EiR Blog

 [The following is an open letter from renowned environmental illness expert Dr. Doris Rapp. Posted with Full Permission. Permission further granted for recipients to foward.]     August 18, 2010   Dear Friends, I wonder if you would be willing to help me. Together we might be able to help tens of thousands of children. Alone I seem to do able to do very little. We Need To Get The Following Information To Our Schools:   Dear ------,   Dust, mold, pollen, foods and chemicals certainly can cause much more than cause asthma and hay fever. As you all know allergies can take on many forms and often affects how children feel, act, behave, walk, talk, write, draw, and especially learn. Many different areas of the brain can be affected. There is no doubt that it is possible to raise academic performance and attendance, while lowering infection, allergies, hyperactivity, behavior...

 Without going into the history and traditional meaning of Halloween, these days October 31st is seen simply as a night for kids to dress up and have fun with the added bonus of treats a plenty being dished out. However, there is a darker side to halloween and it doesn't involve any real life witch craft, ghouls or ghosts - it comes in the form of allergies and more menacingly the toxic chemicals used in Halloween costumes. For families with kids that suffer from allergies, Halloween can be a 'tricky' time indeed. Without careful supervision and precautions kids can end up eating foods to which they are allergic, particularly hidden allergens such as unexpected food additives. Even the vigilant can be caught out by cross contamination as safe treats come into contact with allergenic treats in bags and containers and kids share between themselves. It's not only foods that can be allergens. Make up,...

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...

This is a post from my Planet Thrive blog from last month. Thought it would be good to share here so people can see how others are living with MCS.   Not sure how my life came to this. I have 3 outfits, all thin and worn, ripped and stain, unwashed for 4 months, not warm enough for winter. I have no bedding except 1 thin and narrow shawl that does very little to keep me warm. I sleep on a 1" thick chair mat on the cold tiled floor. My pillowcase is stained brown from not being washed for months and months. I don't tolerate the water in my home. I have to go to a friend's house to get drinking water, 1 gallon a day. I get filtered water from the local stinky supermarket, then heat it on a hot plate and wash my hair in the tub...

If you suffer from multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), sick building syndrome, allergies, asthma, or other respiratory problems you may own or be thinking of buying an air purifier to purify the air in your home and relieve your symptoms. Modern air purifiers are certainly extremely efficient at removing troublesome chemicals from the air with their HEPA, carbon and zeolite filters. They do have their drawbacks however. They can be expensive to buy, the filters need replacing periodically, they can be noisy, and they add to your electricity bills. There is an alternative however that many of you may not have considered......house plants! That's right, research has demonstrated that certain plants are highly effective natural air purifiers. Not only that but they are cheaper to buy than their manmade counterparts, don't require filter changes, are silent, use no electricity, are much more attractive, and may even contribute to our happiness! One...

A study that hit the news this past week has caused a bit of a stir in the fragrance industry. Researcher Anne C. Steinemann, PhD, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and public affairs at the University of Washington, Seattle, revealed that common fragranced products such as laundry detergent/fabric softeners and air fresheners emit dozens of different chemicals, some of which are regulated as toxic or hazardous under US law. Not only that but NONE of these chemicals appear on the labels of such products so consumers are completely in the dark about the toxins they may be filling their homes with. Under US law (and in many other countries outside Europe) there is no requirement for manufacturers of fragranced products to list all of the chemicals in a particular product, even if an ingredient if officially classed as hazardous. All manufacturers need to do in such cases is put a warning label on the...

  For many of those who were in or around the World Trade Center on that fateful day of September 11, 2001, life has never been the same. Not only as a result of the obvious psychological trauma but also because many have been left with a host of physical symptoms and illnesses that the medical profession in many cases is unable to explain or effectively treat.