HEALTH RISK NAVIGATION INC.

 

To remove confusion, we need to clarify that there are two different categories of Chemical Injury, acute and chronic.

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1. The first category is your typical accident that occurs when there is something like a chemical spill or toxic chemicals getting splashed on a person's skin. It can happen in the community or in the work place and is a common occupational hazard. The Hazmat Team or the first responders will immediately evacuate everyone out of the toxic zone where the accident happened and relocate them to an area of good air quality. That is broadly accepted as the first emergency measure step that must be taken before administering other medical aid. Typically, with appropriate medical aid, these people recover completely from the exposure. This type of Chemical Injury is familiar to almost everyone and is an acute type of Chemical Injury.

2. The second category of Chemical Injury is differentiated from the first by resulting in the chronic condition of Chemical Intolerance, which is evidenced by the person having toxic reactions upon further exposures to even low levels of toxic chemicals. Chronic Chemical Injury results from an accumulation of stored toxic chemicals in the person's body due to toxic chemical exposures from birth on up. It can come on very gradually or it can also occur quite suddenly from a major exposure to a toxic chemical. Toxic chemicals are poisons, and the daily, constant exposure to these poisons result in the body very gradually becoming poisoned with a poison mixture. This poison mixture will eventually make the person sick. It can cause a variety of diseases; it can disable; and it can kill.

People with this second type of Chemical Injury have developed a Chemical Intolerance to further exposures of toxic chemicals, which simply means that the person has toxic reactions at very low levels of exposures to toxic chemicals. These reactions are not allergy reactions; they are toxic reactions. The toxic reactions occur because the body is already in a poisoned state and any additional exposure to toxic chemicals will worsen that condition. The toxic reactions are informing the person that chemical injury is occurring and there is an urgent need to stop the toxic chemical exposure and leave the toxic environment before greater injury occurs. The severity of the toxic reactions depend on how poisoned the person’s body is at the time of exposure.

 

In simplified terms, the Chemically Injured are not always able to metabolize and eliminate toxic chemicals. This dilemma can be compared to a diabetic person who lacks sufficient insulin to metabolize sugar. Sugar is a safe product, but it is not safe for a diabetic person who lacks sufficient insulin. For the chemically injured person, some or all of the metabolic pathways that perform detoxification can become blocked at times, making it difficult and at times impossible to metabolize and eliminate the toxic chemicals. Therefore the toxic chemicals are not eliminated from the person’s body, and instead, become stored in the tissues and organs of the person’s body, causing the body to become very gradually poisoned.

Very rarely are two patients alike. There is a wide variety in the symptoms and the manifestations of Chronic Chemical Injury. The reason is very simple. Each person is a unique individual, with his/her own life experiences. The variety of toxic chemicals daily encountered will probably be very different with each person, resulting in a wide variety of poison mixture exposures. Different chemicals have different characteristics when they enter the human body. They also have different target organs. For example, some bond rapidly with fat tissue, some with bone tissue, some with muscle and organ tissue, etc.

Toxic Chemicals can be classified as:

• Carcinogens (Causes cancer)

• Cardiovascular or Blood Toxicants

• Developmental Toxicants

• Endocrine Toxicants

• Fetotoxicants (Causes death of the unborn baby)

• Gastrointestinal or Liver Toxicants

• Immunotoxicants

• Kidney Toxicants

• Musculoskeletal Toxicants

• Mutagenic (Causes genetic damage)

• Neurotoxicants

• Reproductive Toxicants

• Respiratory Toxicants

• Skin or Sense Organ Toxicants

• Teratogenic (Causes birth defects)

 

Consequently, various combinations of organ systems may be negatively affected. This accounts for the wide variety of symptoms and manifestations of these health conditions. Chronic Chemical Injury can vary widely in the degree of severity, similar to physical injury. Physical Injury can vary from a small cut, to fractured bones, to multi-system trauma, and everything in-between. Likewise, Chronic Chemical Injury can vary from a headache, to painful muscles and joints, to multi-system trauma, to everything in-between.

However, the first medical step with each situation of chemical injury is always avoidance. The person must be removed from the toxic environment and relocated to an area of good air quality. This step is crucial in order for the medical treatments to be effective. If this step cannot be achieved, the medical treatments will either not be effective at all or will be greatly reduced in its degree of effectiveness.

The two greatest medical needs of a chronic chemical injured person are:

1. A Low-Toxicity Home - A safe place to call home – a place free of toxic chemical exposure where their health has opportunity to recover and where the person can live, work, socialize and thrive without fear of further toxic exposures.

2. Access to Low-Toxicity Medical Care and Accommodation In All Aspects of the Health Care System -  access to clinical toxicologists trained in diagnosing and treating the person's chronic chemical intolerance, and access to hospitals, nursing homes and so on, that don’t expose the patients to scent, toxic chemical cleansers, disinfectants, and so on.

If these medical needs can be met, the chronic chemically injured individual would have the opportunity for some degree of recovery from their injury (maybe even full recovery), and the opportunity to go from surviving to thriving.

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