Boston Sunday Herald: Effects of controversial chemical sensitivity disorder all

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Effects of controversial chemical sensitivity disorder all too real

By Nadeau | Sunday, June 8, 2008 | _http://www.bostonherald.com_

(http://www.bostonherald.com/) | _Lifestyle_

(http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/lifestyle/)

When she was first diagnosed with the controversial multiple chemical

sensitivity disorder, Schaefer was unable to work at her renovated office.

Forced to alter every aspect of her life to avoid the everyday chemicals that

now make her ill, she has joined with other sufferers to push for understanding

of the disease.

“Most people didn’t believe it,†Schaefer said of reactions to her

condition. “And I have to admit, I would have been one of those people saying

the same

things.â€

In June 2004, while working for an engineering publishing firm, Schaefer says

she became ill after the workplace was renovated.

“Within a matter of a couple months, I lost weight,†she recalled. “I went

to doctors and they didn’t know what was wrong. I was getting sicker and

sicker.â€

Schaefer dropped 20 pounds before she was diagnosed with multiple chemical

sensitivity. After being exposed to high levels of chemicals during her

workplace’s renovation, Schaefer said she became sensitive to even low levels

of

other chemicals, and even some foods.

“Multiple chemical sensitivity is a multiple-system disease that results from

unusually high-level exposure to a chemical or chemicals that renders the

individual subsequently sensitive to other chemicals,†said Dr.

Oliver, an associate physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant

clinical professor of medicine at Harvard, who treats patients with MCS. The

chemicals that bother the patient are “not necessarily the same chemicals that

caused the problem in the first place.â€

Schaefer took a three-month medical leave to be treated at an MCS clinic in

Texas and returned to work, only to be forced to quit six months later as her

health deteriorated again, she said. “It was a major loss,†she said. “I

loved my career. I had to stay at home.â€

Even at home, she said, common chemicals began to bother her.

Household cleaners, molds, city air and even treated fabrics affected

Schaefer. Living in her own Melrose home became dangerous to her health, she

said,

despite receiving two hours of high-density oxygen daily to improve her

breathing and sauna treatments to sweat chemicals out of her system.

In the end, she said, she had to tear up her home’s carpeting, remove paint

cans from the basement and cover wood floors with aluminum foil to block

polyeurothane from rising into the air.

“Even what seems like a simple task like going to the grocery store is not

possible†for patients with the disorder, Oliver said.

Oliver said MCS first showed up on physicians’ radars in the 1980s, but not

all doctors agree that chemical sensitivity is a real medical condition.

“It’

s a condition that is controversial. It has been controversial since it

initially appeared on the scene,†she said, noting that there is no way to

test

for MCS, only to rule out all other possible ailments. “The medical community

is divided on whether this exists or not.â€

But for Schaefer and others who suffer from MCS, the disease is very real. In

June 2005, Schaefer was forced to move out of the three-bedroom unit in the

two-family home she owned, to a small town near Northampton, where she shares

an apartment with a chemically sensitive roommate. She works as a personal

assistant for another MCS patient.

“I’ve lost a lot of friends because they just don’t understand it,†she

said.Article URL:

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