Chronic Chemical Injury (Chemical Intolerance, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS)) is highly stigmatized. This stigma is very pervasive. It hinders the Chronic Chemically Injured from receiving the support they desperately need from the health care systems, governments, family, friends and society. It also hinders solid medical research into diagnostic testing, effective treatments and so on.

Therefore, it is imperative to fight and end the stigma to this devastating, life-altering health condition. This must be done so that the Chronic Chemically Injured can finally receive the help and support they need from the health care systems, governments, family, friends and society.

To successfully deal with the stigma associated with Chronic Chemical Injury, one must first address and expose the source of the stigma. The source is the false, misleading information put out by the chemical/pharmaceutical industry, who have a huge influence over the medical community and over governments at all levels, and this influence is on a global scale. Their aggressive, targeted, deceptive campaign began in 1990 and continues to this day.

In a nutshell, many corporations in the chemical industry have at least two divisions – one division that researches and manufactures pharmaceutical drugs, and another division that researches and manufactures pesticides, or other toxic chemical products. Therefore, if their pharmaceutical division acknowledged that the pesticide and toxic chemical division produces products that can potentially harm human health and life, they would be shooting themselves in their financial foot.

So instead these corporations chose to:

• discredit the people whose health has been negatively affected by their products,

• discredit everyone who supports the Chronic Chemically Injured, including but not limited to, politicians, government officials, medical doctors, health care practitioners, and medical researchers.

To do this, the chemical corporations purposefully used their pharmaceutical division, to present Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) as a psychiatric disorder, in which the people are just needlessly anxious over exposures to toxic chemicals. In doing so, they successfully influenced the medical world, governments and society on a global scale to stop taking this devastating, life-altering health condition seriously. This aggressive, targeted, deceptive campaign succeeded in stopping the legitimizing of Chronic Chemical Injury (Chemical Intolerance) and stopping much of the support the Chronic Chemically Injured were receiving from government and the medical system. The end result was that the Chronic Chemically Injured individuals became stigmatized and unable to access needed health care and government support.

This is documented in Dr. Ann McCampbell’s documentary: Multiple Chemical Sensitivities Under Siege. Dr. Ann McCampbell is a specialist in Internal Medicine, who also became disabled with MCS. Her documentary can be found at:  https://annmccampbellmd.com/publicationswritings/publication-1

 

​Here are a few excerpts from her documentary:

In 1990, the Chemical Manufacturers Association (now the American Chemistry Council) vowed to work to prevent the recognition of MCS out of concern for potential lost profits and increased liability if MCS were to become widely acknowledged (2). It specifically committed to work through physicians and medical associations to accomplish this, stating that it was critical to keep physicians from legitimizing MCS. Unfortunately, this plan has been relatively successful. ...

The pharmaceutical industry is also involved in the effort to suppress MCS. Drug companies, which usually work with the medical profession to try to help patients, are working to deny help for those with MCS. This is extraordinary, but can be explained by the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is intimately linked to the chemical industry. That is, many companies that make medications also manufacture pesticides, the chemicals most implicated in causing MCS and triggering symptoms in people who are chemically sensitive. For example, Novartis (formerly Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz) is a pharmaceutical company that makes and sells the widely used herbicide atrazine (3). ...

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... The pharmaceutical industry has been able to spread misinformation about MCS and limit the amount of accurate information received by physicians and other health care providers through its financial influence over medical journals, conferences, and research. ...

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Since 1996, however, the chemical industry has taken a bold new approach to the name for MCS. It has made a concerted effort to rename MCS “idiopathic environmental intolerances (IEI).” It is quite clear that its motivation is to get the word “chemical” out of the name. ....

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... implying that MCS has no known cause helps the industry. They do not want to be held responsible for their products causing MCS, or for that matter, triggering symptoms in people sensitized to them. ...

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MCS is under siege by a well-funded and widespread disinformation campaign being waged by the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Their goal is to create the illusion of controversy about  MCS and cast doubt on its existence. These industries feel threatened by this illness, but rather than heed the message that their products may be harmful, they have chosen to go after the messenger instead. While corporations are only beholden to their stockholders, medicine and government need to be responsive to the needs of their patients and citizens. Unfortunately, industry has convinced many in the medical and legal professions, the government, the general public, and even loved ones of people with MCS, that this illness doesn’t exist or is only a psychological problem. ...

The chemical/pharmaceutical industry has discredited and stigmatized the Chronic Chemically Injured – the very people who have been harmed by their products. In doing so, they have hindered the Chronic Chemically Injured from receiving the support they desperately need from the health care systems, governments, family and society.

Therefore, it is imperative that the chemical/pharmaceutical industry be exposed for their aggressive, targeted, deceptive campaign against the Chronic Chemically Injured. The chemical/pharmaceutical industries need to be exposed in the same way the tobacco industry was exposed. The stigma, purposefully caused and perpetuated by the chemical/pharmaceutical industries, will not go away until the lies and the source of the lies are exposed and until the truth triumphs over the deceptive misinformation.

Consequently, it is imperative that everyone, who is aware of this injustice, speak out loud and clear against it. In doing so, hopefully the truth will conquer over this deceptive information; and the Chronic Chemically Injured will begin receiving the help and support that they desperately need.​