Multiple Chemical Senselessness

William J. Meggs, Kathleen A. Dunn, Richard M. Bloch, Peggy Goodman, and Ann L. Davidoff Arch Environ Health 1996; 51:275-282

The THEORY behind multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is that exposure to environmental chemical fumes (e.g., perfumes, new carpets, pesticides, fresh paint, tobacco smoke, gasoline) leads to symptoms ranging from runny nose to headache to nausea to fatigue to asthma. That's the theory. But what's the reality?

The exposures are commonplace. The symptoms are commonplace. Psychopathology is commonplace among people that claim MCS. There are no tests to determine sensitivity to environmental chemicals. A mechanism of chemical sensitivity is not known.

Does MCS really exist? You would think that this would be the first challenge for a scientist interested in MCS. But here's where science and junk science diverge.

Failing to develop credible evidence concerning a cause-and-effect relationship between environmental chemical exposure and MCS symptoms, a real scientist might move on to more fruitful research. A stubborn scientist might keep trying to research the cause-and-effect relationship.

But the junk scientist just assumes that the cause-and-effect relationship exists and then moves on to quantify it. That's what happened here.

Meggs et al. asked 1,027 people the loaded question, "Some people get sick smelling chemical odors like those of perfume, pesticides, fresh paint,... Do any chemical odors make you sick?"

And "sick" was any one of a number of symptoms, including eye irritation, runny nose, sinus congestion, headache, rashes, hives, nausea, bloating, stomach pain, shortness of breath, wheezing, asthma, chest pain, muscle aches, joint pain, blurred vision, fatigue, memory difficulties, tension, clumsiness, dizziness, daytime sleepiness, and "other."

Although Meggs et al acknowledged that (1) they relied on self-reported (i.e., unverified) responses, and (2) their questioning was not objective (by giving examples of chemicals in the question, responses may have been biased), this did not stop them from estimating that 10.9 million people (4.1 percent of the general population) suffer from MCS on a daily basis!

It didn't even bother them that the error level in their survey was the same size as their estimate!

On that note, I'm taking a survey on Junk Science Sensitivity (JSS). Here goes: Some people get sick reading about junk science like multiple chemical sensitivity, global warming, and environmental estrogens. Does any junk science make you sick?

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