Guest Blog: MCS activists in Denmark report their alarm about the Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities

Aug 242010

Alert! The Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities is striving to clearly influence the international science of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Among its activities, the Centre is on the lookout for “psychological factors” in MCS patients.

By guest blogger Silvia K. Müller, Chemical Sensitivity Network, Germany.

Artist's rendering of Dänemark flagge.

Dear Friends,

Silvia Müller

In January 2006, at the initiative of the Ministry of the Environment, a Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities was founded in Denmark. The Center was designed to offer treatments to those with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and research fragrance sensitivities in more detail. The initial hope that originally flowed through this center, funded by the Ministry, was to benefit MCS sufferers and to delve into medical science for those affected. Unfortunately, this hope has been shattered by recent publications from the Centre.

Environmental health professionals and organizations must be well informed about the events in other countries and it appears that the Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities is striving to clearly influence the international science of MCS.

The following series is written by Danish MCS Activists.

“The Danish MCS Research Centre in the International Field of Vision”

Part I: MCS – Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A Report from Denmark.

The Danish Research Center for Chemical Sensitivities is on the lookout for “psychological factors” in MCS patients:

In 2006, The Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities was established on the initiative of the Danish Ministry of the Environment. It soon became evident that the purpose of this research center was to have the environment acquitted, so to speak, of the charge of causing MCS. Time and again patients heard the then Head of Research Jesper Elberling, MD, PhD, announce that the environment should probably not be blamed for the problems.

The Research Center has no experts of toxicology or environmental medicine among its staff. Instead, the new Head of Research Sine Skovbjerg, MSc, PhD, a former nurse, and her staff, focus on counting and documenting various “psychological factors” among patients. Her view is that MCS should be studied as a somatoform disorder and that MCS can be cured by so-called mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.

Part II: Changes of the international science of chemical sensitivity at the Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities?

In April 2010, an independent group of Italian scientists (De Luca et al.) published their research results, “Biological definition of multiple chemical sensitivity from redox state and cytokine profiling and not from polymorphisms of xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes.”

In July 2010, the Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities and Fragrance Sensitivity reported on their website, (which in the opinion of many Danish MCS sufferers is very questionable research, with the main emphasis on mental health):

“As the Italian findings are the first of their kind, it is necessary to verify the results in other studies before drawing a conclusion on immunological factors in MCS.

“The Danish Research Centre for Chemical Sensitivities therefore plans to study levels of transmitter substances in patients with MCS, independent of contact allergy” (emphasis added).

Part III: Paradox – Danish MCS sufferers are denied help because of the lack of scientific documentation – which nobody wants to obtain!

Until 2008, it was a common practice in Denmark for local authorities to grant severe MCS sufferers free aid under the service law, section 122, by giving them half mask respirators with activated charcoal filters. In 2008, a severe female MCS sufferer had her application rejected by the local authorities for this respirator. This case ended at the Danish appeals board.

To the MCS sufferer’s great astonishment and despair, the MCS Research Center, however, published on its homepage that they were not going to research the effects of half mask respirators with activated charcoal filters on the MCS population. Their arguments, were among others, was that an investigation into the effects of mask respirators on MCS sufferers would require a clinically controlled study, and such a study must be both placebo-controlled and double-blind in order for the results to become reliable and useful.

Instead, the Research Center regards electroconvulsive therapy of MCS sufferers as interesting.

Best regards from Germany,

Silvia K. Müller

CSN – Chemical Sensitivity Network