Tag Archives: accessibility

Two Tales: Temporary Quarantine or Long-term Segregation

 

There have been several articles in the news lately about the experiences of people who have been forced to endure quarantine or social isolation due to the coronavirus.

Many other people are worried about having to stay at home for a couple of weeks, without access to their regular activities, because they have never had to think about what it’s like, but some of us (indeed millions around the world) have been forced  to stay confined and isolated, sometimes for most of our lives! Our stories are seldom told, and when they are told, they’re often dismissed as anomalies and quickly forgotten.

 

When I saw the following articles, I felt the need to add a different perspective.

Continue reading

Holiday Canaries

Holidays
are not easy for human canaries these days.


But friends CAN make it better:

Continue reading

Safe Housing Survey

Do you (or will you) need safe housing?

Until the end of November 2019, Health Risk Navigation Inc. (HRNI) is conducting a much needed (yet simple) survey of the housing needs of the chemically injured in order to have quantitative data to show housing providers, communities, policy, and decision makers, funders, and other relevant parties.

This kind of data doesn’t exist currently, so even though safe housing is our core need, there are no official documents that anyone can easily point to.

More details are available on their FAQ page:
https://www.hrni.ca/Housing-Survey-FAQ.php

Some of you may have already done the 1st edition of this survey in June of 2019, when it originally came out. Thank you! Even though the survey now has a different format, those responses are not lost.

You don’t have to do the revised one, but it would be helpful if you could spend the 10-15 minutes to do so… just mention that you completed the original on the last page where people are asked to share any additional comments.

The questions of the initial survey and the current survey are identical, except that the current survey now has four new questions at the beginning  that seek  consent of the respondents to save and share info (largely due to EU privacy laws).

Every question also gives an explanation as to why the data is requested. Additionally, every question (except the consent questions) now gives us the choice to answer “Prefer Not To Say”.

Continue reading

Accessibility STOP Signs

I ran across a sign that the lung association had created, and while I am glad they are doing something , I found the message and visual required some tweaking.

Of course, the lung association didn’t come up with the term “sensitive”, it’s what is used in human rights laws, but it seems to have created an impression in the public’s mind that chemical and environmental sensitivities are trivial, and not disabling or even life threatening like they can be.

It also needs to be said that signs without enforcement are endangering lives and perpetuating harm, systemic accessibility barriers, discrimination, and forced isolated segregation for those who are disabled by any or repeated exposures.

To download printable posters, see below.

Continue reading

Welcome to the 2019 Edition of MCS/ES Awareness Month

It’s that time of year again!

We’re only a little tired of folks keeping their heads in the sand for decades.

The good (and sad) news is:

we’ve multiplied too much to ignore anymore!
(and there are more joining our ranks every day)

Major brands have started making fun of us and are co-opting our language,
so we know we’re making progress, even if it seems slow.

 

SPEAKING UP MAKES A DIFFERENCE!

 

If you are new to this, to learn more about  MCS/ES, you can start here:
Continue reading

Are You A Woman Over the Age Of 65 With MCS/ES?

IF SO, WOULD YOU PARTICIPATE IN A STUDY OF WOMEN’S NEEDS AS YOU GROW OLDER WITH ENVIRONMENTAL SENSITIVITIES?

The James Madison University Environmental Sensitivities Research Team is inviting women aged 65 and older who have experienced environmental sensitivities (chemical and/or electrical) to participate in an online study of how your needs are being met as you grow older with sensitivities.

If you are interested in participating, please click on the link below to see the consent form and learn more about the study. Continue reading

Have Your Say For May

What if you had the chance to say one thing about your life with MCS/ES, and how it would change your life if it was understood?

May is MCS/ES Awareness Month (yet again… maybe some year we won’t need it to be, but this year, we still do), and this year, I would like to share some of your stories and insights.

this one thing

If you could tell the world ONE thing about your life with MCS/ES (or any other invisible disability that has MCS/ES as a symptom), what would it be?

How has this one thing affected your life?

If this one thing were changed, how would your life be different?

You could think of it as a conversation with someone you love, someone who loves you (or even a kind stranger), someone who wants to understand, and who is willing to do something for you, and/or to change the way they do things, in order to include you in life, and to help you with what you need or want to accomplish in life (for example).

This is your time to tell them this one thing, and how this change will impact your life for the better.

Here’s what I am asking for with your submissions: Continue reading

Ottawa environmental doctor disciplined for treating suicidal teen with vitamins

Bad news!

I wonder how many people commit suicide due to pharmaceutical drugs that are prescribed?

How many of the doctors whose patients commit suicide due to the pharmaceuticals they prescribed are disciplined?

Dr. Armstrong has helped a lot of people over the years, people that other doctors were unable to help, or worse, subjected to harm.

Finding doctors that don’t harm people with environmental and chemical “sensitivities” (from ignorance, disbelief, or even inadvertently, while others take their oath to do no harm as an excuse to do nothing) is nearly impossible. Too many of us are forced to go without health care as a result.

Although it seems that her approach was lacking in this case (we don’t have all the details), and my condolences go out to the family who lost a loved one, in addition to the hypocrisy of not disciplining other types of doctors after patient suicides, the closing statement in the article is propaganda that will inflict harm on people whose needs are not being served by the current system:

“Critics, including many doctors, say sometimes there’s no evidence that something is dangerous because it actually isn’t dangerous, and trying to find environmental sources for particular afflictions can mean ignoring real problems.”

The critics are usually from the petroleum/pharmaceutical industry and have a lot to lose if MCS/ES is officially understood.

All too often now, ignoring the man-made environmental sources of adverse health effects means ignoring the real problems, and countless people, including children, are suffering as a result.

(continued in the comments, I don’t have the reblogging format down yet)

Property Manager’s Guides to MCS

From the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA):

Environmental Sensitivities and Housing

Every year, CERA receives a significant number of calls from tenants being made ill from the poor indoor air quality in their apartment buildings. Most of these individuals suffer from environmental sensitivities and are particularly sensitive to contaminants in the air. With funding assistance from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, CERA recently launched HomeSafe, an initiative to educate tenants and multi-unit housing providers on strategies to improve indoor air quality and create healthier living environments.

The resources section has some excellent documents that are designed to “help landlords, property managers, and co-operative and condominium boards of directors reduce the health impacts associated with multi-unit housing and create living environments that are as safe and “green” as possible… and make their properties more attractive…”

For example:

Continue reading

Report: RECOGNITION, INCLUSION AND EQUITY – THE TIME IS NOW

Many of us have been waiting for action for decades, let’s hope that this is the project that finally makes it happen. It has been a long time coming…

‘RECOGNITION, INCLUSION AND EQUITY – THE TIME IS NOW: PERSPECTIVES OF ONTARIANS LIVING WITH ES/MCS, ME/CFS AND FM’

Recognition Inclusion and Equity the Time is Now

From Varda Burstyn:

At long last, I am writing to let you know about four new groundbreaking reports – products of a 5-year initiative that I and colleagues began in 2008 – that present exciting new research on the three environmentally linked conditions of ES/MCS, ME/CFS and FM, and that develop a wonderful new model of care and support for those living with the conditions in Ontario.

Continue reading