The Canary Report

MCS Awareness Month, bad air, and chemical exposures

Posted on May 14, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, MCS

Who’s chirping about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity?

Suzanne Olsen at the SF Examiner says Go green for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Awareness Month.

The Daily Page out of Madison, WI, reports on the Mercury Players Theatre’s play called “Well,” performance artist Lisa Kron’s complex look at health/illness & the meaning of ethnic integration:

In the play, Ann herself says: “You blame yourself. Wasn’t it Susan Sontag who pointed out that whenever the cause of an illness is mysterious, it’s assumed to come from psychological problems or a moral weakness? And once science finally figures out the medical root of the illness, that assumption disappears.”

Will we one day have a better — that is, more scientific — understanding of ailments like chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, Gulf War syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivities or any of the other current “wastebasket” diagnoses that many medical and lay people consider psychosomatic?

I certainly hope so. After all, we now have scientific explanations for past “mysteries” like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, fainting spells and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. And we now know that autism, migraine headaches and transsexuality are not caused by bad mothering.

Australian radio program By Design, on ABC Radio National, reports on Trends and Products: our worsening indoor air. With guest Neal Blythe, architect. Includes information about the Chemical Sensitivity Week 2009 seminar:

Chemically sensitive? How safe is your house? The average person spends approximately 60% of their time in the indoor environment. As we move to conserve energy in our houses we often need to close off the house — but this means less air flow and more potential for a poor quality of indoor air.

listen now | download audio

Renee at Renee’s Reflections blogs about life with chronic illness, including Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. On the effects of chemical exposures she writes:

It is not just the spraying outside that has me running to close windows. So do dryer sheets which contain formaldehyde, gasoline fumes, cleaning supplies, wood smoke, etc. People with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities live each day “on alert” so as to avoid reactions that come from exposure.

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Tags: Air, Chemicals, Children's Health, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity