Having an invisible disability isn’t easy.
How many of us have experienced this?
“You don’t look like you’re sick or disabled”
Says here that every human has a heart
even when we can’t see any evidence of that
…
Does anyone ever say:
“You don’t look hungry“?
It’s not often that we hear people discussing chemical and environmental “sensitivities” and other environmentally linked chronic health problems and disabling conditions, or how they relate in the bigger picture.
Two such discussions have taken place in August of 2019, and you can watch the videos below.
Posted in Accessibility, Community, Disability, Environment, Environmental Health, Human Rights, Pollution, Products
Tagged allergies, art, chemical sensitivity, creativity, EHS, environmental sensitivities, fragrance-free, health, Housing, IAQ, invisible disabilities, medical, Mold, multiple chemical sensitivities, pesticides, petrochemicals, toxic chemicals, video
So many accessibility guidelines completely skip the fact that these necessary and super easy to implement accessibility measures make it possible for perhaps 1/3 of the population to use (or use without harm) a public (or other) washroom, and especially help provide access for those who have disabling chemical and or environmental “sensitivities” (a term that trivializes the condition and effects).
Fragranced products not only create accessibility barriers for people with chemical and environmental “sensitivities”, fragrance sensitivity, autism, sensory sensitivities, migraines, asthma, MCAS/MCAD, and others, but fragrance ingredients have been linked to a number of other short and serious long term health effects in the general population.
It has come to our attention that too many places that hang up a scent or fragrance-free sign in the front office, have air effers and scented soaps in the washrooms. That’s not how this is done.
How to Basics:
Accessible washrooms for people with environmental sensitivities
Image is of a public washroom with sinks on the left side, a cleaning cart in the middle, and garbage cans holding open the stall doors on the right. There are purple bars across the image with the following lines of accessibility tips text:
Posted in Accessibility, Air Quality, Disability, Environmental Health, Policy
Tagged allergies, asthma, autism, chemical sensitivity, environmental sensitivities, event planning, fragrance sensitivity, fragrance-free, how to, Human Rights, IAQ, invisible disabilities, MCAD, MCAS, MCS, multiple chemical sensitivities, pesticides, scent free, tips
Back in 2017, there was an effort by Memes for Inconvenient Disabilities to get people to wear a mask to see what it was like to be a human canary.
Only one person we know of took the challenge, but she did not give permission to share her incredible insights from her experience.
I’ve discovered that Fast Company did their own version of the Mask Challenge and here’s their video: Continue reading
Posted in Air Quality, Chemicals, Disability, Environmental Health, Pollution, Products
Tagged allergies, asthma, chemical sensitivity, environmental sensitivities, Fragrance, hazardous air pollutants, IAQ, invisible disabilities, masks, MCS, multiple chemical sensitivities, pesticides, respirators and masks
…
Seriously though:
We are not trying to make your life difficult.
We’re just asking you to choose products that don’t disable us.
…
“Really? Products we can buy in every store disable you?”
Posted in Accessibility, Disability, Environmental Health, Friendship, Health, Human Rights, Pollution, Public Health
Tagged 2nd hand, allergies, asthma, chemical sensitivity, Duty to Accommodate, EHS, environmental sensitivities, essential oils, fibromyalgia, fragrance-free, hazardous air pollutants, IAQ, MCS, pesticides, petrochemicals, smoke, toxic chemicals, VOCs
Toxics Drift
smoke, asphalt, refineries, pesticides, gases, laundry fumes, etc
When pollutants drift, then people (and other living beings) get hurt, especially the many millions who are more ‘sensitive’ to pollution.
Smoke is one form of pollution that is visible, but other types may not be.
Here are a few images that show how different types of visible pollutants move through the air we all depend on to breathe, and how far they can travel:
Posted in Air Quality, Environmental Health, Pollution, Public Health, Toxic Trespass
Tagged allergies, asphalt, asthma, chemical sensitivity, drift, environmental sensitivities, exhaust, fossil fuels, Fragrance, hazardous air pollutants, laundry products, MCS, multiple chemical sensitivities, pesticides, petrochemicals, refineries, smoke, VOCs, wireless
Guest post and art from Gloris Smith Young
You look at me
You look away
I see it every day
If only you could see
This could be you
Instead of me
Posted in Air Quality, Disability, Environmental Health, Pollution, Public Health
Tagged allergies, asthma, autism, chemical sensitivity, creativity, drift, environmental sensitivities, Housing, mask, MCS, Mold, mould, pesticides, toxic trespass
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
I saw this photograph on facebook of Richard Gere and Roshi Joan Halifax hugging (at the Mind and Life “Power and Care” conference), which to me exemplifies the best kind of (adult to adult) hug we humans could have.
Richard Gere and Roshi Joan Halifax
I haven’t been able to stop looking at it… and it made me start trying to remember when the last time I was able to hug someone was.
I don’t think it was in 2010 when I left Toronto, as I was so sick then, and I didn’t have any spare clothes to risk contaminating them with 2nd and 3rd hand fragrance chemicals. Continue reading
Posted in Accessibility, Air Quality, Chemicals, Community, Disability, Environmental Health, Fragrance, Human Rights, Pollution, Toxic Trespass
Tagged chemical sensitivity, environmental sensitivities, hazardous air pollutants, invisible disabilities, isolation, laundry, MCS, MCS/ES, pesticides, petrochemicals, solitary
Imagine being disabled (as if drugged, dysfunctional, and definitely disbelieved more often than not) from exposures to legally allowed toxic chemicals in everyday products and materials…. or from wireless signals coming from neighbourhood wifi networks and cell towers…
Now imagine that some of us don’t have to imagine this scenario, because we can feel our brains and bodies being harmed by the exposures just like canaries in the mines did.
Imagine being confined to a safe bubble of a home to avoid disabling exposures, Continue reading
Seriously "Sensitive" to Pollution 