Tag Archives: Environmental Medicine
Documentary film: Allergic to the 21st Century
Posted on Oct 02, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Disability Rights, MCS, Media/Videos, Susie Collins
Videos: Documentary on Electromagnetic Sensitivity and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity made for United Kingdom’s Channel-4.
“Allergic to the 21st Century” is produced and directed by Anne-Claire Pilley and features Sarah Dacre (at left), Roger Moller and Adrian Gray.
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Environmental justice
Posted on May 04, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Media/Videos, Social Justice
Beautifully creative video about environmental justice.
An informative video with music creativity and startling facts about what is happening to our environment today. Made by a couple students as a creative way to express their feelings about the world.
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Research: Toxicant exposure and mental health
Posted on Apr 19, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Research
Toxicant Exposure and Mental Health—Individual, Social, and Public Health Considerations
Stephen J. Genuis
Clinical Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta, 2935-66 Street, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6K 4C1.KEYWORDS
forensic science • depression • environmental exposure • environmental medicine • mental status • mercury poisoning • neurotoxins • obsessive–compulsive • public health • toxicology
ABSTRACT
Thoughts and moods are the result of biological processes; disordered thoughts and moods may be the result of disordered biological processes. As brain dysfunction can manifest with emotional symptoms or behavioral signs, the etiology of some mental health afflictions and some abnormal conduct is pathophysiological rather than pathopsychological. Various studies confirm that some chemical toxicants which modify brain physiology have the potential to affect mood, cognitive function, and to provoke socially undesirable outcomes. With pervasive concern about myriad chemical agents in the environment and resultant toxicant bioaccumulation, human exposure assessment has become a clinically relevant area of medical investigation. Adverse exposure and toxicant body burden should routinely be explored as an etiological determinant in assorted health afflictions including disordered thinking, moods, and behavior. The impact of toxicant bioaccumulation in a patient with neuropsychiatric symptoms is presented for consideration as an example of the potential benefit of recognizing and implementing exposure assessment.
Thanks, Linda!
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Everything you ever wanted to know about toxic chemicals in the marketplace
Posted on Mar 07, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Law, Media/Videos, Products, Research
Interview with investigative journalist Mark Schapiro author of “Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power.“
Mark Schapiro discusses toxic chemicals in everyday products, the lack of regulation in the United States, and the European Union’s emergence as the driver of chemical regulation reform in the global marketplace. A must-see for every person with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (and everyone else as well).
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Environmental Medicine, the brain, and Martin Pall
Posted on Feb 02, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, MCS
Who’s chirping about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity?
Dr. Lisa Nagy has a fabulous website called What You Need to Know About Environmental Medicine.
Annie Hooper claims in the BC Local News that in manually creating neuroplastic changes in her brain, she effectively rewired around the chemically injured area, which successfully eliminated all symptoms of her Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and electrical sensitivities.
About.com reports on Martin Pall’s theories about chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS or ME/CFS) and fibromyalgia (FMS). Pall, a professor of microbiology at Washington State University, started looking into ME/CFS after he was diagnosed with it. The essence of his theory is that short-term stressors cause a build up of naturally occurring nitric oxide, which starts a vicious cycle and leads to long-term illness. He calls this the NO/ONOO cycle.
After you investigate the preceding link on Martin Pall’s work, take a look at the email he is currently circulating:
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The case for Environmental Medicine
Posted on Jan 31, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, MCS, Media/Videos
Dr. Lisa Nagy and Dr. William Rea present the case for Environmental Medicine on Nightline in 2008.
Patricia Ann Rattray at Planet Thrive wrote a well-researched, scathing critique of ABC Nightline’s March 20, 2008, report seen in the above video. See Rattray’s three-part series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Link to Nightline report. The comment section is interesting.
Dr. Lisa Nagy’s website is here: What You Need to Know About Environmental Medicine.
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New movie coming soon: Black Mold Exposure
Posted on Jan 19, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Media/Videos
The film follows Michael Roland Williams, filmmaker, and Karen Noseff, founder and designer of Fortune Denim, in their struggle to regain their livelihood and well-being after they were unknowingly exposed to high levels of various molds that had infested Karen’s apartment.
(To view trailer, go directly to Black Mold Exposure website.)
Toxic mold exposure is of great concern to the Multiple Chemical Sensitivity community because serious exposure will more than likely trigger full blown MCS. The problem of toxic mold in buildings is extremely serious because there are no federal guidelines about the presence of mold in buildings (including public and private), and most physicians are uneducated about the serious health effects of toxic mold exposure.
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Dear President-Elect Obama: Health care is a right
Posted on Dec 07, 2008 by Susie Collins in Blog, Policy, Susie Collins
Yesterday’s post on President-Elect Obama’s request for input on Health Care inspired many of you to write him about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Bravo! Like true canaries, you are out front sending your messages of warning and need.
I’d like to post the letters if you would like to share. If you’ve saved a copy, send to me via email to susie(at)thecanaryreport(dot)org.
Missy Gluckman (at left) wrote me this morning with a copy of her remarks. The Canary Report has been following Missy’s struggle with severe illness and MCS brought on by toxic mold exposure at her place of work. Here are Missy’s remarks to President-Elect Obama:
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Documentary on toxic threat to male reproduction system
Posted on Nov 24, 2008 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Media/Videos, Research, Susie Collins
I encourage you to watch this documentary, The Disappearing Male, about the toxic threat to the male reproductive system. Click on the green arrow and the link will take you to the site where you can view the vid.
“We are conducting a vast toxicological experiment in which our children and our children’s children are the experimental subjects.”
-Dr. Herbert Needleman
The Disappearing Male is about one of the most important, and least publicized, issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system.
The last few decades have seen steady and dramatic increases in the incidence of boys and young men suffering from genital deformities, low sperm count, sperm abnormalities and testicular cancer.
At the same time, boys are now far more at risk of suffering from ADHD, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, and dyslexia.
The Disappearing Male takes a close and disturbing look at what many doctors and researchers now suspect are responsible for many of these problems: a class of common chemicals that are ubiquitous in our world.
Found in everything from shampoo, sunglasses, meat and dairy products, carpet, cosmetics and baby bottles, they are called “hormone mimicking” or “endocrine disrupting” chemicals and they may be starting to damage the most basic building blocks of human development.
Thanks, Linda!
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Who’s chirping about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity today?
Posted on Oct 31, 2008 by Susie Collins in Blog, MCS
Glenda at Writing Stories About Real People, an eclectic blog chock full of interesting topics, writes about a tough week with her chemical sensitivity. In her post entitled “Indoor pollution is killing me!” she says:
This week, although I’ve gone as green as possible in my house, we are having a renovation done and after the plumber had come to put in the pipes for the washing machine, I had the worst attack I’ve had in many years. Turns out it was the glue used on the PVC piping. The harsh chemicals took my breath and I had to go outside to breath[e]. We closed off the new laundry room, placed an air filter machine in the living area but I had to retire to my little cubby hole of a room with my own air cleaner which runs day and night, close my door and hibernate.
The Windsor Star talks to Susan Jasper, vice-president of the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/ Fibromyalgia Society of Alberta (ME/FM), who has fibromyalgia.
Q: How are ME/CFS [Chronic Fatigue Syndrome], fibromyalgia and multiple chemical sensitivity related?
A: They are all distinct, but the reason we lump them together is we think they’re environmentally linked, in the sense that people are affected by their environments more than (with) other conditions. Usually ME/CFS is post-viral, while fibromyalgia is more commonly related to physical trauma, like a motor vehicle accident or a multiple head and neck trauma, and then the pain spreads. Multiple chemical sensitivity can start on its own, for example if you have a history of being in a sick building, where there’s little ventilation and chemicals from the office such as toner or paint. It starts as an exposure problem that generalizes.
MCS America posts an informational flyer on the Quick Environmental Exposure and Assessment Inventory, a standardized questionnaire developed by Dr. Claudia Miller that assists researchers and clinicians when evaluating patients for chemical sensitivity. It measures exposure levels and symptom severity and estimates the life impact of a chemical injury.
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Poverty and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
Posted on Oct 15, 2008 by Susie Collins in Blog, MCS, Susie Collins
Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty
Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters to post about the same issue on the same day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. Blog Action Day 08’s topic is POVERTY. Here is my contribution.
Coping with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is a challenge on every front in a person’s life. It impacts employment, housing, social activity, personal relationships, personal care, eating habits, exercise, recreation, and leisure. Health care becomes confusing and disorienting because medical doctors do not recognize MCS and therefore do not know how to help. To add insult to injury, some MDs believe MCS is psychosomatic, and either dismiss complaints or send the patient off to the shrink.
And when people with MCS are forced to seek out alternative health practitioners, it’s a crap shoot. While most practitioners– acupuncturists, nutritionists, dentists, and others– have good hearts and surely want to help, chances are pretty good that the patient will be led on a wild goose chase, and waste precious financial resources on alternative therapies and supplements, hoping for that magical cure.
But a cure for MCS is most likely going to be elusive. After all, MCS is not a disease or allergy, it’s a reaction to low level poisoning from toxic chemicals. So the more practical course of action might be for the sufferer to find safe housing and employment, stay away from toxic friends and family, dump toxic clothing and replace with natural fabrics, eat organic foods, buy a HEPA air filter and vacuum, find a good water filter, move to a place with cleaner air. But how easy is that course of action for anyone let alone someone who is sick with depleted resources?
So you can see how MCS can catapult a person into poverty. When forced to leave employment because the air is too toxic to breathe, there is no paycheck. When there is no social or familial support system and no safe housing, a person is out on the street. If there’s not sufficient money for fresh organic food, nutritional supplements, air and water filters, and a HEPA vacuum, then a person’s health further deteriorates. And a life on that edge can very quickly spiral into poverty.
This is why too many people with MCS are sleeping in cars or in aluminum trailers in a friend’s back yard. Many who can’t find safe housing or employment hunker down, strip down, go zen, go without, and struggle to adapt to the newfound state of limited resources. This is the world of poverty, and if anyone with MCS thinks this scenario isn’t a heartbeat away, they are fooling themselves. There is no safety net for people with a health condition not recognized by the government or mainstream medical community.
Such is the life of canaries. It’s not just sensitivity to toxic chemicals that people with MCS live with, it’s acute sensitivity to the social injustice of a negligent health care and governmental system that refuses to even acknowledge there’s a problem.
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If you’d like to learn more about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and poverty, Grist: Environmental News and Commentary covered the topic in 2006.
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Seven years after 9-11, breathing ailments persist
Posted on Sep 11, 2008 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Susie Collins
As the world waits — and waits — for the World Trade Center’s redevelopment project to rise from the gaping hole along Church Street, downtown residents and recovery workers continue to suffer from the illnesses related to the September 11th attacks. Sinus pressure, coughing, wheezing and difficulty breathing are just a handful of symptoms afflicting thousands of those who lived and worked in lower Manhattan during and immediately after the tragedy — all are effects of the air’s contamination.
Years after the attacks, New Yorkers and out-of-state volunteers continue to emerge saying they suffer from a World Trade Center related illness. Last week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a campaign to seek out such victims — with advertisements soon to appear on subways and television screens across the city. The mayor and medical experts predicted thousands — maybe hundreds of thousands — of untreated responders, volunteers and residents could be eligible for medical care.
At least for now.
Though advocates say the city has adequately responded in the last year to the health effects of the World Trade Center attacks, its ability to treat victims is threatened. Calling federal support “inconsistent and episodic,” Bloomberg said the city needs to have a stable funding source from Washington if it is to continue providing medical care to 9-11 workers and residents.
As of now, the funding the city receives could be cut off in 2009 — eight years after the attacks. With little known of the long-term effects of air contamination downtown, a lack of funding, advocates and city officials say, can cripple the city’s ability to adequately address the health needs of victims in the future.
The Response and Results
A report released last week from the World Trade Center Working Group — an expert panel appointed by Bloomberg to monitor Sept. 11th health-related studies and issues — showed studies were consistent in finding the prevalence of elevated rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases among recovery workers and those who lived or worked downtown.
Link to Gotham Gazette.
For a look at the prevelence of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity among first responders and others affected at Ground Zero, visit the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation:
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Welcome to The Canary Report!
The Canary Report is a blog and social network about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.
We compassionately bring you unfiltered and uncensored news and information you can trust directly from the source: people who have MCS. Dedicated to sharing, supporting, and inspiring with the Aloha Spirit, The Canary Report gives all canaries a voice. Come join us!
Aloha,
Susie Collins
Founder and Contributing Editor
Hilo, Hawaii
Let’s Connect on the Social Web
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Why I boycott Breast Cancer Awareness Month
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The Canary Report releases its 2010 wall calendar
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The false promise of miracle cures for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
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Warning: Avoid ozone generating air machines
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The dangers of aroma technology
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A statement from Lourdes Salvador about recent ad hominem attacks on Facebook
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DIY: Skip the chemicals, get a buzz
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The naked truth about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
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Perfume blogger dismisses concerns from a member of our community
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International Multiple Chemical Sensitivity awareness project is launched
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