I was born in Rome in 1972. I have always suffered from an deficit of the immune system since my infancy.

Only recently I found out that this had been due to the fact that my mother had a new amalgam filling during my breast-feeding, which is known to cause allergy to mercury in the the baby.

I myself had the first amalgam fillings in my mouth at the age of seven. I immediately started to suffer from immotivate crying crisis, then I was always tired and I could not do things as easily as I did before. I remember perfectly that I used to repeat to myself: "At the age of seven my life has changed completely and sooner or later I will discover why".

At the age of sixteen I had new amalgam fillings and I immediately had panic attacks, insomnia and the so-called "spastic bolus" for a year, but no doctor was able to find the correlation of these symptoms with the dental treatments I had. Most of the doctors that visited me (mostly professors of the University of Rome) have liquidated my pathologies like "psychosomatic", but I did not seem to have any psychical disturbance. My own teachers judged me as a reflecting and a lot balanced person, with an optimal scholastic rendering. Moreover, I had maximum marks and I was also a keyboards player and pop singer.

In November 1990 the dentist put a fixed dental machine in my mouth. I started to suffer from iperacousis and, after a week, a tinnitus appeared in my ears after a concert of pop music and it never disappeared, devastating my all life. The tinnitus is still very loud and annoying. I had to give up my profession in music even if I had signed a contract with a music editor.

In 1993 I started a long-term psychotherapy until 2001.

In 1995 my dentist had the “brilliant” idea of removing all my amalgam filling because they were oxidated and black. Since in 1991 I had watched a Tv programme about amalgam risks for health, I asked for white fillings, but he insisted that there was no risk and he put new amalgam filling in my mouth. As a result, I suffered for a year of mysterious high fevers and my tinnitus and iperacousis became unbearable. I wanted to commit a suicide. I was in hospital several times, but no infection was identified as a cause. In fact, now I know from the German studies on amalgam that those fevers were “cerebral fevers” or effects of the so-called “brain allergy” to mercury.

I was able to stand the sufferences of tinnitus thanks to the tinnitus-retraining-therapy of prof. Hazell of London, but my health got worse day after day. I started to have chemical sensitivity and to avoid certains smells, even if I did not realize that it could be an illness because I was used to consider myself as “problematic”.

In 1998 I watched a new Tv programme about amalgam (Report). There was an interview of prof. Max Daunderer of the University of Munich in Germany, the toxicologist who is famous for going in help of the victims of chemical accident of Seveso and Bophal. He said that amalgam is the cause of at least 400 health problems and that it needs to be removed by dentists with a special protection protocol. At that time I found the programme very interesting so I recorded it. I started to talk about amalgam risks to my doctors and to my psychoanalyst but no-one gave credit to what I was saying.

In spite of the difficulties to study with this continuous buzz in the ears, I have succeeded to graduate and to take a master in journalism.

When I started to work in a Tv journal where everybody used to smoke, I started to suffer from asthma. The doctors continued to tell me that I was "ill-fated" and I had to surrender to the evidence. However, I suspected more and more about a toxic cause of my health problems and I started to study the elements in passive smoke and I found out that there were several heavy metals in it.

So I was determined to remove my metallic dental fillings in order to verify an eventual improvement. As soon as I removed the first amalgam fillings in december 2000 my life was devastated because I started to have a strong multiple chemical sensitivity as well as electrosensitivity, tremors, coagulation and cardiac problems. I remembered the Tv programme so I went to Munich to prof. Daunderer and his dentist-collaborator, prof. Ottaviano Tapparo. He removed my amalgam fillings with the protection protocol and I was better and the National Health Systems payed all the treatments for 3 years because they admitted that the amalgam poisoning (Daunderer’s Syndrome and MCS) are not treated in Italy.

In 2001 also gave up the psychotherapy, with the the favorable opinion of my doctor, because it was nonsense for my case.

However my MCS goes worse day after day because of the expositions to chemicals in my environment (I live in a block of flats). I can not tolerate the small traces of scents (also in the open air), VOCs, pesticides, Herbicides, passive smoking, smog, etc. I also have problems with objects, such as new furnitures and carpets, new clothes, new cars, mobile phones, printed paper, ink, plastic and metal objects, etc.

Since I got MCS I could tele-work, but recently I am not able to spend much time at the computer. Three months ago I was exposed to formaldehyde that came out from a cabinet and my house has been contaminated. From then I live only in my room and, if I want to go out, I must pass from the window. I had been looking for a new house in the last 2 years, but I was not able to find one good for my problems. I also have problems in going for a walk because I smells scents at a distance of 100 meters. I can go for a walk in the beach only early in the morning or late in the evening when the wind comes from the sea. All the time spent in my room, without opening the windows for hours to avoid scents of the neighbours, makes me sicker and sicker.

I depend completely on my parents for everything: shopping, cooking, etc. My social life does not exist. It is difficult to become ill at the age of 30 because you do not have the time to create such deep friendships to overcome the difficulties of MCS. Nobody wants to decontaminate him/herself (mostly to wash their dresses with bicarbonate) in order to meet me in the open air for a walk. My old friends are disposed to have few contacts with me at the telephone, but this is a great suffering for me because of the electrosensitivity. My great comfort is television but I wonder how long I will be able to tolerate it.

Francesca

ITALY