Spanish government moves closer to fully recognizing Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Apr 302010

In collaboration with Spain’s Ministry of Health, thirteen MCS associations set up the Comité para el Reconocimiento del Síndrome de Sensibilidad Química Múltiple (Committee for the Recognition of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity) to have a unanimous voice in the process of full recognition of MCS in Spain.

By guestblogger Eva Caballé, Spain.

“I’m your fan.” This was the title of the post in the blog of Carne Cruda, Spanish radio program, on October 22 where they asked people about their favorites songs. José Luís Aparicio posted a comment with his 10 favorite’s songs and the last one he chose was “No Fun” by The Stooges. But his choice went beyond the music, and, as he explained, he chose “No Fun” because my my blog was named after this song. He also explained what MCS is (illness that he also suffers) and he asked Carne Cruda to talk about MCS and he also mentioned the interview that Salvador L. Arnal did me for Rebelión.

Four days later, I received an invitation from Carne Cruda through the editorial El Viejo Topo to interview me to talk about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

On November 4, 2009, I was interviewed on Carne Cruda and I met José Luís Aparicio. They were so shocked by MCS that next day the show’s director explained during the radio show that they would contact the Ministry of Health because they wanted to interview the Minister of Health on their show and talk about MCS to explain to them the terrible situation of the MCS sufferers.

This is how all this started: After a lot of calls to the Ministry of Health without receiving any response, last December they did a live phone call during the radio show and the Ministry finally had to accept. On January 15, 2010, José Martínez Olmos, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, was interviewed on Carne Cruda, in a special show devoted to Multiple Chemical Sensitivity with Miguel Jara, Dr. Pablo Arnold, José Luís Aparicio and David Palma on behalf of me. He made the public commitment to meet with associations that deal with MCS between ten and twenty days after the show.

On February 4, 2010 was held the meeting with Ministry of Health to state the situation of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity sufferers in Spain. A petitions document done by MCS associations under David Palma coordination was submitted. One person by each MCS association attended to the meeting and also Jaume Cortés, lawyer of Colectivo Ronda, and Dr. Pablo Arnold. Also a copy of my book, Desaparecida: Una vida rota por la Sensibilidad Química Múltiple (Missing: A life broken by Multiple Chemical Sensitivity), was hand delivered on behalf of me, as an example of what MCS sufferers have to go through in Spain. Representatives of Ministry of Health committed to contact MCS associations to jointly agree on experts to form a Scientific Committee to create a document of consensus on the MCS.

Thirteen Spanish MCS associations set up the Comité para el Reconocimiento del Síndrome de Sensibilidad Química Múltiple (Committee for the Recognition of MCS) to have an unanimous voice for this process. The committee compiled a list of doctors and the Ministry of Health invited all the 11 doctors nominated by the associations, plus 16 people from the Ministry of Health, including doctors and consultants, to attend a meeting on April 21, 2010.

The first impression is positive. The working group elaborated the schedule and agreed to create a draft of the document of consensus on MCS to be reviewed by MCS associations in September and October 2010. The reviewed document will be published by the Ministry of Health in December. They stated that this is the first step to make possible the inclusion of the MCS in ICD-10, i.e. its official recognition as a disease in Spain.

It will be published an official press release but the day after the meeting, Carne Cruda gave the scoop. Thanks to Carne Cruda, we are in this process and we want to give them our gratitude. David and I gave this great news during the program and Javier Gallego, the director and host of Carne Cruda, was really moved.

Thanks to José Luís Aparicio and special thanks to all the team of Carne Cruda, led by Javier Gallego, because if they hadn’t been interested in MCS, this would never have happened. I told them during the program, but I want to repeat again here:

Thanks in the name of all people with MCS!

Eva blogs about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity at NO FUN. English section here.