EiR Blog

by  Carolyn Cooper, MPH, RN Multiple Chemical Sensitivity awareness is one of the health observances for the month of May.  MCS is also variously known as Environmental Illness, Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance, and 20th Century Disease.  Over the course of the last 8 years I have become acquainted with a number of individuals who are afflicted with this often misunderstood condition.  MCS causes many of those who are severely affected to isolate themselves in order to take refuge from the synthetic fragrances and fumes that are ubiquitous in industrialized nations.  My interest in MCS resulted from experience caring for one of my hospital patients who is severely afflicted.  (Read about my patient's experience with MCS in my blog post from May of 2009).  Recognizing the lack of scholarly published literature to inform health care providers about the specific needs of the chemically sensitive in the health care setting, I eventually wrote a...

Today I was contacted by Vivien Pomfrey who has started a peition on the 10 Downing Street website (UK Government site) calling on the Prime Minister to protect UK citizens from artificial perfumes in all their forms. I have just signed the petition and hope that if you are a UK citizen you will do the same. Vivien and myself also hope that those of you from other countries will petition your own governments through whatever means possible. This is an issue that has widespread implications for human health and the environment and deserves much more attention than it currently receives.  Thank you!   Here is the email from Vivien with the link to the petition and more information she has compiled: There is now a petition to Downing Street demanding a ban on the uncontrolled public use and importation of artificially-perfumed products at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Scents/ You need to be a UK...

PBS STATIONS JULY 2009 Discoveries in Alternative Medicine Western Nanotechnology Meets Eastern Medicine An acclaimed television program shown on PBS stations across the U.S. will showcase LifeWave’s innovative products in a segment scheduled to air later this spring. Producers for Discoveries in Alternative Medicine interviewed several top distributors and medical team members at our La Jolla, CA on March 23-24, 2009. The award-winning series, which reaches more than 30 million households nationwide, covers a diverse range of alternative and complementary health issues. David Schmidt, founder and CEO of LifeWave, expects the upcoming broadcast to give the company positive national exposure. “Not only will the program provide new opportunities for members to build their business, the in-depth investigation will be a credible resource for concise research that supports LifeWave’s technology,” he said. David also shared that the program’s producer was enthusiastic about the interviews. “The producer said that he’s interviewed over...

There was a time not so long ago when nobody had even heard of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). In fact, when I first developed the condition only 7 years ago I didn't meet anybody who had heard of it, apart from others who were suffering like I was. This lack of awareness only adds to the considerable suffering and feelings of isolation that come with being affected by MCS.  As any MCS sufferer will tell you it's one thing to have a disabling illness and quite another to have nobody believe you have a disabling illness! Thankfully awareness of MCS now seems to be spreading thanks to a steady stream of coverage in the mainstream media. To stay on top of things I receive daily email updates from the Google News website (Google Alerts) on all topics relating to what we cover here at The Environmental Illness Resource. Not long ago there were rarely any...

I came across an amazing story this week of an ex-fibromyalgia sufferer who is planning to hike 800 miles across the state of Arizona in the United States.  The 'Arizona Trail' stretches from the state's borders with Mexico and Utah and includes terrain from lowland desert to pine forests.

The woman in question is 33 year old Sirena Dufault, who after a slow recovery from