Magazine Can Cleaning Damage Your Health?
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Issue 1, October 2005 . MMCCAAFFII MMaaggaa zziinnee The only UK magazine for Multiple Chemical and Food Intolerance www.chemicalfree.co.uk Allergy UK Pesticides and Health Denmark Says MCS Exists Turning off Allergic Reactions Plus • News • Recipes • Celebrity Gossip • FREE Sorghum Flour • FREE Sorg 8 Page Special Report: CCaann CClleeaanniinngg DDaammaaggee YYoouurr HHeeaalltthh?? MCAFI Magazine Welcome to the first edition of the MCAFI Magazine! Many people with MCS are unable to tolerate everyday newspapers and magazines so the MCAFI magazine aims to strike a balance between information and Providing information and entertainment. For those of you who find it difficult to access TV and support to anyone affected by radio, we’ve included a summary of the last 6 month’s news and multiple chemical sensitivity and celebrity gossip. food intolerance. A big thank-you to everyone who has contributed to this issue, and This magazine is also available on for all of your letters and emails keeping us up to date with news, paper printed with water based inks, research and products. (A selection of letters is printed on page 37.) audio CD and pdf file via email. For It is always great to hear from you, so let us know what you think of free information and support, or to this issue. subscribe to the MCAFI support group, visit our website: This month’s Special Report on soap and detergents was specifically requested by one of our members. The amount of toxic chemicals www.chemicalfree.co.ukHT TH that have crept into our homes never ceases to amaze me. Our report should go some way to helping you choose what you really Or write to: MCAFI, 29 Kipling Close, want to use, and of course there’s no harm in leaving certain articles Hitchin, Hertfordshire, lying around other people’s homes; a recent BBC programme No SG4 0DU Waste Like Home estimated 8 plug-in air fresheners cost almost £100 to run for just one year, so even if health is not a consideration, natural cleaning would certainly benefit their wallet! MCAFI and Chemical Free.co.uk are trade names of Chemical Free Ltd. Registered address: 29 Kipling And eight air fresheners? Well if my relatives are anything to go by, Close, Hitchin, Hertfordshire SG4 0DU. Registered one in every room seems to be the norm. What ever happened to in England and Wales. Company No. 05455709 opening the windows? Disclaimer and copyright: Enjoy this issue, and if you are able to contribute anything for the No part of this magazine may be April edition, we would be delighted to hear from you. reproduced without the prior written permission of the Editor. Advice is for Best wishes, information only and should not replace medical care. Check with your GP before trying any remedies. The opinions expressed in this magazine are not Nicki necessarily those of the MCAFI Support Group or Chemical Free Ltd., but of individual writers. Whilst every care is Nicki Greenham taken in the preparation of this magazine the Editor, authors, MCAFI or Chemical Free Ltd. cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information herein or any consequence arising from it. We are Contact Us: not responsible for, and cannot guarantee the performance of goods and services provided by our advertisers or others Website: www.chemicalfree.co.uk whose names appear in the magazine. Email: [email protected] Acknowledgements Post: MCAFI, 29 Kipling Close, Hitchin, Herts. SG4 0DU Cover Photo: Ben Stephens-Brown Research Asst: John Scott We are happy to receive postcards or letters written in pencil, or messages Editing Asst: Chris Percival recorded on cassette or mini-disc. If you would like a reply please enclose a Graphics: Carl Greenham stamped-addressed envelope. Cartoons: Ben Stephens-Brown Nicki Greenham 1 MCAFI Magazine October 2005 P 2005 Cover Story: Live8 MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Several years ago global leaders agreed eight goals which would News & Research halve world poverty by 2015. Pesticides MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY is about 7, 27 turning up the pressure on world Denmark Decides MCS Exists! 10 leaders to change world poverty Chronic fatigue Genes Identified by demanding trade justice, debt 17 cancellation and more and better Various 32 aid. Instead of raising money, Gulf War Syndrome Bob Geldof’s worldwide Live8 41 concert focussed on raising awareness about the G8 Summit Articles to be held a week later in Treating Chemical Sensitivity by Laura Percival Edinburgh. 3 Natural Living by Frances McDougall 5 Tickets were only available Treating Sensitivity by Margaret Moss through a mobile phone 11 competition with winners being Reducing Formaldehyde Exposure by John Scott 12 selected at random. When I heard Giveaway – Free Sorghum Flour about the concert, I immediately 15 knew I had to enter – 3 times Turning Off Allergic Reactions by Jane Thurnell Read 13 just to make sure! I was at work Freecycle – Free and Offgassed when the text arrived: I had 17 tickets! The 2nd of July came and Bird Flu – Should We Be Concerned? 29 my boyfriend, Ben and I left the Aquaballs by Laura Newson house at 11am to make sure we 35 got to Hyde Park for 2:00pm. As Allergy UK’s Chemical Sensitivity Helpline 46 we walked we were amazed at how many people were around; the queue went on for miles and Special Report: Can Cleaning Damage Your Health? 18 miles. We finally got to the gates Deciphering the Code 19 just as the opening act (Sir Paul McCartney and U2) started Cleaning the Natural Way 24 playing, it was a mad rush to find Labelling 25 a good spot. And then it started: music blaring and the crowd Testing, Testing: Soap 26 cheering, it was absolutely fab! The best thing was that as we Recipes: hardly knew who was going to be coming out onto the stage next, Sorghum Flour 14 which made it all really exciting. Chestnuts 42 One of the best moments came at the end of the night. The UK concert was supposed to finish at Regulars 9 but went on until 12. Sir Paul The Brain Fog Diaries 9 McCartney was the last act on, and just as the crowd started to In The News by Kevin Mutch 31 go, the opening bars of Hey Jude Have You Heard? Maria’s Celebrity Gossip 39 started to play. The crowd went mad, singing, hands in the air. Your Letters 37 Then all of the other artists came Ingredient Listings: Laundry Detergents 33 back on the stage and at that moment I knew I was part of Puzzle: Sudoku 6 history! Answers 38 The concert was a huge success in raising awareness but was it enough? The World Trade Organisation held talks in December 2004, the G8 met in Edinburgh on 6-8 July and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit took place in September. So far they’ve agreed to increase the aid they give to poor countries, cancel the debts of some of the poorest countries in the world, and make sure that by 2010, everyone who needs treatment for HIV/AIDS will be able to get it. It’s a strange feeling knowing that all it takes for poverty to end is for 8 men to agree on giving more aid, and drop the dept of African countries. It makes me angry that something so simple has taken so many years to even be considered. By Maria Greenham 2 www.chemicalfree.co.uk P P CChheemmiiccaall SSeennssiittiivviittyy Laura Percival reports on a seminar given by Dr Damian Downing, President of the British Society for Ecological Medicine At a time when allergic conditions are Claudia Miller, of The University of Texas Health Science becoming more and more prevalent in the UK, Center, called TILT (Toxicant Induced Loss of with one third of the population now affected Tolerance). She looked at the link between MCS and in one way or another, June 2005 saw the addiction, likening the cravings and withdrawal symptoms experienced by drug addicts to those return of the Allergy Show to London’s experienced by MCS patients. She found that chemically Olympia. Now in its second year, the three- sensitive patients often found they craved the day show attracted over 6000 visitors, substances they were most sensitive to and, after offering access to information, support exposure, suffered severe withdrawal effects over a networks, treatments and products intended period of hours or days. to make life easier for people with allergies and intolerances. If you were able to attend, Symptoms you may have seen some of our team in their ‘Chemical Free’ t-shirts. As well as over 100 Dr Downing went on to describe some of the many and wide ranging exhibitors, including Allergy UK, wide-ranging symptoms that could be experienced by Action Against Allergy, Green People, The MCS patients. These included, amongst others, bloating, cold extremities, sweating, headache, fatigue, nausea, Healthy House and many more, the show visual disturbances, fainting, anxiety, lethargy, tinnitus featured 45 different seminars with experts and all kinds of gastrointestinal problems. He explained speaking on many aspects of allergies and that symptoms could vary widely even within the same intolerances. On the first day of the show, Dr patient, depending on the substance they had been Damian Downing, president of the British exposed to. Quoting George Cheyne, who first described Society for Ecological Medicine (formerly the condition in 1733, Dr Downing explained that in BSAENM), presented a seminar on ‘Chemical people with MCS “The symptoms are many, various, Sensitivity’. The lecture was intended to give changeable, shifting from one place to another, and an overview of the condition and some of the imitating the symptoms of almost every other distemper described.” treatment options that are available.