The Canary Report

Workers rights and chemical sensitivity

Posted on Jul 13, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Disability Rights, MCS, Susie Collins, Worker's Rights

Sensory impairment specialist says chemical sensitivity might be seen as a hidden disability because it may not be obvious, and it’s often impacted by an invisible barrier in the workplace.

Stacie Saab provides information on talking with your employer about safer accommodations.

In March 2008, Tracie Saab, who serves as lead sensory impairment specialist at the Job Accommodation Network, was interviewed on the topic of  “Chemical Sensitivities in the Workplace.”

The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) is a service provided by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy and is the most comprehensive resource for job accommodations available; their stated mission is to support workers with disabilities by providing information to both employee and employer on job accommodations for the disabled.

The interview with Tracie was first published as a webcast with Powerpoint, which I listened to with great interest and then wrote about earlier this year in a post title Chemical sensitivity in the workplace. Meanwhile, I wrote and asked Tracie about a transcript, but at that time, one was not available. Then Tracie did an extraordinary thing: she offered to have her offices transcibe the interview so that I could post it for you!

If you have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and are still working outside the home, you might want to familiarize yourself with JAN and the services they offer in regard to MCS. JAN fully recognizes MCS as a disability, and has loads of information on their website that can help you understand your rights on the job, including info on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other disability-related legislation. And they offer tips on how to approach your boss or human resources department about securing safer accommodations at work, complete with support materials you can print out and take with you to your discussions. JAN’s consultants are knowledgeable, compassionate and accessible, as demonstrated with Tracie’s gracious offer to transcribe her interview. I cannot say enough good things about JAN!

So here is the transcript of Tracie Saab’s interview on Chemical Sensitivities in the Workplace, starting with this excerpt of her introduction by Linda Carter Batiste:

LINDA CARTER BATISTE: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Job Accommodation Network’s series. I’m Linda Batiste, and I’ll be the moderator for today’s program called Chemical Sensitivities in the Workplace. If any of you experience technical difficulties during the webcast, please call us at 800-526-7234 for voice, and hit button three, or for TTY, call 877-781-9403. Second, toward the end of the webcast, we’ll spend some time answering any questions you have. You can send in your questions at any time during the webcast to our E-mail account at question@Jan.Wvu.Edu, or you can use our new question and answer pod located in the bottom left corner of your screen. To use the pod, just put your cursor on the line next to the word question, type your question, and then click on the arrow to submit to the — finally, I want to remind you that at the end of the webcast, an evaluation form will automatically pop up on your screen in another window. We really appreciate your feedback, so please stay logged on to fill out the evaluation form.

And now, let’s meet our featured speaker for today’s presentation. Tracie Saab. Tracie is a seasoned JAN consultant with nearly 14 years of service. She is JAN’s lead sensory impairment specialist and provides accommodation information and Americans with disabilities act compliance assistance for individuals with sensory immunology and endocrinology limitations. Tracie brings over 13 years experience consulting with employers and individuals regarding chemical sensitivity in the workplace.

She is a proud alumnus of West Virginia University with a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling. And now I’ll turn it over to Tracie to start today’s program.

Link to PDF of full interview.

Link to related post at The Canary Report.

Thanks, Tracie!

Tags: Environmental Health, Environmental Illness, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Policy, Support, Work