> Environmental and Health Concerns > Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS)

According to a 1995 random population study 16 percent of people report an “unusual sensitivity” to chemicals used in manufactured products, including scented hair and body products. As much as six percent of the general population react with severe symptoms diagnosed as multiple chemical sensitivity, or MCS disorder.

Reactions vary from person to person, but all are brought on by the volatile organic chemicals used in product manufacture. Scented hair and body products, scented candles, and a wide range of other materials, including newsprint, building materials, fabrics, carpets and furnishings, pesticides, and diesel fuels contain chemical compounds that linger in the air and bring on symptoms. Problems can be compounded when people with MCS work in sealed buildings where fresh air comes from mechanical ventilation systems rather than open windows.

What is Multiple Chemical Sensitivity?

Multiple chemical sensitivity is an acquired disorder characterized by recurrent symptoms affecting multiple organ systems. Reactions can cause the limbic system and other parts of the brain to become sensitized and hyperactive to environmental triggers at increasingly lower levels of exposure.

MCS was first described in 1952 by Theron Randolph, MD, and first defined in a 1989 multidisciplinary survey of 89 clinicians and researchers who had extensive experience in, but widely differing views of, MCS. In June 1999, they redefined their top five consensus criteria, defining MCS as: (1) a chronic condition (2) with symptoms that recur reproducibly (3) in response to low levels of exposure (4) to multiple unrelated chemicals, and (5) improve or resolve when incitants are removed.

They also proposed a sixth criterion, requiring that symptoms occur in multiple organ systems, and encouraged physicians to support the 1994 consensus of the American Lung Association, American Medical Association, US Environmental Protection Agency, and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission that “complaints [of MCS] should not be dismissed as psychogenic, and a thorough workup is essential.”

Toxic Overload

MCS is caused by toxic overload. The “total load” theory compares our immune system to a barrel filled to its saturation point: at a particular level of total load, the individual loses adaptability and illness results.

Toxins in scented products include ethanol, formaldehyde, benzene derivatives, acetones, phenol, methylene chloride, and toluene to name a few. According to the Scented Products Education and Information Association of Canada (scentedproducts.ca), these chemicals have been linked with cancer, birth defects, and damaged nervous systems. Yet Health Canada deems them safe under Cosmetic Regulations in the Foods and Drugs Act. Ten years ago second-hand cigarette smoke was considered safe, too.

Marilyn Lewis is a teacher who was healthy until she worked in a modular classroom for three years. She is writing a book about her experience with MCS.

Source: alive #265, November 2004