My article “Invisible Barriers, Invisible Disabilities, Invisible People” is now available to read in the
Special Issue on Ecopsychology and Environmental Sensitivities:
Chemical, Electrical, and Beyond
All the articles in the entire special issue will be available for free until Sept. 5 2017, which is unprecedented access!
Please check them out and share as widely as possible!
Table of Contents:
Posted in Disability, Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Human Rights, Public Health
Tagged chemical sensitivity, ecopsychology, EHS, environment, fibromyalgia, Gibson, health, invisible disabilities, MCS, MCS/ES, multiple chemical sensitivities, Ontario, petrochemicals, Research, systemic discrimination, toxic chemicals, toxic trespass
I ran across some striking photos by Alex Kisilevich (you can see them in the banner above if you squint) and I shared the link with the intro “Food for thought… what’s outside the bubble preventing access?” Someone responded with “tell me about it”, so I wrote a short story before seeing what the photographer’s intent was, if it was indeed as a writer wrote, to say:
Posted in Accessibility, Air Quality, Environmental Health, Fragrance, Human Rights, Public Health
Tagged allergies, asthma, autism, bubble, cancer, chemical sensitivity, EHS, environmental sensitivities, hazardous air pollutants, health, invisible disabilities, MCS, MCS/ES, petrochemicals, toxic chemicals, toxic trespass
The canaries are still waiting!
“We issued a report (in 1985) that identified existing, publicly funded means of diagnosis, and accepted various methods of patient management, including avoidance of offending agents.
We did not feel that more research was needed before these and other measures were introduced to protect patients from being caused harm through inappropriate labelling or the denial of reasonable accommodation.”
Excerpted from this letter by Judge George M. Thomson, B.A., LL.B., LL.M., who chaired the extensive report by the Ad Hoc Committee on Environmental Hypersensitivity Disorders for the Province of Ontario in 1985:
Posted in Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Human Rights, Pollution, Public Health
Tagged canaries, chemical sensitivity, Fragrance, fragrance-free, hazardous air pollutants, health, invisible disabilities, MCS, MCS/ES, multiple chemical sensitivities, petrochemicals, toxic trespass
WHO Says We Need Fresh Air?!
Guest Post from Marie LeBlanc
Bringing awareness to chemical sensitivity
Marie LeBlanc at the Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg. May 12th 2017.
I am an artist in Winnipeg who lives with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) and environmental illness caused by mold exposure. My art has been in relation to multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS)/Environmental Illness (EI) and toxic environments.
“WHO says we need fresh air?!” is a series of quotes from sufferers of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Environmental Illness, Mold Exposure, Electrohypersensitivity Syndrome, Lyme Disease and other conditions related to Chronic/Complex Immunological Neurological Diseases.
The art installation was on display during the evening of Fri. May 12, on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS)/Environmental Sensitivities Awareness Day, outside the Centennial Concert Hall (with a few quotes displayed on the indoor screens), and is dedicated to my friend Eliana from Mexico.
Posted in Accessibility, Disability, Environment, Environmental Health, Health, Housing, Human Rights
Tagged allergies, anaphylaxis, asthma, chemical sensitivity, chemicals in clothing, CIND, creativity, EHS, environmental illness, environmental sensitivities, Fragrance, hazardous air pollutants, homeless, Housing, invisible disabilities, Lyme Disease, MCS, MCS/ES, Mold, multiple chemical sensitivities, suicide, toxic chemicals
May 12th is International MCS Awareness Day, and May is MCS Awareness Month. Many people who have MCS also have MCAS – Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, where chemical and other exposures cause anaphylaxis.
Guest Post from Raven
My request for you to visualize:
I’d like to ask each of my friends to sit in a quiet space for just 15 minutes and close your eyes. Breathe and get calm and relaxed.
Now I want you to think of yourself only. Visualize yourself in your body. Once you see or feel you, I want you to see yourself Continue reading
Posted in Community, Disability, Environmental Health, Housing, Human Rights, Imagination, Pollution
Tagged allergies, anaphylaxis, chemical sensitivity, Chemicals, environmental illness, environmental sensitivities, Fragrance, health effects, Housing, invisible disabilities, MCS, MCS/ES, pesticides, petrochemicals
These images are available on facebook. Feel free to download the appropriate one and use for Awareness Month, or at least for May 12th Awareness Day!
Posted in Accessibility, Action, Education, Environmental Health, Environmental Sensitivities, Friendship, Images, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Support
Tagged allergies, asthma, chemical sensitivity, EHS, environment, invisible disabilities, masks, MCS, MCS/ES, multiple chemical sensitivities, petrochemicals, sensitive to pollution
I’ve previously posted about a research project Pamela Gibson from the James Madison University in Virginia was undertaking. She has been asking for women aged 65 and older who have experienced environmental sensitivities (chemical and/or electrical) to participate in an online study of how their needs are being met as they grow older with sensitivities, but due to a lack of participation from women over the age of 65 (does anyone want to guess why?) she has opened up the study to anyone over the age of 21.
WOMEN OVER AGE 65 STUDY MODIFIED TO INCLUDE PERSONS 21 OR OVER WITH ENVIRONMENTAL SENSITIVITIES
(CHEMICAL OR ELECTRICAL)
We are surrounded by and saturated with fragrance chemicals now.
(if you have been impacted, you know this is not hyperbole)
Most fragrances are now are made from oil and gas based chemicals.
They are in our personal care, laundry, and cleaning products. They are in garbage bags, candles, and shoes. They are in toys, fire-place logs, and diapers. They are in toilet paper, stationary, and stickers. They are in clothing, pillows, and jewellery. They are in foods, plastics, and medicines. They are in kitty litter, trash bags, and vacuum cleaner bags. They are even in pesticides, where they are regulated by the EPA, but they are not regulated by anyone when they are added to all the other products we use and are exposed to!
There’s no escaping fragrance even when housebound, because so many deliveries of even the basics like food, arrive fragrance contaminated!
We were not designed for 24/7 exposures to toxic chemicals
.
How much more evidence is needed before something is done about the human and environmental health problems caused by fragranced productss?
.
Here’s an info dump with some relevant links and videos:
Posted in Air Quality, Brain, Chemicals, Child Health, Disability, Environmental Health, Fragrance, Human Rights, Pollution, Public Health
Tagged allergies, asthma, autism, cancer, chemical sensitivity, environmental sensitivities, essential oils, fibromyalgia, fossil fuels, hazardous air pollutants, IAQ, invisible disabilities, MCAS, MCS, MCS/ES, multiple chemical sensitivities, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, profits, scented products, STINK, supply chain, toxic trespass
From Dr Anne Steinemann’s latest research
“Fragranced consumer products: exposures and effects from emissions”
“Basically, if it contained a fragrance, it posed problems for people”
“This is a huge problem; it’s an epidemic”
says Professor Steinemann.
She is especially concerned with involuntary exposure to fragranced products, or what she calls “secondhand scents.“
“Over 22% of Americans surveyed can’t go somewhere because exposure to a fragranced product would make them sick.”
“These findings have enormous implications for businesses, workplaces, care facilities, schools, homes, and other private and public places,” said Professor Steinemann. For instance, a growing number of lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act concern involuntary and disabling exposure to fragranced products.”
Posted in Accessibility, Air Quality, Environmental Health, Fragrance, Human Rights, Policy, Public Health
Tagged allergies, Anne Steinemann, asthma, chemical sensitivity, environmental sensitivities, epidemic, fragrance-free, hazardous air pollutants, health, IAQ, invisible disabilities, MCS, MCS/ES, petrochemicals, Research
 | linda @ Seriously "S… on MCS/ES |
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| Tabatha Schnorr on The CDC and MCS |
| linda @ Seriously "S… on MCS and Housing |
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Seriously "Sensitive" to Pollution 