The article on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity noted how individuals are often affected adversely by chemicals, yet rarely know the single exposure that pushed them over the edge into an overtly reactive state. We do know that approximately 12 to 16 percent of the population considers themselves to react poorly to chemicals while around 6 percent have been diagnosed with this disorder.

With the help of toxicological testing, I was able to determine what poisoned me and why I became brain damaged and chronically ill from exposures to pesticides. This does not have to be a mystery and the terrible truth is that we are not talking about a few persons 'sensitive' to very low levels of toxic substances. In fact, we are generally exposed to midrange and high levels of poisons in combinations which do not act predictably.

I recently fled an apartment I rented in Western Massachusetts.  After two days, my reactions were very severe including weakness, tremor, nausea, headache, body pain and bleeding from the nose and rectum.  Blood testing showed a suppression of an enzyme crucial to the central nervous system called acetylcholinesterase. Such effects are known for certain pesticides. I next checked the air quality of the house by having a newly purchased air purifier filter run for several days before shipping it to a laboratory for analysis of trapped air particles.  The lab testing showed this fairly new house was contaminated with significant amounts of pesticides banned decades ago, including chlordane. The house must have been built upon land formerly used for agriculture. Traces were also present for lawn chemicals in current use in that neighborhood. People do not get to choose the contents of the air in one's home. The neighbors have a huge say in the matter as well...

Yes, the effects were devastating upon my system, already impaired from overexposure to pesticides in work/home environments. However, no one needs to be exposed to such toxicants since they reduce everyone's store of protective substances, creating a host of unecessary stresses upon our bodies. We are only designed to cope with naturally occuring toxins created via normal homeostasis, e.g. resulting from breathing, digestion, excercise etc.  Instead, our bodies have been co-opted to serve as miniature waste treatment plants aiding industry instead of our own anti-aging capacities. This results in premature aging and disease for causes which remain unknown to patients and their doctors unless they are educated in toxicology.

In another residence in NYC, I had experienced severe asthma.  My air quality analysis revealed hugely elevated levels of petroleum hydrocarbons from a furnace which was working very inefficiently.  The chemist at the lab said such levels were typically found outdoors on major highways!  Petroleum fumes are known to be harmful to all persons and my breathing was much improved outside of that setting. Keeping a diary of one's symptoms such as migraines, asthma attacks, indigestion symptoms etc., can help patients learn whether or not symptoms are situational and therefore, avoidable.

We have to stop assuming that everything we are exposed to comes in 'tolerable' concentrations. Testing will show that pesticides sprayed in an apartment or store below your own living space will accumulate in your residence at surprisingly high levels. Sensitivity or frank poisoning? The difference is generally found in the accurate testing of the situation and affected person. Unfortunately that takes money and an educated physician or patient to accomplish.

But ignorance works well for the industries that produce such products at great personal profit. The taxpayer covers the cost of resulting mortality and morbidity.

The individual suffers needlessly and endlessly.

Barbara Rubin, former educator, disabled by pesticide poisoning www.armchairactivist.us chemicalinjurysupport@yahoogroups.com

Many of us spend our time struggling to create at least fairly "clean" homes, where we can retreat after necessary forays into the "normal" world of jobs, stores, cars. Places where we can hope to detox enough with organic food, pure water, and toxin free environments, to go out there and do what we have to do to survive.

I have had problems with nylon, glues and some plastics since I was a child: I remember that so-called "wonderful new car smell" making me as sick and looney feeling as could be (and that stuff my mother religiously painted the closets and baseboards with every month to kill silverfish).
Of course, it was all in my head, right? OK, so I started sort of instinctively seeking out stuff that didn't make me sick: antique furniture, oriental rugs, non-plastic everything, wood floors and real plaster walls...And got along pretty well for a long time, as long as I wasn't inside too much.

Actually, looking back, I can now see that all the major upheavals or changes that I made in my life were immediately preceeded by [desired]home improvement projects or remodeling. The more new stuff that was introduced into my life (paint, carpets, wallpaper, new bathroom, new family room, new furniture) the more chaos seems to have been the result. In retrospect I wonder how much of it was due to the stress I subconsciously felt in an environment that was literally making me sick: a fight or flight situation with no resolution other than to leave or change it.

Real problems started when I was selling furniture in the 90s; I would get nauseous and light-headed almost everyday. Then they remodeled the store, new carpet (nylon, glues, solvents), walls (high density fiberboard or plasterboard), paint (epoxy based), the works. I came back to the store the day after they laid the rugs, lasted 6 hours and that was all she wrote.

The only jobs I have had that didn't bother me were managing an organic farm (quartered in a 100 year old, antique filled, Bed & Breakfast) and writing a freelance, newpaper column out of my 150 year old house. My hobby: 18th & 19th century re-enacting at historical sites.

MCS only gets worse, of course. One thing starts it, and then just when you think you have everything under control you get overexposed again somehow (especially easy for me, since I have no sense of smell). Often it is something that hasn't really bothered you before: fresh paint in a doctor's office, somebody's perfume, skin lotion someone urges you to try, the lawn service next door doing their pesticide thing, your baby's new toy.  Until suddenly the whole modern world becomes a booby trap, and you don't know where to run.

I am now disabled, with severely limited income. My MCS is now so bad I cannot go to a mall, stay in a store for more than 30 minutes (one store every other day at most), go to a movie or restaurant, ride an airplane or train to visit my far-flung family. I work [alone] part time on the weekends, and I live in terror of the day they decide to repaint or put in new carpet, or even give us new computers or office chairs.
All the usual culprits keep me imprisoned (and even my condo, although built in the 1970s needs a lot of work yet to be truly nontoxic enough to be livable). The lovely building blocks of modern Western life: glues, dyes, solvents, epoxy, fragrances, hair styling products; formaldehyde, all synthetic fabrics except polyester and acrylic, non-stick coatings, herbicides, pesticides, bleach, cleaning products, petroleum products, et., et.al...I drive my 11 year old car with cotton gloves on and the windows open.
But I am lucky. So far I can still balance things so that I have a home and a garden, enough food, books to read (after they have been aired out for a 2-3 weeks), and a few friends who truly understand.

Yet I know that the modern world - life in a minefield - is always out there, waiting. Everywhere MCS people go, it is the same: there is no "down time", this tour of duty never ends, the danger is always out there. My son in the Army says he understands - sort of.

Today, I went to the local mall.  I just wanted to buy a lipstick at the M.A.C. store.  I like M.A.C. products because they don't use fragrance in their products.   And, unlike the large department stores, they do not have banks of perfumes where customers spray scents every few seconds, so generally I feel safe going in there.

As I entered the east doors of the mall, my nostrils were instantly assaulted by a nauseatingly sweet vanilla-like scent.  My throat constricted and I got nauseous.  I carry a charcoal mask with me for emergencies such as this and immediately put it on and quickly made my way upstairs to the M.A.C. store.  When inside the M.A.C. store, I tried to remove my mask, but again was hit by that same toxic scent and put it back on.

Last November the same thing had happened at the same mall. The entire mall smelled of what I thought was burning candles or perhaps a product being misted into the mall.  I thought the mall had started the practice (as some malls have) of misting something into it so I complained to the mall customer service office.  They indicated that they do not spray anything into the mall, but that it was likely coming from one of the shops that carries candles and other scented products, but they couldn't do anything about what the stores did in their stores.  I told them I thought they should be able to stop the store from doing something that affected the entire mall, like spraying scent into it.  The next time I went the mall - mask ready in my hand -- this odor was not present, so I thought perhaps they had taken care of the problem.  Evidently not considering what happened today.  

This time I was determined to find out where this odor was coming from and do something about it.  The week before I had been sprayed (without my knowledge) by an automatic pesticide mister at a hotel, so I wasn't going to let this pass without saying something.  Holding my mask close to my nose and mouth so no odor would penetrate, I went to stores in the vicinity where I felt this toxic odor might be coming from.  Two of the stores stated they were not burning or spraying anything.  However, when I got to third store, I discovered there was something being heated (appeared to be a scented oil) in a pot and the steam was rising from this pot.  This was the odor that had wafted throughout the mall making me ill.  The odor was so strong that I could now smell it through my mask which has two charcoal filters, but I wanted the store's corporate office information.  My mask normally is adequate for filtering out fabric softeners, diesel fumes, and all sorts of fragrances.  However, it could not keep this noxious odor out of my airway.  As I waited for the number, I was feeling nauseous so tried covering my mask with the plastic M.A.C. bag in my hand, but that did not work.  I became more nauseous. My throat became raw, and I began coughing.  I got the corporate customer service telephone number and left as quickly as possible, all the time trying not to breathe as I passed the steaming pot of fragrance.  I was so disoriented and confused from having breathed this odor (foggy brain), that I inadvertently went out a different side of the mall from the one where I had parked my car. Fragrance can impact the brain and nervous system and cause confusion.  I was now in considerable distress.

Even outside in the fresh air my clothes reeked of this horrible scent that was being burned in the shop.  My throat continued to get more raw and sore.

Despite my still very raw, sore throat and foggy brain, when I got home I sat down and wrote an email to the store and to the mall.  I explained that these scents, whether perfumes, candles or oils, are toxic and should not be forced on the unsuspecting people who would not deliberately place themselves in a situation of having to breathe them.  They are combinations of thousands chemical that have never been tested, either singularly or synergistically.  A significant portion of the population has health conditions that are exacerbated by exposure to these chemical scents (these volatile organic compounds), particularly when they are heated.   Chemical scents also are increasingly cited as a trigger in health conditions such as asthma, allergies and migraine headaches.  There are over 17.3 million asthmatics in the US. Some 35 million suffer from chronic sinus infections, and another 9 million suffer from rhinitis. There are millions more with chronic respiratory disease. It has been estimated in numerous studies that approximately 30% of the population has negative health problems from exposures to these chemical scents and that these chemical scents are a major contributor to indoor air pollution.

As evidenced by the fact that this odor was wafting throughout the mall far away from the store, these volatile organic compounds (like cigarette smoke) know no boundaries.  Those of us with health conditions made worse by fragrances do not frequent stores such as this because we know our respiratory systems cannot tolerate doing so.  We don't purchase or use scented items, and we do everything in our power to avoid exposure to these chemical scents because of the profound effect they have on our health.  However, when a store such burns these products and opens the doors widely so the scent travels out your doors into the mall (or sprays mists out into the mall), our choice of avoiding them is taken away.  

Scented products have become so pervasive in our society that people their use is as an unequivocal right.  People claim it is their personal choice and personal right.  And I say yes, it is very personal.  I take it very personally when someone forces me to breathe chemical scents that compromise my health and my ability to work.  I consider the practice of this store (and overly scented people) as much of an assault on me as if they had walked up to me and sprayed me in the face with it.

I just wanted a lipstick.

masked

I still have a hard time believing my society would let this happen to me, but I have to ask the question:  Why should others be concerned about my plight?  Because it could happen to them?  Because I'm an educated, white, U.S. citizen and this shouldn't happen to us?  In the end, I want others to care simply because I'm a fellow human being, and I have to acknowledge that many people in this world are sicker, hungrier, more persecuted, more at the mercy of violence, and have less hope of rescue than I.

I guess MCS is remarkable for its illumination of our interconnectedness, in a society that operates largely on the principle of everyone for him or herself.  But greed and selfishness have long been known to backfire on those who indulge in them.  Maybe the true uniqueness of MCS is its occassional ability to bring the relatively affluent and insulated face-to-face with the cruelty and short-sightedness of our economic and political systems, as we are pushed out of the "us" category and become one of "them."

The Masked Avenger