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Before we start analyzing the reason for the drop in prevalence numbers, we need to recognize three things about the numbers.

 

1) These numbers do not reflect everyone in Canada who are Chemically Injured. Statistics Canada only monitors those who have been diagnosed by a health care professional. It is very difficult to get diagnosed by a health care professional in Canada, because there are currently only three main clinics in the entire country where one can go for a diagnosis – one in Nova Scotia, one in Ontario and one in British Columbia. There are huge wait lists to get an appointment in these clinics and many people become too ill to travel long distances for an appointment.

 

Therefore, in Canada, as in the global community, many Chemically Injured individuals are self diagnosed using the Quick Environmental Exposure and Sensitivity Inventory (QEESI) method or some other similar method. Here is the link to QEESI: https://tiltresearch.org/self-assessment/ Unfortunately in Canada, there is currently no way to know how many Chemically Injured people there are, who are self diagnosed using these methods. Statistics Canada does not include them in the prevalence data, as they only monitor those who have been diagnosed by a health care professional.

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2) The 2022 Chemical Injury prevalence data was collected in the middle of the Covid 19 pandemic. During the early years of the pandemic, there were times when the clinics diagnosing Chemical Injury (Chemical Sensitivity) were closed. Therefore patients were not able to see a doctor, in order to get a diagnosis. During this time the Toronto, Ontario clinic’s wait list grew from two years to three years.

 

3) The three primary places in Canada to get diagnosed with Chemical Injury are small clinics with only about one to three doctors in them. Therefore the number of people they can diagnose in a year is going to be relatively small compared, to the actual number of people that require a diagnosis. 

 

Now let us try to analyze the reasons for the drop in the 2022 prevalence numbers. So the obvious question is: what caused it? Well, this took place in the middle of the Covid 19 pandemic. Since many people died from Covid, we can assume that some of these Chemically Injured people died from Covid. Some might have died from medical-assistance in dying (MAID), or some from toxic chemical exposures or some from other reasons. Yet all those that died would only account for a very small percentage of the drop in numbers.

 

During the early stages of the Covid 19 pandemic, Canada enforced strict restrictions on human activity. People were ordered to work from home and not commute to work, resulting in a great reduction of traffic. Many industries, including pollution-generating industries, were ordered to temporarily close. As a result, the outdoor air quality greatly improved.

 

This improved outdoor air quality granted some people with Chemical Injury the opportunity they needed for their health to recover. These are probably ones who were not yet disabled, who were able to maintain good indoor air quality in their home throughout the pandemic, and who did not have to travel to work, but could now work from home. We have no way of knowing who all these people are. To our knowledge, no medical researchers are monitoring this in Canada.

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Yet for many people this was not the case. The indoor air quality in many homes and buildings in Canada went much worse, as there was a huge increase in the usage of hand sanitizers, disinfectants and strong chemical cleansers. Therefore, many people also acquired Chemical Injury due to this decrease in indoor air quality. Since there is a huge backlog of people waiting to be diagnosed, these newly acquired ones would not be able to be diagnosed by a health care professional. Therefore this increased prevalence would only be seen in the self-diagnosed segment of the Chemically Injured community, which no one is monitoring.

 

So looking at the charts again, all we can see is a huge drop in the numbers. Yet this huge drop is like a snapshot in time. People were not able to get diagnosed, which did not allow the diagnosed numbers to climb; and people were able to recover, which reduced the numbers. The pandemic created a very temporary proof that reducing exposure to toxic chemicals is key to recovery of health.

 

Consequently, we can draw great encouragement from the fact that people can recover, or have some degree of recovery, if they can successfully reduce their toxic chemical exposure level and get the medical intervention that their particular injury requires. We can also be encouraged by the fact that these reduced prevalence numbers provide us with additional proof that MCS is not an anxiety disorder because people do heal and recover if they can reduce their toxic chemical exposures and get the medical treatments that their particular body needs.

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The 2023 Prevalence Data For MCS Has Been Released

 

The Chemically Injured prevalence numbers, of those who have been diagnosed by a health care professional, will probably remain low for some time, simply due to the fact that it truly is very difficult to get diagnosed in Canada with Chemical Injury (Chemical Sensitivity). Our health system is failing people with Chemical Injury in every possible way. Our health system has made it so difficult for the Chemically Injured to get even the most basic kind of help - a diagnosis.

 

This is born out in the recently released 2023 prevalence numbers for Ontario, which saw the numbers continue to drop even more. The numbers show people continue to recover, which is great. However, they don’t show the huge number of people waiting to be diagnosed and treated by a health care professional. Please see the chart below: