Cases of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity in the news

Posted by Susie

Sep 192009

Denver Post: If formal recognition ever comes for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, the national economic implications are sweeping, with insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security Disability on the hook for care.

The Denver Post reports on cases of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, research, myth vs reality, and theories on healing.

Believers in MCS point to researchers, many studying the baffling symptoms of military veterans with Gulf War syndrome, who have found particular genes and missing enzymes — ones that assist in detoxifying the body — among people who say the are chemically sensitive.

“It is a stunningly common disease, even more common than diabetes, and may even have wider health ramifications than diabetes,” says Dr. Martin Pall, a molecular bioscience researcher at Washington State University and author of the book “Explaining ‘Unexplained Illnesses.’ ”

“It is no longer sustainable for the medical community to keep ignoring the size and sweep of this epidemic.”

Pall has identified classes of chemicals that produce specific responses in the body and studied how some immune systems can become hyper-sensitive to those chemicals.

“The real tragedy here is that there are so many self-appointed experts who have been arguing that MCS does not exist and therefore we can keep using chemicals like we have.”

If formal recognition ever comes, the national economic implications are sweeping, with insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security Disability on the hook for care.

The Denver Post also reports on three Profiles of MCS Victims. One of families featured, the Smolers (in photo above), has their own website, full of information and a plea for help finding safe housing. The website also includes a creative document they’ve put together called The Uttecca Family: Please Take the Time Out to Read Our Message.

Thanks, Linda!