Tag Archives: asthma

Why We Need “Sensitive” Human Canaries

“Sensitive” humans are not defective or here to inconvenience you.

maybe it is not me

Some canary history:

“Carbon monoxide, a potentially deadly gas devoid of color, taste or smell, can form underground during a mine fire or after a mine explosion.

Today’s coal miners must rely on carbon monoxide detectors and monitors to recognize its presence underground. However, before the availability of modern detection devices, miners turned to Mother Nature for assistance.

Canaries — and sometimes mice — were used to alert miners to the presence of the poisonous gas. Following a mine fire or explosion, mine rescuers would descend into the mine carrying a canary in a small wooden or metal cage.

 

Any sign of distress from the canary was a clear signal that the conditions underground were unsafe, prompting a hasty return to the surface.

 

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Webinar to Increase Smoke-Free Policies in Federally Assisted Housing (US)

Smoke and chemicals (such as fragrances, air “fresheners”, laundry products, pesticides, and other VOCs) do not respect property lines as they travel throughout space, often making others quite sick, even disabling them in their own homes. This is especially a problem in multi-unit housing, and where housing units are built close together.

This is also a very serious accessibility issue for people with MCS/ES, as there are few affordable housing options available, and most of these put people at risk of further  harm due to indoor air pollution issues, despite HUD and other federal agencies in the US and Canada recognizing MCS/ES as a disability that needs to be accommodated.

The following webinar is about addressing smoke, but the issues are applicable to other forms of indoor air pollutants as well. It should also be available as a podcast later.

For those of you who are interested and able,  the webinar is being offered on Wed, Aug 5, 2015 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM EDT by the Asthma Community Network

Breathing Easy at Home: Partnering to Increase Smoke-Free Policies in Federally Assisted Housing

live smoke free webinarMore info: Continue reading

Shouldn’t Cleaning Products REMOVE Pollutants Instead of ADDING Them?

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!

cleaning pollution 1.

“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.”

.

 Volatile Organic Compounds and Your Health

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Industry Approved Actions to Spare Your Air, Lungs, and Brain

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If only the air was this good all the time!

If only the air was in the blue range all the time!

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Sometimes summer air just plain sucks. It can and does cause all kinds of health problems. Here then are some tips from Air Quality Ontario on what we humans can do to reduce our exposure to harmful pollutants and our impact on outdoor air.
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Note that none of these suggestions are enforceable. They are entirely voluntary for those of us who manage to learn of their existence. Many of us only find out about these tips once we are so adversely affected by pollutants that we couldn’t do these things even if we wanted to, which means the tips are most useful for the people who aren’t personally affected enough (yet) to understand the need for them.
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(reducing industry impacts on air will just have to wait until enough of us demand it)
 …
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During a Special Air Quality Statement, there are a number of actions that you can take to help spare the air:

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It’s Only A Little Fragrance

How many times have we heard it’s “only a little fragrance”?

Telling a person with MCS/ES that there is “only a little fragrance”

is like

telling someone with Celiac Disease that there’s “only a little gluten”

or

 telling someone with a peanut allergy that there’s “only a little peanut”

or

telling someone who uses a wheelchair that there are “only a few steps”.

It’s not ok.

telling 103It’s NOT ok.

Individual images follow: Continue reading

Fragrance Facts Brochure

I’ve been looking through some of my old files and ran across this printable brochure about fragrances. Made by Betty Bridges in 2002, it has very useful information that is still relevant.

What has changed since then is that fragrance industry members voluntarily disclosed over 3000 ingredients that they commonly use (only they know how many were not disclosed, as the fragrance industry is still not regulated), and more research has come out on how harmful many of the fragrance ingredients are.

Additionally,  many  more people have become permanently disabled with MCS/ES, often originally triggered from fragrance chemical exposures (in Canada, there was a 31% increase in people diagnosed with MCS between 2005 and 2010, with many more undiagnosed due to a lack of doctors trained in environmental health matters), and  now it has become impossible to avoid 1st, 2nd and 3rd hand fragrance chemical exposures in the “developed” world, so everyone is constantly being exposed to these chemicals.

Fragrance Brochure 1- horz screenshots

Screenshot of brochure. Download the document at link below.

 ∴

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Asthma, Fragrance, and Job Accommodation

Fragrances Can Cause or Trigger Work-related Asthma

The Work-Related Asthma Prevention Program (WRAPP) of the California Department of Public Health released new fact sheets on fragrances and work-related asthma.

INHALER

Information available:

2017 Fragrances and Work-Related Asthma: Information for Workers (PDF) – fact sheet

2017 Fragrances and Work-Related Asthma: Information for Employers (PDF) – fact sheet

2015 (editable) Workplace Fragrance-Free Policy (Word) – fact sheet

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Do It Yourself Air Filtering Mask

When air is polluted both indoors and out, when people use fragrances and other products with toxic chemicals, when we are made ill and disabled by the pollutants, then we can’t wait for better regulations to take effect, we need to do something to protect our health now.

Sometimes we can buy masks that work for us, especially if we tolerate synthetic materials, but sometimes making our own is the only way. When we make our own, we can use safe-for-us fabrics and even coordinate them to our outfits (if we’re lucky enough to have safe-to-wear outfits).

Some people use scarves as masks. You can sew a pouch on the inside to hold filtering Continue reading

3o Things

30 Things

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?

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MCS is International

People all over the industrialized world have been developing Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and Environmental Sensitivities, or Environmental Illnesses. We are exposed to so many petrochemical pollutants, in our air, water, foods, clothes, furnishings, homes, and elsewhere in daily life, substances which are now known to cause many kinds of adverse health effects, and some of us just have the epigenetic disposition to feel the effects faster and more extremely than others who may develop cancer or some other condition many years later.

Amelia Hill (aka the Amazing Amelia Hill) lives in Australia and developed very severe, or extreme MCS after not being properly diagnosed for too many years. A lack of proper diagnosis and precautionary measures usually results in a debilitating worsening of the condition, which is best addressed with avoidance of the triggering substances, and building up health in very targeted ways. This is much more difficult to do the longer one isn’t able to take the steps to avoid exposures and rebuild life with safe alternatives.

Amelia’s life is probably unlike any you have ever heard of (even mine) although there are many similarities between the experiences those of us who have severe MCS/ES share. Amelia is known as “amazing” because of the ways she handles her life.

You will see why here.

Amelia 01

Amelia’s story has been featured as the cover story in what may be South Australia’s most popular newspaper weekend magazine: Continue reading