Toronto’s Mayor John Tory has lent (not given) his support with a Proclamation for for Awareness Day:
(I’m sorry there’s no written transcript for the image)
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Posted in Accessibility, Community, Disability, Environmental Sensitivities, Health Care, Housing, Human Rights, Policy
Tagged allergies, asthma, CFS/ME, chemical sensitivity, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, ecopsychology, EHS, fibromyalgia, fragrance-free, human canaries, IAQ, invisible disabilities, MAID, MCS, multiple chemical sensitivities, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, proclamation, suicide, video
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
I can’t get this out of my mind, as it really brings into focus why so many people have become chronically ill, and are dying younger from devastating new health problems and increasingly early deaths (including suicides), because our true health and well-being is not profitable, and therefore what is needed is not available.
When access to safe, non-toxic, healthy air to breathe, water to drink, homes to live in, clothing to wear, health care, and other necessities of life are denied to so many people because everything that is manufactured now is made with so many toxic chemicals, including our food, because our current system allows corporations to pollute us for profit, without paying any of the costs (some of which are priceless), when the environment we depend on for life is destroyed and treated like a garbage dump, (as are our minds and bodies) then we are not going to survive as a species for much longer.
When 10% of the population is hoarding 87.7% of the global asset pie, and when 90% of us have just 12.3% of the pie, how many have no access to pie at all?
This has to change if we are to have future human generations on this planet, the only place which is uniquely suitable to provide what we need to live healthy, loving lives, if only we would respect and care for it and each other!
Think about this, over and over again, until it sinks in…
When 80 people own 50% of the world’s assets, then everyone else (the other 7.3 billion people who live on this planet) have to share the other 50%. (Oxfam, 2015)
That is, 7.3 BILLION people share 1/2 of the pie, while just 80 people share the other half… but it gets worse:
“Since the release of the Oxfam report in January, Credit Suisse released a new report validating the concern for the acceleration of global income disparity as the richest ten percent of people now hold 87.7 percent of all wealth.”
Meaning some portion of 90% of the population have 12.3% of the global pie…
This is a very graphic view of what is wrong in the world today, why so many people are seriously sick and dying at astonishingly younger ages (as several new reports this year show), and why so many of us don’t have access to even very basic needs.
I believe that we can work together to bring things back into harmony with each other and the planet that supports our lives and existence.
We have to act now to change this, and it starts with reconnecting with our hearts!
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)
Dr. L. Christine Oliver is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Co-Director of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.
This is an excellent half hour presentation.
Dr Oliver packs so much about the issues faced by people with MCS into the first 16 minutes of this video. If you can’t watch the whole video, at least watch this much. Alison Johnson finishes off by reading from her important book Amputated Lives.
Alison Johnson is the author/producer/director of books and documentaries on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Visit http://www.alisonjohnsonmcs.com to download a transcript or to purchase her books or DVDs.
Posted in Accessibility, Disability, Environmental Health, Health Care, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Public Health
Tagged chemical exposures, environmental sensitivities, Fragrance, fragrance-free policy, health, health care access for people with MCS/ES, Housing, indoor air quality, MCS and CDC, MCS video, MCS/ES, sensitive to pollution, smoke-free, suicide, video
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Seriously "Sensitive" to Pollution 