Info sources

This is just a quick note about a couple good, and not very well known, web sites for information for those who are chemically injured or just chemically aware.

toxnet.nlm.nih.gov
A great site for information on chemicals. We at Chemical Injury Information Network use it a lot.

foodandwaterwatch.org
Also a great site, but for news related to food and water safety.

Could GM Foods Reduce Over-Population??

Most people who give it serious thought know GM foods are a crap-shoot -- not enough research to be sure they are safe in the long run. And then I ran across this new (new to me) worry in the Organic Consumers Association newsletter #226 (May 28, 2010):

Genetically Modified Foods Could Cause Long-Term Sterility
"We failed to get cubs from these pairs, which were fed with GM foodstuffs. It was proved that these pairs lost their ability to give birth to their cubs."

This quote is Dr. Alexei Surov, a Russian biologist describing the results of a study of hamsters fed genetically modified soy for two years over three generations. By the third generation, most the hamsters lost the ability to have babies. The pups who were born suffered slower growth and a high mortality rate.

You can track down the whole story via the Organic Consumers Association.

Natural does not mean non-toxic

Again today something popped up that made me want to write a quick word about natural things that many people think of as non-toxic. Wrong! At least if you are chemically sensitive, that is a dangerous assumption.

Mint, cedar, lavender, menthol, pine.

These are examples of things that probably seem pleasant and generally harmless. But for the chemically injured/sensitive these things can be anywhere from irritating to downright harmful. Can be — but not for everyone with MCS. I know people with chemical sensitivities who have no trouble with some or all of these materials. I also know people who really get their asses kicked by them. They and dozens of other innocent-seeming things, like essential oils, need to be treated as guilty of being problematic until proven innocent.

Just today Cynthia dealt with someone who put cedar shakes on their house and now has a serious problem on his hands. It's going to take a lot of work to keep their house usable to him, and it is possible they will have to leave the house for good.

Such simple mistakes can have such mammoth consequences. Protect yourself with caution. Don't be scarred, but do be skeptical.

To fight the SPAM problem at CIIN

At CIIN we have gotten more and more unwanted/crap/malicious e-mail to the point that we have had to activate an anti-spam program called BoxTrapper. As a practical matter, that means messages sent to us will probably get an automated message requiring the sender to simply hit "reply" in order to prove the message comes from a person and not a program.

It is an inconvenience, but once the person replies to the automated message, their original message goes through — no further action needed. Also, this a one-time thing. The sender should not have to do this again unless they send from a different account.

By the way, this has dramatically cut down on the junk e-mails we get.

This brings up a point to consider, do not just assume that your e-mails get to their destination. BoxTrapper is one of many anti-spam programs out there. Some are better and more convenient than others. If a message is important and you get no response, follow up in some way. There are too many ways an e-mail can go astray.

Surviving MCS

Dr.Robert Mayer's book on the basics of surviving MCS seems to have hit the spot with many people. Right now it is only available through CIIN, the book's publisher. If you know of anyone in need of basic info on dealing with life with chemical sensitivities, point them to us at 406-547-2255, or chemicalinjury@ciin.org. It could be a great help to them.

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The Basics of Surviving Chemical Sensitivity

CIIN has started selling their new book by Dr. Robert S. Mayer, "Strategies for Surviving Chemical Sensitivity — the Basics." It is the book MCS sufferers have been needing forever.

The book comes from Dr. Mayer's own trail-and-error experiences living with MCS as well as from tons of suggestions from over a thousand people who responded to the question, "What Works?" Some of these suggestions have also appeared in the monthly newsletter, "Our Toxic Times."

Anyone who is stricken with chemical sensitivities needs help just learning how to make the knid of changes in their lives that will allow them to survive. It can be done, but only those who have gone before can be expected to know the tricks. I wish like hell my wife had this book in 1987.

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MCS = redox damage

It seems there is research out of Italy linking Multiple Chemical Sensitivities with damage to the redox system. More on this will appear in Our Toxic Times when the research becomes available here. Until we see the research, that is all for now on this subject.

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It's NOT an allergy

Over and Over again people with MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities) try to equate their illness with allergies. That may be handy at times, but it can be dangerous.

When MCS is treated as an allergy, dangerous consequences can ensue. People, including MCS sufferers, tend to dismiss allergic reactions (other than anaphylactic shock) as inconvenient but harmless. Wrong!

An MCS reaction isn't an IgE-mediated event, as an allergic reaction is, and while further damage to the redox system, central nervous system, and/or immune system is not a certainty, it is definitely a possibility.

All MCS sufferers have redox and central nervous system damage, and 88% of MCS sufferers have developed 2 or more autoimmune conditions, such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, thyroid conditions, etc.

MCS is damage! MCS reactions are dangerous!

An allergic reaction is the immune system misidentifying a substance and mounting an inappropriate response. An MCS reaction is different — dangerously different — and needs to be addressed differently, treated differently, and thought about differently.

Worry over toxins seems universal

The U.S. is definitely not the only country where parents and others worry about slowly killing or maiming their children. We ran a brief article in Our Toxic Times recently about Viet Nam's actions to cut down on toxic toys and clothing, and now I ran across an editorial from Pakistan about the lack of laws to protect their children.

As more and more countries rise to the battle, we slowly build momentum in the effort to make this world a cleaner/safer place for us humans.

More exposure, more damage, more symptoms

It seems that periodically this must be said to those with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS): Do not challenge toxic environments if you are chemically sensitive! Do not go to a movie under the assumption that you will just put up with feeling crappy for a few days. Do not go to the hair dresser thinking it will be worth a few days of being sick to look good. Do not put yourself in contaminated areas thinking you can put up with the reactions -- except in an emergency, of course.

It is sad, depressing, inconvenient for sure, but each exposure beats up on the body a little more, and each exposure risks significantly adding to the damage that is MCS.

Whether you call it MCS or chemical hyper-sensitivity or environmental illness, the illness is caused by damage to the body's systems that are supposed to protect you. To put it super simply, more exposure, more damage, more symptoms.

Over the 20 years Chemical Injury Information Network has been in existence, we have talked to thousands of people who tell us some version of the refrain: That place or product didn't use to bother me. MCS is certainly progressive if exposures continue. Don't take chances if it is not absolutely necessary.

Crappy places list

If you have internet, go to the Mother Nature Network's site and check out the photos of the 15 most toxic places on Earth. The pictures are mind-boggling even though the word "toxic" is not always the right word to use.

The photos of rivers are the worst, in my opinion, because I can compare them to how the rivers here in Montana look.

Some of the photos don't really tell the story. You get that from the brief descriptions.

The last photo, which I believe might be a composite or artist's rendition of the Earth from space, is just creepy. The things we do without looking ahead.

Where to (not) live.

Forbes magazine came out a short time ago with its list of the 40 most contaminated metropolitan areas in the U.S. I found few surprises. Atlanta came out worst, followed by Detroit, Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles.

Of the few surprises, Portland, OR, being high on the list caught me off guard. It is just a couple steps less worse than LA. Austin, TX, being on the list also was a surprise to me. Otherwise, I see the list as being mostly the usual suspects.

Forbes' list considers more than just air quality. It includes in its ranking the number of superfund sites, the pounds of toxins released, and the number of sites releasing toxic chemicals. In fact, there are some interesting comparisons of air quality ranking and overall toxic ranking.

You can read the article and see the full list of their most toxic cities here.

I haven't done this, but it might be interesting to compare the Forbes list with the toxicity map on our web site at ciin.org.

Also, Forbes has maps of other rankings than most toxic. There's Worst Cities For Short-Term Particle Pollution, Worst Cities For Year-Round Particle Pollution, and Worst Cities For Ozone Pollution.

Another site to help when relocating

I've just looked at the government's Air Quality Index web site www.airnow.gov. There appears to be a ton of info/data covering the continental U.S.

For anyone planning a move or traveling, this site should be helpful, especially when combined with the info from scorecard.org and from the map at the bottom of our housing page at ciin.org.

For those with MCS, relocating or traveling can be really difficult. Having places to find reliable information about different places can help, but no one resource will be perfect. Combining data from these 3 sources will help develop a clearer picture of the places on anyone's list of possibilities.

Are people reacting to hand sanitizers?

I got a message the other day from someone who reacts very badly to some of the hand sanitizers we are seeing everywhere these days. I have not heard much in the way of bad reactions, but those things are so common now that even a tiny percent of people being hurt by them will add up to a lot. Here is the gist of her message:

I would like to hear from anyone who has suffered anaphylaxis or any other adverse health effects from exposures to hand sanitizers now widely used in medical clinics and hospitals to fight swine flu and other bacteria and viruses. Contact me at "mcscherie at comcast.net"

If you contact her about this, please post to this blog too, and maybe I will put something in our magazine Our Toxic Times. Thanks.

The WayBack Machine

They say that anything that gets onto the internet never really goes away. It is stored or archived somewhere. One of those somewheres is "the Wayback Machine" at web.archive.org where you can find past web pages for almost any web site.

I used it for our own site, ciin.org, looking for an item from several years ago. And after a couple clicks, there it was -- the CIIN site from 2006.

If you are doing research on the internet, and it looks as if a page or site you know used to be there, give The Wayback Machine a try. But be careful; it can be a lot of fun and can pull you in for long stretches.

Exposures and emotions

Just a short note about something we at Chemical Injury Information Network already know. When a person inhales a chemical, it goes up the nose, hits the olfactory bulb, and goes straight to the brain. No messing around with the blood-brain barrier.

In the brain, the chemical reaches the hippocampus, very important to logic and emotion. As a practical matter, this means that exposures can leave a person with volatile emotions and impaired logic ability – just about the worst combination at the worst time.

Chemical sensitivity, or MCS, comes with a lot of emotional pain. It can help if people understand that the heightened emotions they feel under exposure are not really theirs – they are artificially produced and will ease off as the exposure wears off.

Stop saying "chemical free"

We in the chemical injury community need to stop saying "chemical free" when we mean toxin free. The whole world is made up of chemicals -- including our own bodies -- so to say we are trying to live "chemical free" makes no sense to the normal community. It makes us look as if we are simply afraid of the modern world, or worse, just plain nuts.

Within the MCS community saying "chemical free" is understood; it is usable short-hand because we know what it is supposed to mean. When dealing with the normal world, say "toxin free" or possibly "toxicant free" and sound more science-based rather than phobia-based.

The dose does not always make the poison

There is an old saying in toxicology: the dose makes the poison. What that means is that things can be harmful at higher amounts and not harmful at lower amounts. Unfortunately, that is very old school. Newer research shows that some things have not safe level, and many substances can have stronger or different effects as the dose goes down. See the article in Science News, January 20, 2007, as reported on in the October 2007 issue of Our Toxic Times.

As a practical matter, this adds another layer of complication for those who are hypersensitive to chemicals. You cannot make the assumption that items will out-gas to the point where they will no longer cause reactions.

And always remember — trying to live through an out-gassing may make you hypersensitive to whatever is out-gassing. If that happens — a real hypersensitivity — you will likely never be able to tolerate the item. That is why out-gassing something must be done away from your living space. You cannot just "tough it out" and expect something good to come of it.

Be cautious, please

People with MCS or chemical injury always seem to be looking for a product or treatment that will make them better. Perfectly understandable. However, they need to approach all such things with a super large amount of caution. One of the hallmarks of MCS is overreacting or strangely reacting to most anything that comes into their lives.

That means that when a doctor or health-care practitioner or sales person says a certain dose or product will be appropriate, the MCSer's first reaction must be to step back and ask a few questions. Such as, does this person actually understand MCS? Can I start with a very low, partial dose to measure my reaction? Is there any actual evidence to suggest this will help me?

Be cautious, please. Very few people have an in-depth understanding of Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. There is too much uncertainty in the field of environmental illness and medicine to make broad assumptions about the illness, its dynamics, and possible treatments. People with the best of intentions can too often cause things to get much worse. And, of course, some people are simply peddling crap to make money.

That being said, there are a few things out there that have helped people — sometimes substantially. In pursuing treatments and the like, take two large suitcases along, one filled with caution and the other filled with common sense. And if need be, contact the Chemical Injury Information Network to see if they have any information that might help.

Time Can Move So Slowly

The new case definition created out of Chemical Injury Information Network's San Francisco workshop is in the process of being peer reviewed. After that, it will be put in line to be published. I know it seems to be taking a long time, but that is because it is taking soooooo loooong.

The only good thing I can say about the pace of the process is that by the time it is finished, it will be a pleasant surprise because we will have all forgotten about it. Keep a good thought.