I’ve been observing advertising for fragranced products over the years and have found some of the ads to be quite telling.
For instance, every time I’ve seen an ad for this product, it looks like the people using it are inhaling drugs.
And this product too. All the ads show adults and/or children who look like they are getting stoned:
Since papers, inks, and computers can release fumes that are too toxic for some of us to breathe, adversely affecting our ability to remain functional, and since there’s no getting away from papers and technology in modern society, an assistive device was invented some decades ago that could be useful to bring back as a more popular accessory: the reading box!
I recently ran across an ad on Craigslist for one that was for sale in the US, and then someone found an old catalogue (2002 PDF) with a few other pics, so I thought I’d share the info and images here in case they can help anyone else.
A reading box is basically a box made of wood, glass, or metal, with an opening in the front, and glass on top to read through. A vented box will also have a dryer hose out the back, and a fan of some sort to push the air through the hose and out of a window. A barrier with a vent sized exhaust hole would also be needed to cover the window opening being used.
This computer box is from the catalogue.
Posted in Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Indoor Air Quality, MCS/ES, Products
Tagged appliances, community, DIY, EHS, EMF, enclosure, health, how to, IAQ, ink, MCS, multiple chemical sensitivities, paper, petrochemicals, reading, reading box, VOCs
Guest post by T.M. Canary
Valentines Day has a different meaning for me. Three years ago in February 2013 my life changed forever. I was diagnosed with Reactive Airway Disease due to the use of air fresheners at the clinic where I worked. There is no way to describe how my life has been permanently changed in just a few words. My severe asthma is permanent and likely progressive. Those that care about me have the power do something about this though. You can make the effort to choose products that do not pollute the air we all breathe.
1. Avoid fragranced body products [perfume, body creams, sun screens, deodorant, shower gels, shampoo/conditioner, hair products, hand soaps lotions, and sanitizers]
2. Avoid fragranced laundry products [detergent, fabric softener and dryer sheets]
This is BIG news in the everyday chemicals and human health research front!
This explains what many of us who have MCS/ES experience – we can feel these processes as they occur, we don’t have to wait for the cancer that will kill us if we don’t get away from the exposures and find tools to heal the already occurring damage.
“This is the first time scientists have figured out how widespread this is, and how many different layers of machinery within the cells themselves are being impacted by these chemicals.”
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“We found definite evidence that chemicals that are unavoidable in the environment can produce a wide range of low-dose effects that are directly related to carcinogenesis. So the way we’ve been testing chemical safety is really quite out-of-date.”
“Every day we are exposed to an environmental ‘chemical soup’ and we need testing to evaluate the effects of our ongoing exposure to the mixtures in this soup.”
~ William Goodson III, a senior scientist at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.
“This research backs up the idea that chemicals not considered harmful by themselves are combining and accumulating in our bodies to trigger cancer and might lie behind the global cancer epidemic we are witnessing.
~ Cancer Biologist Dr Hemad Yasaei from Brunel University London
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This would be all kinds of everyday chemicals, such as those that trigger MCS – they included chemicals found in items such as mobile phones, detergents and cooking pans, and pesticides used on fruits and vegetables!
Read the research or check out some of the media reports:
Some of us find online computer games to be a good way to keep our brains from atrophying when we are disabled by all the toxic chemicals allowed to be used in everyday products and materials.
Here’s a game idea that we’d like developed:
It would have to have an adjustable, variable speed (some of our brains are very slow), as well as an on-off switch for sounds (some of us are also sound “sensitive” when our CNS has been fried from exposures).
The products that pop up can be virtually all regular laundry, cleaning, and personal care products, pesticides, new clothing, shoes, furniture, new electronics, most plastics, in fact, almost anything new. Toxic, health-harming petrochemicals are everywhere now!
The game could be turned into an educational tool too (instead of just a therapeutic tool) by including hyperlinks that inform what the known and suspected to-be-harmful and still-questionable chemicals are in each product, and what health effects they can cause! Scoring could be based on whacking (eliminating) the most toxic products first!
Can someone please make us this game?
In the meantime, here’s an existing way to be active in learning and changing the toxic world we currently live in to a safer one:
Posted in Action, Brain, Chemicals, Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Products
Tagged computer, games, ideas, MCS, mind the store, online, programming, toxic products, whack-a-toxic
Here’s yet another scientific report about how dangerous chemicals and VOCs are being released from the everyday cleaning products most people use in their homes!
Environmental Defense (Canada) recently released their report THE DIRTY TRUTH, which found that products from some of the biggest cleaning brands (Mr. Clean, Clorox, Lysol, Windex, and PineSol ) pollute the air in Canadians’ homes with harmful chemicals. (Note that these products are not significantly, if at all different in the US, but the EU does have some bans on ingredient that are still allowed here).
ED’s The Dirty Truth follows hot on the heels of Women’s Voices For the Earth’s DEEP CLEAN report, and while both of these reports name names, they had a slightly different focus.
In Deep Clean, Women’s Voices For the Earth graded four major cleaning product manufacturers based on key indicators to expose their commitment to product safety: Product Ingredient Disclosure, Responsiveness to Consumer Concerns, Toxic Chemical Screening Process and Removal of WVE’s Chemicals of Concern.
Dr. Anne Steinemann’s research from earlier this year did not name product names, but she named numerous harmful volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) that the many popular products she tested do release into the air we breathe.
One has to wonder why this is allowed to be going on?
We should not be subjected to harmful industrial pollutants in our own homes!
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“Our new report found that products from some of the biggest cleaning brands (Mr. Clean, Clorox, Lysol, Windex, and PineSol ) pollute the air in Canadians’ homes with harmful chemicals called Volatile Organic Compounds. These chemicals have been linked to respiratory problems such as asthma and lower IQs.”
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Volatile Organic Compounds and Your Health
Posted in Accessibility, Air Quality, Brain, Chemicals, Environmental Health, Health, Pollution, Products
Tagged allergies, asthma, autism, cancer, cleaning, cleaning products, dangerous chemicals, hazardous air pollutants, IAQ, MCS, petrochemicals, science, toxic trespass, VOCs
Yes way…sighs…
Most of us wear underwear all the time. We don’t think much about it.
I remember when I used to be able to find decent 100% cottom undies with enclosed elastic waistbands at the dollar stores! I could throw them in the wash once, and they were good to go. Those were the days!
More recently, I’ve been disabled from a serious fibro flare caused by trace (?) levels of chemical residues from wearing organic undies that cost me $20 a pair. Even after soaking and washing them at least a dozen times, and then boiling them several times after.
Disabled?
Yes, disabled!
My alternate title for this post was Disabled by Underwear… Here’s what happened:
Posted in Chemicals, chemicals in clothing, Disability, Environmental Health, Fashion, Fibromyalgia, Laundry, Products
Tagged #May12, allergies, chemical free, chemicals in clothing, chronic health problems, chronic pain, Clothing, environmental sensitivities, fibromyalgia, furnishings, furniture, MCS, MCS/ES, pesticides, petrochemicals, sensitive to pollution, toxic textiles
The following is a list of products many of us use or have contact with every day. Each and every one of these usually contains unregulated synthetic chemical ingredients, many of which pose known health hazards.
How many of these things did you touch or breathe in today?
What is protecting you?
∴
∴
“This study found 156 different VOCs emitted from the 37 products, with an average of 15 VOCs per product. Of these 156 VOCs, 42 VOCs are classified as toxic or hazardous under US federal laws, and each product emitted at least one of these chemicals. Emissions of carcinogenic hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from green fragranced products were not significantly different from regular fragranced products.”
∴
Indeed, most indoor environments (and everything in them) are now polluted with these VOCs due to the pervasive nature of these products and chemical compounds.
From the research article:
Posted in Accessibility, Air Quality, Chemicals, Disability, Environmental Health, Fragrance, Health, Products, Research
Tagged 156 VOCs, allergies, asthma, autism, cancer, Chemicals, cleaning, environmental sensitivities, EOs, essential oils, everyday products, green cleaning, hazardous air pollutants, health, indoor air quality, labels, laundry, MCS, MCS/ES, personal care, petrochemicals, toxic, toxic trespass
I have heard that new ads are out and insinuating people will somehow feel richer merely by inhaling mysterious blends of chemicals. Please don’t be fooled. Seriously.
“Unstopables … will add an indulgent level of luxurious scent to every load of your laundry. Add as much as you wish for up to 12 weeks* of scent enhancement so you can smell like the lifestyle you—and your wardrobe—deserve.”
They fail to mention that your neighbors who get migraines may think that the “scent enhancement” emanating from your dryer vent (which was designed to emit moisture, not chemicals) is not such a good thing for them, their asthmatic children, or for their aging parents who have lung disease and whose window is yards from your vent.
Apparently we also don’t deserve to know what we’d be inhaling if we use these things! P&G will only refer us to the self-regulated fragrance industry’s voluntarily disclosed list of over 3000 ingredients, most of which are petroleum derived. (Scroll down for a PDF of the list, which took quite a bit of sleuthing around their other website to find).
I’ve designed a few new ads for them, simplifying some of their marketing messages into plain English for you :
There’s more, much more…
Posted in Accessibility, Air Quality, Brain, Environmental Health, Fibromyalgia, Fragrance, Health, Human Rights, Indoor Air Quality, Pollution, Products
Tagged allergies, asthma, barriers to access, brain fog, brain injury, buzz, cancer, Chemicals, child health, cognitive problems, drugs, EDCs, Fragrance, fragrance-free policy, hazardous air pollutants, hormones, images, impaired, inhalants, laundry, luxurious scent, MCS, MCS/ES, petrochemicals, phthalates, toxic chemicals, toxic trespass
 | linda @ Seriously "S… on MCS/ES |
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| Tabatha Schnorr on The CDC and MCS |
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Seriously "Sensitive" to Pollution 