Stories of Recovery: Derval Dunford

I am always deeply encouraged when I read the recovery stories of other people with chemical sensitivities. Derval Dunford is one of the people. I first read about Dunford through Planet Thrive’s interview with her.

Derval Dunford © Daithí Turne

She discusses the traumatic death of her father, as well as her years of working with chemical products she used as a beautician. After many glimpses of chemical sensitivities in her twenties (such as reacting to potpourri in the shop she worked in), her main acute exposure occurred in November of 2003 from oil paint. After that point, she became hypersensitive to everything that was chemically fragranced.

Dunford says it was a gradual process that brought her back to an acceptable level of tolerance after two years. Along with healthy dietary changes and avoiding chemical products, she used mediation, visualization exercises and relaxation daily. This is what led her to develop her own meditation CD. The CD is called Sui, and it includes guided and non-guided meditation techniques.

Derval Dunford © Daithí Turne

Click here at Planet Thrive to read the full interview.

Her CD is available to purchase at http://www.sui.ie, where you can listen to a sample track. I love her beautifully soothing Irish voice and look forward to owning this CD.

Choosing Friendships over Fragrance

Anyone with MCS knows the isolation and loneliness this disorder can cause, as is so eloquently spoken in this video about having to ask your friends to accommodate your fragrance-free needs, and whether that friend or family member is willing to accommodate and choose friendship over fragrance, or not. I’ve had mixed personal experiences, where certain friends and family are very understanding and willing to be fragrance-free (at various levels) and others who are very adamant that they like their chemical fragrance and will not choose otherwise.

Toxins in Everyday Household Products with Anne Steinemann PhD

I found this interview on cleanerindoorair.org with Anne C. Steinemann. She is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Professor of Public Affairs, at the University of Washington (UW). She received her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University (my alma mater).

This interview was extremely informative and enlightened me on pollutant and exposure information that I was not even aware of. She discusses the statistics of two national surveys she conducted, which site the prevalence of MCS nationally is11.4% and in terms of fragrance sensitivity, more than 30% of the general population reported adverse effects when they were next to someone with a scented product on. The numbers are higher for asthmatics.

She also discusses her study of fragranced consumer products and the chemicals that are emitted. One of the most disturbing things she discusses is that many products that are labeled “green,” “all natural,” and even “fragrance-free” were found to emit toxic or hazardous chemicals that weren’t even significantly different from other products.