Chemical Sensitivities

Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

The biggest problem in the world could have been solved when it was small.
-- Lao-tzu

mcs logo Chemical sensitivity is defined as an adverse reaction to potentially toxic chemicals in air, food or water, at concentrations generally accepted as harmless to the bulk of the population. Such reactions are more widespread than generally realized. Such patients often exhibit sensitivity, with variable symptomatology, to the fumes of natural gas, gasoline, car exhaust, fabrics, clothes, carpets, cleaning materials, phenolated compounds and cigarette smoke.
Quoted from: "Confirmation of chemical sensitivity by means of double-blind inhalant challenge of toxic volatile chemicals," by William J. Rea, et al. Published in Clinical Ecology, Volume VI, number 3.
For a more medically complete definition, click here
Chemical Sensitivity is also often called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and is considered a subset of Environmental Illness, a set of diseases caused by our environment.

Typical manifestations is discomfort, such as headaches, dizziness, feeling disconnected with surroundings ("brain fog") and more. There can be gastrointestinal problems, problems with the eyesight and other symptoms, which makes it hard to pinpoint this complex disease. It can manifest itself in almost any part of your body.

Common Triggers

You are bothered by perfumes and fragrances
The detergent aisle in a supermarket is unpleasant for you
The lawn-poison (pesticides) aisle is also bad
In clothing stores (especially low-priced ones)
The exhaust from clothes dryers, esp. when fabric softeners are used
When staying for awhile in a room with a carpet that is older than a few months (new carpet is bad for most people).
When inside a newer car
When handling new equipment made of plastic (such as computers, etc)
When around photocopiers and laser printers
In rooms that have been painted or remodeled in the last year or more
When using regular household cleaners and detergent
Newly painted walls bother you, long after other people no longer smell it

You may not react to all these cases, but these are common ones. The common denominator are petrochemicals, i.e. pesticides, cheap perfumes, fragrances, paints, wood treatments, glues, carpets, shampoo, soap, detergents, cleaners, plastics, solvents, markers, etc. These often affect us most in the winter, where we stay more indoors, and the air circulation of buildings is often turned down.

MCS seems to be caused by exposure to chemicals, either long-term or short acute exposure. In both cases, there appears to be a threshold effect, i.e. once the body has passed a certain level, there is no turning back.

Life with Chemical Sensitivity is difficult

It can be very difficult to be chemically sensitive, as it is a problem to be around other people (with their fragrances, detergents and other chemical products). Many of us are unable to have a job, as we cannot be in a normal workplace, and around other people. Going to a store is a dreaded task, that some have to pay others to do. Friendships and marriages creak and often break under these strains, especially un top of all these problems, comes that this disease is incomprehensible to normal healthy people.

The life-style for severe chemical sensitivity is very "un-American" as anything new is a potential hazard, plastic is undesirable and old-fashioned cleaners are in. We are not thrilled by a new car, carpet or stereo as these can make us ill, instead tried-and-true (i.e. outgassed) is better. Many of us have to give up a lot of stuff, sometimes all of it, and move away from it all. These people are called "The Dispossessed".

The discovery of MCS

This phenomenon was first described n the fifties by Dr. Randolph, then a professor at Northwestern University. He has faced resistance from large parts of the medical community in America ever since. This condition does not lend itself to the typical assembly-line medicine that doles out pills for all problems. The best cure available is avoidance. Most doctors will deny this condition even exist.

MCS is also called Twentieth Century Disease because this is a new disease from this century, caused by the toxic petrochemicals we have only been exposed to since the 1950's, and is now present everywhere.

Like a canary in a coalmine

In the old days, coalminers would take a cage with a canary down into the coalmine with them. If the bird stopped singing, or died, then the air was toxic and they had to get out.

People with MCS are today's canaries. We are the warning signs that the air in our homes and offices are toxic. Unless we all start to make changes and avoid toxic chemicals, we might all eventually get affected. The epidemic of asthma, allergies and attention problems among kids are certainly indicative of bigger problems.

Forget about saving the whales, we need to save the humans! (Of course, by saving the humans, we will also save the whales and other species).

To see a cute Chemical Canary, go to Jacki's MCS page.

Why is it mostly women?

I have met more than fifty people with this disease, about three out of four is a woman. Maybe this is one reason most doctors still won't take our plight for real. When I found out that the majority of asthma sufferers are women too, I started wondering why this is so. Of course, now I know that asthma really is just another environmental illness.

Women's immune systems is more complicated, having to be able to protect and accept a 'foreign' fetus in the womb.
Women use more fragrances, hair coloring, hair sprays, lipstick and other makeup with known toxic contents
It is typically women who does the cleaning, using toxic cleaners
Women are more likely to use diet-foods, with synthetic content, such as aspartame (nutrasweet), sorbitol, etc.
Women are also more at home, which can be highly polluted with fumes from carpets, paints, clothes, detergents, etc. Private homes have rarely no air exchange system, and can be up to a hundred times more polluted than outside in a polluted city (according to the EPA).

That this is mostly a female problem could also explain why chemical sensitivity sees so little research and understanding.

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