Counters And Flooring for MCS Sufferers

This week is a little different from my normal tips. I’m actually seeking information.

We need to replace the counter tops in our kitchen, badly. They currently are ceramic tile and are 25 or so years old. And the grout shows it. In looking around, we’ve looked at granite but have been told it needs to be resealed every year or so. So that’s out because I couldn’t handle the chemical fumes. So, does anyone have recommendations of reasonably priced counter tops that won’t be toxic?

We’re also looking at some aging carpet that needs to be replaced. In 1992, I bought a new house which, of course, had all new carpet. I was miserable for a month. And it is worse now. So, carpet is out. Actually, I like the look of wood floors, as long as the glue isn’t toxic.

Any suggestions?

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Fragrance Free Deodorant

I may have mentioned previously that I have not been successful in finding a “good” fragrance free deodorant. I’ve tried a couple by Kiss My Face. One didn’t work well at all for me, the other is “OK”.

KMF’s products are all natural and organic. I’ve seen them change their products in the past few years in an effort to be natural. For example, I once used their Active Enzyme Fragrance Free Stick Deodorant with great success. But then they took out the Parabens and the Propylene Glycol and it no longer worked for me.

My husband has used Old Spice for years. It has a fragrance, but it doesn’t last for long. Although who knows how long the VOCs remain in the house. I’ve noticed lately that the scent from his deodorant travels all the way downstairs soon after he uses it. He’s told me “If you find another deodorant, I’ll try it.”

So, I had this unopened KMF stick deodorant and thought “Why Not?” It didn’t work for me, but who can say it won’t work for someone else? So, he tried it yesterday and it worked very well. Clearly a body chemisty issue, perhaps it’s hormonal? Who knows?

Now all I need is a deodorant that really works for me… Any suggestions?

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Fragrance Free Thirty Day Challenge

Here’s a challenge for everyone reading this blog. Make an attempt to free your life of fragrances for thirty days. You have a couple of days to prepare and could start on September 1st and continue throughout the month.

Why go Fragrance Free?

The chemicals in the modern fragrance are harmful to many people:
* People with MCS
* People with migraines
* People with Asthma
* Developing Children - Before and After Birth
* People with COPD or other breathing disorders
* People with Emphysema
* People with Autoimmune Disorders (MS, Lupus, and others)
* People with Allergies and Sinus Headaches
* People with frequent colds or respiratory infections
* People with Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, ADHD
* Formerly Healthy People who’ve been exposed to too many chemicals

You could be doing a friend or neighbor a favor.

Or, you could find out that health issues, even allergies are related to the fragrances in your world. For instance, I’ve read many places that what most people call a sinus headache is really a migraine. I have a personal theory that more headaches and migraines are triggered by fragrance chemicals than anyone really knows.

Over time, your own body may have become acclimated to the fragrances it is exposed to. The actual term for this is masking. So that, having been away from fragrances for a while, you may find that your own body isn’t tolerating them as well as you thought.

Why take the Fragrance Free Thirty Day Challenge? Why Not? Why not see if you find that you feel better without the fragrance chemicals in your life? You could be helping yourself or your family. You’ll definitely be helping the environment and our water supply.

How do I go Fragrance Free?

Good Question. And you’ll find it isn’t as easy as you might think.

Here’s some tips:

Personal Products

(See this post for some recommended products: Fragrance Free Personal Care

Fragrance Free Shampoo and Conditioner: If you can, that is. I have to go to a health food type store to get mine.

Fragrance Free Soap: I love Kiss My Face’s Olive Oil Soap. It’s ingredient list is only four items: Saponified Olive Oil, Water, Sodium Chloride, Citric Acid. Because it lacks any coloring agents, the bars from different batches come in slightly different shades of green. But, so what?

Hair Care - Mousse and Hair Spray: You’ll probably have to make a choice here. To go totally fragrance free, you may have to not use these products. Kiss My Face has an Upper Management Styling Gel. It has grapefruit oil in it, which gives it a scent - but it’s natural.

Remember - Many “brand name” products have something called a “masking fragrance” in them. They are just as bad (maybe worse) as those with an actual scent in them. It’s not really the scent but the chemicals that are the issue. Again, we get to the question of what it is they are trying to “mask” - likely even worse chemicals.

Laundry

I have one warning for you on this: you will likely continue to have fragrances emitting from washed items. I’m told that it can take 20-30 washings to get the fragrances out of clothing. I don’t have much personal experience with that as I’ve used unscented laundry detergents forever. And I’ve never used “fabric softeners” or scented dryer sheets. I do know that my dad gave my husband some socks. We washed them several times and the fragrance remained. (I’ve always been baffled that men endure clothing that smells like that anyway.)

Who knows, you could be helping a neighbor without realizing it. A lot of fragrance chemical wind up in the air whenever you dry clothes that have been laundered with scented detergents or if you use scented fabric softener or dryer sheets.

For specifics on laundry, see My Laundry Recipe.

Dry Cleaning

One Word: Fuhgeddaboudid.

Unless you know of a green dry cleaner (they are hard to find), then you’ll either have to not wear anything dry-cleaned, or continue to have chemicals on your body.

Household Cleaning

See these 2 posts:

Fragrance Free Household Cleaners
More Tips on Fragrance Free Household Cleaners

Are you up for the Fragrance Free Thirty Day Challenge?

If you’re going to try it, please leave a comment.

If you have questions, leave a comment for those too. I’ll try to answer them.

Already Fragrance Free? Leave a note for those taking the challenge.

Spread the word

Pass this on to your friends or post in your own blog with this link: http://breathefreeordie.com/2007/08/28/fragrance-free-thirty-day-challenge/

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Benefits of Magnesium

We were all taught growing up that, if we ate a balanced, healthy diet then we would not really need vitamins and other nutritional supplements. The reality of it is that this is not true at all. In fact, in the US it hasn’t been true at least as far back as 1936. The reasons - chiefly soil depletion caused by not rotating crops and dead soil caused by weed killers. The problem is made worse because most of us don’t eat a balanced, healthy diet. Processed foods are lacking in magnesium, fluoride added to water binds with magnesium making it unavailable, inefficient digestion and absorption which results from America’s addiction to antacids, plus blocked absorption caused by some foods and drugs all help to deplete magnesium. From Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D., in her book The Magnesium Miracle

the typical American diet, which is rich in fat, sugar, salt, synthetic vitamin D, phosphates, protein, and supplemented calcium, not only is deficient in magnesium but actually increases the need for magnesium in the body.

Magnesium is involved in hundreds of activities in the human body, especially in these areas: enzyme catalysis, energy production and transport, protein synthesis, nerve signal transmission and muscle relaxation. Hence, magnesium deficiency has a huge impact on how your body functions. In her book, Dr. Dean has a long list of conditions that are likely to result in magnesium deficiency. Magnesium deficiency has been implicated as contributing to symptoms for MCS, Fibromyalgia, CFS, Migraines, to name a few. I’ve also read that it functions as an anti-oxidant and can be important in detoxification.

I first learned about the importance of Magnesium from this book: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause. I began having severe PMS symptoms. I would just break down in tears for absolutely no reason. Sometimes it was as simple as trying to decide what to eat for lunch. It was very frustrating, for myself and those close to me. I happened upon this book and read about the role that magnesium played in PMS. So, I gave it a try. After all, if I went to a doctor, they were likely to prescribe Prozac or some such. And I was pretty sure my problems were not a result of a Prozac deficiency.

That was about 10 years ago, and I’ve taken Magnesium daily ever since. My experience has also made my husband a believer in the magic of magnesium. I can’t say just how much the magnesium has helped with my migraines and chemical sensitivity. But, I do know that I am healthier and feel better because of the magnesium supplements.

If you have symptoms of MCS, you may want to investigate supplemental magnesium. We’re all deficient without supplements and it can’t hurt you if you take recommended dosages.

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Perfume Free Air Deodorizer

More than once, someone has found this blog by searching on Perfume Free Air Deodorizer, or similar. I’m happy to tell you that I have a report on a couple of items that fit this category.

First is something called Zeolite. I bought it from Refreshingly Free. It comes in a mesh bag and is designed to absorb odors. And it works. We keep one in the closet to which I banished all my husband’s dry cleaned clothes. It does a good job of containing those odors. We also put one bag in the same room with our kitty’s litter box. Works wonders! The bags can also be refreshed by setting them in the sun for a few hours.

The second item is something called the Wein AutoMate. I ordered mine through Amazon. It plugs into a cigarette lighter and is supposed to help clear the air in a car. Other people swear by it. They said it would clear the air in a car in 10 minutes. I was a bit dubious, but decided to give it a shot. It really does work. It takes care of the car exhaust and cigarette smoke that get into your car. It also helps when a friend or family member that uses perfumed products gets into your car.

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Are Your Cosmetics Safe?

You may want to visit The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics to find out. From their website:

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is a coalition of public health, educational, religious, labor, women’s, environmental and consumer groups. Our goal is to protect the health of consumers and workers by requiring the health and beauty industry to phase out the use of chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems, and replace them with safer alternatives.

You can learn a lot of things on their website. For example, they talk about the lack of FDA authority over cosmetic products. You can also learn about activities by this coalition to make cosmetics safer.

Want to know how your cosmetics fare? There are 2 places to check:

1. Compact Signers - Companies that have pledged to not use “have pledged to not use chemicals that are known or strongly suspected of causing cancer, mutation or birth defects in their products and to implement substitution plans that replace hazardous materials with safer alternatives in every market they serve.” You can also see who didn’t sign!
2. Interactive Product Guide - You can look up your cosmetics and learn what’s really in them

How do your cosmetics fare? Leave a comment on what you find out!

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Seven Generations

From the Great Law of the Iroquis Confederacy:

In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.

I don’t recall where or when I first read this, but it has always stayed in my mind. Today, there is a brand of cleaning products called “Seventh Generation”. They describe themselves: “The nation’s leading brand of non-toxic and environmentally safe household products.” But my first exposure to the Iroquis law was long before I had heard of the company Seventh Generation.

And it makes a lot of sense if you think about it. The Twentieth Century saw huge changes in our world. Granted, if we were to truly consider the impact of decisions on the next seven generations, progress as we know it would halt. For how else can we do that but to wait for 7 generations to pass? In a way, we are doing that, by conducting experiments using humans as guinea pigs. Only how many of us realize we are guinea pigs?

Let’s look back and see. Most recently, Avandia, Vioxx, and HRT have all been in the news because we learned that their impact on our health was different from the initial reported studies. (Having worked in the field of research, and therefore knowing the ego of the scientist, I have to wonder how many of the negative results were concealed from us all?)

Going further back, there are some prime examples of why we must look at more than one generation for the effects of drugs.

There’s thalidamide. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, thalidamide was used to treat morning sickness. Only later, too late, did we learn that it could arrest the development of arms and legs if taken during pregnancy. Thus, children were born with “flippers” instead of arms or legs.

And DES. DES was prescribed in the 1940’s because it was thought to prevent miscarriage. Curiously, it was approved and prescribed in spite of the fact that the DES test group had as many miscarriages as the control group. Use of DES to prevent miscarriage was halted in 1971. It has now been shown to have an impact on three generations:
1) First Generation - Women who took DES during pregnancy are at a moderately increased risk for breast cancer.
2) Second Generation - DES Daughters (women exposed to DES while still in the womb) are at an increased risk for several cancers. DES Sons at an increased risk for non-cancerous epididymal cysts and auto-immune disorders and other health problems.
3) Third Generation - “Third generation injuries are associated with pre-term labor or deliveries resulting in premature birth and cerebral palsy, blindness or other neurological deficits or death of a child.” It even appears that DES can be transgenerational - the second generation daughter may not experience any problems but her offspring show problems associated with first generation DES use.

When you look at DES, seven generations begins to make sense, doesn’t it?

And there are others not listed. Plus, who knows which of the current drugs will make the list in the future. I could make some predictions, but I won’t. Just consider any drug that has had a lot of press because of negative side effects to be a candidate.

Petroleum products and VOCs have become ubiquitous in our environment. Many of us have developed MCS because we are more sensitive to these poisons than others. We’ve been referred to as Human Canaries for that reason. Except we’re becoming sick from the air in the mine and no one is paying any attention. In fact, the industries profiting from the proliferation of petroleum products and VOCs would like us all to quietly go away. And so far, they’re winning because they have all the deep pockets that allow them to lobby Congress. Not to mention all the bribes that likely go on.

This is why I believe it is a good idea for everyone to become aware of the chemicals found in fragrances. We don’t yet know all the harm they can cause. There are quite a few new illnesses for which petrochemicals and VOCs have been implicated: MCS, CFS, Fibromyalgia, ADHD, adult onset asthma. If we don’t wind up killing everyone off, we’ll figure this out one day and put a stop to it. If this happens, you’ll see HAZMAT teams coming in to clean up some of our modern day buildings.

Too many people feel that the FDA is doing all the watching over food and drugs in this country. But if you’re even marginally aware of recent news, you know that isn’t the case. And the above examples are more proof. And don’t forget that the fragrance industry has everyone believing that releasing their ingredient lists will put them out of business because the ingredients are “trade secrets.” And in a way, they are right. If the fragrance industry published their ingredient lists, it could put them out of business because who would want to use their products?

Why not send a link to this post to people you know to help make them aware of the issues? Here’s the link:

http://breathefreeordie.com/2007/07/31/seven-generations/

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Fragrance Free Church

Recently, someone found this blog because they did an internet search on “Fragrance Free Church” (but without the quotes). I hadn’t really imagined that there might be such a thing. In the past, I’ve had so much trouble with fragrances in church that it just wasn’t worth trying to go. After you have to leave the service so many times, you just quit going. It’s not worth it if it’s going to make you sick.

So, I did my own research on some of the sites that come up when you search on “Fragrance Free Church”. With Google, I got 945,000 results. It does seem that churches are becoming aware of this issue, although some of them are more in tune to the real issue than others.

Some churches have created a fragrance free section, but really that solves nothing. The scents from the other section are carried by the air system. Still others have totally separate rooms for the chemically sensitive. But really, why do you want to make people feel like pariahs, when there is a better solution?

There are some that have the right idea of getting the congretation to not wear fragrance to chuch. Here’s sites that have suggestions to make that happen:
Does Your Church Make You Sick?
Are You Allergic To Your Church?
Why Go Perfume-Free to Church?

For more insight into the issue of the need for Fragrance Free Churches, check out some of these links. Or do your own Google search.
How Accessible is your Congregation for People with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities?
Parishioners breathe easier in Seattle church’s ‘fragrance-free’ zone
‘Fragrance free’ zone has Mass goers breathing easier
People with Chemical Sensitivities Speak Out on Communal Worship

Is Your Church Fragrance Free?

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Help for the Future

Today’s children are the future of our country. If you are concerned about the fragrance chemicals in our environment, be especially concerned for the impact on growing bodies.

The story told by Judy Miller in a comment to this post just about broke my heart. It is somewhat heartening - and telling - that there is a fragrance free school district in Missouri. There should be more of these.

If you’re a teacher or an educator, perhaps you could help make students aware of the problems fragrances can cause for many people. Maybe you could organize more events that are fragrance free. How about a fragrance free day at school. If you have other ideas, leave a comment for others to read them.

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Walk A Mile In Our Shoes - Part 1

As I mentioned previously, Susan McBride has sued the city of Detroit to have her co-workers banned from wearing perfume at work. Not surprisingly, this has drawn a lot of reaction from a lot of people. Just do a google search and you’ll find websites that post the article and allow their visitors to comment.

I was appalled, though not truly surprised, at some of the comments that I read. Over the next several posts, I would like to address some of these comments and provide a view from someone who suffers similar problems to those of Susan McBride. I’ll start with 3 that I found quite often.

1) “She must be a slacker or malingerer. Trying to get out of work.”

This type of comment generally comes from someone who hasn’t read all the facts about the case. They just read the initial article, which, btw, came from a french news service. Digging a little deeper, you learn that Susan DID try to talk with the perfume-wearing co-worker. The co-worker agreed to turn off her “air freshener” but refused to stop wearing the perfume.

She’s not trying to get out of work, she’s fighting for her right to work. Sadly, people further think that she’s not really sick, it’s just an allergy. They’ll say “She doesn’t look sick”. As if there were some way she were supposed to look. And how would they know?

2) “Why doesn’t she just work from home?”

There are so many problems associated with that suggestion. I know. The last 2 years I worked in corporate America, I worked from home. And it was an up hill battle to get that ‘privilege’ (as my “manager” called it). She preferred that I remain working in the office, with a migraine so bad I could not think, than to work from home and be productive. (She measured productivity by how many hours you were in the office and how much time you spent chatting her up about all the work you were doing.)

If you are fortunate enough to be able to work from home, it isn’t the marvelous treat some think it is. I hear it all the time. “You’re so lucky to be able to work from home.” Lucky, hardly. It seriuosly separates you from the rest of the office. Even with e-mail, there’s still “Out of sight, out of mind.” You aren’t considered for the top projects. You’re overlooked for bonuses and raises. It’s a very career-limiting move.

3) “Why should we have to do anything? She is the one with the disorder.”

That has to top the list for insensitivity. Why should we do anything? For the same reason we put up wheel chair ramps, provide handicapped parking, put up important signs in Braille, etc. We all have to live on this planet. We all have disorders or afflictions of some sort or another, whether we admit them or not.

It’s not as if we’re asking people to not drink water or breathe air. We’re talking about perfume. A luxury. Something that you can live without. I have a friend who taught Nursing School. She said that years ago, they instructed nurses not to wear perfume. I also know people that work with the public and understand that their perfume doesn’t belong there. We need more people like that.

If you have to wear perfume, save it for your date. (Although you might want to make sure your date’s ok with it.)

Walk A Mile In Our Shoes - Part 2
Walk A Mile In Our Shoes - Part 3

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