Progression and Evolution
What is MCS
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) has been repeatedly observed to follow a two-stage disease mechanism. The first step is triggered by one large exposure or several smaller exposures to chemicals found in commonly used everyday products; after that, the person becomes intolerant to further exposures to chemicals and triggers reactions in multiple organ systems. Reactions can occur and intensify at even lower doses of exposure.1,2
MCS is recognized as a disability by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), protected under the Canadian Human Rights Act, and the CHRC Policy states, ‘Like others with a disability, those with environmental sensitivities are required by law to be accommodated.3
What are accommodations and accessibility?
What are these accommodations for the MCS disability? It means removing the barriers that come in the way of accessibility. And what is accessibility? Accessibility is the ability to enter spaces, access to housing and essential services like health care and shopping. Accessibility is not solely the ability to enter spaces but the ability to enter them without harm. Thus, identifying barriers is essential in order to remove to have accessibility for a disability. For the MCS disability, barriers include chemicals and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) commonly found in perfumes and fragranced products, and products used for personal use, cleaning, renovating, etc. So how does one remove barriers for the MCS disability without bringing our society to a halt? Well, this sure is a complex problem, but it can be made very simple by focusing on product choices.
This can be done very easily. Do you know that besides preventing MCS and other chronic health conditions, choosing the least toxic alternatives for all applications can be beneficial to everyone? Why is that, you may ask! Well, what we use on our bodies, volatilizes into our air both indoors and outdoors. Ultimately toxic chemicals flow into the waterways and land in faraway places such on the soil where we grow our food and the oceans where we fish and can return to us via wind currents and the food on our plates.
Yes, this is not just about MCS! It is about all of us living together, working together, growing our families and having a healthy environment! Visit our Eco-Living Guide for healthy choices for you, your family, your community, and the planet.
Untreated MCS disability commonly results in loss of employment, and many fall into poverty in their quest for treatment and an adequate living environment. According to literature and our experience, living in a space free from triggering substances and other incitants is the first step towards good management of MCS. Therefore, finding adequate housing built to high standards, including high air quality standards, is the highest priority for recovery and the first step to achieving better health for people suffering from MCS.
Recovery isn’t easy but can be done; proper housing is the first step on the road to a full recovery. It is the first step needed to break the cycle of isolation that MCS sufferers often fall into due to the socially and professionally disabling nature of this health condition.
The beginning
Our Association recognized that housing was a significant issue for people disabled with MCS very early on. We further established the need for proper housing conditions when we carried out surveys in 2005. This was when our journey began, and we set out to answer the needs of those suffering from MCS. The location of the housing project was critical so that there would be the least exposure to toxic chemicals in the outside air. From clinics, such as The Environmental Health Clinic in Dallas, Texas, we learned that building special housing required in a city despite the pollution was possible. One would have to ensure certain air quality standards within the building with filters, air purifiers and careful monitoring. However, once outside the building, the person would be exposed to contaminants that would trigger symptoms of MCS.
The first location we identified was an empty school building in Beaconsfield, Québec. While this was not the ideal location, it was a fair distance from Montreal, with industry and farming located at a distance. There were houses all around and the very real possibility of exposure to emanations such as perfumes, smoke, and other pollutants from daily activities. After a long time working on this project, which was supported by the municipality of Beaconsfield, we had to let it go as the school board would not budge from its unreasonably high selling price. This refusal to lower the selling price prevailed even though the building was empty and money was being spent to keep it running (heating, maintenance, prevention of damage etc.). Tax dollars already spent on the building could have been used for an urgent social need. Alas, since the project’s cost would have been too high, years of hard work and a promise of a home for those with MCS went up in smoke.
We then went searching for land and other options. We encountered Not In My Backyard (NIMB), a social movement where a neighbourhood rallies against social projects designated for their neighbourhood. We quickly learned; social projects are not always seen positively, and misconceptions play a role in denying a need. And so, we learned about human nature and how we are not always so open and welcoming as we would like to think!
Along this journey, we had many meetings with several decision-makers and our housing team. One of these meetings with Public Health Québec ended poorly and went nowhere.
Along the way
So, while searching in vain for this land that we knew existed ‘somewhere’ and for the money that had to be found to get this much-needed work done, we worked on material lists. We looked at different types of construction. We had more questions than answers as we looked for solutions to create a habitable living space for a population that could not tolerate chemical exposures.
And then…
The theory of ‘clean air’ kept haunting us, and we knew we had to get away from the city, golf courses, traffic exposures, industry, agriculture… but then we hit a new issue. When you get rid of all that, there is also a lack of water supply, sewage, electricity, phone lines and other basic infrastructure. In this case, we knew that we were looking at increased costs with installing these essentials. When one weighs the cost of this against having a place to call home, we gathered our courage and once more started looking for land. And then a miracle occurred. A good Samaritan donated 25 acres of land to the Association!
Our Housing Team
Great things have to be said about our housing team. With little to no money, we were honoured to work with wonderful people who gave us their time and experience. We would be nowhere without their dedication and generosity. We will always be grateful to those that helped along the way and still do!
So then…
So, then you would expect a fairy tale, right? We took possession of the land on September 4, 2013. By this point, we had a letter from the Government of Québec promising to help us with 40 units. The municipality where the land is located completed the zoning changes and even provided monetary support. People gave us their time freely. We were told to open a bank account and negotiate a mortgage. Money was put into our account by the Société d’habitation du Québec (SHQ) (October 31, 2013), and preliminary work started on the land. We worked countless volunteer hours to develop the project. There was an elevation of spirits; we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, and then it went dark. Silence descended on the project. Our calls went unanswered. And then, we received a phone call on April 1, 2015, accompanied by a letter that the Ministry of Health and Social Services Québec could not support our project because the health condition of MCS was not a recognized health problem in Québec. We should await the publication of the report on MCS by the National Institute of Public Health of Québec (INSPQ).
Really? So how many people are we talking about?
Never mind that the population we serve met the criteria for social housing… never mind that people were suffering and homeless… Over 1 130 800 Canadians are diagnosed with MCS. Of those, 72% are women, and close to 50% are over 50. In Québec, there are 251,000 diagnosed cases (Statistics Canada, 2020). This puts the majority of people suffering from MCS into the most vulnerable categories of our population. Where most fall below the poverty line, experience homelessness, are disabled, older people, primarily women, unemployed due to disability, experiencing stigmatization and abuse with the system in place that is supposed to protect and safeguard them. AND to boot, ignored by the government put in place to care for them! Visit our statistics page to see the high numbers of people diagnosed with MCS in Canada and the steady rise in prevalence.
And yet…
We kept working towards this goal and never gave up. Reaching out to the Ministry of Health, constantly being promised about a ‘soon to arrive’ report on MCS. The materials list for the project kept being developed. We made new partners. Reached out to funding bodies and became eligible for $ 700,000 funding which could be increased to 2 million in 2020. But Québec never answered, and we lost essentially two million dollars that could have been used for our housing project. What a shame!
Where are we now?
We own 25 acres of land in a ‘clean air’ area, and instead of housing a community in great need, we have expenses such as insurance, property taxes and maintenance fees, which is hard for a not-for-profit group to keep up with. We still have a letter that 40 units are allocated to us, and the municipal zoning has been completed.
The report on MCS by the INSPQ, mentioned in the phone call and letter in 2015, has now been released. We have since been writing to the Minister of Health and Social Services of Québec, requesting support to allow our affordable housing project to go forward so that a disabled community experiencing great difficulties can be housed.
In the meantime, please feel free to write to the Minister of Health and Social Services of Québec requesting that support be given for this affordable housing project to go ahead. And feel free to share this article on the ultimate Not In My Backyard (NIMB) that Québec has loudly shouted out to us.
1 1999 Consensus on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Arch Environ Health. May/June 1999;54(3)147-9.
McKeown-Eyssen GE. Multiple chemical sensitivity: discriminant validity of case definitions. Arch Environ Health. 2001 Sep-Oct;56(5):406-12.
2 https://aseq-ehaq.ca/en/environmental-sensitivities/resources-for-environmental-sensitivities/
3 https://www.chrc-ccdp.gc.ca/en/resources/publications/policy-environmental-sensitivities
