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Hawaii governor declares July as Toxic Injury Awareness and Education Month

Posted on Jul 27, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, MCS, Susie Collins

Hawaii proclaims July as Toxic Injury and Education Month; Multiple Chemical Sensitivity activists plan sign-waving event at state capitol for July 28.

Hawaii state flag.

MCS America reports Hawaii Proclaimed July 2010 Toxic Injury Awareness and Education Month. The proclamation was signed by Governor Linda Lingle and Lieutenant Governor James R. “Duke” Aiona, Jr, on July 22.

Thanks to the hard work of Sue Quimby and help of several others, Hawaii proclaimed July Toxic Injury Awareness and Education Month!

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is mentioned in the first line as being synonymous with Toxic Injury. This is the first time in 4 years anyone has been able to have a proclamation signed in Hawaii! Thank you Governor Lingle and Lieutenant Governor Aiona for addressing toxic injuries, such as MCS, in Hawaii!

A Hawaii Citizens Conference on toxics and MCS is planned for July 28th on the island of Oahu. There will be sign waving at the capitol building, plus speakers at Ala Moana park. Please join the festivities!

Students, Parents, Teachers – Please join us!

Let’s SIGN WAVE at the Hawaii State Capitol, Beretania Sidewalk

EVENT: Hawaii Citizens Conference

SUBJECT: Toxic Awareness And Education. Let’s Keep Hawaii Clean For All Generations!

DATE: Wednesday, July 28th, 10 am to 11 am

ACTIVITY: Picnic At Ala Moana Beach Park, Magic Island Starting At 11:30 Am, “Bring Your Own Bento/Plate Lunch.” Guest Speakers Are Scheduled – Q & A, Informational Flyers, And Community Service Certificates Will Be Handed Out.

SUPPORTED BY: Sierra Club, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, MCS Hawaii.

Contact: Sue at (808) 927-1019 for more information.

Thank you for your support!

Click here for full text of proclamation.

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Tags: MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Policy, Support

The aftermath of the fire in Ookala

Posted on Jul 20, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Susie Collins, Susie's Secret Garden

In the days following my neighbor’s house fire, I have discovered gems of protection and compassion from unexpected places.

The charred bamboo that protected my home from the heat and flames of my neighbor's house fire. That's my red roof in the background.

On Saturday, I blogged about my neighbor Dr. Tawn Keeny’s house burning down on Thursday. Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time processing what happened.

As I described in my post, while the tragic event unfolded before my eyes, several helpers and I were manning hoses on my fence line. We had a two-fold mission: keep the fire from encroaching my property on the ground where it was creeping along in the grass, and hose down my house itself as well as the foliage in my gardens that run along the fence line. I wrote about the tall bamboo that took most of the heat during the worst of the fire, even going up in flames at one point, which in turn incinerated the top of the 40-foot palm at right in the photo above.

That half hour of fighting the fire was definitely one of the more intense half hours of my life! Time got very contorted, although I believe only about 15-20 minutes went by before firefighters arrived and beat the flames back for good. I am extremely grateful for my helpers for all their hard work in protecting my home, and I’m also extremely grateful for the firefighters who brought the fire under control– they arrived just in time; I just don’t know how much more we could have done with our little hoses as the fire grew and grew.

Over the days following the fire, we watched as more of the bamboo leaves on the fence line turned brown and died. Our avocado tree is located a bit further up the fence line, above a wood pile that stubbornly burned long after the house fire was extinguished. That avo tree also showed more brown leaves each day. Here’s how it looks today looking up the hill toward the avocado tree:

Looking up the fence line with bamboo at right and my avocado tree at the far end.

The burned site in its totality is sobering, and it feels a bit like sacred ground. I took many photos this morning of the burned home itself, but I don’t feel comfortable publishing them since it’s not my property. The home is owned by my friend and family physician Dr. Tawn Keeney, and I know this tragedy has affected him deeply. I don’t want to add to that sorrow.

I am feeling very grateful for these beautiful bamboos. The fire inspector told us that he rarely sees adjacent homes catch fire when there is foliage between the houses. I can’t even describe to you how hot the fire was. The wood pile you see above spontaneously erupted in flames simply from the heat coming from the flames originating in the house. That entire space you see there above was a wall of fire at least 25 feet high and reaching all the way from the burning house at left to the hedge at right. Trees located much farther away from the fire up in the back were fried. So I know that were it not for this thick bamboo hedge, the gardens closest to my home would have been overwhelmed with heat, and who knows what would have happened to my house. There were two propane tanks against the house less than 30 feet from this hedge.

But look at the inside gardens on my side of the bamboos:

My secret garden would have been fried, and possibly my house, were it not for this magnificent bamboo and my helpers who kept everything wet during the fire.

We called the nursery where we bought the bamboo, Quindembo, to find out if they thought the fire damage was fatal. Quindembo owners Susan Ruskin and Peter Berg thought not and told us to look at the base to find the new shoots. Sure enough, there at the base are the new shoots already emerging– how’s that for timing? And we learned something else very interesting. Because bamboo stems are full of water, Susan and Peter said they don’t catch fire. So while the leaves of the tall blow pipe bamboo ignited in a roaring flame, the stems did not catch like a tree probably would have under that intense heat. Those bamboos shielded my gardens and my home from that wall of fire. They were the guardians of Susie’s Secret Garden.

In the days following the fire, I also have discovered gems of compassion from unexpected places. Because of my Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, I started to get sick from the fumes of the charred rubble from the burned house. It rained Saturday night and Sunday morning, but when the sun hit the rubble on Sunday afternoon, the evaporation released something from the ash that hit me like diesel fumes. It was as if a diesel truck was idling outside the window. I started feeling nauseous, dizzy, fatigued, and my eyes became irritated. When the good doctor found out, he contacted the demolition company that’s scheduled to raze and haul away the rubble, telling them that I have a medical condition and asking if they could move up the date of the job because I was getting ill from the fumes of the ash. The owner of the company said yes, he could rearrange their schedule and come sooner, starting tomorrow morning. How incredible is that?

I think this extraordinary act shows so much about who Dr. Keeney is. He’s my family physician as well as a friend and neighbor, and in his time of loss, he cared enough to pick up the phone to see if the date of demolition could be moved up because I was becoming ill. It also says a lot about the company owner, Louis Nobriga of D & D Trucking, who was flexible and responsive to a client’s request. It also shows the kind of magic that can happen when you live in a small, tight-knit community.

I’ll be vacating my home during the demolition and removal of debris. We know that dust control will be implemented, and we’ll take measures to seal up the house just in case some particulate matter becomes airborne.

Meanwhile, Dr. Keeney is already making plans for building a new home, a bit further up the hill where he will have a spectacular view of the ocean.

Susie's Secret Garden, my sanctuary.

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Tags: Air, Chemicals, Environment, Garden, Home, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Toxic

Fire in Ookala!

Posted on Jul 17, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Susie Collins, Susie's Secret Garden

My neighbor’s house caught fire Thursday evening, shooting flames about 20-30 feet high, reaching out in the breeze in the direction of my home less than 40 feet away. Talk about an adrenaline rush.

Before firefighters arrived, flames engulfed this whole area, shooting up about 20-30 feet, sending some of the foliage in my gardens up in flames.

Just beyond my fence, the neighbor's house is engulfed in flames.

Our neighbor’s house burned down Thursday evening. While struggling in real time to comprehend the tragedy of my dear neighbor’s loss, I spent about a half-hour in thick smoke, spraying down my own house and surrounding foliage so it wouldn’t catch fire. My husband was in Hilo some 45 minutes away. But four people came by to help, two of them I didn’t even know– they were driving by and stopped to see if they could help. Good Samaritans!

Smoke going up into the back gardens. Later, when things were under control, I worried about my chickens, rushed up into the back and found them huddled together in a fairly safe place and just fine!

At one point, there was a wall of 30-foot flames about 20 feet from my house, and four of us worked the hoses until the fire department arrived. The smoke was really thick. My friend Cathy, who came to help, knows about my Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and kept encouraging me to leave the area. I had to make a decision in real time: worry about breathing toxic smoke or protect my house. I opted for protecting my house until firefighters arrived.

I feel okay today, by the way. I was very tired with a sore throat and burning eyes on Friday, and am doing better this morning. I hate to think about what’s in my lungs but I’m doing a lot better than I thought I would be.

I feel so bad for my friend and neighbor, Dr. Tawn Keeney, who lost his house. Tawn owns the historical Honokaa People’s Theatre and is a long-serving physician at the Hamakua Health Center. He’s my family physician, a real life country doctor and such a dear. He was not home when the fire started. The fire was out of control fairly quickly and there was nothing we could do to help.

My house. One of my helpers positioned a ladder in case embers reached the roof, we could douse it with the hose.

Tawn is a pillar of our community here in Ookala. Our hearts are so saddened by this loss. He loves that house so much, and is always talking about how much he loves it and truly appreciates its history. The houses here were built circa 1920s as part of the sugar plantation that existed here in our village of Ookala. Tawn had recently replaced the roof and the floors.

The fire started at around 4:30 pm. It’s really hard for me to say when the fire department got here because I lost all track of time; maybe 15 minutes from the time I called 911. It seemed like an eternity. The flames grew so fast! Within minutes flames were so high and so hot, less than 30 feet from my house.

At one point, the worst two or three minutes of the ordeal before the fire department arrived, we were literally staring at a 20- to 30-foot wall of flames less than 15 feet away from us. The sound was so loud that we had to shout to hear each other. I must have yelled, “Watch for embers!” 100 times. We all stopped what we were doing and watched to see what the flames were going to do. They roared up and caught our tallest bamboo on fire. The flame swooshed up in a nanno second and caught the top of a 40-foot palm. One of my helpers exclaimed, “Here we go!” I literally dropped down on my knees and prayed. But then the miracle happened: because the bamboo stems are not readily burnable, coupled with the fact that we had doused as much of the plant as we could as high as we could, the fire on the bamboo (and the palm) burned out quickly– and then the breeze let up and the high flames pulled back a bit.

It was a big smokey mess and I do worry a bit about what we were breathing. For one thing, these old houses all have layers of lead paint encapsulated under renovations.

One of the good Samaritans was a young man whose arm was burned because he was reaching out over my fence so bravely to keep the flames down on the grass and away from that bamboo. He barely left his post when that wall of fire encroached. The other good Samaritan kept spraying a wood pile that had caught fire bit further up the fence line– that fire was threatening to draw flames into my huge avocado tree. Two of my helpers were my friends Ross and Cathy Perrins. Cathy had a hose at the fence line and Ross set up a ladder on my house in case we had to access the roof. My job was to keep the house itself hosed down. I credit these four people for protecting my house until the fire department arrived. I could not have done any of it alone. If that bamboo had caught fire and fallen, our house may have caught fire. My appreciation can’t be put into words.

The photos are taken after the fire department arrived. The first thing they did was send fire fighters with hoses to the main fire, but they also stationed one on my fence line by that bamboo and the wood pile. It wasn’t until then that I thought to get the camera. Meanwhile Dr. Keeney’s house was engulfed.

The fire department stayed until 7:30 p.m.. The fire inspector said the cause of the fire is undetermined.

This is shot from the front of the property that burned. You can see how the flames traveled on the grass from the burning house on the left toward my property on the right. My helpers were stationed with hoses on my fence line inside that bamboo hedge at right and kept the grass wet in that green section you see.

Fireman dousing wood pile that threatened to lead flames into my property. One of my helpers had kept flames from this pile away from my property by spraying it with the hose. I don't know how he withstood the heat.

Firemen could not get the wood pile to stop burning even though they'd flooded it with water. So this fireman doused it with chemicals. I was not mad about this use of chems at all, I just wanted the fire out! Those are my wilted plants in the foreground.

Now we can see the rubble as the smoke calms down. This is a tragic story: my friend and neighbor Dr. Tawn Keeney, lost his house.

P.S. I’ve had some comments on Facebook that the prayer is what saved my house. I don’t want to get all religious here, but I had no intention of inferring that. One of my favorite sayings is “Trust in God but tether your camel.” The bamboo didn’t catch fire for several practical reasons: bamboo stems don’t readily burn like wood, we’d sprayed most of the plant down with water, and the wind shifted slightly away from my house just as the flames licked in and up. But you better believe I’ll throw a good prayer up there just for good measure when standing between a 30-foot wall of fire and my house.

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Tags: Air, Chemicals, Environment, Garden, Home, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Photography, Toxic

BP blowout cleanup workers are getting sick

Posted on Jul 09, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Media/Videos, Susie Collins

BP blowout cleanup workers are getting sick; Exxon Valdez survivor warns of long term health effects, and an activist chemist currently on site in the Gulf reports on current illnesses in BP cleanup crew.

Click on the video, it will automatically start at the beginning of the section on BP.

As the BP oil spill enters its 78th day, cleanup crews across the Gulf Coast are working to try and remove what they can of the expanding oil slick. And many of them are getting sick doing it. A growing number of cleanup workers have reported suffering flu-like symptoms including headaches, dizziness, fatigue, nausea and problems with memory and concentration. We speak with a Louisiana chemist who testified before Congress to call for greater worker protections and a former general foreman of the cleanup crews of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Interviewed:

Merle Savage, general foreman of the cleanup crews of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.

Wilma Subra, chemist and president of Subra Company. She provides technical assistance to community groups on environmental issues and to the Louisiana Environmental Action Network.

Click here for rush transcript.

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Tags: Air, Chemicals, Environment, Environmental Illness, Pollution, Toxic, Video

Ask the Canary

Posted on Jul 08, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, MCS, Research, Susie Collins

Does Multiple Chemical Sensitivity have anything to do with the sense of smell?

What role does the sense of smell play in MCS?

What role does our sense of smell and the olfactory system play in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity? Do people with MCS have a heightened sense of smell?

Thank you,
A Nosy Canary

Aloha Nosy!

I am often asked these questions. The first point I always clarify is that MCS does not center on our sense of smell or an olfactory response. To understand this better, let’s review the cause of MCS.

Current research shows that MCS is initiated by a previous toxic chemical exposure from one or more of seven classes of chemicals, notably organic solvents (volatile organic compounds or VOCs), three classes of pesticides, mercury, and/or carbon monoxide. Toxic mold exposure also is reported to initiate MCS, and we find this cause most often in people with MCS who have lived or worked in “sick buildings” that have a toxic mold infestation (Pall, 2009).

So the first thing to understand is that despite many descriptions of MCS that you may find on the Web and elsewhere saying that the olfactory system has a central role in MCS, there is no evidence supporting that claim and in fact, there is considerable evidence against such a role. There are cases of MCS in people with no sense of smell– in fact we have several members of our community who have no sense of smell and also have severe cases of MCS.

Many people with MCS report symptoms of a chemical exposure without any chemical odor. I personally have had this happen: while sitting in my livingroom one day I was overcome with feeling ill, dizzy with loss of cognitive ability, only to discover the neighbor was spraying some sort of herbicide that had no odor.

There are three studies of MCS patients where a nose clip was used to block off access of odors and the MCS patients still reacted to toxic chemicals (Joffres et al, 2005; Millqvist and Lowhagan, 1996; Millqvist et al, 1999).

This is not to say that the olfactory system is never impacted in people with MCS, but rather that it does not play a central role in cause.

To explain this, I’d like to refer to the work of MCS researcher Martin Pall, professor emeritus of biochemistry and basic medical sciences at Washington State University. Pall’s research on MCS is widely published in books and articles, the most recent of which is a chapter in the authoritative international reference manual for professional toxicologists, General and Applied Toxicology, 3rd Edition, 2009.

Pall’s review of the literature and other research he’s conducted over the past eleven years show the probable cause of MCS is a biochemical mechanism involving nitric oxide (NO) and peroxynitrite (ONOO-), what Pall calls the NO/ONOO- cycle. Pall describes MCS, also known as chemical sensitivity and toxicant-induced loss of tolerance (TILT), as a disease initiated by toxic chemical exposure, leading to brain injury that produces high level sensitivity to the same set of chemicals that cause the disease. To get a little deeper into the science: all seven classes of chemicals mentioned at the top of my answer are thought to act indirectly to increase the activity of NMDA receptors, which are glutamate receptors for controlling synaptic plasticity and memory function. This activity, in turn, leads to rapid increases in intracellular calcium (Ca2+), nitric oxide, and peroxynitrite (ONOO-), acting to greatly stimulate the NO/ONOO- cycle. That cycle is what causes our myriad symptoms.

So how does this impact our olfactory system? Do people with MCS have a heightened sense of smell? Let’s ask Martin Pall.

“MCS is not primarily a defect in the olfactory system,” Pall says. “But when the olfactory system is impacted by the NO/ONOO- cycle it will impact the sense of smell. This is because both the NMDA receptors and nitric oxide have roles in the olfactory mechanism. However what impact the cycle has, varies from person to person, possibly depending on the severity of the cycle in that region of the body. Some people report being much more sensitive to odors but others are anosmic, completely devoid of the sense of smell.”

Aloha,
Susie

Photo credit.

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Tags: Air, Chemicals, Indoor Pollution, MCS, Mold, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Research

Predictions of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity mechanism confirmed by Roman study

Posted on Jul 05, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, MCS, Research, Susie Collins

A recent study conducted by a research group in Rome is significant in regard to Martin Pall’s NO/ONOO- cycle theory on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity because it shows that three elements of the cycle are elevated in MCS patients.

Martin L. Pall, Ph.D.

Portland, OR – July 5, 2010 – The physiological mechanism for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity proposed by biochemist Martin L. Pall has been confirmed with the recent findings of an independent research group in Rome.

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), also known as chemical sensitivity and toxicant-induced loss of tolerance (TILT), is a disease initiated by toxic chemical exposure, leading to toxic brain injury that produces high level sensitivity to the same set of chemicals that are implicated in initiation of the disease. Sensitivity responses in other areas of the body are also often seen.

“Epidemiological studies show that MCS is a stunningly common disease, even more common than diabetes,” said Pall, professor emeritus of biochemistry and basic medical sciences at Washington State University. “My review of the literature and other research I’ve conducted over the past eleven years shows the probable central mechanism of MCS is a biochemical vicious mechanism, known as the NO/ONOO- cycle.”

Pall’s work is widely published in books and articles, the most recent of which is a chapter in the authoritative international reference manual for professional toxicologists, General and Applied Toxicology, 3rd Edition, 2009 (chapter 92).

The NO/ONOO- cycle, pronounced no-oh-no, is named for the chemical structures of nitric oxide (NO) and peroxynitrite (ONOO-). This biochemical vicious cycle mechanism predicts that each of the elements linked together in the cycle are elevated in patients suffering from MCS and related diseases. Most of the elements of the cycle have been shown to be elevated in such related diseases as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia and also in animal models of MCS. However, several cycle elements have never been measured in MCS patients.

The recent study conducted by the research group in Rome is significant in regard to the NO/ONOO- cycle theory because it shows that three elements of the cycle are elevated in MCS patients (De Luca et al, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 2010, April 27 Epub ahead of print). Those elements are the inflammatory cytokines, nitric oxide, and oxidative stress. Each of these measurements provides important confirmation of the disease mechanism proposed by Pall.

The inflammatory cytokines and nitric oxide elevation have never before been measured in MCS patients, although they have been shown to be elevated in animal models of MCS. Oxidative stress has been reported in two earlier studies of MCS patients, but the data provided in the De Luca et al study are much more extensive than are the earlier data. Consequently, these new data all provide important confirmation of the NO/ONOO- cycle as the central disease mechanism in MCS.

The NO/ONOO- cycle also is useful in understanding the role of toxic chemicals in MCS and the role of treatment. Each of the seven classes of chemicals implicated are thought to act indirectly to increase the activity of the NMDA receptors, which are glutamate receptors for controlling synaptic plasticity and memory function. This activity, in turn, leads to rapid increases in intracellular calcium (Ca2+), nitric oxide and peroxynitrite (ONOO-), acting to greatly stimulate the NO/ONOO- cycle.

“Many of the agents used by environmental medicine physicians to treat MCS patients can be viewed as lowering different parts of the cycle, and thus are validated in part by this mechanism,” Pall said. “Consequently, the NO/ONOO- cycle mechanism can be viewed as validating therapeutic approaches used in environmental medicine in the U.S., in Germany and some other areas of Europe and in some other countries.”

Contact:
Martin L. Pall, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Sciences
Washington State University
503-232-3883
martin_pall@wsu.edu
thetenthparadigm.org

###

Here is the abstract of the Roman study:

PMID: 20430047 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

1: Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2010 Apr 26; [Epub ahead of print]

Biological definition of multiple chemical sensitivity from redox state and cytokine profiling and not from polymorphisms of xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes.

De Luca C, Scordo MG, Cesareo E, Pastore S, Mariani S, Maiani G, Stancato A, Loreti B, Valacchi G, Lubrano C, Raskovic D, De Padova L, Genovesi G, Korkina LG.

Laboratory of Tissue Engineering & Skin Pathophysiology, Dermatology Institute (IDI IRCCS), Rome, Italy.

BACKGROUND: Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a poorly clinically and biologically defined environment-associated syndrome. Although dysfunctions of phase I / phase II metabolizing enzymes and redox imbalance have been hypothesized, corresponding genetic and metabolic parameters in MCS have not been systematically examined.

OBJECTIVES: We sought for genetic, immunological, and metabolic markers in MCS.

METHODS: We genotyped patients with diagnosis of MCS, suspected MCS and Italian healthy control&n bsp;s for allelic variants of cytochrome P450 isoforms (CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and CYP3A5), UDP-glucuronosyl transferase (UGT1A1), and glutathione S-transferases (GSTP1, GSTM1, and GSTT1). Erythrocyte membrane fatty acids, antioxidant (catalase, superoxide dismutase (SOD)) and glutathione metabolizing (GST, glutathione peroxidase (Gpx)) enzymes, whole blood chemiluminescence, total antioxidant capacity, levels of nitrites/nitrates, glutathione, HNE-protein adducts, and a wide spectrum of cytokines in the plasma were determined.

RESULTS: Allele and genotype frequencies of CYPs, UGT, GSTM, GSTT, and GSTP were similar in the Italian MCS patients and in the control populations. The activities of erythrocyte catalase and GST were lower, whereas Gpx was higher than normal. Both reduced and oxidised glutathione were decreased, whereas nitrites/nitrates were increased in the MCS groups. The MCS fatty acid profile was shifted to saturated compartment and IFNgamma, IL-8, IL-10, MCP-1, PDGFbb, and VEGF were increased.

CONCLUSIONS: Altered redox and cytokine patterns suggest inhibition of expression/activity of metabolizing and antioxidant enzymes in MCS. Metabolic parameters indicating accelerated lipid oxidation, increased nitric oxide production and glutathione depletion in combination with increased plasma inflammatory cytokines should be considered in biological definition and diagnosis of MCS. Copyright (c) 2010.
Published by Elsevier Inc.

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Tags: MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Research

Celebrating independence: You’re doing it wrong!

Posted on Jul 04, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Susie Collins

My annual commentary on 4th of July fireworks.

Link to more information about the toxicity of fireworks.

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Tags: Air, Asthma, Chemicals, Environment, Pollution, Toxic

Gulf Coast: Grab your respirators!

Posted on Jul 04, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Media/Videos, Susie Collins

3M #4279 Organic Vapour/Inorganic and Acid Gas/Ammonia/Particulate Respirator

RT America reports on health problems in the Gulf caused by chemical fumes from crude oil and dispersant originating from BP oil well blowout. Don’t miss reference to the Exxon Valdez spill and the analogy to 9/11.

6/30–What can go wrong will go wrong. Such is the case for the Gulf Coast and the unending saga of the BP oil spill that’s now in its eleventh week. What’s wrong now is this: winds from Hurricane Alex are pushing tar balls as large as apples onto Gulf Coast beaches. This has stopped cleanup efforts momentarily and even undone some of the spill control. As one marine scientist put it: “We lost all the progress we made.” But the winds picking up are a giant concern for something else.

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Tags: Air, Children's Health, Environment, Environmental Illness, Pollution, Products, Toxic, Video

The poisoning has begun

Posted on Jul 03, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Guest Bloggers

Thursday evening we found a voice message left by the owner of the land next to ours saying they would be spraying ROUND UP and select herbicides sometime on Friday. And there went our plans for a safe and happy holiday weekend.

By guestblogger Jacki Palmer-Boyce.

Our neighbor spraying his fields on Friday next to our home and organic gardens. Our holiday weekend has been ruined!

Thursday evening we came inside the house @ 10pm to a voice message left by the owner of the land saying they would be spraying ROUND UP and Select herbicides sometime on Friday. This ruined our HOLIDAY weekend. The soybean field is right next door to our property to the WEST and NORTH side of our land. We had no idea they were going to spray so our plans were to camp in our own yard “campsite” to avoid crowds and chemicals from the Holiday weekend. We had the tent sent up and plans for a fire with a few friends.

With the girls on a better day.

I was very grateful for the “warning” that was a life saver. HOWEVER all our plans of enjoying our own homestead went up in “fumes.” I had to keep all the windows closed today and it is a perfect day outside 70′s and sunny with low humidity and low dew point, so I had to miss out on a GREAT weather day. I could not enjoy my own yard, my “organic” gardens, my spring/well water are all at risk every time they spray more and more poisons into the land and air, which effects the water supply.

With Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, I smell, taste and feel the chemicals even though my husband John does not. So I am locked inside the house while he is outside. We can not go to our parks or Findley due to too many people and all their toxic chemicals they bring with them on a Holiday camp weekend: lighter fluid, tiki lights,sunscreen, the list goes on and on of things you have to avoid around crowds. So needless to say: several hours of spraying ruined several days to weeks of my life.

The tent we'd set up for "camping" in our yard this weekend.

I wonder how this can be legal and yet someone caught with a joint goes to jail. It is all about the $$ and GREED… MONSANTO & DOW should be in prison for poisoning people for year after year. Read about how glyphosate is toxic and Roundup is worse. Read here about clethodim herbicide. I hate when people say it is “JUST” roundup like it is something “safe”… boy did marketing pull the wool over so many zoombies’ eyes… WAKE UP, PEOPLE, CHEMICALS KILL! And not just the bugs!

I am very lucky the owner “warns me”– he doesn’t have to do that in OHIO; some states it is a law. So please know how thankful I am for the warning, without that I’d have my windows all open and clothes on the line and playing in my yard.

The raised beds out front, south exposure, with peppers and tomatoes.

This spraying happens about 3 to 4 times a growing season with different types of herbicides and fugicides. Each time is like a knife going into my heart and soul. We’d love to move away from all this madness they call country living and farming, but at this point in time it is not in the stars. So we try so hard to keep our little eco friendly homestead as chemical free as possible (in our control) and pray for protection from the chemicals when they spray. It beats the helicopter they used to spray fungicides last year– now that really drifted!

Just makes me so sad that this is still legal. Think of the millions of gallons of pesticides/herbicides used all over the USA. Add that to the GULF oil well blowout and we are doomed. They could stop it but choose not to. It brings in too much $$$$ and GREED is the name of the game… NOT HEALTH.

I want to end my day with a positive: I am well for the shape I am in…. I want to end with the positive… I must always be grateful no matter what… each day is a blessing even if it doesn’t turn out like you hope.

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Tags: Environment, Food, Garden, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Organic, Pesticides, Pollution, Toxic

This weekend, let’s all send a message to Oprah about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Posted on Jul 03, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, MCS, Media/Videos, Susie Collins

A message from Monique van den Broek, Netherlands: Let’s ALL tell Oprah about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity on July 3 and 4!

Oprah

Dear friends,

TO ALL THE MCS PATIENTS IN THE WORLD!!

I am going to ask you just ONE thing.

It´s time to let the world know how many people have health problems from chemicals.

If there´s any media that goes worldwide, it´s THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW. This lady shows respect for nature, environment and health.

-Go to this link om the internet ON THE 3TH OR THE 4TH OF JULY: https://www.oprah.com/ownshow/plug_form.html?plug_id=220

1.Write your name AND COUNTRY
2.Write down how long you’ve suffered from MCS
3.And what it means to you in your daily life
4.How you got this disease
5.If you want to be a contact person for this item, write your (skype) phonenumber in the mail
6.IT´S IMPORTANT WE SEND THIS STORY TO OPRAH ALL ON THE SAME DAY!!! IF WE ALL SEND OUR MESSAGES ON THE 3th or 4TH OF JULY, WE GET THE ATTENTION WE NEED.
7.DON´T THINK YOU´RE DOING IT FOR NOTHING, IF WE DON´T TRY WE NEVER ACCOMPLISH

PLEASE SEND THIS MESSAGE TO ALL THE MCS PEOPLE YOU KNOW. LETS TRY TO MAKE A BOMBARDMENT OF THOUSANDS EMAILS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD TO THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW ON THE 3TH AND 4TH OF JULY.

Today is the day! Worldwide, thousands of MCS people will send their email to Oprah!

MAYBE HER WEBSITE WILL GO DOWN BECAUSE SO MANY PEOPLE WILL EMAIL HER, BUT KEEP TRYING!!! IF IT DOESN’T WORK TODAY, TRY TOMORROW OR ELSE THE DAYS AFTER.

Remember you can only use max 2000 characters.

You are all my heroes. From now on the world will know what chemicals do to human beings.

IF YOU GET AN ANSWER FROM OPRAH, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

Regards,
Monique van den Broek
Suffering from MCS
Naarden, the Netherlands.

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Tags: MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

The long journey home

Posted on Jul 02, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Guest Bloggers, MCS

Common Scents: Adventures with Autism and Chemical Sensitivity is a memoir I wrote about my experiences living in eight cities over two years, searching for safe housing.

By guestblogger Kate Goldfield.

Cover shot for my new book Common Scents: Adventures with Autism and Chemical Sensitivity.

In the sun.

“The long journey home,” –what does that mean to you? For two years, I had no real definition of or sense of home. I moved anywhere from every few weeks to every few months. I couldn’t stay in any one place long enough to plan a dinner out, make friends, or have any sense of roots or belonging.

Why did I move so much? Most readers of The Canary Report will be familiar with the horrors of what we call multiple chemical sensitivity, or MCS. I react to fragrances and chemicals of all kinds, and the residues and exposures in any apartment or roomshare I looked at were just too much for me.

At 24, after living with my parents in Standish for as long as I could, I couldn’t find any apartments or roomshares that worked for me in Maine. So I set off on a journey across the country to find something that would. I used Craigslist or other MCS websites to find other people with chemical sensitivities who had houses that would be compatible with my needs. In this way, I ended up living in eight cities over two years: Burlington, Vermont; Liberty, New York; Missoua, Montana; Newport, Bend and Eugene in Oregon; Ballston Spa, New York; and finally back to Maine where I currently am, in the greater Portland area.

There was another complication. I have Asperger’s Syndrome, a high functioning form of autism. This sometimes makes it difficult for me to communicate effectively with others, understand social rules and norms, and tolerate a lot of sensory stimuli (such as noise, certain kinds of weather, smells, fabric textures and so on). The two years I spent traveling from place to place were a challenge, but they taught me a lot about the world and my place in it. I learned the power of my own strength and the value of human connection.

Book cover.

Common Scents: Adventures with Autism and Chemical Sensitivity is a memoir I wrote about these experiences. I have suffered from MCS for about four years; two years ago, I decided to do something about it. Many of us can relate to having a nomadic lifestyle; many of us will also be able to relate to the day in, day out struggles of everyday life that I experienced on this journey while trying to lead a chemically safe life in so many different cities.

I wanted this to be a book we could all relate to, a book someone with MCS could read and see themselves in. Maybe our life circumstances aren’t completely the same, and maybe my autism makes me see the world a little differently than you, but in the end our experiences are all remarkably similar. We are united by one common goal: to keep ourselves safe from the chemicals that bring havoc to our lives and health by any means possible.

I tried to make this a lighthearted tale; I didn’t want it to be a story of gloom and doom. Wherever I could, I used humor and wit to convey my story, believing that at least in this case, the reader would be more engaged when they were laughing than crying. My perseverance finally paid off after two years, and I found a good living situation back in my beloved home state of Maine. We all are suffering from so many problems; safe housing is the number one goal for people with chemical sensitivities. I only hope that one day, this goal will be realized for every single person that needs it.

Meanwhile, if you would like to read more about my story, please go to my website at http://kategoldfield.webs.com . Paperback books are available for purchase at the link at the end, and PDF versions are available too. May we all find what we are looking for, and more importantly, may we all support each other on our journeys until we are able to do so.

Kate Goldfield