Tag: chemicals

Profile of patients with chemical injury and sensitivity

Patients reporting sensitivity to multiple chemicals at levels usually tolerated by the healthy population were administered standardised questionnaires to evaluate their symptoms and the exposures that aggravated these symptoms. Many patients were referred for medical tests.

It is thought that patients with chemical sensitivity have organ abnormalities involving the liver, nervous system (brain, including limbic, peripheral, autonomic), immune system, and porphyrin metabolism, probably reflecting chemical injury to these systems. Laboratory results are not consistent with a psychological origin of chemical sensitivity.

Substantial overlap between chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome exists: the latter two conditions often involve chemical sensitivity and may even be the same disorder. Other disorders commonly seen in chemical sensitivity patients include headache (often migraine), chronic fatigue, musculoskeletal aching, chronic respiratory inflammation (rhinitis, sinusitis, laryngitis, asthma), attention deficit, and hyperactivity (affected younger children). Less common disorders include tremor, seizures, and mitral valve prolapse. Patients with these overlapping disorders should be evaluated for chemical sensitivity and excluded from control groups in future research.

Agents whose exposures are associated with symptoms and suspected of causing onset of chemical sensitivity with chronic illness include gasoline, kerosene, natural gas, pesticides (especially chlordane and chlorpyrifos), solvents, new carpet and other renovation materials, adhesives/glues, fiberglass, carbonless copy paper, fabric softener, formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, carpet shampoos (lauryl sulfate) and other cleaning agents, isocyanates, combustion products (poorly vented gas heaters, overheated batteries), and medications (dinitrochlorobenzene for warts, intranasally packed neosynephrine, prolonged antibiotics, and general anesthesia with petrochemicals).

Multiple mechanisms of chemical injury that magnify response to exposures in chemically sensitive patients can include neurogenic inflammation (respiratory, gastrointestinal, genitourinary), kindling and time-dependent sensitisation (neurologic), impaired porphyrin metabolism (multiple organs), and immune activation.

Please download the full report from US National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health.

Irish Air Corps hazard reports may have been “destroyed”

Health and safety reports dating back over 20 years that raised concerns over working conditions within the Air Corps may have been destroyed, the Taoiseach has been warned.

In a letter to the Taoiseach last week, Fianna Fáil defence spokeswoman Lisa Chambers said: “It appears that health and safety concerns were known at the base for some time and there was a failure to act which may have unnecessarily and negatively impacted on the health of those working and serving at the base.”

Last month, the Irish Examiner revealed the details of a damning report in which the Health and Safety Authority threatened legal action against the Air Corps unless it implemented a number of improvements in its management of workers’ exposure to cancer-causing chemicals.

Read more on the Irish Examiner website.

Dutch Department of Defence knew about toxic paint risks 25 years ago

Letters obtained from health and safety inspectors and minutes of meetings reveal that the Defence Ministry was aware of the health risks associated with carcinogenic paint since 1987, but did not take steps to protect staff until eleven years later, according to broadcaster NOS.

Nearly two hundred defence employees complained about chromium-6, a toxic substance in the paint and varnish used on tanks and fighter aircraft in a number of workshops. Earlier this month, a historical investigation was launched by the National Institute for Public Health and Environment to investigate all complaints.

Article originally published 2nd October 2014

Read more on the NL Times website

Dutch Ministry of Defence pays out €2.1 million so far in Ex Gratia Chromium-6 Exposure Compensation Scheme.

So far the Ministry of Defense paid out more than 2.1 million euros to 309 employees and former employees who became ill after working with paint containing carcinogenic substance Chromium-6, a Defense spokesperson confirmed to NU.nl.

The Defense workers in question took advantage of a goodwill scheme the Ministry instituted two years ago for Chromium-6 victims. Employees and former employees who worked with the toxic paint for more than a year and are sick can claim between 3 thousand and 15 thousand from the scheme, without the Ministry of Defense acknowledging guilt for their illness. The compensation scheme will remain in place until public health institute RIVM finished its investigation into the risks and health effects of using Chromium-6.

According to the spokesperson, Defense employees from across the Netherlands applied to the scheme. The Ministry received a total of 719 applications, 255 of which were immediately approved. Another 54 were approved or partly approved after the employee objected.

The compensation scheme shall remain in force until the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) research into the risks and health effects of Chromium-6 has been completed

Read more on the NL Times website

http://nltimes.nl/2017/02/27/defense-pays-eu21-million-toxic-paint-victims

Dáil Éireann Written Answers 23/02/2017 – Department of Defence – Health and Safety Inspections

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if the Health and Safety Authority inspections of the Air Corps at Casement Aerodrome were by invitation or as a result of complaints, regarding ongoing and long-term health and safety violations, by serving and former personnel. [9393/17]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I am advised by the military authorities that the three inspections conducted by the Health and Safety Authority at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel in 2016 were as a result of a complaint the Authority received in relation to chemical safety in the Air Corps.

The military authorities have further advised that they have no details regarding the source of this complaint.

Toxicant and Disease Database

Please find below a link to a very useful “Toxicant & Disease Database” hosted by the The Collaborative on Health and the Environment in the USA.

Enter a disease and see what evidence there is for known chemical causes. Enter a chemical and see what evidence there is for diseases caused by this chemical.

26 victims of RAF cancer: Scots veterans launch legal fight against MoD for years of deadly chemical exposure after cancers ravage their squippers group

Scottish RAF workers are set to launch a multi-million-pound legal fight after being exposed to deadly chemicals which they claim caused cancer.

The Ministry of Defence have been accused of failing to accept responsibility for the horrific illnesses and deaths of 26 former servicemen who were regularly exposed to toxic substances at Scottish air bases.

The airmen and women were part of a specialist branch called “squippers”, who repaired aircrew survival equipment at UK bases including Lossiemouth, Leuchars and Kinloss in the 80s and 90s.

They claim deadly illnesses were caused by daily exposure over years of service to carcinogenic chemicals in poorly ventilated rooms with little or no protective clothing.

Many of the specialist engineers now have various cancers including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, throat cancer and blood cancer.

Read more on the Daily Record

Take Simon Coveney’s name off the gate he’s back from AWOL

Where was Minister Simon Coveney for the past four Wednesdays in a row when the Chemical Exposure Scandal at the Irish Air Corps was being discussed.

Has his absence anything to do with the fact that he actively ignored the whistle-blowers and then lied about attempts by whistle blowers to contact him.

Numerous retired & serving personnel have died since Simon Coveney ran away from this issue.

Military accused of Irish Army Air Corps cover-up on safety

The military has been accused of a “cover-up” in relation to how it dealt with reports of exposure to dangerous substances within the Air Corps.

The Government has also been accused of “major inconsistencies” in its account of how ministers managed the whistle-blowers warnings of health and safety issues in the Air Corps.

It comes after the Irish Examiner revealed details of a damning health-and-safety report on working conditions at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel.

Speaking in the Dáil, Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh alleged that military authorities at Casement Aerodrome “did not take the required steps” when it was highlighted to them that dangerous chemicals existed.

Questioning the Minister of State with Special Responsibility for Defence, Paul Kehoe on when he first became aware of the health and safety concerns, Mr Ó Snodaigh said that it appeared that “there is a cover-up here”.

“I have seen health and safety reports going back as far as 1995, all of which pointed specifically to the issues that were addressed in the Examiner newspaper and which a number of deputies in this house have been raising with you.

“So this is not a new issue, this is a cover up because the military authorities in Casement Aerodrome did not take the required steps when it was highlighted to them that dangerous chemicals existed they didn’t take those steps,” Mr Ó Snodaigh claimed.

Read more on the Irish Examiner website