Tag Archives: chemical sensitivity

What I Wear In Bad Air :: Wendy

 

2016 Wendy Kearley

“I use my mask any time someone comes to my door, when maintenance people come in my home, when a nurse comes to take my blood. In an emergency I have to wear it going to & in the hospital, and any time chemicals infiltrate from outside, like wood smoke, Northern Pulp Mill, lawn mower exhaust,  snow blower exhaust, and vehicle exhaust, and laundry products. 

I’ve also had to wear it for a few days inside because they used plastic plumbing parts that made me very ill.”

~ Wendy Kearley

Wendy uses a 3M series 7502 silicone half mask with a 60926 filter.

For more info on masks, please see Continue reading

What I Wear In Bad Air :: K.B.

 

2016 K.B. Disneyland vacation

“I need to wear a mask around people due to artificial fragrances, car fumes, etc. ‘Normal’ everyday activities, such as putting petrol/gas in the car, can no longer be done.

This photo represents that fact that we can often overcome things that seem impossible. Taken in California in Disneyland on our family trip from Australia to California this year thanks to ‘safe’ accommodation at a friends house, oxygen, mask, activated carbon scarfs & bedding, truck full of supplements & healthy eating. “

~ K.B.

To learn more about masks see

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What I Wear In Bad Air :: Bearnairdine


2016 Bearnairdine Beaumont

Here’s my picture on board an aircraft, to protect me from contaminated cabin air.

~ Bearnairdine Beaumont

You can visit Bearnairdine’s fb page to learn more about her story and about aerotoxic syndrome:

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What I Wear In Bad Air :: Debbie

 

2016 Debbie Clark Seely

“This is me in my mask. I keep it right next to me in case I have to put it on quickly. I used to only use it when I went to the grocery store, but I haven’t been inside a store since July 2015.  I still end up needing it for when people come in my home or my neighbor’s laundry scent comes in.”

~ Debbie Clark Seely

 

For more info on masks, please see Continue reading

What I Wear In Bad Air :: Heather D.

 

2016 Heather Drakonis in VOG mask

“I never leave home without it. I picked the fun looking Space Invaders to try and make others more comfortable with me. I take the bus once or twice a month to Seattle for my medicine. With my mask I have reduced my pneumonia by almost 60%. I do feel like people think I’m going to make them sick. Some cross the street with their children. It saves my life, but hurts my feelings. I just want society to understand that my mask is no threat to them.”

~ Heather Drakonis

For more info on masks, please see Continue reading

What I Wear In Bad Air :: Marie

2016 Marie LeBlanc 1

“I have to  wear my mask to do laundry in the basement because of mustiness and other people’s fragrances.”

~ Marie LeBlanc

Marie also shared an artistically altered image of her wearing her mask while waiting to see a doctor, because people were ignoring the fragrance-free signs on the wall behind her. Continue reading

Are Essential Oils Too Popular For Our Own Good?

Did you know that essential oils are not harmless?

Essential Oils have been, in limited circumstances,  a good thing. Some have useful healing properties when used medicinally in very specific and temporary ways, but too much of anything is not a good thing. Essential oils  are now used and diffused everywhere, and have become more of a serious health hazard than something beneficial. Indeed,  for an ever growing percent of the population they have become life-threatening accessibility barriers.

They can be sensitizers and allergens, and can cause other serious health problems too.
They can emit and create hazardous air pollutants. Some are made with synthetic ingredients, or from pesticided plants, and are processed using toxic solvents.

They are WAY over-used and over-promoted, and any beneficial uses the organic oils may have, risk being lost due to this careless over-use.

They should not be used as a popular way to make money the way they are now.

They should be kept for medicinal use under the guidance of qualified, trained professionals, and  not the MLM (multi-level-marketing) folks who are inventing new ways to use them so that they can sell more product.

Some people have severe adverse reactions to them, and their proliferation is causing new barriers to access, meaning people can’t access food from health food stores,  other essentials, or even alternative health care, because the oils are so prevalent and contaminating everything (1st, 2nd, and 3rd hand) in what should be healthy places with clean, fragrance-free air.

Fore more information, here are a few links to check out: Continue reading

Accessible Parking and Invisible Disabilities

Not all disabilities are visible!

accessible parking 1https://www.facebook.com/EnvironmentalIllnessAtlanta

Yes there are a few selfish people out there who abuse any privilege or opportunity they can, but they are in the minority. Most people who look “normal” and use accessible permits have a proven, legitimate, legal, medical, human right to do so.

Resources:

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MCS/ES Symptoms and Environmental Incitants

sensitive to pollution 3

Information about the materials most likely to cause adverse health effects, and the kinds of symptoms commonly experienced from exposures, copied from the 2007 Canadian Human Rights Commission’s  document “The Medical Perspective on Environmental Sensitivities By: Margaret E. Sears (M.Eng., Ph.D.), and a few other resources and links follow:

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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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