Surviving the holidays: Guidelines for visiting people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Posted on Dec 24, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living, MCS, Susie Collins

Your home may be your only safe haven from chemical exposures. Here are some guidelines to give family and friends before they visit over the holidays.

The holidays are strewn with toxic chemical landmines for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Some of our biggest problems can be brought to us by visitors who truly love us– family and friends– but who do not understand MCS or why we are put on the defensive during holiday visits. They don’t understand why we just don’t get over ourselves, welcome them with open arms and big hugs, and join the merriment. Meanwhile, we are overwhelmed with perfumes, freshly dyed and coiffed hairdos, laundry products and dryer sheet residues on people’s clothing, holiday potpourris, scented candles, food that can make us sick, new products brought as gifts that knock us on our butts, and tons more toxic products.

The Allergy, Sensitivity, and Environmental Health Association of Australia has some excellent information to educate family, friends and other people on what may be needed in order to visit people who have MCS. Individuals will vary as to what is acceptable or not, but ASEHA’s “Guidelines for visiting a person with MCS” gives a good starting point on the types of things that need to be considered.

It has in many cases taken years for someone with MCS to clear their homes of products that contain chemicals that adversely affect their health. This is no mean feat, try maintaining a home without being able to use commercially available paints, wallpapers, cleaning products, insulating products etc. Even after years of dealing with the challenges there are difficulties. The home of a person with MCS may be their only SAFE HAVEN from chemical exposures. Please respect this space; it has often taken a long time to make it happen.

If your visit brings with it a number of chemical contaminants, the person may:

* Become total disabled,
* Suffer an asthma attack that is difficult to resolve as the person cannot use medications normally used to treat attacks,
* Have a major life threatening reaction (anaphylaxis)
* Experience a permanent deterioration in their health, a greater degree of sensitivity to chemicals, and probably to an even larger range of products and chemicals.
* Be afflicted by pain, disorientation, discomfort, migraine etc.

If you have any questions about chemical sensitivity and the needs of the person you are planning to visit please ask – BEFORE YOU VISIT.

Link to full copy of the Guidelines.

Thanks, Linda!

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Tags: Chemicals, Environmental Health, Home, Indoor Pollution, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Products, Toxic

6 Responses to “Surviving the holidays: Guidelines for visiting people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity”

Donovan Banerjee

25. Dec, 2009

Thanks for this great post!

Reply to this comment
Susie Collins

26. Dec, 2009

You’re welcome, Donovan, all thanks to Linda, she got this re-circulating for the holidays.

Reply to this comment
Connie Rae

28. Dec, 2009

Thank you linda and susie for still another clear tool for dealing with the complexities of our sensitivities.
This was the most alone Christmas I have had in 60 years, I think, and yet there were still dibilitating exposures.
Mail, gift wrap, oil delivery and excitement were all part of it.
I look forward to the day we no longer have to runaway and hide. This helps validate the need for self care…HUGS.

Reply to this comment
Susie Collins

29. Dec, 2009

Aloha Connie, it’s true, even in the safety of our homes, we are continually at risk. It’s not just visitors but anything brought in from the outside has the potential to be contaminated with some sort of toxic chemical. I’m also always on alert for fumes on the wind from neighbors or passers-by: exhaust, laundry products, pesticides. We canaries are continuously on alert for potential problems or recovering from intrusions. You just never know where the next assault will come from.

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Tammy

29. Dec, 2009

It’s so true!! I would like to add: neighbors who SMOKE and then try to cover it up with perfumes and laundry soap, yikes!! I nearly passed out just taking my garbage out to the garage the other night because the fragrance and second hand smoke were so strong. It was a cold crisp night and no one in sight and yet the fumes were so strong!

Reply to this comment
Susie Collins

29. Dec, 2009

Aloha Tammy, I get so mad when cigarette smoke from the neighbors comes into MY house! And I get dryer sheet fumes (full of toxic chemicals!) some nights when the wind shifts off the mountain, which is such a shame because otherwise that mountain air is so crisp and clean.

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