Amputated Lives: Coping with Chemical Sensitivity
In an article titled “Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A 1999 Consensus” that was published in Archives of Environmental Health, one group of 34 researchers and clinicians proposed the following criteria for the clinical diagnosis of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS):
1. The symptoms are reproducible with repeated exposure.
2. The condition is chronic.
3. Low levels of exposure result in manifestations of the syndrome.
4. The symptoms improve or resolve when the incitants are removed.
5. Responses occur to multiple chemically unrelated substances.
6. Symptoms involve multiple organ systems.
One of the most distinctive features of MCS is that people who develop the condition begin to react to low-level chemical exposures that never bothered them previously. Some MCS patients have only mild cases; for others the condition can be life threatening. In most cases, as the illness progresses, the patient reports that more and more substances cause symptoms. People with MCS can have a wide variety of symptoms as the result of chemical exposures, with different patients having different symptoms. A given patient, however, will usually have the same symptom in response to a given exposure, perhaps getting a headache after exposure to paint or getting arthritic pains after exposure to natural gas.
Newspaper reporters often refer to multiple chemical senstivity as a rare condition, but this is hardly the case. In 2004 the Archives of Environmental Health published a national prevalence study by Stan Caress and Anne Steinemann. These researchers reported that in their national random phone survey 2.5 percent of the respondents said that they had been diagnosed with MCS. This result suggests that over seven million Americans may be suffering from multiple chemical sensitivity, a number that exceeds the population of Massachusetts. This is hardly a “rare condition,” as it is frequently termed in the media.
Alison Johnson is the chair of the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation. You can find more information about chemical sensitivy on her website, www.alisonjohnsonmcs.com/, where you can get extensive information about her books and DVDs on the subject. You can play the first five minutes of the DVDs, as well as the complete “Chemical Sensitivity: A 15-Minute Introduction.”
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This article was originally published in FMOnline, vol. 8, no. 6 . This free online newsletter is only available to registered members. http://www.fmaware.org
1. If I know I am going to be where there will be flowers, perfumes, etc., I take an allergy pill 30 minutes beforehand. I also have told all my friends so when we get together they do not wear perfume, scented hair spray, or shower gels. 2. I avoid as much as possible any toxic smells. I bypass all stores that sell weed killers, etc.—also candle shops or aisles in the store that sells those products.