March 31st, 2012 10:20 PM by Dan Howard
How can one person in a home have MCS or reactions to mold and the person not have any ill health?
The answer is that: “life is complicated.”
Exposures are considered as “time loaded” What that means is that long term low exposures can have the same effect as high short term exposures. One spouse spending an average of 20 hours a day in the home has different exposures than another with an average of 12 hours a day. A person that had an exposure to pesticide when their parents poured Chlordane around the family home when they were a child has a different exposure experience than others.
It is often the case that for the average “healthy” individual , the toxic chemical in question poses no significant health risk but that to the multiple chemical sensitivity sufferer, that same “dose” of chemical can cause all manner of unpleasant or even dangerous symptoms.
The healthy individual is not affected because:
1. they are not allergic or sensitized to that toxin
2. the toxin is present at a sufficiently low level so as not to cause the normal toxic reaction that would be experienced by all.
3. they are exposed to the toxin for a period of time which is so short as not to produce any symptoms.
The multiple chemical sensitivity sufferer, by contrast, will often react severely to a very brief exposure of an extremely low level of excitant (trigger) - [ parts per million / pp billion]. As well as a predisposition to allergy and multiple chemical sensitivity on the part of the sufferer, there is also the nature of the toxin itself to be taken into account, as some chemicals and materials have an inherent tendency to sensitize, while others are essentially inert.