Mcs Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

A multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) expert helps readers understand this controversial medical condition. Worksheets throughout.

The number of people suffering from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is greater than the number suffering from AIDS, yet the general public and the medical community know very little about the disease. More and more people are disabled daily, despite the fact that the condition does not have to occur. In Part One of this work, experts review the research into the disease, along with treatment strategies. Part Two examines the legal recourses available to MCS sufferers, such as workers’ compensation claims and product liability suits. How the medical community has often worked against MCS sufferers is the focus of Part Three, demonstrating that medical opposition to the disease is unfounded. The editor, an MCS sufferer, details her own case in Part Four.

Use of the term "multiple chemical sensitivity" (MCS) as a diagnostic label has generated increasing controversy during the past few decades as a phenomenon related to exposure to chemical agents sustained both in indoor and outdoor environments. This volume, prepared in conjunction with Biologic Markers in Immunotoxicology, contains the authored papers of a workshop held to develop an agenda to study the phenomenon of multiple chemical sensitivity. Authored by clinicians, immunologists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and others involved in research or clinical activities relevant to the problem, the papers contain case evaluations and criteria for diagnosis, mechanisms potentially underlying MCS, and epidemiologic approaches to investigation.

"Imagine living a busy and active life and then having it come to a screeching halt beacuse of extreme chemical sensitivity coupled with electromagnetic sensitivity. That is what happened to the woman who is the subject of this book. She experienced these sensitivities to such an extreme she was not physically able to be in a room with lights, television or a computer and could not be near anyone with cologne, perfume, fabric softener on their clothes, or a cell phone. ... This book tells the story of this woman and the path to healing that she traveled. It is designed to give people in similar circumstances hope that in fact a cure is possible and it provides the step by step framework in which healing can take place."--Page 4 of cover

This personal view of multiple chemical sensitivity and environmental illness is supported by research. In a question-and-answer format, the effects of exposure to perfume, smoke, air fresheners, cleaning products, exhaust, and other air contaminants are examined and linked to symptoms such as headaches, allergies, asthma, and fatigue. The book contains additional testimony and reports from 37 sufferers, as well as listings of resources and related scientific articles.

The people profiled in this book tell how you can create a positive life when you no longer can work, shop, attend church and public events or socialize without unpleasant, or worse, consequences to your health from low-level chemical exposures. Living with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is a collection of personal stories describing the lives and coping strategies of people with MCS from all over North America. It describes dozens of alternatives to the kinds of isolation and hopelessness that threaten people with this illness. Laced with inspiration, courage and humor, these stories dispel myths associated with people who have MCS, and will help others to articulate their own experience of the illness to family, friends, coworkers, and health care providers. Foreword by Pamela Reed Gibson of James Madison University. Appendices include a medical overview, resources for further information and support, and a sociologists' view of MCS by Steve Kroll-Smith, director of the Environmental Social Science Research Institute, University of New Orleans. Includes photographs of persons whose lives are described.

Chemical sensitivity (or "multiple chemical sensitivity") describes people with numerous troubling symptoms attributed to environmental factors, from simple housepaint to complex building structures and materials in offices and schools. Many such people are seeking special accommodations, applying for disability benefits, and filing lawsuits claiming that exposure to common foods and chemicals has made them ill. Their efforts are supported by some physicians who refer themselves as clinical ecologists. They use questionable diagnoses and treatment methods, while critics charge that these approaches are bogus and that "chemical sensitivity" is not a valid diagnosis. The complaints associated with chemical sensitivity include depression, irritability, poor memory, fatigue, drowsiness, constipation, sneezing, wheezing, skin rashes, headache, chest pain, pounding heart, swelling, upset stomach, paralysis, AIDS-like illnesses, psychotic experiences, and just about every other symptom noted in medical textbooks. One prominent clinical ecologist even claimed that chemical sensitivity patients may well be human "canaries" on an increasingly poisoned planet, and others have actually labeled chemical sensitivity as a disease. While some people are adversely affected by exposure to some chemicals, there is an overwhelming increase in false claims and reports from misled obsessive patients and opportunistic doctors. Chemical Sensitivity examines this phenomenon in depth and the scientific, legal, ethical, and political issues that surround it. The authors explore the speculations about environmental exposure in the light of scientific knowledge of human physiology, allergy and immunology, pathology, toxicology, and clinical medicine. They evaluate cases of chemical sensitivity relative to controlled tests, and reveal that symptoms were brought on by psychological factors rather than physical ones. Chemical Sensitivity also critically assesses claims related to "sick building syndrome," "mercury-amalgam toxicity," "yeast allergy," and Gulf War syndrome.