JULIA Kendall wished me bon voyage the beginning of July as my husband and I left for our first European holiday. A few days later, Julia left on her own journey for another plane, with her family in close attendance.

This issue of The New Reactor is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend, Julia Kendall. --barb

Julia Kendall entered my life in March 1992 as she did many lives -- like a beacon.

Following my years of worsening health as a reaction to fragrance products in the workplace, I suffered a major assault from a heavily applied, heavy musk-like scent -- while attending a ballgame in an outdoor park in April 1991. I grew sicker around various fragrance products. Some of my co-workers became increasingly more offended. I was accused of making a big issue of it, of faking. The delicacy of the matter is that fragrances chosen as a personal signature quickly, and obviously, make me ill. A personal choice by one, becomes the air to breathe for all. At that time doctors would not believe me.

I came to know Julia Kendall because of a catalyst -- and having come to know and love Julia, that seems only fitting!

The 1992 event which led to the change in my life was the posting of a newspaper column on the bulletin board at my workplace with the first of several hateful-hurtfuls -- as I've come to name them -- directed at me. When I responded to the note via a little Post-It that "My coughing is asthma and it hurts" the column was thrown away. I looked for it in recycling and then finally found it in the trash, dug it out, brushed off the coffee grounds, dried it, read it, wept, and kept it.

Julia Kendall had been named in that column -- the author claimed that the perfume thing had gone too far. I knew nothing of this Julia person, nor of anyone else with my many and varied symptoms. But from reading that article with its negative bent, I felt that Julia Kendall would be the person to contact.

I wound up speaking with one of the most wonderful, caring, understanding, helpful individuals I had ever encountered. Julia Kendall, as was her wont, asked not if I could afford to pay for copies or postage. She sensed the urgency and sent the names of doctors and the first of many packets of research information on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). I read it voraciously.

It was through Julia's research and generosity that I learned that the chemicals in fragrances, pesticides, cleaning, laundry and maintenance products, were responsible for my debilitating and disabling illnesses -- more than even I realized.

Through Julia's work and her assembled materials, I learned that my skin eruptions, facial numbing, mental fogginess, dizziness and falling, blackouts, asthma, etc., could also be explained by the outgassing chemicals from personal care and cleaning products used by others!

Once armed with the information from Julia, I was able to more easily correlate cause and effect. I had evidence that I wasn't psychosomatic, I was a walking laboratory! (Oh, how I can still hear and see Julia's wonderful, rich, warm, hearty, head-tossed-back laugh when I came out with that one!)

Julia had culled information on chemicals used to create fragrance products and asked me to put it into flyer format. Out of this project, bloomed not only a wonderful friendship, but the one-page hardcopy flyers: Twenty Most Common Chemicals Found in Thirty-one Fragrance Products (http://ehnca.org/ehn20.htm), as well as Fabric Softeners = Health Risks From Dryer Exhaust and Treated Fabrics (http://ehnca.org/ehnfs.htm). Her work was copied -- with her permission -- and distributed widely. Julia had already collaborated with others to produce the very informative piece, Making Sense of Scents (http://ehnca.org/ehnmsofs.htm).

Julia Kendall was a pioneer in trying to dispatch the insidiousness of chemical sensitivity, which as we all know, goes far beyond just living with its disabling physical effects. We've had to endure the damning and damaging attitudinal barriers outlined in the Chemical Manufacturers Associations 1990 "call to arms" -- their "Environmental Illness Briefing Paper" at http://ehnca.org/www/books/cmaeibri.htm. Julia held steadfast to her belief -- which I as firmly held -- that people have a right to know.

Julia continued her work despite her illness, gaining strength from the joy of helping people she'd never have the pleasure of meeting. As sick as she was, she'd take phone calls from those who were desperately seeking information, and she'd phone visit her friends without alarming them to the precarious state of her health. Julia and I were looking forward to working with Amy Marsh on Working Fragrance Free.

I miss Julia very much. Yet I take comfort in the fact that her work is in worldwide distribution, as printed matter and on the Web. Jacki and Gorden Barineau were the first to upload her material http://www.ourlittleplace.com/chemicals.html. It is also on EHN's FORMER site (now Barb Wilkie's site) at http://ehnca.org/www/ -- The Work of Julia Kendall (1935 - 1997) http://ehnca.org/www/ehnhompg/kendall.htm.

Those Julia irritated, will continue to be irritated. For the millions she helped -- when we all were so in need of a "helping hand" -- she will continue to help. She will also succor those who have yet to learn of the insidious nature of chemical sensitivity. Julia's work is ours for the taking, to use, to help us continue our struggles.

Julia's beacon will continue to burn, to lead.

July 3, 2009 -- Life continues onward for me and I slowly realize just how much I learned from Julia Kendall. Despite one's diagnosis, one can keep on trucking until one can no longer grab a breath. And with Julia still acting as my beacon, but with a whole lot of really strong wishes from a lot of other folks, I shall keep up the fight for INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY. We all deserve it! We all should expect nothing less. We ALL should work toward having healthier, safer products available to us and our families. We ALL are stakeholders when it comes to breathing! -- barb wilkie

Back to The New Reactor's index
http://ehnca.org/www/newreact/nrindex.htm

Back to The Work of Julia Kendall
http://ehnca.org/www/ehnhompg/kendall.htm