The Canary Report

Jacki and John are married!

Posted on Feb 14, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living, Susie Collins

Jacki reports she and John married yesterday in the midst of a snow-covered forest! Their dear friend Coleen officiated.

The ceremony

Exciting news from Jacki!

Coleen did a great job making it very special and full of love. Thank you to all my friends that wrote a email for her to read during the wedding. You were all there in love and words. THANK YOU for making John & my day so special…

LOVE,
j & j

Videos to follow soon! Read more about Jacki and John’s story of love here.

Congratulations, Jacki and John! The Canary Report community wishes you both all the happiness in the world in your new life as husband and canary! xoxo

~~~

02/17/10 UPDATE: Video now posted here.

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Tags: Healthy Living, Support

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity housing survey

Posted on Jan 21, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living, MCS, Products, Susie Collins

Home renovation expert launches survey to discover the housing needs of people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Please take a moment to participate!

James Van Raden, doing home renovation services under the name Paragon Renovations in North Dakota and Minnesota is starting a new “energy efficient affordable housing” business called Building Impressions. He’s expressed interest in including safe homes for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity as part of his services. To that end, he’s currently conducting an exploratory survey to discover the needs of people with MCS.

James is a member of our Canary Report social network and I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with him. I think he’s genuinely interested in exploring the housing needs of people with chemical sensitivity and sees as his goal the creation of safe housing for people with MCS. I hope you’ll join me in supporting his efforts.

Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey so James has the information he needs to develop this aspect of his business.

Hello Everyone!

The housing study is ready and can be accessed by visiting

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB22A53MHW7T7

Thanks everyone for your willingness to participate and the survey is limited to 100 responses and I hope that there are many more that wish to take the survey than that!

If there is more interest in participating than 100 I will create another study so PLEASE visit the study page and answer as many questions as you are willing.

Also, for those NOT afflicted with MCS please leave the study for those that are and I appreciate your cooperation and understanding.

Warmest regards,

James Van Raden

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Tags: Environmental Health, Home, Housing, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Products, Support

Love in a blue moon

Posted on Dec 28, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Guest Bloggers, Healthy Living, MCS

On Thursday, I will wed under the full blue moon.

Post by guest blogger Jacki.

Here is our story:

At around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 31, JB and I will be married by my friend Coleen, an organic non fu fu great lady friend. She got her license to perform weddings in March of this year just for me, knowing I could not go into a public building or church setting. She is so excited that she will now be able to use her license.

My sister Laurie will be my witness. She is just starting to learn to be fu fu free. She loves using vinegar and baking soda on her clothes and Dr Bronners on her skin, and coconut oil on her food and body. She has come a long way, baby. Out of three sisters, she is the only one that has “made adjustments to her life” to accommodate my Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and to live a healthier lifestyle herself. She loves the change.

Laurie is now noticing dryer sheets in the neighborhoods, and automatic air fresheners in public restrooms. It is cute ‘cause now she calls me “complaining” about toxic items people use. It makes me feel so much more connected with her. I am so lucky after 10 years she finally “gets it.” Now if only the other two sisters would.

Today, JB and I went to the city to get our marriage license. JB did all the work, went into the public building, 6th floor, and filled out all the paper work. I’d called and begged the licensing officials to let me sign the papers outside due to my MCS, but they didn’t seem very cooperative so I brought my big respirator mask with me.

Sitting in the car waiting for JB to call me up to the 6th floor, I was so pleasantly surprised to see him walking a woman out to the car, in a blizzard snow storm! She was kind enough and compassionate enough to come outside in the blizzard to let me sign all the paper work outside. I was willing to meet her at the door but she said the building is full of scented air fresheners and sanitizers.

She recognized my name and remembered me from the old neighborhood where she lived two doors down from my sister. She said she wanted to help me out and not get me ill, so she came out with JB in a blizzard and let me sign all the papers from the safety of our car. I had tears of joy and gratitude streaming down my face to think she was so compassionate to let me sign my marriage papers from my car instead of the 6th floor of a toxic public building… wow. There is such a thing as compassion and kindness left in this world, and JB and I witnessed it today.

So on Dec 31st, at around 7:30 p.m., at the very spot where we met, JB and I will wed under the full blue moon. Snow, rain, sleet, clouds, or a clear night, we will be in the woods in the fresh air, with the heavens above and the wild creatures as our witnesses. But mostly we will be in love’s light and God’s light to start the new year, the new decade, 2010, as one in unity
as Mr. and Mrs.

Fifty-two years old and I am a blushing bride-to-be, amazing.

This is the lesson:

To write your own happy story even when all the odds are against you and all the challenges seem too big to take.

To take a deep breath and believe that all things happen for a reason to learn, to grow, to become better and more spiritual and more simple and more LOVE.

To re-write your story to have a HAPPY ending.

To remember it is your story and you are the creature of the illusion; some things we cannot change, but we can always change our attitude and our eyes about how we see things.

To make sure your glass is always half full, and the sky mostly sunny.

And to be grateful for every breath on this earth, no matter what.

Love,
jj

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Tags: Healthy Living, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Support

Film review: Chemerical

Posted on Dec 26, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living, Linda Sepp, Media/Videos

Review by Linda Sepp.

I would give a copy of this film to everyone if I could afford it.

I received a copy of the new documentary film Chemerical and wanted to share a few thoughts with you about it. The film shows how a family detoxifies and survives to tell the tale, AND not only that, they save money by cooking up some of their own products.

This is a really good film for people who haven’t thought about how they are poisoning themselves and just buy chemicals off the shelf for their kitchen, bathroom, cleaning and personal care use, either because they don’t believe there is a problem or they think buying healthy products is too inconvenient.

The film isn’t heavy, even though the subject is, and encourages the viewer to make changes instead of just hitting you on the head.

I would have made a few more points, including some info on neuro-toxins and endocrine disruptors, as well as hammered in that air “fresheners” are poison instead of just not fresheners. The microbiologist made a comment about air fresheners, which showed he wasn’t a chemist. That should have been edited, but his other stuff was good. They didn’t mention that essential oils have to be USDA certified organic to be safe, and that EO need to be used carefully as they can be sensitizers even if organic. I might also have mentioned that not all soap is created equal, but that might be in the documentation that can be downloaded if you join the Chemerical Community from their website. (All the site’s pages might not be up and running quite yet.)

The film has a segment with a woman with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, and Dr. Lynn Marshall from the Environmental Health Institute in Ontario. Stacy Malkan is also there for a bit, as is Dr. Rick Smith from Environmental Defence. They mention the Environmental Working Group’s cosmetics safety database, too. And a few other experts, like one who tests their indoor air quality before and after they embark on detoxifying their lives from unnecessary chemical use.

I would give a copy of this film to everyone if I could afford it.

In Sweden a number of years ago, Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, a Swedish doctor and cancer scientist, wanted to create a consensus among governments, business people and environmentalists as to what must at least be agreed to safe guard prosperous life.

“With the support of His Majesty the King of Sweden, Karl XVI Gustaf, this ‘consensus document’ and accompanying audio tape was sent to every household and school in Sweden.”

This eventually went on to become The Natural Step.

If only we had a King Gustaf who would help deliver films like Chemerical, we would soon have a safer world for all living beings.

Link to purchase Chemerical.

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Tags: Chemicals, Children's Health, Environmental Health, Health, Home, Indoor Pollution, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Personal Care, Products, Sick Building, Video

Surviving the holidays: Guidelines for visiting people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Posted on Dec 24, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living, MCS, Susie Collins

Your home may be your only safe haven from chemical exposures. Here are some guidelines to give family and friends before they visit over the holidays.

The holidays are strewn with toxic chemical landmines for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Some of our biggest problems can be brought to us by visitors who truly love us– family and friends– but who do not understand MCS or why we are put on the defensive during holiday visits. They don’t understand why we just don’t get over ourselves, welcome them with open arms and big hugs, and join the merriment. Meanwhile, we are overwhelmed with perfumes, freshly dyed and coiffed hairdos, laundry products and dryer sheet residues on people’s clothing, holiday potpourris, scented candles, food that can make us sick, new products brought as gifts that knock us on our butts, and tons more toxic products.

The Allergy, Sensitivity, and Environmental Health Association of Australia has some excellent information to educate family, friends and other people on what may be needed in order to visit people who have MCS. Individuals will vary as to what is acceptable or not, but ASEHA’s “Guidelines for visiting a person with MCS” gives a good starting point on the types of things that need to be considered.

It has in many cases taken years for someone with MCS to clear their homes of products that contain chemicals that adversely affect their health. This is no mean feat, try maintaining a home without being able to use commercially available paints, wallpapers, cleaning products, insulating products etc. Even after years of dealing with the challenges there are difficulties. The home of a person with MCS may be their only SAFE HAVEN from chemical exposures. Please respect this space; it has often taken a long time to make it happen.

If your visit brings with it a number of chemical contaminants, the person may:

* Become total disabled,
* Suffer an asthma attack that is difficult to resolve as the person cannot use medications normally used to treat attacks,
* Have a major life threatening reaction (anaphylaxis)
* Experience a permanent deterioration in their health, a greater degree of sensitivity to chemicals, and probably to an even larger range of products and chemicals.
* Be afflicted by pain, disorientation, discomfort, migraine etc.

If you have any questions about chemical sensitivity and the needs of the person you are planning to visit please ask – BEFORE YOU VISIT.

Link to full copy of the Guidelines.

Thanks, Linda!

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Tags: Chemicals, Environmental Health, Home, Indoor Pollution, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Products, Toxic

A search for safe housing

Posted on Apr 25, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Guest Bloggers, Healthy Living

How I found my Eden.

Post by guest blogger Bonita Poulin.

I became disabled by Multiple Chemical Sensitivities in the fall of 1999 after working for 10 years in a laundry products factory. A few years later, my husband also became disabled by severe asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from working in the barns of a huge chicken factory-farm. We were living on a 25-acre hobby farm in a valley surrounded by farmland and I’m sure the pesticide run off was probably contaminating our well.

I loved that hobby farm! I had realized my dream there of owning horses and had even raised and trained my own horse from a colt.

Since the house was very small, we planned on putting on an addition and fixing it up.

After having problems getting contractors to come out to give quotes, I realized that perhaps it was for the best. The air quality in the area was terrible. We lived about five miles outside of a factory town and the biggest polluter was the factory where I used to work. Whenever the wind would blow from the east, all we could smell was the perfume from the laundry detergent and fabric softener sheets and I would be sick for hours or days a time. Living in the valley made things worse because the wood smoke and other pollution would hang in the air. Our neighbors all burned their garbage, too, which greatly added to our discomfort. Most of the time we could not even be outside to enjoy our own property.

By now my husband could not walk 10 feet without having an asthma attack. I came to realize that if we stayed here, the pollution would kill us! We had to move to a safer area.

[...]

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Tags: Healthy Living, Home, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Safe Housing, Support

Some tips on Housecleaning 101

Posted on Apr 24, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living

Know what freshness smells like. It’s not “vanilla passion,” or “new car.” It should smell like nothing.

HealthZone.ca reports on some excellent ways to detoxify your house fast.

Clean the toxic dump, a.k.a. your garage, chemicals lingering on those shelves [like old cans of paint at left]. Just don’t throw them in the trash: find the closest Household Hazardous Waste depot.

Leave the bleach behind.

Open the windows.

Leave your shoes at the door.

Enact your own area-wide second-hand smoking ban.

Move away from the printer.

If dry-cleaning is optional, hand wash those items.

[Buy some] green tea and olive oil.

Link to full article.

Thanks, Linda!

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Tags: Air, Chemicals, Children's Health, Environment, Environmental Health, Healthy Living, Home, Indoor Pollution, Toxic

Ottawa’s first safe housing project secures funding

Posted on Apr 22, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living

Innovative Ottawa housing development is designed to meet the needs of individuals who suffer from allergies, asthma, and environmental sensitivities.

Safe Housing Ottawa Inc. announces Action Ottawa has approved funding for the proposed environmentally safe housing plan to be built in the city of Ottawa’s west end.

[...]

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Tags: Environmental Health, Healthy Living, Home, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Support

Eco-friendly paints gaining in popularity

Posted on Apr 18, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living, Products, Susie Collins

The non-toxic arm of the household paint world is booming, and many companies have entered the market.

Your Home reports nontoxic paints are gaining in popularity.

This story was sent to me by several people! I’m excited myself because it means it will much easier for me to find NO VOC paint for my next renovation project! Woohoo!

Spring often brings the urge to clean, perhaps to liven up a room with a fresh coat of paint. Now that can be done with eco-friendly paints that don’t give off noxious odours.

The non-toxic arm of the household paint world is booming, and many companies have entered the market.

AFM’s Safecoat brand is the granddaddy of the non-toxic paint business, having been in the market for 25 years. Boutique brands, including Mythic and YOLO Colorhouse, have cropped up in recent years, and industry giants tout their own non-toxic, latex brands.

Sherwin Williams has its Harmony line, while Home Depot sells Freshaire Choice. Benjamin Moore already sells its low-toxic Aura but is rolling out a new, zero-VOC interior paint called Natura that it says will be available in all of its nearly 3,000 colours.

“Everyone is trying to paint a green face on themselves,” said David Johnston, 58, of Boulder, Colo., a building consultant who wrote Green from the Ground Up: Sustainable, Healthy and Energy-Efficient Home Construction (Taunton, 2008).

“That ‘new house smell,’ as much as we’ve come to love it, is really a flag that there’s something in the air that we don’t want our kids to breathe,” said Johnston.

Please go read the whole story at Your Home.

Thanks, Linda, Bonita and others!

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Tags: Air, Children's Health, Healthy Living, Home, Indoor Pollution, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Nontoxic, Products

Chemical-free housing to be built in Ottawa

Posted on Apr 10, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living

Safe Housing Ottawa Inc. announces Action Ottawa has approved funding for the proposed environmentally safe housing plan to be built in the city of Ottawa’s west end.

chemicalfreehousing.ca reports:

[...]

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Tags: Children's Health, Environmental Health, Healthy Living, Housing, Indoor Pollution, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Nontoxic, Products, Sick Building, Support

Go natural for coloring Easter eggs

Posted on Apr 06, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living

With more people going green, natural egg dyes are making a comeback.

The Chattanooga Times reports natural ingredients gain favor for coloring Easter eggs.

Now, folks across the country are boiling cabbage, beets, blueberries and turmeric to create a range of colors and effects.

Some turn to natural dyes because they’re feeling crafty.

Sherry Johnson, co-owner of SheerLark Farm in Flat Rock, Ala., said natural dyes have become more popular in crafts. She uses them to dye her homegrown heritage wool for fiber art, for example.

She has explored natural egg dyes, she added, copying information from Web sites and trying out a few recipes when her children were young.

You can safely try beets, red and yellow onion skins, liquid chlorophyll, cabbage, coffee, green tea and chamomile, she said.

Link to full story

Photo by Cobalt: These eggs are naturally colored, by the breed of the chickens my friend raises on her ranch near Casa Grande, Arizona. Starlene says that one of her hens always produces the green ones. The breed is called “Araucana’, nicknamed the Easter Egg chicken, with more information in the linked wikipedia article. These are just too pretty to do any other decorating with. Hope my grand-daughters enjoy them Easter morning. And with this image, my Easter greetings to all of you, my friends.

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Tags: Children's Health, Food, Healthy Living, Home, Leisure

Green Mom’s Carnival: Spring Cleaning

Posted on Mar 13, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living, Products, Susie Collins

Twenty-one green mommie bloggers write about their green cleaning tips.

Tiny Choices reports on Green Mom’s Carnival: Spring Cleaning.

Twenty-one green mommie bloggers wrote posts this week on their green cleaning tips. You’ll find links to tons nontoxic cleaning methods, cleanser recipes, info on how to reduce and recycle toxic substances, and lots of ideas for kitchen and bathroom cleaning.

Not all the recipes and techniques are suitable for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, so pick and choose things to try with caution. Green cleaning often includes many essential oils to which sensitized people cannot be exposed (I cannot be around any mint oils, eucalyptus, tea tree oil, pine, and other essential oils often used in green cleaning). But you’ll also find a lot of great ideas and solutions to cleaning without toxic chemicals.

Though the bloggers are united on the subject of green cleaning, their takes on the matter vary wildly– and make for fascinating and insightful reading. Thusly we present to you (in the order of submissions received) the collective works.

Link

By the way, my favorite all-round nontoxic cleaning solution is pictured above:

2 gallons hot water
1/4 cup borax
1/4 cup vinegar
A squirt of Bronner’s liquid lavender soap (you can sub your favorite liquid soap)

I use it for everything: counter tops, floors, tub, toilet, walls, garbage pails, kitty litter pan, porch floor, mudroom, muddy shoes, everything. It rinses off very easily. You’ll be amazed at what that solution can clean!

If you think even that solution is too much for you, the most basic ingredients for natural, nontoxic cleaning are vinegar, baking soda, and lemon. Period.

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Tags: Air, Chemical, Children's Health, Healthy Living, Home, Indoor Pollution, Nontoxic

Study shows plants absorb toxic gas

Posted on Mar 08, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living

Researchers discover Ficus benjamina and Fatsia japonica remove formaldehyde gas released from synthetic woods used in furniture.

The Jerusalem Post reports.

MDF, a synthetic wood from which inexpensive furniture is made, releases formaldehyde gas and is forbidden for use in children’s furniture, as toddlers may nibble on it or breathe in the gas. But now, researchers in South Korea have identified two plants that can remove most of MDF’s formaldehyde from the air within four hours.

According to UPI, Kwang Jin Kim of Seoul’s National Horticultural Research Institute says formaldehyde is also contained in new building materials as well as carpeting, curtains, plywood and adhesives. As the gas is emitted from these sources, it causes poor air quality, which can lead to “multiple chemical sensitivity” and “sick-building syndrome.”

The researchers used the Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina) and Fatsia japonica, an evergreen shrub, in three configurations (whole, roots-only with the leafy portion cut off, and stem and leaves exposed with below-ground portion sealed off). Equal amounts of formaldehyde were pumped into containers holding each type of plant.

The study, published in the Journal of American Society for Horticultural Science, found complete plants removed about 80 percent of the formaldehyde within four hours. Control chambers pumped with the same amount of formaldehyde, but not containing any plants, decreased by 7.3 % during the day and 6.9% overnight within five hours. As the length of exposure increased, the amount of absorption decreased, which appeared to be due to the reduced concentration of the gas.

Link

Link to the EPA web page on the dangers of formaldehyde and other sources of indoor air pollution.

Photo of Ficus benjamina by tarjeplanta

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Tags: Air, Asthma, Chemicals, Children's Health, Garden, Health, Healthy Living, Home, Indoor Pollution, Sick Buildings, Toxic

Canary Candy: Organic personal care products, vodka, and seeds

Posted on Mar 07, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living, Products

The Organic Consumers Association has drawn up a list of body care companies with one or more products meeting USDA Organic Standards. The lists notes Organic Essence as one of the few companies where the entire product line is USDA Certified Organic (with biodegradable packaging!).

The Organic Consumers Association also reports President Barack Obama has chosen Kathleen Merrigan, a professor who worked on the original organic labeling rules under the Clinton Administration, as the No. 2 at the US Department of Agriculture. OCA says progressive and sustainable agriculture advocates are so far delighted with the selection.

Citizen Times reports two women in Asheville, North Carolina, who used to work at a beauty salon using toxic products, open up a wellness salon where they promote and use only all-natural and organic products for hair, skin and nails.

Mike Binder at Green Home Guide has some tips on buying a nontoxic lingerie chest, including info on particleboard, MDF, and veneer, and the volatile organic compound (VOC) content of various finishes.

Blue Ice launches an organic wheat vodka this week. It’s kosher, USDA Certified Organic, and blends pure Idaho water and locally harvested winter wheat to create a crisp, lightly spicy vodka. The wheat is harvested without pesticides or fertilizer, and Master Distiller Bill Scott uses a “proprietary certified organic fermentation process that uses no chemical additives of any kind,” according to the company’s info.

Thinking about growing your own veggies this spring? Park Seed offers USDA Certified Organic seed.

Thanks, Linda, for contributions to this post!

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Tags: Chemicals, Environmental Illness, Garden, Healthy Living, Home, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Nontoxic, Organic, Personal Care

Congress hears testimony on benefits of intergrated medicine

Posted on Feb 26, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Healthy Living

Four integrative medicine physicians testified before Congress today on the benefits of simple, effective, low-cost lifestyle changes such as improved diet, low-impact exercise, and stress reduction.

All four physicians on the panel emphatically offered their services to help re-craft federal policymaking along integrative medicine principles.

Dr. [Andrew] Weil (at left), Director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz., was one of four prominent American physicians summoned to give their views at a hearing titled “Integrative Care: A Pathway to a Healthier Nation” before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Also on the panel were Mehmet Oz, M.D., Director, Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY;  Mark Hyman, M.D., Founder and Medical Director, The UltraWellness Center, Lenox, Mass.; and Dean Ornish, M.D., Founder and President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Sausalito, Calif.

In oral and written statements, Dr. Weil emphasized that integrative medicine “must be a key part of American health care reform.”

Link to full report at drweil.com.

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Tags: Environmental Health, Health, Healthy Living, Policy