Living with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

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. 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.

Gail McCormick, a woman living with MCS, is a professional mental health counselor and biographer. She lives in Washington.

Gail McCormick

Foreword by Pamela Reed Gibson

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 304
Bibliographic Info: photos, appendices, resources, index
Copyright Date: 2001
pISBN: 978-0-7864-0887-0
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5428-0
Imprint: McFarland
Series: McFarland Health Topics

Acknowledgments v
Foreword by Pamela Gibson 1
Introduction 7

Midwest Stories 17
Elizabeth Schuster 19
Lynn Lawson 28
Nicholas Elijah Weiss 34

Southwest Stories 37
Ann McCampbell 39
Erica Elliott 52
Tomasita Gallegos 61
Roy Bolbery 69
Jennifer 76
Susan Molloy 86

Southern Stories 101
Diane Hamilton 103
Irene Wilkenfeld 108
Linda Angeles 118

California Stories 125
Carolyn Martin 127
Jack Ronan 132
Barbara Wilkie 136

Pacific Northwest Stories 143
Herbert Whitish 145
Alanna and Mariah Ahern 150
Peggy Kadey 157
Don Paladin 166
Jill Holden 171
Christina Jacobs 177
Robbynne Martin 185
John Pruitt 192
Matthew and Danielle Malcolm 195
Terri Crawford Hansen 199

Canadian Stories 207
Karen Forbes 209
Jean MacKenzie 216
Katy Young 222
Bernard Miller 227

A Voice from Belarus 237
Anatoly Khramchenkov 239

A Significant Other Voice 247
Curt Schuster 249

Appendix A—A Sociologist’s View 257
Appendix B—What Is Multiple Chemical Sensitivity? 263
Appendix C—Starting Points for Finding Medical, Emotional and Social Support 271
Appendix D—Recommended Reading 283
Index 287

• “Excellent”—Oregon Ecobuilding Network
• “Recommend[ed]”—CanaryNews