Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
This web page is devoted to issues about human health and human effects from exposure to synthetic environmental toxins.
The following topics briefly describe aspects of human health in a polluted world.
- MCS Definition - Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A 1999 Consensus, signed by dozens of doctors, this 1999 paper gives a definition of MCS. It was compiled by a large number of physicians, and published in a peer-reviewed journal (Archives of Environmental Health v.54, n.3 May/June, 1999). Based on Health Department studies, MCS affects 16% of the general population, or put another way, 84% of the general population is clueless about those affected with MCS.
- "Who is looking after our kids? Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: Causes, Mechanisms and Treatment", by Harold E. Buttram, MD, and Richard Piccola, MHAm postulates a plausible cause of MCS being the massive increase in exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the resulting burden this places on the liver's detoxification enzymes. The suggested treatment is to avoid exposures.
- MCS Beacon of Hope Foundation. The Beacon of Hope Organization has a number of links by doctors and medical experts that can help MCS sufferers.
- Controversy over Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, by Dr. Ann McCampbell. The author writes a critique of Boeing Corporation's research in MCS, published in Annals of Internal Medicine (Vol. 120, Issue 3, Pp. 249-251, February 1994).
- A critique of industry scientists was written in 1999 by Irene Wilkenfeld of Safe Schools to the Environmental Health Policy Committee, Workgroup on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. The author criticized the use of pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo presented as fact by the chemical industry and their government stooges. The chemical industries paint a picture of MCS sufferers as mentally disturbed.
- Diagnostic markers of multiple chemical sensitivity, by Heuser, G., Wojdani, A. and Heuser, S. (1992). The authors published their findings in Multiple chemical sensitivities: Addendum to biologic markers in immunotoxicology. National Research Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. (pp.117-138). These authors suggest that an appropriate set of clinical markers for MCS can be obtained by a battery of tests including CNS function, peripheral nervous system function, nasal function, pulmonary function, T-cell function, antibody presence, and autoimmune responses. The researchers found "a high yield of abnormal objective findings" that supported the subjects' complaints.