Global Recognition Campaign for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

My  name is Diana Buckland from Australia. My son James suffers from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, a chemically induced illness. James had a major exposure to pesticides as an infant and again in grade 2 when we had a flea plague here. He continued to have exposures at school. He has been out of school since grade 4. He is now almost 19 years of age.
 

James at home

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I had no idea the school was using pesticide and herbicide inside and outside the school building for cockroaches, termites and mosquitos, fogging the trees, spraying inside the class rooms and even spraying the children's bag and hat racks. He was getting sicker and sicker and his behaviour continued to deteriorate. James also suffered frequent intensely severe headaches, skin rashes, vomiting, diarrhoea, severe asthma, a lot of chest infections, poor concentration and poor short term memory as well as the severe behavioural problems. He was violent and psychotic and the medications (there were a lot ) made him more toxic. How many people globally may suffer some kind of mental illness and have no idea it was caused by exposure/exposures to neurotoxic substances, such as pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, etc.

We have lived in isolation from the community and family for six years, because there are chemicals and chemically perfumed products everywhere.   I still live in hope we will one day be able to live on acreage so James can have more freedom without risk, as neighbours where we live in these densely populated areas are a constant source of exposures to toxic chemicals. If these policies were implemented in our schools, my son would not have been denied an education. See http://www.dragonfleye.org/envir.htm. A great many public facilities including hospitals, medical centres and educational facilities and other facilities involving a diverse range of activities all need to be looking at implementing the Environmental Health Policy as per Dragonfleye Charter School.

We are so concerned about James. He was so ill mentally and physically in schools we had no choice but to take him out at 10 years of age due to all the chemicals in schools none the least being the astronomical use of perfumes by staff, teachers, pupils and all the parents.  Read his story Pesticide/Herbicide exposure as an infant and in school causes chemical sensitivity.

James can't read very well and can barely write. My husband and I are in our fifties. What do we do with James? He has been detoxifying and avoiding chemicals (as much as possible in this polluted society by staying at home for six years - just recently has had some brief outings).  He has been asking for about the last year to go to school - where?  He needs education and socialisations - where? The School of Today Rockhampton is a chemical free school and no perfumes - but no one has followed their lead. My fear grows each day for his future - the six years of isolation which meant avoidance of all the chemicals in society that made him so ill, detoxification programmes and homeopathic treatments and nutrient therapy etc., have helped him to improve substantially, but he will have to remain very careful indeed.

My son is now almost 16 years of age and has been detoxifying his chemically poisoned brain and body for 6 years - but society, family, friends, no-one wanted to know or help us, as their chemicals and chemically perfumed products were too important to them - sadly, we mattered to no-one.
                   
Our societies are saturated with toxic/neurotoxic and carcinogenic chemicals - horrific crimes are committed constantly, differing levels of behavioural problems throughout our entire society and differing levels of learning problems, every form of cancer that you can imagine (have people become so complacent hearing about differing forms of cancers that they are not asking why is this happening?), people suffering from general poor health and doctors cannot find out what is wrong in some cases and so many constant and differing forms of illnesses that our global health systems are splitting at the seams, attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and differing forms of mental illness, psychosis, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, & parental/child conflict disorder, conduct disorder, speech/language disorder, depressive disorders, major depressive illness, autism, asperger's syndrome (i.e. high functioning autism), developmental disorder and every kind of disorder and syndrome that can be thought of - suicides and we are constantly shown pictures of babies, children, adults in hospitals globally suffering from various forms of cancer and appeal for money to be raised for "cancer research" and everyone is overwhelmed as pleas to raise more money are constant, does anyone sit back and say "hey just a minute - why is this happening - why are all these people  contracting cancers" - doesn't anyone make the chemical connection?

You only have to take a look at the saturation of toxic neurotoxic and carcinogenic chemicals that are in everyday life

I am absolutely astonished that more people are not waking up to this.

Until people globally become informed about these chemicals and their impact on human health and the health of our environment - our future is bleak to say the least.

 
James is one of the many multi-millions of victims globally suffering the health effects of exposures to neurotoxic pesticides/ insecticides and the many other toxic chemicals in our societies.


James' Obsessive Compulsive Disorder was so bad, his hands were bleeding from washing all the time, he used to collect sticks and stones and anything gold, obsessive with food etc and was teased mercilessly by other children and shunned by neighbours, friends and families, so obviously, so were we, he had no control over his behaviour whatsoever (which was as a result of exposures to neurotoxic pesticides/insecticides/herbicides etc.)


James only went to school to l0 years old, he is now l6, he can't write properly can painstakingly print his name. I don't know how he will go in life.


A Doctor trained in the field of Environmental Medicine was James' only chance of any kind of improvement/recovery. The bicom treatments gave James considerable improvement as did the many years of detoxifying, desensitising and vitamin, minerals etc., and the avoidance of chemical exposures were/are all crucial to his improvements. He had bleeding intestines, leaking gut, vomited a lot, gastric a lot, excruciating headaches, sensitive eyes and hearing, skin irritation and sores, constant ear infections, chest infections, chronic asthma, red ears, black rings around his eyes, bruising on his body, painful joints would have uncontrollable rage outbursts, scream in pain, cry in absolute despair and collapse and sleep, he could tear the place apart in his rage outbursts which we could not control, he would seriously hurt himself and us and the house was trashed, he would be suicidal in his thoughts as he hated what was happening to him.


Some of his reactions would last up to 4 days, and sometimes he would have 20 reactions (outburst) per day.


His mainstream medical diagnoses (which were labels for chemical brain injury &* chemical sensitivity) were:-

obsessive compulsive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, parent/child conflict disorder, anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, speech and language disorder, chronic and severe asthma, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, aspergers syndrome (high functioning autism). Prescribed medications certainly made his sensitivities much worse and also particularly the neuroleptic medications he was prescribed - the side effects and increased and widened chemical sensitivities were worsening. Just before he really deteriorated seriously I had a pesticide exposure with him and I recall, even though I had no idea at the time, that I cried non-stop for three years and was Prozac treated for Major Depressive Illness (if only I had known this was one of the many illness one can suffer from exposures to neurotoxic pesticides, insecticides, herbicides etc.

My son was so physically ill and mentally ill from the neurotoxic chemicals and these neuroleptic and other medications made him much worse, he needed to detoxify in a completely chemical free environment, which was six years at home.

(But neighbour chemical exposures was an ongoing serious problem).

James was treated appallingly at school by children and staff and exposed to a multitude of toxic and neuro-toxic chemicals, pesticides and herbicides regularly and staff, students and parents with all the chemically perfumed products.

And when a child has these severe problems in particular behavioural problems, all friends and family disappear.

When you do find out through the Doctors practising Environmental Medicine what is wrong with your child (or yourself) and you need to avoid all chemical exposures (including chemically perfumed products) in most cases your family and friends are unwilling to comply - so you're in a lose lose situation.


The medications (there were a lot ) made him more toxic - I noticed his allergies and sensitivies getting worse, there is so much I want to tell you but it is too involved - he has been out of school since grade 4 - we lived isolated from the community and family as there are chemicals and chemical perfumed products everywhere - and no one cared or believed what we said.

I guess I should point out that it was not just chlorpyrifos - also unidentified pesticides - the one used in our home for the flea plague was Crackdown - but I expect with the Local Authorities in charge of fogging the trees and bag racks for the school - it could have been any pesticide - I do know the local authorities certainly used Malathion at times.

We have poisons sprayed from helicopters for many months of the year for the mosquito eradication programme, they are going to have to do a lot better than this and stop this aerial poisoning of everything and everyone, most councils perform this as well as have ground crews going round spraying or fogging as well, and then you have all the councils with the herbicide crews spraying weed killer around everywhere. Add to this all the residents who use all these deadly chemicals as well, no wonder there is so much illness and problems.

James was trialled on about 10 different medications from as an infant tofranil, anafranil, catapress, ritalin(which made him develop hallucinations and toxic psychosis and involuntary ticks - I can remember he was sitting on his bed in the middle and spitting all around his bed and in the bathroom screaming he had spiders all over him - it was horrific and this was only a fraction of his suffering)- his behaviour and language were shocking. The obsessive compulsive disorder was worsening - I had to wash clothing 20 or more times before he would wear it (but clothing is full of chemicals, fire retardant and preservative chemicals etc., and even then some he wouldn't wear - his sock seams and shoe laces had to be perfect and his hand washing was out of control - his hands were cracked and bleeding, he would collect sticks and stones, and anything gold colored, he was the target of taunts, teasing, physical and emotianal abuse by all the children in the area and was treated like something from another planet by my so called neighbours and people in the area, not once did any of them care to ask why he was like that or if they could help - James was very autistic -like in his behavior - hiding under furniture - covering his ears and shutting his eyes - he was sound and light sensitive - he would vomit a lot - gastric - sick all the time and the damage neurologically was pathetic - his behaviour was appalling - violent - abusive - destructive - and suicidal, obsessive, would bite himself and pull his hair out and do that to us also, because he hated the way he was - no-one accepted him - no-one liked him - the entire family could not /would not accept him - thank God my husband and I loved him because nobody else on God's earth did - I think that destroyed me more than anything, nobody cared - I was completely heartbroken - I am so angry because these toxic/neurotoxic and carcinogenic chemicals are everywhere and the vast amount of populations are kept in sheer ignorance as to their human destruction.

I should mention James was also trialled on dexamphetamine - as a very young child also melerril and the last one trialled was the resperidone (anti-psychotic) - I was noticing his chemical sensitivities getting worse and he was getting sicker and sicker - after 14 months on this last drug - I said enough and against the doctor's wishes - I took him off it over 2 weeks - he had major psychotic episode - so doctor said put him back on it - I was not happy - I rang the drug manufacturer ( I might add that this drug should not have been prescribed for a child under 15 - James was 10 at this time ) and they had no guidelines for withdrawal of the drug - so I had to think and decided to take 2 or more months - slowly reducing the dose and I successfully got him off it.

James was on these cocktail of drugs for about 8.5 years all up trying to control the dreadful behaviour of my son caused by these chemicals - as an infant he was also a chronic asthmatic - sick a lot and of course the pesticides was the last straw - he was on large quantities of asthma medication (prescribed by a Chest Physician) as he was always sick - he was on ventolin and becotide and sometimes beclofort inhalers - ventolin and atrovent in nebuliser and sometimes oral steroids when he was extra bad - when I kept James away from chemicals and chemical perfumed products and of course all the food and drink chemicals - he had no more asthma - if only we had access to health care, education facilities and social facilities that were chemical free and perfume free, people with allergies and chemical sensitivities would have some quality of life.

He is doing much better now at l6 but is very lonely and of course with no education, has not much future to look forward to and I have applied for a Disability Pension for James and this was granted in July, 2004.

I do a lot of voluntary work and will continue to do so to help all those people who are chemically ill/injured/sensitive.

 

        That is why he is learning guitar,
        only time will tell if he can learn
        well enough to become a good
        guitar player and perhaps a singer.
 

       Jimmy Buckland - January 2007

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