decontaminating new or really smelly fabrics. I continue to make changes as I find problems or improvements.

If you have a top-loading washing machine, soaking times can be set much longer, because the timer can be turned off after the soaking ingredient and machine water are completely mixed.
I am including the latest version of my protocol here.

Please note that I have only tested this protocol on cotton, cotton/bamboo blends, cotton/polyester blends, and a very few totally synthetic fabrics. It is not safe to use on silk.

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Undisclosed chemicals in fragranced products (new video)

Independent researcher Dr. Anne Steinemann was recently interviewed by Dr. Joseph Mercola about undisclosed toxic chemicals found in laundry products, air fresheners, cleaners, lotions and other (mostly) fragranced consumer products.

She will be testing foods found in supermarkets for fragrance chemicals. Many of us have had to stop buying food from supermarkets etc because they taste like fragrance and cleaning product chemicals.

She also notes that just because a product is “fragrance free”, doesn’t mean it really is, or that it doesn’t contain other harmful chemicals.

Important, worthwhile interview, especially if you don’t know what all the “fragrance-free” fuss is about.

For more info, see Dr. Steinemann’s website

1844 Bloor St. West

1844 Bloor Street West

(1991-2010)

From fixing up the run down house in 1991, to raising my two wonderful children, planting and tending a garden, living and celebrating life with friends and family, to getting sick, to almost dying…

Memories of life at 1844 Bloor St W 1991-2010.

My father, daughter and son on the porch… 91 or 92.

After cleaning and painting inside, I think it took almost 20 bags to remove the weeds and garbage and unearth the garden. Only the hollyhock, a red rose, and some alyssum in the rock garden were there when I moved in.

It took a few years to get the perennial garden going. My father’s old porch railing was re-purposed as a fence for a few years. People used to smile when they went by. More people who lived on Bloor St W started planting flowers in front. People often asked me if it was my garden when I was out shoveling snow, and told me how much they enjoyed seeing the seasonal changes.

When I got too sick to care for it because of the vehicle exhaust and laundry fumes from the apartment buildings, I watched from the windows as people stole plants, rocks and other items I’d placed there.

~

Many birthdays were celebrated in 1844…

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The documentary video Homesick about MCS and housing is almost done

From Susan Abod, Producer of Homesick:

Announcing an opportunity to be included in the documentary video Homesick about MCS and housing

The film is almost done, but I am looking for pictures of MCSers and where they live to create a collage showing there are lots of us out there around the world. You can view an 8 minute video clip and read more about the project on the Homesick website: http://homesick-video.com/.

If you are interested, please send a photo of yourself where you live. It could be a room that you consider your “safest” place, a picture of your whole house, or your neighborhood or surrounding area. It may look “normal” or it may have been foiled or fixed up showing what it took to make to make it safe for you. If you live in a car, trailer, or tent, send a picture of that. I hope to include people with all levels of health and show a wide variety of living situations, whether the situation is working for you, or not.

You can email me the picture as JPEG, PDF, or TIFF file to: mail@homesick-video.com. Please include your city, state, and country. You can also send your picture through the mail to: Homesick: Pictures, c/o Susan Abod, 11 Balsa Court, Santa Fe, NM 87508. Note that sending your picture grants permission for its use in the film.

If you have any questions you can email me at: mail@homesick-video.com. Please feel free to forward this to other MCSers that you may know of anywhere on the globe who might like to participate!

For more video and info visit: http://documentaries.org/cid-films/homesick/

Thank you and all the best,

Susan Abod
Producer, Homesick

Not so Equal Access to Health Care in Ontario or Systemic Barriers to Access for People with MCS/ES

Some places like Ontario, where I live, have disability access laws that state service providers, including those in healthcare, must accommodate people who are disabled.

On a government website, it states:

Barriers to accessibility are obstacles that make it difficult — sometimes impossible — for people with disabilities to do the things most of us take for granted — things like going shopping, working, or taking public transit… 

(or receiving health care services)

When we think of barriers to accessibility, most of us think of physical barriers — like a person who uses a wheelchair not being able to enter a public building because there is no ramp.

The fact is there are many kinds of barriers. Some are visible. Many are invisible:

•    Attitudinal barriers are those that discriminate against people with disabilities.

•    Organizational barriers are an organization’s policies, practices or procedures that discriminate against people with disabilities.

•    Architectural and physical barriers are features of buildings or spaces that cause problems for people with disabilities.
Chemical or “environmental” barriers prevent people like myself who have disabling medical conditions from breathing and functioning properly when exposed to these invisible, toxic and disabling barriers, resulting in both short and long term impacts.

How many of us do not have safe access to healthcare in Ontario?
How many of us do not have safe access to healthcare in Ontario?

In the ” Guide to the Accessibility Standards for Customer Service, Ontario Regulation 429/07″,  it says that Hospitals and health services provide goods or services  and as  designated public sector organizations should have been in Compliance by January 1, 2010…

It also states:
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