(Inspired byNEW BARBIE DOLLS HIT THE MARKET JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS, Nov. 1997 http://ehnca.org/www/humor/Barbies.htmRL)

Comes resplendently dressed in a canary yellow outfit, with her very own, well-outgassed, double-cartridge, Willson Premier Half Mask.¹ Barbie's cartridges are a fetching chartreuse and mauve (product number 31311) on navy (silicon) . . . for afterall, she is Barbie.

Barbie also sports Adrien Bledstein's I Can Breathe Masks® -- http://www.icanbreathe.com/ -- for times of lesser pollution. Some of Barbie's friends have been able to travel far and wide using only Adrien's masks.

To complete her go-anywhere outfit, Barbie also packs an oxygen tank (doctor prescribed). The tank pack has two methods for carry: sexy, sling over one shoulder, or double-shoulder straps for the more casual and easier to carry long distances, backpack style. With your MCS Barbie adorned with mask and tank, you can take her almost anywhere. For example --

• Take your Barbie to work or school.

  If your workplace or school follows the plans suggested and/or implemented by several organizations, your Barbie will be able to function right along with you. But if your school or workplace is like so many others, you may become as sick as your MCS Barbie. See Business Week's "Is Your Office Killing You? Sick buildings are seething with molds, monoxide--and worse" (http://www.businessweek.com/common_frames/bws.htm?http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_23/b3684001.htm)

  Maybe you are already quite ill, with recurrent flu- and cold-like symptoms, asthma, chronic bronchitis, laryngitis, sinusitis, rhinitis (leaky-beaky), headaches including migraines, dizzyness and/or brain fog from time to time, etc., but are still struggling along because you can still load up on drugs, prescribed and/or over-the-counter. If so, your doctor needs to be educated about the insidious effects of our modern chemical-laden society and the adverse effects your body can suffer from over-reliance upon drugs. Can you or your doctor say, IATROGENIC?

• Visit your health care facility -- avoid (but do read!) Dr. Barbie.

  Of course, you must prepare your Barbie for the occasion by taking her Honeycomb mask by Adrien, and, of course, her respirator and her oxygen tank along.

  You could take an added step and dress your Barbie in her canary yellow outfit to help drive home that BFO (blinding flash of the obvious) -- that health care facilities are among the last places for your MCS Barbie to visit.

  You may ask: "Why protect Barbie from healthcare facilities?" The answer: Because healthcare facilities, including doctors offices, hospitals, medical buildings and skilled nursing facilities, have become chemical warfare zones.

  In the olden days -- not all that long ago, really -- nurses and other health care staff were told to avoid wearing fragrances to work. It was written in their policy books, and often, can still be found in old copies. The days of that bit of common sense have gone by the wayside. Maybe because staff -- NOT public health -- is protected by the ruling of DOJ's John L. Wodatch, Chief, Public Access Section. See 01-03625 at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/foia/tal605.txt

  Now, if the doctor is the least bit astute, the patient is told: "AVOID fragrances". As if that were even remotely possible! Especially since many of the healthcare professionals are often wearing scents. Additionally, there are very strong, very fragrant, cleaning solutions and the omnipresent air "fresheners"² and pesticides, which include disinfectants.

  MCS Barbie also carries a riddle, which you may ask of the doctor or nurse: What is the difference between coal miners of yore and the MCS-disbelievers of today? The coal miners believed their canaries!

  So, when visiting a health care facility, ALWAYS make sure your MCS Barbie has her masks and oxygen tank -- and don't breathe the air, yourself!
  
  To visit an exception -- a safe hospital -- journey to Louisville:
  Jewish Hospital is located at 217 E. Chestnut St.,
  Louisville, KY 40202; phone, 502.587.4412.

  And to learn about other health care facilities that are starting to learn, visit EHN's "Take Heart!" at To help your hospital become healthier, get Toni Temple's booklet, "Healthier Hospitals".

• Attempt an evening out to dinner with Barbie.

  You may find youself and your Barbie in a restaurant where the hosts, serving staff and/or other patrons prefer that you smell their own strong perfume rather than the aroma of any food -- over which the chef worked so hard, and for which you've paid perfectly good money to enjoy.

  While you all may find the hundreds of chemicals in any one perfume annoying, your Barbie could become dangerously ill -- even go into anaphylactic shock. However, as you have her equipped with her tank and mask, she may not have to immediately vacate the dining establishment in the throes of a horrendous, painful, asthmatic coughing attack, which is just one of her many reactions to the toxins in modern synthetic fragrances.

• You can also have a great deal of fun with your Barbie, just around your neighborhood -- and in your own home!

  Consumer products in California (1999) "Consumer Products emit about 260 tons per day of VOCs in California alone. These emissions represent approximately 15% of the total VOCs emitted by all stationary sources in California."

  2002 update: "Consumer Products emit about 267 tons per day of VOCs during 2000 in California alone. These emissions represent approximately 8% of the total man-made VOC emissions in California." See: Consumer Products Enforcement Program http://www.arb.ca.gov/enf/consprod.htm

  Note: In 1999, they measured against "all stationary sources," while in 2000, they measured against "the total man-made VOC emissions in California." Don't let that drop in percentage fool you, there has been a jump in VOC emissions by seven tons per day. We ALL can do something about that by switching to lower emitting VOC products. Our purchases will tell the industry what to do with their high-emitting VOC products more than any words could ever do.
  
  
  2003 update:  Chemicals in Home a Big Smog Source
  GARY POLAKOVIC / LA Times 9mar03
  http://www.mindfully.org/Air/2003/Home-Chemicals-Smog9mar03.htm

MCSBarbie on fabric softeners . . .

Through your Barbie, let's take a look at one such type of highly volatile product: Fabric Softeners. Because the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from fabric softeners are allowed to escape into the ambient air from neighbors' homes, apartment houses or laundromats, you get to watch MCS Barbie fall flat on her face -- and that chest of hers. (As a special bonus, ice packs, ointments and bandages are also included so you can treat your Barbie's injuries that result from such falls. A special treat for all to see, is a dripping ice pack applied to the bruised chestal area of your Barbie!)

MCSBarbie on perfume and other fragranced personal care products

Wear scents around unprotected Barbie and you will push her automatic buttons, causing MCS Barbie to go into her horrendous, "barking like a seal in heat"* asthmatic cough, which competes with the seals on San Francisco's PIER 39. If your MCS Barbie is in the vicinity of a particularly heavy synthetic scent, heavily applied, you may also watch her stagger dizzily while she barks like a seal. (70% - 100 % of the chemicals are derived from petroleum products.)

MCS Barbie also comes equipped with her own soapbox -- the better for her to continue her struggle for your right-to-know. Because your talking Barbie has a built-in sense of obligation to share accurate information, simply attach the accompanying soapbox to her feet and she is automatically wound up on the subjects of --

• the 3,000 - 5,000 chemicals used in untested combination by an unregulated industry, to create the scents in personal grooming and cleaning products you have been led to believe you need -- despite the fact that you haven't been informed of the contents, which are protected by trade secret laws;

• the lack of government control over the development and production of toxic chemicals in products sold for personal use and for cleaning/maintenance projects;

• the right for all to work or get an education in a healthy environment;

• the right to healthcare in an atmosphere devoid of superfluous toxins;

• the right to receive mail that has not been contaminated by leaking scent strips in magazines and advertisements;

• the need to work diligently toward attaining the twin goals: the public has aRight-to-Know, and subsequently, for those who learn, sharing the sense of an Obligation-to-Inform.

 

¹Barbie's mask looks like the one available through Lab Safety Supply at http://www.labsafety.com/store/product.asp?dept_id=1728&pf_id=53993&cat_prefix=WQ. Only the cartridges have changed to protect my health. See 31311 - Uni-Sorb/P100 Cartridge
If link given is not available try: http://www.labsafety.com/home.htm Key in "WILLSON PREMIER" into the search engine. Click on the mask which ends in the size you need. The last character, "L," "M," or "S" refers to size.

A picture of 31311 - Uni-Sorb/P100 cartridge available at
http://www.labsafety.com/store/assets/support_documents/31310cartchart.htm.

Please remember that web pages change on other sites. If these links do not work, use the search feature of the website.

In the SF Bay Area, Barbie visits Sanderson Safety Supply in Richmond, California. See http://www.sandersonsafety.com/html/contact.html .

PLEASE REMEMBER: What works for Barbie today, may not work for Barbie tomorrow. AND
what works for Barbie -- whenever -- may not work for you at all. MCS is OJT.
(Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is On the Job Training.) -- barb

²"Air Fresheners Really Air Polluters" By Dean Edell, MD, July 01, 1998, and also see EHN's section at http://ehnca.org/www/ehnlinx/a.htm#Fresheners)

---

Since this was written, Barbie now also sports the latest and greatest in less obtrusive masks -- the I Can Breathe ® Masks by Adrien Bledstein.

Barbie wears her Silk Comfort Mask (white silk, red rose bud) when you take her hiking the trails. Not to keep out dust, for your Barbie thrives on dust. But to keep out the gnats and flies that love to buzz Barbie. Barbie also uses the Honeycomb (Mesh) Mask with replaceable Activated Carbon insert. Her mask is grey with red rose bud, but it is also available in white. Adrien Bledstein also has a mask designed for evening wear: Lace Mask with Activated Carbon Filter. Contact her about it. You can learn more about Barbie's latest accoutrements -- and more -- by visiting Adrien Bledstein's website at http://www.icanbreathe.com/

Adrien's lace mask is a relatively recent invention, certainly developed after MCSBarbie's limerick about her former workplace.

---

1999 --

Join MCS Barbie and her friends ... write to the US Food and Drug Administration requesting that they enforce the regulation already on their books and require warning labels on fragrances released to market without adequate testing.

As the industry is unregulated, and hasn't even been required to report the complaints it has received over the years, we the people have served as guinea pigs for these toxic chemical products. Ironically, too many "experts" -- mainstream medical and government -- have discounted all evidence of our chemical injury, claiming we are somatizing. That smacks too much of their regurgitating information provided by the Chemical Manufacturers Association in their diatribe, the 1990 Environmental Illness Briefing Paper

2000 --

Folks, do spend some time with Environmental Health Perspectives. Their latest information --

• Levels of Seven Urinary Phthalate Metabolites in a Human Reference Population
  Benjamin C. Blount,1 Manori J. Silva,1 Samuel P. Caudill,1 Larry L. Needham,1 Jim L. Pirkle,1 Eric J. Sampson,1 George W. Lucier,2 Richard J. Jackson,1 and John W. Brock1 Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 108, Number 10, October 2000
  http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2000/108p972-982blount/blount-full.html

• Identification of Phthalate Esters in the Serum of Young Puerto Rican Girls with Premature Breast Development
  Ivelisse Colón,1 Doris Caro,1 Carlos J. Bourdony,2,3 and Osvaldo Rosario1
  1Department of Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  2Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes Division, San Juan City Hospital, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  3Department of Pediatrics, University of Puerto Rico, School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  Children's Health Article; Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 108, Number 9, September 2000
  http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2000/108p895-900colon/abstract.html

• The Estrogenic Activity of Phthalate Esters In Vitro
  Catherine A. Harris, 1 Pirkko Henttu, 2 Malcolm G. Parker, 2 and John P. Sumpter 1
  1 Department of Biology and Biochemistry, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, United Kingdom
  2 Molecular Endocrinology Laboratory, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, United Kingdom
  Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 105, Number 8, August 1997
  http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1997/105-8/harris.html

• A Variety of Environmentally Persistent Chemicals, Including Some Phthalate Plasticizers, Are Weakly Estrogenic
  Susan Jobling,1 Tracey Reynolds,1 Roger White,2 Malcolm G. Parker,2 and John P. Sumpter1
  1Department of Biology and Biochemistry, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH UK
  2Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, WC2A 3PX UK
  http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1995/103-6/jobling.html

Now, to tie this in with the petition EHN has before the FDA ...

From EHN's FDA Petition, Docket Number: 99P-1340/CP 1
http://ehnca.org/www/FDApetition/bkgrinfo.htm

Analyses -
http://ehnca.org/www/FDApetition/bkgrinfo.htm#Analyses

Analysis Summary of Eternity eau de parfum by Calvin Klein
http://ehnca.org/www/FDApetition/analysis.htm

One of the chemicals found through analysis:

Phthalic acid, diethyl ester; 10.5 percent of fragrance portion of formula; CAS # 84-66-2

Aldrich -- you must register, but that is free, then check the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) for the chemical by its CAS # (Chemical Abstracts Service )
http://www.sigma-aldrich.com/saws.nsf/Home?OpenFrameset

Phthalic acid, diethyl ester is used as a Plasticizer ...

Aldrich: Product Number:

524972


Product Name:

Diethyl phthalate (DEP), 99.5%

Miscellaneous: This chemical is in the EPA inventory under TSCA.

Label Precautions: Possible teratogen
Irritant
Lachrymator
Target organ: nerve

And in Flavors and Fragrances ...

Aldrich: Product Number:

W512206


Product Name:

Diethyl phthalate, 99+%

Miscellaneous: This chemical is in the EPA inventory under TSCA.

Label Precautions: Harmful vapor
Avoid inhalation
Irritant
Lachrymator
Possible teratogen
Target organ: nerve
Flavors and Fragrances

2001 -- 2005 . . .

The petition is still open and we are still trying to inform people of their golden opportunity to inform the FDA of their own adverse reactions to synthetic scents -- as well as the negative effects suffered by their children or elderly parents. Anyone suffering adverse reactions to fragrances should be informed of the petition. We are asking that they write to the FDA. All that has to be done is ...

Reference: Docket Number: 99P-1340/CP 1
Email to: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov

For more information on the petition, online, see:
http://ehnca.org/www/FDApetition/bkgrinfo.htm

Be sure to check out Product Label, available through the FDA Petition. Also, take time to read the information and visit the outbound links, which appear below the image of the label.
http://ehnca.org/www/FDApetition/eterbkpg.htm

Please join us in writing the FDA, IF you, your children or your elderly parents, have adverse reactions to synthetic fragrances used in personal care and cleaning/maintenance products.

Also write, even if you are still healthy, if you feel that it is past time due for the FDA to develop industry standards for product safety and for labeling. The FDA must hear from us -- by the hundred thousands, just as the USDA did regarding ORGANICS. The FDA has not heard enough from the industry about our complaints. The industry does not have to pass along the complaints it has received to a government agency. Remember, without your input, the products continue to reach market without adequate testing. YOU and your Barbie, are the guinea pigs. Also remember, phases outs of harmful products or products with harmful ingredients may take years. The longer we wait to demand SAFE products proved safe BEFORE marketing, the longer we wait until we can be assured all unsafe products are off the shelves.

Let's stop and think for just a minute: Synthetic chemical drugs carry warnings regarding negative impacts on health, otherwise known as contraindications. So many of those adverse reactions to synthetic drugs, which they warn people about, are the very same ones we get from synthetic chemical fragrance products and pesticides (also a fragrance product, by the way). Nose bleeds, headaches, stomach and gastro-intestinal problems, acid reflux, dizziness, anaphylaxis, muscle pain and joint aches ... It's the chemicals folks. In the world of drugs, they are known as "adverse drug events (ADE)" (http://www.senate.gov/~labor/hearings/feb00hrg/020100wt/jmj0201/emk0201/fda0201/heinrich/body_heinrich.htm).

Whether our adverse reactions are to synthetic drugs, synthetic pesticides or synthetic fragrances, the symptoms are clearly similar. Why is it that our adverse reactions to drugs are acknowledged to the point that drugs have been recalled and all are must carry warnings, whether advertised in print, or on radio or TV (approved by the FDA in the recent past), yet synthetic fragrances and pesticides skate by free of warnings?

Truly, this is a case of adding INSULT to INJURY. In the case of synthetic fragrance products, the victims of fragrance chemical pollution are the ones who are misleadingly labeled "psychosomatic," "hypochondriac," "malingerer," . . . We are stultified by industry flacks and apologists, such as Dr. Dean Edell, Michael Fumento, Stephen Barrett, Dr. Ronald Gots (who organizes chemical industry front organizations), Steven Milloy, Dr. Abba Terr (testified against Dr. Robert Sinaiko), John Stossel, Leah McLaren (loaded up with synthetic scents and then smugly sat herself down in a hospital with a fragrance-free policy in Halifax), ... You may read some of their er ... ah ... harangues available through EHN's Stuff Happens! Can our detractors say, iatrogenic?

It seems to me, that with the chemical industry's arsenal used against us -- including by our really poorly trained in environmental illnesses mainstream doctors -- our rates would be dropping, if indeed we were all such a bunch of whining losers. However, despite the fact that this is "not a popular disability to have" -- stated by a woman who also had a more readily recognized disability, which meant she had to use a wheelchair -- our numbers soar. How sad, for like most cancers -- another Enviromenal Illness -- MCS is largely a preventable disability.

Synthetic fragrance products have demonstrated the need to carry warnings. Certainly the public deserves no less of the synthetic fragrance industry than it receives from the synthetic pharmaceutical industry. Fragrances should be pre-market tested for adverse effects upon inhalation, as well as for their role as carcinogens (capable of causing cancer), neurotoxins (adversely affecting brain and nervous systems), tertaogens (adversely affecting embryonic and fetal development), hormone disurpters (capable of affecting developing fetuses, children and adults -- males and females). We who have been so maligned should instead be viewed as Human Observational Studies, for we are the very people who can give a clue to systemic and long-term effects of our modern synthetic scents, released to market without due oversight by any federal agency.

Until such time as our government begins to protect us as we are led to believe they do, Caveat emptor!


And then, because so many of our cleaning products are also superfluous toxins, I invite you to visit the cleaning tips passed down from Barbie's Mommy. Visit http://ehnca.org/www/humor/Barbetip.htm

MCS Barbie stepping down from her soap box . . . for now.

*quote of Barbie's father, for MCS Barbie was
Chemical-induced Asthmatic Barbie since age
five -- a whole bunch of years ago!

-- barb wilkie© November 14, 1997