The naked truth about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, in English

Posted on Jun 29, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Disability Rights, MCS, Media/Videos, Social Justice, Susie Collins

Photos and essay tell how people in Spain with chemical sensitivity are abandoned by the government, left “naked and unprotected, like second class citizens.”

Two weeks ago I shared with you the incredible photos of Spanish blogger Eva, who has Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and posed for an edition of the online magazine Delirio. The text was in Spanish, which Eva has been kind enough to translate into English for us.

Here’s the full text:

We are born naked, they give us cologne, perfumed nappies, clothes washed with softeners, creams with all kinds of possible aromas, and they drive us in plastic stroller while we breathe nice polluted air.

We grow up and they make us believe that we can achieve anything we want, that we can write our future, that the happiness is based in buy everything and the state is here to protect and watch over us, although I had my doubts.

One day, you wake up and nothing has sense. You switch on the table lamp and your eyes get burnt; you open the window and perceive new smells that don’t let you breathe. You turn on the radio and the music booms in your head, so much that you fear it will explode. And you don’t have a hangover. It’s worse. It’s been called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and has come to stay. Your body has said ‘enough’, has been broken and starts rejecting everything that they told you was essential for your happiness. Your life has taken an unexpected turn, your mind changes, your future vanishes, you don’t have physical nor mental energy. The disease forces you to live your life behind a mask and have been in isolation from the outside world.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is not strange, nor a minority. It affects to the 5% of the population. It’s a chronic disease, not psychological, which causes symptoms as a response to a minimal exposure to usual and unnecessary chemical products like bleach, air fresheners, perfumes, etc. We live locked in our houses but it’s not necessary to go out to have a crisis. Your neighbour’s cloths airing outside suffocate you, make you feel sick until you loose consciousness, thanks to the wonderful toxic softeners.

The World Health Organization (WHO) don’t recognize MCS as a disease yet, in spite of having in their possession innumerable studies that prove its existence and the European Parliament includes it inside the growing number of diseases related to environmental factors. The reason is the pressure that the chemical and pharmaceutical industry exerts for not recognize it, because MCS is caused by the chemical products that we use to consume. The economical interests in front of our health. In countries which this problem is recognized, like Germany, medical assistance and financial aids towards it are provided, and in some other countries it is being considered at the moment.

And what’s the situation in Spain? We don’t exist to our paternal government. On top of the drama of suffering MCS, they abandon us, without medical assistance and without any right to a disability benefit when we can’t work. They leave us naked and unprotected, like second class citizens, because we’re the evidence that the current model of society has failed, although nobody wants to see it or to take measures to sort it out.

They too steal any hopes we might have of feeling better. Pharmacists finance research only when they can obtain any profit. As a result of this, minority diseases don’t get research, not even MCS, which affect to the 5% of the population. The chemical and pharmaceutical industry knows that we get sick because we’re intoxicated and the key is not any medicine that will make them rich. The key is to change the model of this society, decreasing the big quantity of chemical products to which we’re exposed each day. Obviously, this can’t be known and they try to deny that MCS exists, because their economical interests would be at stake.

The chemical industry, supported by the government, doesn’t have the right to subjugate the population to the involuntary exposure to chemical substances, whose effects are often unknown. When we develop MCS, we must throw away perfumes, softeners, plastics, etc., to be naked again. We born again, but it’s a new life that we don’t choose. We know by the researches that have been done that MCS has genetic components, so not anybody could develop it, although this doesn’t save you to accumulate toxics until you have a cancer or any other disease related to environmental factors.

Those who suffer MCS want the disease to be recognized; we want to have the same rights as the other chronically ill people; we want society to know the risk they are under; we want the government to protect its citizens and prevent them from getting sick at no cost for them.

We don’t want anybody feeling naked again as a result of suffering MCS.

Link to PDF of English translation and photos.

Link to magazine Delirio Nº 3. Desnudo.

Link to download this issue of Delirio Nº 3. Desnudo

Link to English translation.

Link Eva’s blog NO FUN.

Photos and text published with author’s permission. Thanks, Eva!

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Tags: Chemicals, Environment, Environmental Health, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Policy, Support, Toxic

15 Responses to “The naked truth about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, in English”

Eva Caballé

29. Jun, 2009

Thanks Susie for posting it!
I’m sure that this text it’s valid for several countries where people with MCS unfortunately feels naked and unprotected.
I only did my bit in the fight for global recognition for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

Reply to this comment
Susie Collins

29. Jun, 2009

Yes, unfortunately you are right, it’s the same for many. Thank you for putting yourself out there, naked no less, calling for recognition of our plight. Brava!

Reply to this comment
Aurora

30. Jun, 2009

Thank you, Eva! You have expressed unequivocally all our suffering!

Reply to this comment
Mokihana

30. Jun, 2009

Thank you Eva and Susie for the disclosure that comes through this source … the internet world. It is important that we who live with this disease give voice to our experiences and tell it like it is for us. Vulnerability is difficult and yet it is that childlike condition that will make the difference. If we have no agenda except to bear the truth of Earth’s condition all these stories will make a significant difference. Persist and be the truth.

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Jasmine

30. Jun, 2009

Thank you Eva!

Reply to this comment
Susie Collins

30. Jun, 2009

Thanks much for your input Aurora, Mokihana and Jasmine! Eva is truly inpsirational. I’m trying to figure out more ways to get this work out to the English speaking world and also am playing with this developing more on this concept of “the naked truth.” More soon on all that.

Reply to this comment
Eva Caballé

02. Jul, 2009

Thanks Aurora, Mokihana and Jasmine!
When Delirio’s editor asked me to participate in their magazine and I had the idea of this essay with photos naked, I couldn’t imagine that it would go so far. Thanks Susie, you are the architect of this spread!!

Regards from Barcelona!

Reply to this comment
Cynthia Perkins

04. Jul, 2009

The photos are absolutely beautiful! They tell the whole story all by themselves. So vulnerable, isolated and exposed we are with MCS.

Reply to this comment
Susie Collins

05. Jul, 2009

Cynthia, Thanks for visiting and taking a look at Eva’s photos and essay! She’s done a beautiful job with artistically expressing our plight with MCS.

Reply to this comment
Eva Caballé

08. Jul, 2009

Thanks a lot Cynthia. I’m happy that you’ve liked the photos!
I agree with you that they tell the story by themselves, and that’s because my husband understands very well what’s living with MCS and how it changes your whole live. People who shares life with us they also have a kind of MCS, because it changes their lives completely too.

Reply to this comment
Diane Stalter

23. Jul, 2009

Love it! Nothing like a naked woman (or man for that matter) to get people’s attention. I’ve had MCS for 8 years now. This is a great handout to give people – one guaranteed to get them to read about the issue. Love the nudie MCS calendar idea. If I were in better shape, I’d totally submit a photo!

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Susie Collins

23. Jul, 2009

Aloha Diane, welcome to The Canary Report. You are so right about it being a good hand out! I hadn’t thought of that– excellent idea. Eva has made us all totally intimidated with the nudie calendar concept– who else could even come close to being that beautiful or produce an artsy photo like that? We have our work cut out for us.

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james

25. Apr, 2010

Wow. I have never heard of a disease like mcs before. Sounds like it must suck. I have allergies to natural things like grass and pine trees. Rag weed and sage affect me too. I believe that everyone has a disposition of one kind or another. I also believe that you have options. It is not the responsibility of any government to take care of people. A government should only exist to provide national security, and provide an environment for the people to control their own lives. Free markets will sort out the good and bad. And will decide winners and losers. There will always be winners and losers. The losers will win in other ways. That is life. If you don”t like a product because it is full of chemicals, go purchase a different product thats doesn’t have chemicals. Please do not go and try to reinvent the government to deal with your problem. I want to control my life. I don’t want the government controlling my life. Thanks

Reply to this comment
- Susie Collins
  
  25. Apr, 2010
  
  It’s not the responsibility of government to take care of people? You’ve got to be kidding. I really hope you are never made ill from and unregulated toxic chemical. And by the way, MCS is not allergy.
  
  Reply to this comment