How do you feel about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome?

Town & Country · Mar 4, 2006

The only thing I know about it is that people who want to go "on the dole" often claim they are afflicted by this.

Helps that there is no conclusive diagnostic test... :rolleyes:

Sis123 · Mar 4, 2006

I have met two people who claimed to have this. Both were either shirkers or hypochondriacs, or both. I suspect that this is a load of BS, but I remain somewhat open-minded, since we don't know everything.

Nesher, BSN, RN · Mar 4, 2006

WHile I have no doubt this is a real issue, the one person I know who claims to have it seems to trot it out when it is handy, and doesn't seem too consistent with it. For example this person lives a block away from a shipbuilding co. - fiberglass scent in the air all the time - yet it doesn't bother her. Oh no but when we put a potta potty on our property (no house yet)( kitty corner to her but with very large non city type lots) she had a hissy fit when she saw it - she hadn't smelled it yet but she was overwroght about the chemicals in them...please. I won't get into it any further, but I must say there seems to be an element of psych stuff....

Poohsdw · Mar 5, 2006

This is in fact a real disease, my sister was diagnosed with it after spending years working in a school building infested with black mold. She has been very ill for a long time. She is allergic to everything from food to laundry detergent and has reactions to just about everything. It has been horriable for her to live with but there isn't much that anyone can do. It has caused so many other problems in her life. She is constantly weak, reacts to smells that the rest of us wouldn't notice, the list goes on and on. It really upsets me when people say that it is all in her head b/c I have seen how sick she has really been. She has to see a specialist that costs her a ton of money. So, it is VERY real. I do think though that like all other illnesses, some people claim to have it just to get attention. I think that this is something that is fairly unknown and b/c we don't know all the answers why or how it happens and there are no tests to confirm it people assume it is all psychological. Take it from someone whose family member is suffering from this...it is very real!

clee1 · Mar 5, 2006

There is probably a small percentage of the population that actually suffers from this, but most use it as an excuse or else it is psychological in origin.

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Mar 5, 2006

I know someone who suffered from this, but also had major psychological issues. In her case, it was very difficult sorting out the psychological issues from her physical ones, and knowing which came first, and what was the root problem. She led a very tragic life and ended up dying from a MVC - Some allege the MVC was intentional, as she was very depressed and distressed, and often wandered from place to place, trying to find a "suitable" place to live. People did not understand her and often avoided her, and she had very little to none family support. The very ironic thing was this - after she died, people/ family came out of the woodwork to attend her funeral She sure could have used some of that support while she was alive....

1Tulip · Mar 5, 2006

This is in fact a real disease, my sister was diagnosed with it after spending years working in a school building infested with black mold. She has been very ill for a long time. She is allergic to everything from food to laundry detergent and has reactions to just about everything. It has been horriable for her to live with but there isn't much that anyone can do. It has caused so many other problems in her life. She is constantly weak, reacts to smells that the rest of us wouldn't notice, the list goes on and on. It really upsets me when people say that it is all in her head b/c I have seen how sick she has really been. She has to see a specialist that costs her a ton of money. So, it is VERY real. I do think though that like all other illnesses, some people claim to have it just to get attention. I think that this is something that is fairly unknown and b/c we don't know all the answers why or how it happens and there are no tests to confirm it people assume it is all psychological. Take it from someone whose family member is suffering from this...it is very real!

I think MCSS is a trash-can diagnosis and the "specialist" may not be doing your sister any favors. By that I mean, your sister may, in fact have something very real and very debilitating, but she really doesn't have a diagnosis yet. She's been classified, but not diagnosed.

This syndrome has been floating around for years, and discovery of cause has been elusive. Same thing with Chronic Fatique Syndrome, and Fibromyalgia. Symptoms are so vague and so varied between sufferers that we may never isolate what's going on, and we may actually be seeing several diseases (and many malingerers and manipulators) that we're lumping into one (trash-can) diagnosis.

I am suspicious that a lot of people with MCSS are actually agoraphobic. But again, evidence is elusive. And though agoaphobia might fit some "MCSS" patients it may not others.

And, please forgive me for being a little jaundiced. I was savaged once for the crime of wearing perfume in an elevator. A perfectly vigorous, healthy man... stepped out on his floor, turned around and yelled at me for my callous disregard for the welfare of others as the doors were closing (real brave of him!) This weird syndrome even has political features to it in the sense that one group of people can feel more pure and righteous than another group because they've got the political clout to restrict the freedom and personal choices of the majority. In fact, some municipalities are trying/have tried to make it illegal to wear "oderants". (I mean... is there ANYthing that can't give off scent? Why should one scent...perfume... be illegal when urniating on the side walk is not. And, yes... it happened in San Francisco. So there you are.)

Funny how the epidemic of MCSS stops at the California border.

EricTAMUCC-BSN, BSN, RN · Mar 5, 2006

I think MCSS is a trash-can diagnosis

Doesn't sound anymore trash-can than AIDS, you bring up some good points.

1Tulip · Mar 6, 2006

Doesn't sound anymore trash-can than AIDS, you bring up some good points.

You're probably right. In the beginning, no one knew what was going on with AIDS, but they did have a condition that appeared to be following an infective trajectory. They also had circumstantial evidence to suspect that it was something transmitted by blood or body fluids.

There just is not any coherent mechanism to explain the development of MCSS symptoms. It's sort of assumed that it's A) allergic or toxic in nature and B) that it is due to exposures to modern, man-made molecules. There is absolutely no warrent to believe this except that... when you look for it, you find it. We see it in people exposed to (for example) carpet fibers or insulation fumes, because that's where we expect to find it. Can anyone say for sure that it (symptoms associated with MCSS) can't occur in primitive and remote conditions? If it did, that would blow the whole theory.

No one can prove a negative. We can't prove that the sufferers of MCSS are NOT allergic to multiple modern molecules. I can't prove that someone who curses in unknown languages and recoils from holy water isn't possessed by the devil. But, unless and until some evidence is developed, it's a belief as much as a disease.

RebeccaJeanRN · Mar 6, 2006

As to the person's sister who got sick from mold, it sounds to me like her problem was not that vague, catch-all, multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome (MCSS) of questionable veracity. More like she got genuinely sick from mold, which is clearly documented in literature, really hard to get rid of (from home as well as from the person's lungs!), and truly makes a person very sick. When mold gets in someone's lungs, it can cause a genuine and terrible sickness. This other syndrome, MCSS, which is the one that started this thread is more of the variety characterized by the following complaint: "I'm sick from every kind of perfume, carpet, hair spray, paint on the wall, dust in the air vents, ink in the printers, and starch in men's shirts...so I can't work in any office and now the government should pay me for life..." and represents a whole 'nuther can of worms- in my opinion, these are not genuinely sick people, as that poor sister was, but people who are latching on to convenient catch-all reason simply to get on the dole and not to work. Aren't they so lucky to have found a new "disease" that can't be proven or disproven?? When this one finally gets harder to claim, slackers will simply find a new hard-to-disprove disease to claim! ( In California, phony insurance claims and malingering is a State sport!)

dirtbarbie · Mar 6, 2006

I heard about MCS after the destruction of the Twin Towers in NYC on 9/11. Check it out at http://www.chemicalsensitivityfoundation.org/... fascinating and scary.

Unfortunately, it's an illness that doesn't surprise me in the least considering everything we're exposed to on a daily basis.

Think about it. Technology allows for allergy testing to determine natural culprits of health ailments. If it were possible to do the same type of testing for all of the synthetic/chemical exposures, can you imagine what the results would yield?!

I agree that some people may latch on to a vague illness that supports their desire to feel ill, but come on people, think outside of the box. Researchers continue to have a job for a reason. There is just too much out there that we do not know (and probably won't in our lifetime).

kb