Home & Garden | The Canary Report

Guest Blog: More camping tips: safe tents, potties, and showers

Sep 232011

Here are a few more tips about what I use and what I’ve learned about tents and camping.

By guest blogger Jen.

Wenzel tent

Susie posted my first blog about camping tips on The Canary Report a few weeks ago: Camping tips for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. I got feedback and am here adding some further insight and tips.

A friend with mold illness and MCS has gone camping, and writes me the first week: “I love the meadow I am in… I feel so very good there… so happy… I literally wake up all through the night just to breathe in the magnificent air… it is clean, so very clean and pure. I can feel it in my lungs and body… I forgot how clean air is supposed to smell and feel.I could heal here…”

This is the point, isn’t it? We’ve forgotten the magnificence of beautiful, clean air, our birthright, air so good we want to wake up just to breathe it in deeply before going back to sleep. We are living in a very unnatural way, imo. And if a person with mold illness and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is in a tough situation, they will 1) feel very depressed, by virtue of the toxic chemicals they are being exposed to actually physiologically affecting their brain function and 2) feel very sick, and really not believe they could get so much better… fear and disbelief are two barriers.

Another friend with mold illness and MCS/Electromagnetic Frequency Sensitivity (EMF), who has been on the road in search of safe housing for about a year now (unable to find any yet, even so-called MCS-safe housing advertised as such to our community), and often as not sleeping in his car, writes, “Your Northface idea was spot on! I bought one… I can’t believe how I am tolerating the tent… it is really not too smelly! Thank you!!!! A visiting MCS friend was so impressed she went out and bought one too!” Until then he was convinced he could not tolerate a tent. I had recommended the Northface backpacking tent with all mesh uncoated walls (the Flint).

This is very encouraging—and yet, I also heard from EI’s saying they could not find a safe tent, that they had tents they had tried to offgas for years and could not tolerate a tent and that was that. They were either staying in unsafe housing and remaining very sick, or sleeping in their vehicles. This is not always such a good idea. The possibility of contamination or mold is higher, if you sleep in your vehicle. You are going to have to maintain complete purity of your clothes, make sure to keep windows open with mosquito netting or your moisture and body heat could possibly get high enough to create mold in the ventilation system. A tent can be cleaned with soap and water. A vehicle is not so easy to clean, it’s a big job, but if you’re living in your vehicle some folks recommend at least a monthly thorough cleaning. You can’t use a space heater in a car but a very low watt infrared heater can be used with care in a tent. There are all kinds of issues with sleeping in a vehicle, especially if it’s parked in the wilderness, including critters wanting to sleep in there too… and a vehicle also generally has more toxic chemicals than a good tent anyway.

Safe Sleeping

Northface tent with mesh walls, or Mystical on a Wenzel pad, or bake and air out the Wenzel tent.

I want to report that Kristin used Mystical (a product that many people with Environmental Illness like, but we have no idea what is in it in terms of MSDS, so I’ve never used it) and soaked her Wenzel tent and it was fume-free after that.

Northface

Here’s the NorthfaceI have. It sets up in about two minutes literally.

I should note the rainfly may bother some, and might need to be baked out, but it’s pretty good as rainflies go. Obviously if you’re just going to sleep in the mesh the weather needs to be decent—with a good sleeping bag you could probably go down to the 40’s at night comfortably. Otherwise you are going to have to use a rainfly so you can keep in warmth.

If a rainfly really bothers you until it’s well baked out, or you want to sleep with the mesh in good weather but it rains occasionally, set up an a-line version of the silnylon tarp I mentioned in the last post. These tarps cost about $80, made by Equinox. Once again, nylon in general is a pretty good material as it doesn’t fume much. To set up an a-line tarp, you will need to string a nylon line between two trees, hang the tarp over it, and fasten the tarp. Here is one typical Youtube tutorial:

For those who don’t want to spend the money on a silynylon tarp, which scrunches up small when traveling, a walmart tarp does just as well, you just need to air it out first for a while.

There are other northface mesh tents as well. Big Agnes makes several too but I found them much more smelly than Northface. Even REI’s quarter and half dome are smellier though they are very nice tents (these are mesh tents).

Safe Potty

Folding toilet

Some EI’s said, “Well I can’t go camping because I can’t use campground bathrooms. I would get sick and be incapacitated.”

You don’t have to use campground bathrooms.

When a bathroom is stinky, I use an inert, hard plastic folding loo that folds up small, unfolds easily, and carries up to a 300 pound person. Reliance Products Fold-To-Go Collapsible Portable Toilet. I use it because it folds up small. If you are just going to use it quickly in your tent (with the rainfly on, or if you are in a private area), then I find that two regular black hefty garbage bags work fine. I use two just in case. Then tie them and dump them in the dump or garbage.

If you are going to use it longer, for instance setting up a privacy shelter and using the loo over a few days, you can also buy Cleanwaste WAG BAG Waste Bags – Package of 12.

Each degradable kit contains a WAG BAG waste bag, zip-close storage bag, toilet paper and hand wipe Disposal bags contain Poo Powder™ which quickly turns waste into a stable gel for easy transport and safe disposal Uses odor neutralizers, not perfumes, to eliminate unpleasant odors; decay catalyst initiates decomposition Environmentally friendly, landfill-approved WAG BAG waste bags can be disposed of in trash with regular garbage. Permitted by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for use.

There are other portable toilets as well, such as a bucket, or if you can’t tolerate plastic, Texspro makes a folding steel loo. Another option is Store-A-Potty 72-Hour Emergency Toilet which when not being used as a toilet can be used as a bucket to wash clothes, or to store stuff in.

Privacy Shelter

Privy

There are all kinds of privacy shelters for your portable toilet. I wanted one that folded up really small. There is a cheap one on Amazon. I got a more expensive one that has pockets in which you can put sandbags or bricks, to hold it down if it’s a windy day. This is what I got: Outback Porta Privy. It folds up very small into a flat round case. It doesn’t smell horrible, it isn’t perfect either, may need some baking and airing if you’re super sensitive, then again, you’re only going to be in it for a short time. On the other hand, it is just polyester or nylon, not vinyl, so it isn’t really smelly.

Showers and Safe Washing

So, now you have a place to sleep and a toilet. What about staying clean?

One person also said they couldn’t use regular campground water because of chlorine (some are chlorinated, some are not, depending.) I prefer a filtered shower, but can handle regular water. Again your level of sensitivity will predict your needs.

Another person said spot bathing with a gallon of water in a bucket was her preferred method but she found it so exhausting she could not do it very often.

So here is my recommendation for the water sensitive—buy some filtered water (if you refill a gallon jug at Walmart or at other supermarkets, it’s about 35-37 cents a gallon. If you’re super sensitive to plastic and can’t possibly have water that was in plastic at all, then get yourself some glass jugs), and take a shower every few days, or filter water from your campsite if you have water and or water and electric. Two gallons is enough to take a nice shower the way I am going to explain it. A shower every few days, and a sponge bath the other days should be enough to keep you clean. Especially if you are sleeping in a tent, not your vehicle.

MSR Miniworks

For backup, or if you can’t get to Walmart or the supermarket to get the refill machine super purified, ozonated, reverse osmosis water (it’s good quality water), then get an MSR Filter, made by Cascade Designs, praised by campers everywhere. “MiniWorks EX microfilter is the worldwide best-selling microfilter, delivering long-lasting, field-maintainable water filtration in demanding environments. Engineered for frequent and heavy use, it utilizes our workhorse Marathon™ EX carbon/ceramic element to ensure clean, reliable and taste-free water.”

Okay, now you’ve got water. How do you take a shower?

Dromedary

Get a 10 liter MSR Dromedary bag. That’s 2 ½ gallons, and it’s black nylon with a food grade coating inside. You might not want to store water for days, but you will probably be able to tolerate a shower after the water has been in there a few hours. That is, if you want a hot shower. Because you just set it out in the sun, and since it’s black, the water will warm up quickly. In fact, water can get so hot as to burn you if you leave it out too long, so test the water before your shower. This bag is very tolerable right out of the box. It is so resilient it will last decades, supposedly. It also folds up small when not in use.

You will get the shower attachment as well. Any online place (campor, REI and other outlets) sells this dromedary bag in various sizes and the shower attachment as well. It can also be used to pour water in to do your dishes, other washing, or you can also get a smaller one as a hot water bottle. You’ll need to hang the bag from a tree, or a hook, or hold it up in your privacy shelter while sitting on your portable loo bucket inside, or a chair or stool.

So. You have a safe tent, safe shower, safe toilet, and safe water.

A final note: Safe Laundry

I do have a portable wonder washer and a portable countertop spin dryer. But over time I’ve just taken to simmering clothes in a large enamel Le Creuset pot (I don’t like stainless steel at all. It just isn’t high quality enough not to leach the metals into the water, and I can’t stand it). The pot is also useful for boiling new clothes that need to be detoxxed. A five minute simmer to clean clothes, then dump the water, and put in fresh clean water, with fresh lemon juice. That’s all I use.

If stuff is really dirty, then I will handwash with some Biokleen detergent (unscented). Generally, though, detergents tend to stay in clothes so I only do that every few weeks. If clothes get really grotty (one person said, her clothes got grotty living outside and made her look like a disenfranchised homeless person) I detox new clothes. I have a bunch of Maggie’s Organics tops, shorts, and cotton pants, and American Apparel sweats and hoodies as these detox pretty easily. If something gets really gross, I take a few sunny days when I have time, and detox a few new outfits. It does take time, but not that much “effort”—and then I just use a nylon laundry line that costs $2.99 at walmart, hang between trees, and sun dry. Nothing smells as good as clothes simmered in good water, with a lemon juice rinse, and sun dried. Once you have clothes that smell so good you like to bury your nose in them, you won’t really want to use detergents and washers.

Safe Energy

I will do another post later on energy. If you are off grid, you need solar. I have been advised about a folding solar panel and a nontoxic marine battery, but haven’t bought or tried them yet, so will advise later on. Generators are generally too smelly (gasoline) for people with Environmental Illness. And going off grid will allow you to get to really good, healing wilderness with very low EMF. Even those of us who do not consciously think we are EMF, will find it amazing how kinks melt out of the body and how deeply relaxed you may feel in low EMF wilderness. Then you will realize there is a low-level EMF reaction going on constantly, stimulating and overstimulating you in ways you had never suspected. What happens is the body gets used to it, and filters it out as “noise”—not useful information. But it affects us all nonetheless.

Moving to my new home, part four

Posted by Contributor

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.

Letter: Realtors contribute to environmental illness

Posted by Guest Blogger

Jul 282011

Realtors who encourage sellers to do cheap renovations are contributing to a multitude of illnesses and unhealthy living conditions inside a “home.”

Letter to the Editor by Molly Brown.

As someone who suffers from chemical sensitivities, I am enraged at what is happening here in Vancouver, BC, Canada, in the overpriced housing market. It’s what I call “the cheap plastic condo.” This is the only affordable housing here as house prices start at $700,000 in the Greater Vancouver Regional District. (Otherwise you are looking at a 2-hour plus commute in traffic).

Unfortunately, before condos even go on the market, realtors advise sellers to put in cheap flooring, cheap bathrooms, and cheap kitchens. Then, they douse the condo in cheap air freshener prior to any open house.

The asking price per typical condo? $350,000 plus. And not even real wood floors. Vinyl siding, laminate flooring, pressboard kitchens, cheap smelly appliances, vinyl tiles, open gas fireplace. I think that if I were to test some of these new apartments, the formaldehyde content would probably be as high as FEMA trailers! Sadly, I think that realtors are especially responsible, since they are the ones telling sellers to do these cheap renovations.

The Canadian Real Estate Association has yet to respond to my emails sent to them regarding this. Realtors need to be aware that what they are doing is contributing to what causes a multitude of illnesses and unhealthy living conditions inside a “home.”

Please, realtors, stop the “cheap plastic condo” – I just need a place to live!

Molly Brown
Vancouver, BC, Canada

Woman with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity describes the difficulty finding safe housing

Posted by Susie

Jul 112011

“Knowing you have a right to accessibility is very different from being able to get that accessibility, especially when you are dependent on people’s good will and you have no guarantee that the future will not bring new chemical injuries.” –Client of the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation, Canada

The Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation reports on a client trying to find environmentally safe housing. CERA is a not-for-profit in Canada (offices in Toronto and Ottawa) established to ensure that human rights protections in housing are effective for low income households and to address systemic barriers to accessing affordable accommodation.

These are the experiences of one of our clients, Jane, who lives with environmental sensitivities and has been struggling to find safe housing.

I had no idea that when I started experiencing increasing migraines, sudden weight gain, rashes, coughing, IBS, difficulty concentrating, irritability, and other symptoms at work, that I was developing MCS/ES. Very small amounts of chemicals found in fabric softener, air freshener, perfume, scented personal care products, detergents, pesticides and more, were toxic to my body — chemically injuring the organs of my body. At first, I would be fine when I returned home, but over many months, the exposures to chemicals caused chronic MCS/ES and my home was no longer safe. I needed, what is known in human rights as “a scent-free/chemical avoidance” environment. And so I began the search for safe housing.

My first attempt was completely unsuccessful, mainly because it takes a great deal of research to know what is safe and what is not safe. I can tell you now that living near ‘brownfield’ remediation is not safe, living near a major street or highway is not safe; neighbours using fabric softener, detergents like Tide or Gain and venting these chemicals out of hot dryers; pesticide use in the neighbourhood, industry, rail lines and gas stations nearby; and the list goes on. Also, the house, itself, was not safe. Air freshener residue is very hard, if not impossible, to remove; products such as laminate and carpets ‘off-gas’; mold can make life impossible; and, again, the list goes on.

Read full report.

Thanks, Linda!

Video: How to make natural non-stick coating in your cookware

Posted by Susie

Jul 092011

Annie Lipscomb, who has made giant strides in reclaiming her health since developing a serious case of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity in 1993, takes you to one of Paris’s most famous kitchen stores and shows you the pan she bought there and how she created a natural non-stick lining in it.

Annie Lipscomb

I enjoy Annie Lipscomb’s videos. Annie is a former public relations manager who developed Multiple Chemical Sensitivity in 1993. She became one of only a handful of people in the state of Washington to receive workers’ compensation for illness related to sick-building syndrome. She discovered her path to healing when she moved to Paris, and during the grueling process during which she almost died from complications, she wrote a book and made a short film about her experience called Poisoned By Pollution.

She’s now doing a video series called The Dare to Dream Series by Annie. In the video above, she talks about making her own non-stick cookware.

I love anything that helps me cut down on time spent cleaning. So it came as a refreshing surprise, when I started living part-time in Paris and found that the non-stick cookware in rental apartments was weakening my health, that the solution to the problem was not only easier on my health, but saved on clean-up time as well. In this video, I’ll take you to one of Paris’ most famous kitchen stores, which was established in 1820, and show you the pan I bought there, and how I created a natural-non-stick lining in it. The beauty of the whole affair is that whereas non-stick cookware doesn’t tend to work as well if it’s not cleaned thoroughly, my natural-non-stick pans don’t perform as well if they’re cleaned too thoroughly! For me, this makes for a match made in heaven.

It is not easy to live life while coping with a chronic illness and overcoming powerlessness. I hope my story of overcoming adversity will help you to triumph over your own adversity and overcome any obstacle that may show up in your own path. Please feel free to visit my website and watch my movie there. It is a short documentary about living with mcs [Multiple Chemical Sensitivity]. Then read my book. It will give you a new perspective on what is possible in the face of adversity. I hope that my story may be of help to you.

About my book, Poisoned By Pollution….

I write to you from the perspective of illness. Sickness imposes limitations. They alter but they need not define me. My perspective, as a result, is a hopeful and enlarged one. It is a story of overcoming adversity.

For a long time I used to go to bed feeling as if I lived in a prison. My chemical illness had closed off my world. This illness no longer writes my life. I have become my own author. The story of how this came to be is one I want to share. This book is not just a re-telling of my illness. It is also the story of how I came to be this new person, with a newly expanded expression of my soul, and then, a writer of my life.

Writing my book (Poisoned by Pollution) while sick was a challenge. I’ve spent too many days and too many years lying in bed feeling like poisons were coursing through me. For years, I could not even read or write without growing dizzy and nauseated. Sometimes I would talk into a tape recorder instead. Or I would write a few sentences, then close my eyes until the dizziness and nausea subsided before continuing on. At one point I almost died when my digestive troubles worsened so much that I couldn’t hold down food or water, which led to my body being in a starvation state with my organ systems shutting down. The road to my book has been long indeed. I hope through this video and my book, and more to come, that I may help you on your path of discovery and reclaiming your life.

AnneLipscomb.com

What happens when a builder tries to explain MCS?

Posted by Susie

Jun 242011

Martin Holladay, a former plumbing wholesaler, now senior editor at GreenBuildingAdvisor.com and a builder by trade, writes an article this week entitled Helping People with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity where he takes a stab at defining MCS.

Martin Holladay

Black and Temple explain that in 1996, attendees at a World Health Organization conference in Berlin proposed that the term “idiopathic environmental intolerance” (IEI) be substituted for the collection of symptoms formerly referred to as “multiple chemical sensitivity.” (“Idiopathic” means “of unknown cause.”) Black and Temple note that idiopathic environmental intolerance “is a subjective illness marked by recurrent, nonspecific symptoms attributed to low levels of chemical, biologic, or physical agents. These symptoms occur in the absence of consistent objective diagnostic physical findings or laboratory tests that define an illness. Many experiments and observational studies consistently identify psychopathology in patients with IEI, and implicate behavioral or psychiatric causes for this illness. This indicates that the underlying illness in many cases of IEI is actually a psychiatric disorder, such as a somatoform, depressive, or anxiety disorder.”

I find myself wondering why on Earth is a builder writing an article about the medical aspects of MCS? He was doomed to miss the hundreds of current studies supporting a physiological basis for chemical sensitivity. This document lists over 100 citations for peer-reviewed journal articles that support a physiological basis for MCS, and the 11-year review of the MCS literature by biochemist Martin Pall showing a physiological mechanism for the illness is now published in the prestigious international manual for toxicologists General and Applied Toxicology, 3rd Edition. By the way, Martin Pall does a great job destroying the “psychopathology” argument in this post.

While I appreciate Mr Holladay’s interest in the use of nontoxic building materials in homes for people with MCS, he ought to stick with his own area of expertise and leave the medical analysis on MCS to those who keep up with the current research. His article does more far more harm than good to the MCS community.