Linda Sepp | The Canary Report

Moving to my new home, part four

Sep 182011

This is the fourth and final post in a series about my move to Barrhaven. (After this, I’ll be blogging about my life at Barrhaven.)

By contributor Linda Sepp.

My new front door.

Making new friends.

I’ve hung up a bird feeder and made friends with a chipmunk and a couple of black squirrels. One of my neighbours has some similar interests as I do and we’ve been able to spend a little time in each other’s company, mostly talking while sitting out on the stoops. The air is sometimes safe enough to do so, and for me to take little walks in the side yard. She picks up my mail from the building it is delivered to, as the laundry product residues in the lobby were making me really sick, even if I went only twice a week. And she took me on my 1st trip to Ottawa the other day, to check out two farmers markets and an environmentally friendly products store (where I was hoping to be able to get some safe toilet paper from, but they were sold out). I was able to actually appreciate some of that trip, beyond merely surviving it, despite the pain from cell towers, traffic, and other exposures. I am not in a hurry to do it again, but know that I could manage a trip every now and again with someone else driving, and as long as I don’t go inside anywhere. Ottawa has some nice sights and places to see for better days ahead.

Close up of the sign on my door.

Passing storm out my window.

My health continues to improve here (it hit a wall at the cabin, despite the fresh outdoor air and good well water I got from my friends, all of which I do miss). I hope I can get another stage of water filtration installed, as what is here now isn’t enough for me to be able to drink it. The RO water I’m getting delivered is also not great, but better than the double filtered tap water. There is no spring water available in glass bottles around here, and it’s too far to drive to get filled myself.

My remaining challenges her aren’t life threatening, (as long as the lack of some of my supplements and toilet paper doesn’t become so ;-p) and can be dealt with over time. I feel pretty good about being here (when I’m not missing the wilderness) and feel fairly confident that I can continue to improve my health and brain function. Some of my old self is returning, and most of my PTSD is gone! I have my collection of odd treasures around me, many which make me smile when I see them. I have my knife sharpener and pots and pans so I can cook well again. I have an oven again (which I got sick burning off fragrance residues from) so I can bake veggies and gluten free bread soon, I can hand feed a chipmunk, watch some flowers grow, and I have some nice neighbours. It’s feeling like a safe enough home. Life is good.

The sun came out after the storm, just in time for sunset...

~~~

Linda blogs at Life with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A search for safe housing, where this series is originally published: part one, part two, part three, part four.

Moving to my new home, part three

Posted by Contributor

Sep 162011

This is the third in a series about my move to Barrhaven.

By contributor Linda Sepp.

This room is still in progress but taking shape.

Close up of floral chandelier/centerpiece made of painted old metal.

This whole process of moving was interesting to me, as my previous memories of unpacking and settling in to a new home were all from when I was healthy (or much healthier). I didn’t have a map in my brain for making a home when doing things alone is so difficult, when I can’t run out and take care of things I need myself… (it’s also the 1st place I’ve had to myself since I was 18) so on the one hand I was impatient that things were taking so long, while on the other hand marveling how quickly I was able to accomplish these things, and how much healthier I am now, after the year at the summer cabin.

What is really amazing is that I didn’t experience a huge crash from moving here, or from being re-aquainted with my things from a place that had had some mold problems and which were then stored for over a year in a locker that was not entirely sealed at the top (except by plastic tarps that were hung up with black clips, and tarps we laid on the floor), nor was it climate controlled, as I discovered too late, hence the beginning mustiness on some of the textiles and clothes (luckily in double plastic bags) that had been stored on the floor, or they would not have been salvageable.

A painting by my great aunt Helmi reflected in a wall mirror.

I had reluctantly faced the possibility that my things might be contaminated to a point I’d need to get rid of almost all of them, which has happened to so many others with similar circumstances. Had they been so contaminated, they might have made this place a nightmare to be in too… I am so lucky that I am able to live with most of my old treasures, and have time to make decisions on the others.

The HRV (heat recovery ventilation) changes the air often, and some areas are specially vented, so some of the things that would otherwise be problematic, aren’t remaining in the air and affecting me as much. My activated carbon air purifiers are filtering out other residues. Every once in a while the HRV sucks in some “eau de skunk”, or even worse, some heavy fabric softener fumes. I’ve had a few bad experiences with that, but fortunately, those exposures are no longer life threatening, and I’m recovering much faster from them!

I’m now also able to drive to one store 5 minutes away to pick up rice milk, rice cakes and cereal by the case as soon as it arrives, where they bring it outside where I pay, and they even take it to my car for me. I will have to find someone to fill the car up with gas very soon if I am to continue driving it. I still haven’t found sources for some of the supplements I need, and some foods are only available from stores where they get saturated with incense, so I will have to see what happens without them. I don’t want to trouble people in Toronto to mail some of them to me, but I might have to. The closest Natural Foods Coop group wasn’t interested in having me join as a member when I contacted them from the cabin, and I am also still trying to find a way to get safe toilet paper, and am going to be desperate soon!

I also still need to get a new bed. My old one is not safe for me to sleep on as it is, the base would not fit up the stairs anyway, and it’s barely safe enough to have in the living room. Without the HRV it would have to go, but when I can detox some heavy covers for it, it should be ok as a couch.

My TV cabinet. Some day I'll hook it up to the VCR and plug them both in! Right now it's supporting my sound system.

I did realize last week that the sheet of mylar I was using as a bedroom curtain might be a problem, so I took it down and covered the window with bbq foil. That evening the room seemed fresher when I went to bed, and in the morning it didn’t hurt as much to go down the stairs. The 2nd morning much more of my fibromyalgia pain was gone, making the stairs so much easier! I’d been struggling every day for almost 2 months with those stairs, something in the air from the bad side of the mylar was affecting me like that! Last year there was a change in the product, one side is still ok, but the other was not. I usually sealed it somehow, but I kind of hoped that since it was against the window and wall, it wouldn’t be a problem. A nagging feeling about it got stronger once I’d unpacked the books, and what a difference it made! I have 2 sheets bad side to bad side as a shower curtain until I have something else I can use, so will probably see another improvement when that is successfully addressed.

~~~

Linda blogs at Life with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A search for safe housing, where this series is originally published: part one, part two, part three, part four.

Moving to my new home, part two

Posted by Contributor

Sep 142011

This is the second in a series about my move to Barrhaven.

By contributor Linda Sepp.

Barrhaven. My place is the last one. I share a stoop with the person who lives in the middle unit.

Linda Sepp

I was unexpectedly blessed with an amazing (slow and steady) energy and a sub-conscious clarity for the first 4 days after moving into Barrhaven that allowed me to unpack the boxes and shelves for my kitchen and get it functional almost right away!!! The kitchen is the most important space for me now, as preparing healthy food is the one thing I have the most control over and nourishing food is so important for my health. When I was barely alive, that was my priority every day, to make and eat one good meal. That and feeding my cats and cleaning their litter-box. If nothing else got done, so be it. I needed healthy, nutritious food to keep my body from completely giving up the ghost. So getting the kitchen set up here asap so I could cook was a priority, as then I’d be able to keep myself from spiraling downhill again if I collapsed for any reason.

Kitchen before: the window looking in from hallway, looks out to a green space with a few trees, the railroad tracks are beyond.

Kitchen after: not quite finished, but getting there. I really want kitchen cabinets, open concept is too busy.

I think I mostly did collapse after that, for a week or four, but I also had to air out bags of textiles, curtains and clothes that I’d kept in hopes they might someday be made safe again, as some got musty in storage. I also had to detox some curtains in the bathtub for the living room window to give me some privacy. I was lucky that one set of sheers I had took comparatively little work, as the others were making me really sick, bent over the tub breathing in the fumes as I washed them. There’s no window or extraction fan in the washroom, and no laundry tub in the laundry room, so I had to give up on trying to detox more curtains for the other windows, or other clothes for myself. The bags are now all in the walk-in closet that Christian came over and helped me cover with sheets of mylar. There was something in the walls in that space that was making me sick when I opened the door, so we used 2 sided painters tape and foil tape to affix the mylar to the walls and maybe even the ceiling (I don’t remember!). Now I get sick from the old previously safe soap residues on my things when I open the door, but I can’t do anything about them until I am able to get a washer and dryer.

Michel has made more than one trip to IKEA and Home Depot for me, picking up a few things I needed. The shower curtain and toilet brush from IKEA are still outside, not safe to bring in. And the lamp has a questionable part, I’m not sure if I will be able to use it. The toxic perils of modern products… sigh…

Surprisingly, though, I am almost all unpacked now! I really wanted to get the packing boxes out of my space as quickly as possible because they were so nasty. So nasty in fact, that my immediate neighbor complained when I’d put the empties outside. They made her sick too! I think it’s the glue and type of paper they used. So, whenever I’ve had the energy, I focused on unpacking things to get those boxes out of here.

I was finally able to tackle the “office” 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately my books and files were packed in those boxes for over 5 years, and now have taken on the essence of the boxes. I don’t know yet if I’ll have to get rid of them or be able to salvage some. That’s a project for another time. They are all in the 2nd bedroom, and someday I’ll don my mask and eye glasses and look through them to see what’s there. I now remember and miss being able to snuggle into a comfortable chair with a good book… I hope one day I’ll be well enough to be able to do that again.

To be continued…

Part one

~~~

Linda blogs at Life with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A search for safe housing, where this series is originally published: part one, part two, part three, part four.

Moving to my new home, part one

Posted by Contributor

Sep 132011

This post is the first in a series about my move to Barrhaven.

By contributor Linda Sepp.

Linda Sepp

It’s been pretty well two months since I arrived here at my “safe enough” new home. For anyone familiar with brain fog, you’ll understand how it’s all been a rather dream-like experience. It still doesn’t feel exactly real, but at the same time it’s just the way things are now.

I would not have made it here without the help of numerous people who made it possible… After weeks of refusing to commit to pay the full cost of moving my belongings from Toronto to the Ottawa area, the Ontario Disability Support Program finally agreed to pay (the little push from the Ombudsman’s office made a big difference). Ani J found some movers who charged much less than the others and could bill ODSP directly so that I didn’t need to play middleman, she and Bruce were at my locker in Toronto to supervise and help prepare the truck for my things, and Christian and Michel were at the new place to help with the unloading (and my what a job that turned out to be for them, partially because the truck had to be parked so far away, and also because it was FULL of stuff, much of which I’d forgotten I had). I was told that the rain was heavy all day except that it stopped while the truck was being loaded and unloaded!

The property manager had shared my info with another tenant, Mountain, who helped me arrange for the weekly home delivery of organic produce, which was coming the day I was to arrive. Emile was generous enough to say I didn’t need to pay for it until the following week in case I wasn’t already there in time, and Mountain accepted it at her place, so it didn’t have to be left in the sun in front of “my” place. Having safe food arranged gave me peace of mind, as it isn’t always easy to acquire.

Then, a couple of weeks later, with my other arrangements made, with a new grandchild born and settled in, my guardian angels Cheryl and Dave loaded up his pick-up truck and my car with my things from the cabin, and she drove my old car with me in it, to my new home. When we arrived after about a 4 hour drive, getting a little lost on the way in, as we didn’t have a GPS and I didn’t remember the turns and couldn’t make any sense of the map, the look on my face must have shown my shock at all the stuff piled up everywhere (instead of being neatly tucked away in the storage areas… which was of course impossible, since there was so much stuff that they didn’t know what to do with)…

Cheryl kept saying “don’t worry, it will be ok” … Then Mountain arrived with the food and Cheryl got to work cleaning out the new fridge so the food could go in it, while Dave and I tried to find places to move things so that I could cope here alone after they left. I was stunned, in a state of shock, but Dave was focused, strong, and able. With their help, we got the boxes out of the main breathing areas, the other odds and ends out of the way, the little bedroom completely emptied for my cot to come in, the stuff out of the car and truck, the food into the fridge, all to a point where I said I could cope. We then did a toast with a 3-way share of an organic bottle of beer I’d picked up in Minden when buying vodka to clean with, and they went on their way. I think I collapsed after. I don’t remember my first night here.

To be continued…

Would you like to leave a response to this post? It’s posted here on TCR’s network, where you can leave comments.

~~~

Linda blogs at Life with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A search for safe housing, where this series is originally published: part one, part two, part three, part four.

Moving to a new “environmentally sensitive” housing unit in Ottawa!

Posted by Contributor

Jun 072011

Imagine my surprise when two weeks ago I received a phone call saying a unit had become available at Barrhaven, one of the specially built units that have the potential to meet most of my housing needs!

By contributor Linda Sepp.

Linda standing in the woods with a cap on.

This photo was taken the day before my birthday last July, after being at the cabin about three weeks.

It’s already June, over a year since I was forced from my previous home without another place to go to due to my disabling medical condition of severe Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Environmental Sensitivities, Fibromyalgia, and Electro HyperSensitivity, none of which is properly recognized in this country. It’s almost a year since I (barely) made it to the summer cabin owned by some in my family. And half a year since my father passed away.

Despite a lot of struggle, I made it though winter with the help of a local woman and her family, some assistance from several canaries, a few friends in Toronto, and my uncle’s wife in Massachusetts (who had been paying the electric bill for the cabin for years and continued with my winter heating costs), as well as the hopes and prayers of many. I’m eternally grateful.

Little bear on hind legs, one paw out steadying himself on the screen door, looking right at camera.

Yearling bear climbing on the hand railing beside the door at the cabin.

I also was blessed by the visits of a young screech owl, wild turkeys, numerous other birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and for a short time some young raccoon siblings. I’ve learned a lot from these creatures and will treasure the photos I was able to take, as otherwise the memories would likely be lost in brain fog. The other night I was visited by a bear, a yearling, who was looking for food, alone. I got a blurry photo of him as he was about to climb on the hand railing beside the door to eat the moths circling around the light.

My challenges at the cabin have been great. No running water, no indoor toilet, no fresh organic food close enough to get for myself and too far for others to drive regularly, no insulation, no proper storage for the things I couldn’t have near me but needed to live, inadequate winter clothing, getting snowed in, and more challenges that should not be endured by anyone in a rich country like Canada, especially those with disabilities.

Through the course of it all, I discovered my situation does not fit into any official safety net mandate. There are only seven medically required housing units built for people with environmental sensitivities in Canada. I’ve been on a wait list since 2006, maybe 2007. Meanwhile, I’ve gone from a moldy home to an apartment balcony, and spent winter in a summer cabin. But despite the healing effects of the external environment at the cabin, I’ve lived here with the threat of being forcefully removed by a certain member of the family. The need to find a safer place has been a constant worry.

So imagine my surprise when two weeks ago I received a phone call saying a unit had become available in Barrhaven, one of the specially built units that had the potential to meet most of my housing needs! They wanted to know if would I please go there within a week and spend a night or two to see if it was actually suitable for me (people with MCS/ES are affected by different things, and some people are not able to tolerate the materials in these units, or the noise of the air handling system).

I actually cried for two days, mostly since the location is in the middle of a suburb that has grown around it since it was built and I thought for sure I would lose my ability to go outside for fresh air because of the toxic laundry product fumes from neighbourhood dryer vents, a problem I’ve had previously. Being able to be outside here at the cabin– to witness the seasons, the wildlife, and most especially to breathe the fresh air– has been so important to my recovery. The idea of being locked inside again was devastating! I had my heart set on finding a place near the middle of nowhere, where I could plant an organic garden and to try to be as self sufficient as possible, since finding people with the time and inclination to help is sometimes impossible. So this came as a shock to me!

Yet despite the initial disappointment , I was ready to jump at the opportunity to have a safe enough home to live in, one with safe running water, indoor toilet, places to put things I couldn’t be in the same room with safely, a home where I wouldn’t be threatened with having to leave without much more than a moment’s notice, a home where the structure wasn’t falling apart, a home where I could heal the trauma of living under siege for so many years. But first I had to find help to make the trip to check out the unit.

I am blessed that my friend (guardian angel and lifesaver) here was able to re-arrange her plans in order to drive me there and back, and able to find places in the Ottawa area to spend those two nights, as staying with me there was not an option. There aren’t many people in the world who would do something like this for someone they barely know! She is truly an extraordinary and special woman.

Preparing and packing for the three-day trip was difficult: food and water, my cot, my cooking utensils, toilet paper and other essentials needed to be taken. Then the day came, and three hours into the trip I was so sick I thought I wasn’t going to make it. I had to ask to stop, got out and was barely able to walk around, trying to get some air. As we continued, the highway got bigger and busier, and cell towers started appearing at the sides of the road, sending piercing pains through my head. Things were not looking good.

We eventually arrived there, about four hours after leaving the cabin. It was very strange to be in a place with so many other people again. “My” unit was at the very end, with trees and a grassy area between the building and the train tracks, and there was a small shared garden and patio stone area in front with a tall evergreen hedge between this area and the baseball field on the other side. It was not as bad as I feared it could be.

Linda in her new housing unit, looking right at camera, behin dher the walls are bare with ventilation ducts running along the ceiling.

Testing out my new home!

Inside reminded me of an Ikea loft. Polished concrete, bricks, and wood paneling. I was perplexed by the lack of kitchen cabinets. Apparently mold was a worry so none were installed. I’ve lived with open shelving before, and things get dusty and greasy, so this was a concern. The air wasn’t too bad though, although it seemed the Heat Recovery Ventilation was pushing some fragrance through it. That was disappointing as the air could have been better filtered.

I was able to determine that there wasn’t anything life-threatening there, so it would be ok to remain overnight alone after removing the CFL bulbs that I could and replacing them with regular bulbs my friend went out to buy for me (which I had to scrub down to remove the fabric softener contamination from!). We made plans with my friend that she’d drop by the next afternoon to see how I was doing. I unpacked a few things and made a cuppa coffee! (Fair-trade and organic of course.)

The coffee revived me a bit, and I felt strong enough to go outside and look around. I wanted to see who my neighbours would be, and was able to meet the ones on my side of the building. I went back inside my possible new home, knowing a little more about the area, and settled in. When I felt a bit better, I started exploring. I was surprised and pleased that I was able to do this, after a long trip and all the exposures! I found several storage areas that did not quite agree with me, so I kept those doors shut. But the main living room and kitchen area were fine for me! The air system though was very noisy. So noisy that I hardly heard a train go by 50 feet away, and I hardly heard the airplanes flying directly overhead. Paradise not. But the air in the living area was good. I was not getting any sicker or feeling any worse. And this was a great sign!

I dragged my cot and bedding upstairs and set it up in the small bedroom with my little portable air purifier. There was something not quite right in the larger bedroom but not life threatening; I thought of ways to work with what was there, with what I needed, and what I was capable of doing to make it work. This was promising!

When I woke up the next morning and wasn’t completely dragging ass, I knew I’d be ok there, that I’d found my next home! As long as water filtration is installed, I believe I can make it work. And if I can find safe containers to grow food in, and certified organic soil around Ottawa, then I could even grow some herbs and greens there!

That first morning in my next home, I sat to meditate, and prayed for help to heal and release much of the trauma I’ve been carrying around. I’d brought my laptop and the DVD of my father’s memorial service, and as I sat on the little stool I’d brought, I realized it was exactly six months since he’d passed away. Bittersweet. If I could change anything, it would be that he’d have had the peace to see me settled in a safe home. I move there at the end of the month. I think some of those earlier tears were tears of relief.

I’m back at the cabin now and focusing on what I need to do in preparation for my move to Barrhaven:
• Find a safe and reputable long distance moving company to move my things from storage in Toronto to my new home near Ottawa, and hope the Ontario Disability Support Program will cover the actual cost.
• Find help to get myself and my things from the cabin to Barrhaven.
• Find a new all-metal top loading washer and dryer, and funding source to acquire them.
• Find a safe shower curtain (oh to be able to have a safe shower or bath when I need one!).
• Find help to put my old car in for a check-up and renew my license plate before I go.

Oh to have a home again! A home where I am not threatened by other people or their product use! A home where I can heal.

~~~

Linda blogs at Life with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A search for safe housing, where this post is originally published.

An update from Linda Sepp

Posted by Contributor

Mar 172011

I am now back online, still at the summer cabin, without running water or a bathroom, but my health is better because the exposures are low here.

By contributor Linda Sepp.

Linda Sepp

Thank you all for your support and kindness. It means so much to me. The Canary community is truly a wonderful one!

I am now back online and slowly finding my way around the internet again. A dear friend I met on facebook went to great lengths to get me an off-gassed laptop when I discovered I could get telephone service here and they had DSL on the line. So here I am again! I am very grateful to be so blessed.

I am still at the summer cabin, without running water or a bathroom, but my health is better because the exposures are low here. I still have symptoms of brain injury that haven’t healed, but my physical strength has improved a lot, and the brain fog is diminishing.

I heard a crash, went out, this little guy was trying to make off with the bag of fat but landed on the plate feeder. He/she didn't leave when I went close. I eventually tried to get the bag back for the other birds, but he wasn't letting go! Eventually I picked up the bag and the owl came with it. I went back under the tarp, put him down, got my scizzors to cut the bag from his claws, he sat there not letting go! Beyond surreal! I cut up some pieces for him and hung the bag back up. He flew off...

Life is getting a bit easier, as of very recently, I am no longer spending all my time on the most basic survival needs and then recovering from that. Oddly enough, I can speak way better than I can think or write!

A local woman has been helping me with my survival needs, I wouldn’t have made it without her. She and her daughter shop for me, she empties and cleans her bathroom every week so I can safely shower there once a week, and get my water there twice a week (it’s a 25 km round trip each time). There is no way to properly express my gratitude to them.

The donations I received from this post went to urgent car repairs (to the exhaust system), and helped me pay for the natural foods co-op orders, as they need to be paid in advance, and things bought in bulk.

Now I need help to pay for car insurance.

Some of my friends at the homemade bird feeders.

My dad used to help with all the car related expenses. The 1st payment for the annual insurance is due in just over a week. ODSP still hasn’t reimbursed me for the dental fees, or the months they didn’t pay shelter costs, or a utility bill they were supposed to be paying (which has now gone to a collection agency in my name), and they are still deducting money from my cheque for supposed overpayments. For a system that is supposed to be a support, they have made it seem like they don’t care what happens to the people who depend on them. Even with help, months later, none of the problems with them have been resolved.

Without the car insurance, I can’t drive, and if I can’t drive, I can’t get water. Without water…

I have been kept company here by chickadees, squirrels, blue-jays, wild turkeys, redpolls, crows, and a little screech owl. It has been very peaceful, and is contributing to my healing.

To a more positive note, thanks to my home-made bird feeders, I have been kept company here by chickadees, squirrels, blue-jays, wild turkeys, redpolls, crows, and a little screech owl. It has been very peaceful, and is contributing to my healing.

Now my heart also goes out to all the people in New Zealand and Japan, as well as elsewhere in the world, where so many are suffering.

~~~

Linda blogs at Life with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A search for safe housing.

Linda Sepp is evicted from her home this morning, spending nite in car

Posted by Susie

May 042010

The day Linda Sepp had dreaded arrived with a knock at the door this morning.

Linda Sepp

The Star reports on Canary Report contributor Linda Sepp‘s eviction, which took place at 10:00 a.m this morning. I believe it’s a fairly accurate report on the events that transpired.

Toxic dilemma: Landlord, non-profit centre attempt to find replacement home for woman with chemical sensitivity, but without success.

The 50-year-old woman with chemical sensitivities was roused from her sleep by enforcement officers from the sheriff’s office. After a four-year eviction battle, they had come to throw her out of her High Park apartment.

Four enforcement officers dressed in white haz-mat coveralls and face masks — meant to keep Sepp safe from them should they have worn cologne or washed their hair with strong shampoo — hauled the woman’s possessions onto the front porch. From there, her 82-year-old father lugged bags and boxes down a flight of steps to her car.

“I’m beyond panicked. I’m blank. I’m numb,” said Sepp, who has Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), a condition that causes rashes, headaches and burning sensations when she is exposed to chemicals in the environment.

[..]

She considered spending the night under the trees in High Park but changed her mind when it started to rain.

Instead, she has opted to camp out in her car in the dusty parking lot of a Buddhist temple in the west end.

Even though it’s beside a mound of garbage bags and a construction site, she says it’s the lesser of many evils.

“I don’t have anywhere to go. I’m just at a loss.”

Click here for full report at The Star.

Click here for other stories on Linda’s housing situation.

Click here for Linda’s blog.

5/5 UPDATE: Last night, it was decided that staying in her car was not safe, so Linda slept on the balcony of her father’s condo.

5/6 UPDATE: Reported in Health Zone: Woman with chemical sensitivities camps out on condo balcony.

5/7 UPDATE, FROM LINDA: Mini update – I’ve just talked with MP Gerard Kennedy and he is genuinely looking for more help and ways to resolve this mess. I love you all!

Linda Sepp faces eviction any day now with no safe place to go

Posted by Susie

Apr 132010

How does a disabled person with acute chemical sensitivity, who’s dependent on government assistance, prepare to move?

This photo is one of Linda's submissions for The Canary Report's 2010 calendar, expressing her despair at her unsafe housing, the toxic air, and lack of safe, nontoxic clothing. ©2009 The Canary Report, may not be republished without permission.

Those of you who follow The Canary Report know how important Linda Sepp is to our Canary Community. She’s a wealth of information about chemical and environmental sensitivities, and shares her knowledge freely through blogging, comments, posts on our forum, email, facebook, and her blog.

Linda carries the title of research assistant here at TCR, but in reality, she’s been my mentor for the past two years. TCR would not be half the blog and community it is without her. Linda is relentless in holding us all to the highest standard when it comes to dealing with toxic chemicals; she will not let anyone get away with skimming by an important issue or settling for a product that might be “okay” but in reality isn’t nontoxic. She makes us all better in our cause for toxic chemical policy reform, better in our cause for human rights as disabled people, and she helps us live safer, more productive lives.

But she does all this while being completely disabled by chemical sensitivities, fibromyalgia, and electro hypersensitivity, and living in a precarious, unsafe housing situation herself.

For years, she’s been the last resident in an Ontario neighborhood slated for demolition by a landlord wanting to raze the area to build new. The place is decaying, crumbling and frequently vandalized. Linda’s house has a leaky roof and basement, problems with mold, a contaminated water pipeline, and a leaky gas stove (now disconnected). She doesn’t want to be there, but where is she to go?

The problem is, how does a disabled person with acute chemical sensitivity, who’s dependent on government assistance, prepare to move? How does a disabled person with acute chemical sensitivity secure and install a whole house water filtration system so she can bathe and wash clothes properly (not just for everyday health but also in preparation for a move); secure safe clothing and a washing machine in the first place (there is a reason why she’s naked in the photo, she only has about five articles of safe, uncontaminated clothing to her name); conduct a housing search and then properly prepare that house for an uber sensitive person? How does she do that? And if she can’t do it herself, how does she find a knowledgeable advocate to help navigate the entire process?

On Linda’s blog, she writes eloquently about her dependence on government aid from a social service system that refuses to understand the complexity of chemical sensitivity. She describes the evidence she has from an environmental physician who declared her medical needs to include a nontoxic home with clean air and water (a simple, basic need you’d think, no?), and yet neither the medical nor government systems seem equipped to assist Linda in accessing the solutions to those needs. Once again, someone with chemical sensitivity is slipping through the cracks.

So here’s the kicker: Linda’s eviction date was April 4. Aside from a couple of valiant last minute efforts (which have failed to yield anything feasible), all the agencies and people you’d think should be there to assist—social workers, physicians, elected officials, the landlord—have all receded like water before the coming of a tidal wave.

Given that the April 4 eviction date was set by the court, the landlord has the power to put in motion the sheriff’s removal of Linda from her home. And should that happen, then what? The injustice of this situation is staggering.

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04/24/10 UPDATE:

Last week, Linda’s Member of Parliament contacted her current landlord to see if a new deal could be reached on securing Linda a safe home, but the landlord declined, saying the April 4 eviction deadline was past so all offers were off the table. (As background, Linda’s landlord had offered to buy and renovate a rental home for Linda at a total cap of $200K, including the consultation of an eco-builder, but none of the homes found on the market met Linda’s criteria.)

Linda’s physician is in phone contact with her and has asked for more tests, which Linda has scheduled for next week.

Toronto Community Housing, which provides housing for low and moderate income households, prepared an apartment for Linda this past week. Linda says it won’t work because it does not meet her criteria; she has declined the offer.

Linda Sepp launches a blog about her urgent housing needs

Posted by Susie

Jan 172010

The main purpose of Linda’s blog is to send out a clarion call for help in securing safe water, clothing and place to live. Are you able to help?

Canary Report contributor Linda Sepp launched her own blog today! I am doing the admin on the site but the writing is all Linda’s.

As many of you know, Linda suffers severe Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and is housebound. She faces eviction on April 4. She’s using the blog to explain her urgent housing needs in the hopes of finding people who can help her in securing safe water, clothing and place to live. Other than a limited amount of support given by Canada’s social services, Linda’s basically been abandoned by her country’s safety net, even though Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and Environmental Sensitivities are fully recognized by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

The urgency of Linda’s situation cannot be over emphasized given the looming eviction. Please visit her blog, read through the posts and pages, and if you are able to help her in any way, please do so! I’m especially interested in finding people in Toronto who can help Linda with everything from daily chores like shopping and shoveling snow, to the larger challenges such as installing a water filter and finding her a safe home.

Linda’s challenges are great but I’m convinced there are people out there who can help her. We just need to find them and enlist their help. Please do all you can to brainstorm about this, or more importantly, implement action!

From Linda’s “About” page:

I am disabled and housebound from severe Multiple Chemical Sensitivities / Environmental Sensitivities (MCS/ES) and chemically induced Fibromyalgia (FM) as well as some ElectroHyperSensitivity (EHS). My symptoms and abilities are directly, and often severely impacted by exposure to petro-chemicals, moulds, wireless technologies and high electrical fields, yet most resolve when I am able to avoid exposures. There may be some residual and permanent brain damage, but we won’t know until I have safe housing and the therapeutic supports required to repair and heal the damage.

My critical and urgent needs list includes: 1) a whole house water filtration system and installation, 2) a washing machine, 3) clothing, 4) a housing search and preparation, and 5) an advocate to help me navigate the processes to secure it all. Are you able to help me in any way?

Bloggers, please add Linda’s blog to your blogroll and share her story with your readers. Please do all you can to find people who can help her secure safe water, clothing and a place to live. You can also donate funds by check or PayPal, or purchase some needed clothing for Linda.

Together, we can make this happen!

A victim of my own environment

Posted by Contributor

Nov 122009

The story of my life was published today, it would have been nice if they got it right.

Post by Linda Sepp.

The Star reports on my housing situation:

A victim of her own environment: Linda Sepp fought being evicted because of her allergies. But now she’s being poisoned at home.

To read the article, click on photo to enlarge.

And here is my Letter to the Editor in response:

I’m really disappointed by these articles.

The reporter had all the information, including letters from doctors about my situation and medical need for “safe” housing, which does not exist and should be provided by the health care system for people who are severely chemically injured as a primary part of our required health care.

And how the landlord has placed impossible to overcome obstacles into his seemingly generous offer, and that I owe the rent money because the landlord moved my mother out from the downstairs unit with an offer she couldn’t refuse, while knowing that I could not afford it here alone.

And how the province is refusing to provide the type of assistance one would expect from a social safety net, that I almost froze to death here as a result, that I have no safe warm clothing to wear because I cannot afford chemical free safe clothing, which is another prescription from my doctors, or wash it here without whole house water filtration.

Also, that Martin Pall’s paper about Multiple Chemical Sensitivities / Environmental Sensitivities being caused by toxic chemicals, and the info about it in the Toxicology text with all kinds of peer reviewed documentation debunking the industry line about MCS/ES being a psychological condition.

The articles also completely minimized my symptoms, which are completely disabling, and neglected to mention the Human Rights Commission’s recognition of the disability.

Other relevant links are below:

A victim of her own environment.

A poisoned home life: Woman with environmental sensitives struggles to find safety.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission Policy on MCS/ES.

The Medical Perspective on Environmental Sensitivities by: Margaret E. Sears (M.Eng., Ph.D.).

The Housing Challenge in MCS.

Toxic chemicals found in common scented laundry products, air fresheners.

Dr. Steinemann’s research: “Fragranced consumer products and undisclosed ingredients.”

Synthetic chemicals on tap: A new USGS study finds low levels of pesticides and fragrances in drinking water.

When Neighbours Smoke: Exposure to Drifting Second-hand Smoke in Multi-unit Dwellings.

NOTE: fragrance chemicals and other VOC’s migrate in exactly the same ways.

Pollution & air quality – Indoor air quality – Scents.

Health Care Without Harm and Cleaners, Pesticides, and Fragrances: Global Overview.

General and Applied Toxicology, 3rd Edition, Chapter 92: “Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: Toxicological Questions and Mechanisms,” by Martin L. Pall:

Breakthrough study on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity shows MCS is an epidemic caused by toxic chemicals; peer-reviewed paper is published in prestigious toxicology reference work.

A major paper on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity by Professor Martin L. Pall (at left) is to be published Oct. 23 as chapter 92 in a prestigious reference work for professional toxicologists, General and Applied Toxicology, 3rd Edition (2009, John Wiley & Sons). Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is also known as chemical sensitivity, chemical intolerance, and toxicant-induced loss of tolerance, with this last name emphasizing the role of chemicals in initiating cases of this disease. Pall’s paper, entitled “Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: Toxicological Questions and Mechanisms,” establishes five important facts about MCS:

1. MCS is a stunningly common disease, even more common than diabetes. This has been shown in a series of nine epidemiological studies from the United States and one study each from Canada, Germany, Sweden and Denmark. In the U.S., approximately 3.5% of the population is affected by severe MCS, with much larger numbers, at least 12% of the population, being moderately affected. MCS is, therefore, a very large international disease epidemic with major implications in terms of public health.

2. MCS is caused by toxic chemical exposure. Cases of MCS are initiated by exposure to seven classes of chemicals. These include three classes of pesticides and the very large class of organic solvents and related compounds. In addition, published studies implicate mercury, hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide as initiators. All seven of these classes of chemicals have been shown in animal studies to produce a common response in the body, excessive activity of a receptor in the body known as the NMDA receptor. Furthermore animal studies have demonstrated that chemicals belonging to each of these seven classes can have their toxic responses greatly lowered by using drugs that lower this NMDA response. Because excessive NMDA activity is implicated in MCS from other studies, we now have a compelling common response that explains how such diverse chemicals can produce the disease that we call MCS.

3. The role of chemicals acting as toxicants in MCS has been confirmed by genetic studies. Four such studies have shown that genes that determine the rate of metabolism of chemicals otherwise implicated in MCS, influence susceptibility to becoming ill with MCS. These four studies have been published by three research groups in three countries, the U.S., Canada and Germany, have collectively implicated six genes in determining susceptibility to MCS. Each of these six genes has a role in determining the rate of metabolism of MCS-related chemicals. The German studies by Schnakenberg and colleagues are particularly convincing on this because of the extremely high level of statistical significance of their studies implicating four of these six genes. There is only one interpretation for the role of these six genes in determining susceptiblity to MCS. It is that chemicals act as toxicants in initiating cases of MCS and that metabolizing these chemicals into forms that are either less or more active in such initiation, influences therefore, the probability that a person will become ill with MCS. It is clear, therefore, that MCS is a toxicological phenomenon, with cases being caused by the toxic response to chemical exposure.

4. We have, a detailed and generally well supported mechanism for MCS. This mechanism explains both the high level chemical sensitivity that is the most characteristic symptom of MCS, as well as many other symptoms and signs of this disease, can be generated. This mechanism is centered on a biochemical vicious cycle, known as the NO/ONOO- cycle, which interacts with other mechanisms previously implicated in MCS, notably neural sensitization and neurogenic inflammation. These act locally, in various tissues of the body, to generate local sensitivity in regions of the brain and in peripheral tissues including lungs, upper respiratory tract and regions of the skin and the GI tract. Because of this local nature, different MCS patients differ from one another in their sensitivity symptoms, because the tissues impacted differ from one patient to another. In addition to the evidence discussed above, this general mechanism is supported by various physiological changes found in MCS and in related illnesses, by studies of MCS animal models, by objectively measurable responses of MCS patients to low level chemical exposure and by therapeutic responses reported for MCS and related illnesses.

5. For over 20 years, some have falsely argued that MCS is a psychogenic disease, being generated in their view by some ill defined psychological mechanism. However this view is completely incompatible with all of the evidence discussed earlier in this release. While such incompatibility is more than sufficient reason to reject these psychogenic claims, the MCS toxicology paper lists eight additional serious flaws in the psychogenic arguments. There is a long history of false psychogenic claims in medicine, where such diseases as asthma, autism, Parkinson’s disease, ulcers, multiple sclerosis, lupus, interstitial cystitis, migraine and ulcerative colitis have been claimed to be generated by a psychological mechanism. The 2005 Nobel prize in physiology and medicine was give to Drs. Robin Warren and Barry Marshall for showing that ulcers are caused by a bacterial infection, and are not of psychogenic origin. It is clear, now, that MCS is physiological disease initiated by toxic chemical exposure that has been falsely claimed to be psychogenic.

Martin L. Pall is Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Science at Washington State University.

He is located on Pacific time in the U.S. and can be contacted at: 503-232-3883 and at martin_pall@wsu.edu. His web site is: thetenthparadigm.org.

Linda Sepp