But the tide is turning, according to attorney Jacques Simon. Simon represented Bill J. Rea, MD, in a stunning legal victory against the Texas Medical Board (TMB). The suit has helped shift bad board practices in Texas.

Jacques Simon has an outstanding success rate defending integrative medical doctors in these types of proceedings. He is one of four attorneys in the US who collaborate and specialize in this area. (The others are Alan Dumoff, Algis Augustine, and Richard Jaffe.)

Dr. Rea is a leading researcher and clinician in the field of environmental medicine and chemical sensitivity. For the past thirty years, he has treated illness caused by food and wide-ranging environmental factors such as air and water pollution. In 2005, the Texas Medical Board filed a number of charges against Dr. Rea, challenging his testing, diagnosis, and treatment — everything he does. They even claimed that Dr. Rea was injecting his patients with diesel fuel and harmful chemicals, a charge that was patently false.

After three long years in court, Simon was able to prove that the Board’s claims were unsubstantiated. Instead of revoking his license, the Board lamely told Dr. Rea to present a revised informed consent form to patients saying that his therapy is not “FDA approved”.

If you are a physician and under investigation, it is important to make no statement whatsoever to investigators or officials without the presence and approval of a lawyer. As Simon told us, “When an investigation starts, it is important for the physician not to make the mistake of thinking they are the authority in the field. Pick up the phone and call an attorney who specializes in these types of proceedings.” (Feel free to contact ANH-USA for a recommendation.)

Simon noted that the TMB has targeted integrative physicians in the past, but this has shifted in the last two or three years, and it appears they now investigate an equal number of traditional MDs. This is due in part to procedural actions taken by Dr. Rea through the course of his ordeal, which including filing charges against the board itself.

Texas has strong due process protections for doctors, but those rules are not always followed. ANH-USA is working to get a bill introduced in the Texas legislature that will provide physicians with redress if the board doesn’t follow its own rules. Jacques Simon notes that the more doctors fight back (and the more the boards are educated), the better the landscape will become in state medical board proceedings. Meanwhile, state laws and regulations are constantly changing, and it is important to remain vigilant.

ANH-USA has just released an 80-page report, “Know Your State’s Medical Board: An Integrative Medical Practitioner’s Guide to Understanding the Legal and Regulatory Environments in the 50 States.” Across the nation, state laws and regulations do not always adequately protect practitioners’ due process rights in medical board disciplinary proceedings, so we have created a guide and checklist to provide a general sense of the legal protections, or lack thereof, available in each state in the country. The report is available as a PDF document, and may be downloaded here (PDF).

Literature: ANH, Milestone Victory: Texas State Medical Board’s Attack on Leading Integrative Doctor Beaten Back, December 21, 2010

Copyright © 2010 Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH-USA). Permission granted to forward, copy, or reprint with date and attribution to ANH-USA. Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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Daily chemical exposures at low doses can affect our health

ROME – On September 24, 2010, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., the congress “New Environmental Diseases” was held at the Chamber of Deputees Congress Hall in Rome. The event was organized by A.M.I.C.A. (Association for Environmental and Chronic Toxic Injury), the Italian organization that works for the rights of people with MCS and EHS, and it was supported by Mep Domenico Scilipoti, an oncologist, holistic doctor, and rapporteur of a draft to become law on environmental diseases and disabilities and also for the phasing out of dental amalgam.

“More and more scientific evidence shows how daily chemical exposures at low doses can affect our health. With this event we would like to create a bridge between science and politics in order to have a new legislation, particularly for the protection of those affected by Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Electromagnetic Hyper Sensitivity, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. These diseases seem to be correlated one to another,” Francesca Romana Orlando, Vice President of A.M.I.C.A., commented. She has just published the book Il Cerchio Perfetto (The Perfect Circle) about the link between industry, politics, academics, and media and its role in the hiding of toxic dangers to the public.

“Just a few weeks ago, at the Senate Commission for Health, the debate about the draft to become law for the recognition of MCS as an epidemic disease started. The prevalence of this illness is about 10% of the population and in Italy the patients still don’t have any hospital to receive any medical treatment in a proper environment,” Silvia Bigeschi, Vice President of A.M.I.C.A., adds.

There are ten projects to become law for the recognition of MCS as an epidemic disease at the Italian Parliament and, just the day before of the congress, A.M.I.C.A. presented a petition with more than 10,000 signature asking for the approval of a law for MCS and also a petition to the Ministry of Health for the total phase out of dental mercury (amalgam), since many cases of MCS, CFS and EHS seem to be triggered by amalgam fillings.

The congress was divided in four sessions. The first one was about “Diagnostic approaches” for MCS, CFS and FM. Prof. Giuseppe Genovesi of the University of Rome La Sapienza and Dr. Chiara De Luca, Head of the Laboratory BILARA at the Dermatological Institute Immacolata of Rome, presented the results of a study on oxidative stress and genetics in MCS patients, that was recently published on Toxicology Applied Pharmacology (Apr. 26, 2010).

While Dr. De Luca focused on the clear evidence of oxidative stress in these patients, such as the lack of enzyme catalysis and GST, Prof. Genovesi stressed the fact that the results don’t show the prevalence of one specific genetic polymorphism, but most of the patients had one or more genetic factors inducing a lower detoxification. He also announced that they are going to test the genetic predisposition of the enzyme catalysis, since this is so typically low in MCS patients.

Dr. Alberto Migliore, the chief of Rheumatology Department at the S. Pietro Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Rome, published a study about the comorbidity of MCS and Sjogren Syndrome. Dr. Lorenzo Bettoni presented a lecture about the environmental causes of CFS and FM, with an hypothesis about the role of chemicals, EMF pollution, and physical/mental stress on the triggering of these illnesses.

Dr. Giacomo Rao, who works for the Italian National Insurance of Workers (INAIL, the public institute that gives compensation and pension to the workers injured at workplace), talked about the legal aspects of the recognition of these illnesses as a disability. He showed that there are several impact life factors to consider and that in Italy there are now many MCS disability certificates, even if it is always very difficult to convince the commissions about the severity of this illness. He added that the final judgment depends only on the good will of the commissioners to study a new issue.

In the second session entitled “New Paradigms of Toxicology and Environmental Medicine,” Martin L. Pall, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Sciences, Washington State University, presented his theory about the biochemical vicious cycle ON/ONOO – induced by the combination of high NOS activity and Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) depletion – and how it is able to explain not only MCS, CFS or FM, but also other emerging neuro-degenerative illnesses such AD, Parkinson or ALS. He commented that the De Luca – Genovesi study about oxidative stress represents a full confirmation of his theory.

Dr. Peter Ohnsorge, President of the European Academy for Environmental Medicine (EUROPAEM), has already applied Pall’s theory to his clinical approach in order to reduce NMDA in the cerebral metabolism. He proceeds in treating inflammation first, by supplementing enzymes, antioxidants, minerals and Vitamins. Then, he offers a chelation therapy, when possible, and also hemapheresis (Membrane Differential Filtration), gut therapy and detoxification. He also uses sauna therapy since the heat helps to increase BH4 and to oppose the vicious NO/ONOO cycle.

Recently, Dr. Ohnsorge was commissioned by the German Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, to do a controlled randomized study about the efficacy of therapies for MCS patients with the double aim of detoxification of lipophilic toxins and improving the complaints. He found out that using a complex therapeutic regime usually allows the patients to recover slowly, but surely.

The MCS people in the audience asked him several questions, for example about the bad secondary effects of supplementation of glutathione (GSH) and about the tests of compatibility of drugs and dental materials. He explained that supplementation has to be given always with very low doses at the beginning in order to avoid violent breaks in the detoxification mechanisms. Moreover, he suggested using the Lymphocyte Transformation Test (LTT) to find out reactions to drugs, metals, plastics and environmental toxins, while the basophil degranulation test is suggested when inflammation is suspected induced by metals, like in the case of titanium implants.

In the same second session, Dr. Ernesto Burgio, Coordinator of the Scientific Committee of ISDE Italia (Doctors for the Environment), gave a lecture about the epigenetic damages caused by environmental toxins and EMFs. The epigenome represents the interface between the information from the environment and the genome, and even in the absence of chromosomal or gene mutations, there still can be a change in the expression of the gene (DNA Methylation) because of an epigenetic injury. “With a few exceptions, cellular differentiation almost never involves a change in the DNA sequence itself,” commented Dr. Burgio.

Since the environment changed too quickly in the latest decades, the capacity of adaptation of the (epi) genome is not enough to compensate it. Thus, a toxic exposure from the parents, in the womb, or during the early childhood can induce a chronic disabling illness later in life.

New studies are being explored on how a lead exposure in infants can be associated to Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-like symptoms years later or how the mother’s exposure to high levels of folic acid, vitamin B12 or to cigarette smoke can induce epigenetic changes that can repress gene transcription and, then, induce phenotypes of asthma (i.e. allergic airway inflammation) in the offspring. These findings could lead to the conclusion that our society is on the edge of a “disevolution.”

In the third section on “Heavy Metals Toxicity,” Dr. Raimondo Pische, President of the International Academy of Bio-Dentistry (AIOB) talked about the risks associated with the exposure to the metals of dental amalgam. In particular, he presented a video of an amalgam fillings showing how mercury vapors are easily released by the amalgam. He underlined the fact that the dentists are the first ones at risk when they pose and remove amalgam fillings and that dental mercury represents the main source of exposure to mercury vapors in not occupational environments. This is no longer acceptable since mercury is the most toxic element in nature after the radioactive elements.

Dr. Antonello Maria Pasciuto, Italian member of the European Academy for Environmental Medicine (EUROPAEM), talked about the LTT-MELISA, the Lymphocyte Transformation Test for the proof of late allergy to metals (type IV). This kind of allergy was observed in patients with MCS, CFS, MS, FM, ALS and autoimmune diseases and it usually improves, as well as the symptoms, after the safe removal of dental metals.

Dr. Gianpaolo Guzzi of the Italian Organization for the Research on Metals and Biocompatibility (A.I.R.M.E.B.) talked about the side effects of chelation therapies. His group studied hundreds of patients with amalgam toxic load and they reviewed the effects of EDTA, DMPS, DMSA and Glutathione. EDTA seems to redistribute metals without really getting rid of them, while DMPS seems more effective on treating elemental mercury, but with severe side effects in some cases. DMSA works to detoxify from methyl mercury and it can also get rid of elemental mercury stocked in the kidneys. Recently Dr. Guzzi’s research group is testing the efficacy of Glutathione in metal detoxification since there aren’t studies about it.

In the last session about “EMF and Health”, Dr. Fiorenzo Marinelli, researcher of the Institute of Molecular Genetics (IGM) in Bologna talked about wireless technologies such as mobile phones, Wi-Fi and Wi-Max. He pointed out the fact that thermal effects are only a part of the biological effects of EMFs, but still these are the only ones considered by international safety standard limits. There are also other effects induced by the signal information in itself. This explains why, even though UMTS has usually a lower intensity of the signal compared to GSM, it uses a wider band of frequencies, then involving a greater risk of damage in the DNA, as the recent European Reflex study showed. His research group has recently studied the effects of radars and Wi-Fi and the preliminary findings show that both these kind of EMFs promote cell proliferation (2010).

Since scientific literature clearly demonstrates that EMF in our everyday life can induce DNA breakage, genetic deregulation as well as chromosomal breakage, increase of free radicals, alteration of neurotransmitters, memory loss, hypersensitivity-allergy, aging and possibly cancer, Dr. Marinelli supports the reduction of the safety limit of exposure to 0,6 V/m, as requested by the International Commission for the Electromagnetic Safety (ICEMS) since 2002.

Finally, Prof. Olle Johansson, associate professor at The Experimental Dermatology Unit – Department of Neuroscience of the Karolinska Institute, and Professor at The Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, also member of the famous Bioinitiative Working group, presented a lecture about Electro-Hyper-Sensitivity, which is fully recognized as a functional impairment in Sweden. He explained not only the bioeffects of EMF on EHS people, but also the social problem of disability in our modern societies. “Disability is everywhere and it can happen to anyone: I myself have a disability when I am in Italy because I can not speak Italian,” Prof. Johansson commented. He reminded that all modern democracies signed international equal rights UN treaties, but still they leave these principles un-realized when it comes to environmental disability.

Reference:

A.M.I.C.A. congress shows how environmental and chemical pollution cause health injuries and disabilities, Rome, September 25th, 2010

Photo: AMICA

Contact:

Francesca Romana Orlando
Vice President of AMICA
Associazione Malattie da Intossicazione Cronica e/o Ambientale
(Association for Environmental and Chronic Toxic Injury)
P.O. Box 3131, 00121 Rome – Italy
www.infoamica.it amica(at)infoamica.it

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• Martin Pall about genetic evidence and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
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As of yesterday, July 26, 2010, Professor Servando Perez, President of Mercuriados Spain (people affected by chronic mercury intoxication), has began a hunger strike. Prof Perez was diagnosed two years ago as having Chronic Mercury Intoxication and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS). His case went to the highest court in Spain and a judge ruled that Prof. Perez had chronic mercury intoxicaton due to dental fillings and that the Spanish public health care system (Social Security) should treat his condition with chelation or refer him to a private clinic to do so and pay the costs. This was an incredible legal precendent.

Needless to say, Professor Perez has not been treated yet and the Social Security has been doing everything possible to make sure that he, as with other MCS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephylitis and Fibromyalgia patients in Spain, do not receive proper medical services from the public health care system.

Because of this, Mercuriados Spain and many other associations, have been carrying out campaigns, popular initiatives, lobbying, legal suits, and many other strategies to change this situation, but with no positive results.

Professor Perez’s health has deteriorated and a month ago he went to emergency at the Santiago de Compostela University Hospital. They refused to attend him and he said he would not leave the hospital until the judge’s order for a chelation was carried out.

In the past month, at the hospital, Prof Perez has endured all kinds of harassment and pressures to leave. He has even been “diagnosed” as having a psychiatric illness despite the fact that his illness is organic.

We, the Spanish MCS, CFS/ME and FMS associations have mounted a campaign to support Prof Perez with emails, phone calls to the hospital, press, etc.

And now, the latest harassing strategy by the hospital is to refuse to give him food without additives. Faced with all of this, Servando Perez has started a hunger strike. Yes, he could try to get a bank loan and pay for a private chelation, but this would not help the rest of us ill people in Spain waiting to get treatment in the public health care system. The hospital says that they refuse to refer him to a private clinic (and pick up the tab) because it would set a precedent, and soon all the people with chronic heavy metal intoxication in Spain would have to be treated. And they don’t want to do that with tax money.

Servando Perez has opted for the brave and hard road to try to change the desperate situation we live with in Spain, those of us with these illnesses, and we are proud of Servando’s action.

We write you to inform you and to ask you for your support.

Please write or phone the Vice director of the Hospital Santiago de Compostela, Dr Jose-Ramón Gómez at jose.ramon.gomez.fernandez@sergas.es

or phone him at (34) 98.1950970.

We all are Servando Perez!

Thank you,

Clara Valverde

President

Liga SFC (CFS/ME League, Spain)

www.ligasfc.org

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• Article on Spanish
• Article on German
• Article on Japanese

P.A.N.D.O.R.A. NeuroEndocrineImmune (NEI) Center Resolution Approved by the New Jersey State Senate

Coral Gables, FL, July 17, 2010 –(PR.com)– Resolution SR-20 supporting the establishment of the NeuroEndocrineImmune (NEI) Center™, the first research center in the state of New Jersey and in the U.S., dedicated to understanding and treating chronic neuroendocrineimmune (NEI) illnesses which includes chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivity, Gulf War Illness and other bacterial & viral infections chronic illnesses was passed unanimously by 38-0 votes by the New Jersey State Senate on June 10, 2010.

Senate Resolution (SR) 20, sponsored by Senator Christopher “Kip” Bateman (R), Senate Deputy Conference Leader, and Senator Loretta Weinberg (D), Chair of the Senate Health Committee, cited studies that an estimated 20 million American adults and children suffer with NEIDs. The economic impact and loss of worker productivity in the United States due to CFS/ME, alone, is estimated to be over $9 billion per year. Chronic illness represents 75% of all the health care costs in the U.S.

“It makes sense to locate the NEI center in New Jersey,” said Senator Weinberg. “As the nation’s medicine chest, New Jersey is home to research institutions and private businesses that can cooperate to find a cure for these debilitating diseases.”

Senator Bateman added, “I look forward to the passage of Senate Resolution 20, solidifying legislative support for the research center, and have high hopes that this will, in fact, be a great step forward toward finding answers for the sufferers of these debilitating diseases.”

Assembly Resolution 202 passes unanimously

Late last year, a similar resolution unanimously passed the New Jersey State Assembly 78-0. “Having a research center… is essential to promoting research into the etiology of, and therapeutic interventions for neuroendocrineimmune disorders (NEIDs),” according to Assembly Resolution (AR) 202 which was sponsored by Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula (D), Deputy Speaker; Assemblyman Herb Conaway, Jr. (D), Chairman, Health Committee; Assemblywoman Connie Wagner (D), Vice-Chairman; and Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R), member of the Health Committee

P.A.N.D.O.R.A. partners with the Lanford Foundation-Lifelyme™, Inc.

To be based in Newark, New Jersey, the NeuroEndocrineImmune (NEI) Center™ is a community patient-driven project of P.A.N.D.O.R.A, (Patient Alliance for Neuroendocrineimmune Disorders Organization for Research & Advocacy, Inc) in partnership with the Lanford Foundation-Lifelyme™, Inc.

The NEI Center™ is the first research center to incorporate scientific and clinical research, quality in patient care, and social services, all in one state-of-the art facility. The establishment of The NEI Center™ is based on the philosophy that the similarities in symptoms of neuroendocrineimmune disorders (NEIDs) are the human body’s response to similarities in the underlying pathophysiologies that cause these disorders.

The cornerstone of the NEI Center’s mission is that discoveries and advances made in any one of the NEIDs will be applicable and beneficial to other NEIDs, thereby bringing medical researchers closer to a cure. At its inception, the NEI Center™ will include research of the following disorders/illnesses:

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), Gulf War syndrome or illness (GWS/I), multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), and other associated bacterial and viral illnesses.

“Moral and political victory,” said Marly Silverman, a CFS and fibromyalgia patient who founded P.A.N.D.O.R.A. in July 1, 2002, “On behalf of P.A.N.D.O.R.A., we are mindful of the historical significance of the unanimous vote by the New Jersey Senate as well as by the New Jersey Assembly in 2009. Patients across this country will be celebrating what is an amazing and pivotal moment in the history of the neuroendocrineimmune disorders community. The New Jersey Legislature has demonstrated a caring commitment to a community of patients who for the first time in the state of New Jersey can look forward to a brighter and fruitful future.”

Veny W. Musum, chairman of the NEI Center Project, who was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease in 2004 along with his wife, Patricia, added, “The passage of SR 20 is a moral and political victory for millions of individuals stricken with neuroendocrineimmune disorders who have been living far too long without the compassionate support, research and treatment options they deserve. I am proud of my state of New Jersey!”

Advocates Extraordinaire™ & community support

“The overall community support has been outstanding for this patient-driven, physician-approved project. The unanimous votes by each New Jersey senator came about because of the involvement of individuals who participated in the Advocate Extraordinaire™ program, by making calls, writing e-mails and thanking the New Jersey Legislature for their vision and support of the Center,” said Dr. Kenneth Friedman, one of the founding board trustees of the NEI Center, as well as former member of the CFS Advisory Committee, and a member of the Executive Board of P.A.N.D.O.R.A.

“The New Jersey legislators unanimous support for the NEI Center reflects the kind of leadership needed to bring about positive change in our nation’s Health Care,” said Sandi Lanford, Co-founder of the NEI Center™ and the President-Founder of the Lanford Foundation-Lifelyme™, Inc, who was born and raised in New Jersey. The overall community support has been outstanding for this patient-driven, physician- approved project. The unanimous votes by the New Jersey Legislature came about because of the involvement of individuals who participated in the Advocate Extraordinaire™ program, by making calls, writing e-mails and thanking the New Jersey legislators for their vision and support of the Center,” said Dr. Kenneth Friedman, one of the founding board trustees of the NEI Center, as well as former member of the CFS Advisory Committee, and a member of the Executive Board of P.A.N.D.O.R.A.

Dr. Lesley Fein, member of the NEI Center Project team, stated “This center will be a beacon of hope for patients nationwide, and a place which will bring scientific innovation in New Jersey as well as in the rest of the country.”

Present at the passage of the law were Veny Musum, Chairman of the NEI Center Project and Debbie Floyd, team member of the NEI Center™ project.

NEI Center set to open by 2012

The NEI Center founders are already preparing fundraising efforts to make the Center operational by late 2011-early 2012. For more information about The NEI Center™, visit www.neicenter.com.

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About P.A.N.D.O.R.A., Inc- Patient Alliance for Neuroendocrineimmune Disorders Organization for Research & Advocacy – Based in Coral Gables, Florida, P.A.N.D.O.R.A. was founded on July 1, 2002 by Marly C. Silverman, a chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia patient. Its mission is to raise awareness of the plight of persons with chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic Lyme disease, multiple chemical sensitivities/EI, and Gulf War illness, and advocate on quality of life issues. P.A.N.D.O.R.A.is Built on Hope – Strong on Advocacy – Finding a Cure through Research. For more information, visit www.pandoranet.info.

MeP DOMENICO SCILIPOTI (IDV): “HOW TO HELP PEOPLE AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENTAL DISABILITY”

PRESS RELEASE, Rome 21.dec.09

“In order to help people with Environmental Disabilities whose survival and quality of life depend not on drugs, but on avoiding certain environmental factors, today I presented a project of law about this issue”, comments On. Scilipoti. “The law is meant for environmentally triggered diseases such as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), involving a loss of tolerance of chemicals, or Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS), forcing the affected ones to get far from electromagnetic fields emitted by mobiles, Wi-Fi, electric cables, etc. But the law is also meant for genetic, metabolic, neurological or immunological disorders such as fibromyalgia or CFS (involving chemical intolerances) or favism, which gives serious reactions to legumes. Other cases of environmental disability are seen in autism, epilepsy, migraine and lupus that involve reactions to fluorescent lighting”. “It’s important to discuss this law as soon as possible in order to give an answer to these people”, Scilipoti concludes.

LAW PROPOSAL

By the Member of the Chamber DOMENICO SCILIPOTI

“Rules for the Protection of Individuals with Environmental Disabilities”

Submitted December 21, 2009

HONORABLE COLLEAGUES ! – Over the last hundred years the environment of human life has been completely overwhelmed by industrial activities. Before the advent of chemistry, in Nature there were approximately 150 chemicals, while today there are on the market over 100,000 chemicals, most of which are not tested for their long-term effects on health.

At the same time the microwave background in the natural environment was virtually nonexistent and it was derived from extra-planetary sources in a scale of a billionth of a microwatt per square centimetre, while the wireless personal communications produced in the last fifteen years have pushed the EMF levels to tens of micro watts per square centimetre.

Thus, the human body evolved during thousands of years in an environment made of only 150 chemicals and nearly without micro-waves and it is not biologically prepared to protect itself from the sudden increase of these environmental factors, unlike, for example, the defense from ultraviolet rays of the sun that is guaranteed, after centuries of evolutionary selection, by the melanin.

Our society is facing, then, a growing number of new diseases and disorders caused by the use of toxic substances, considered innocuous for decades or whose health effects are still unknown, as well as electromagnetic fields, that are biologically active even if still considered harmless by the actual laws that are based exclusively on the thermal effects of electromagnetic radiation.

In this regard it should be observed that determining the legal limits for exposure to toxic agents or to electromagnetic fields has historically been determined on the basis of studies that are largely funded by the industry and it is scientifically proven that the public health policies arrive too late to consider the advancement of scientific knowledge.

In the case of electromagnetic fields, for example, while there has been an uncontrolled proliferation of wireless communications technologies over the past decade, there is a growing evidence about the non-thermal affects of the exposure to magnetic fields much lower than those admitted by the guidelines, up to the point that independent scientists have on several occasions adopted resolutions to ask for lower legal limits of these fields: Catania Resolution (2002), Benevento Resolution (2006), London Resolution (2007), Venice Resolution (2008), Porto Alegre Resolution (2009).

In 2007 a group of independent scientists founded the BioInitiative Group with the aim to review the studies and to analyze the existing health policies about electromagnetic fields with the point of view of the precautionary principle (www.bioinitiative.org). BioInitiative Report was adopted by the European Environmental Agency in the same year and the conclusions call for a lower safety limits of 0.6 V / m, suggesting that for very high frequency waves the threshold limit of safe exposure could be even thousands of times less than the one in the laws of the most industrialized countries.

In the Resolution about Interim Evaluation of the European Action Plan for Environment and Health 2004-2010, 4th September 2008, the European Parliament has listed multiple chemical hypersensitivity, the syndrome of dental amalgams, electromagnetic hypersensitivity, the sick building syndrome or the Attention deficit and hyperactivity syndrome among children as newly emerging environmental diseases.

Over the past three decades a growing number of people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and Electromagnetic Hyper-Sensitivity (EHS), two different conditions, but similar because they force those affected to avoid the triggering agents, respectively chemicals and electromagnetic; moreover very these two conditions often overlap.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is a disorder that involves multi-organ reactions in case of exposure to environmental chemicals at law doses, far below those tolerated by the general population. The diagnostic criteria for the disease were established by an International Consensus in 1999, as a result of a multi-centric study lasted ten years, which was published in Archives of Environmental Health (vol. 54 / 3).

The Consensus defines MCS as:

[1] a chronic condition

[2] with recurring symptoms that occur in a reproducible way

[3] in response to low level exposures

[4] to multiple chemicals that are not related

[5] that improve or disappear when the triggering agents are removed

Later a sixth criterion was added about the symptoms affecting more than one organ or organ system.

The onset of MCS was associated with the exposure to seven classes of chemicals: organic solvents, organochlorine pesticides, carbamates, organochlorine, pyrethroids, mercury, hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide (M. Pall, 2009). Substances that can trigger reactions are especially insecticides, pesticides, disinfectants, detergents, perfumes, deodorants, air fresheners, paint, solvents, glues and tar products, wood preservatives, building materials, printed paper, removal of dental amalgam, inks, exhaust fumes from stoves, fireplaces, barbecue, plastic products, drugs, anesthetics, formaldehyde found in furniture, fabrics and new fabrics, fuels, and all that is derived from petrochemicals.

Chemical sensitivity to common products was found in the 15% of the US population and in the 10% of the people in Denmark, while the cases of MCS disability affect 1,5 to 3% of the US population (G. Heuser , 1998). MCS is the cause of many debilitating diseases affecting many body systems: the renal, respiratory, circulatory, digestive, dermal, neurological, musculoskeletal and endocrine-immune systems.

Genetic studies suggest that there is a genetic predisposition to such disease in individuals with genetic polymorphisms of CYP2D6, of the glutathione sulfur transferase, of the NAT2 or of SOD, which are responsible for a reduced capacity of metabolization of xenobiotic substances.

MCS is often mistaken for a common allergy, since the symptoms appear and disappear with the removal of the cause; however its dynamics and its course are completely different because the ability to tolerate chemicals is lost forever.

There is no resolving cure for MCS, but international health protocols suggest a the environmental avoidance of chemicals as the best therapeutic approach with no contraindications. Due to this chemical avoidance the MCS patient must therefore change his/her living and working environment, his/her leisure activities while the food must be organic and free of chemical additives or preservatives. This task can be facilitated by the adoption of therapeutic aids such as cotton or paper masks with active carbon or cotton filters, ceramic oxygen masks, activated carbon filters or reverse osmosis water purifiers, all metal cage and active carbon and HEPA filters air purifiers for the car and the house.

In the case of IV type allergy to metals, it was demonstrated an improvement in MCS patients by removing with safe protocol the dental amalgam fillings, or of other prosthetic or dentistry metals. Experimental studies suggest a therapeutic approach designed to lower the body toxic load through a prolonged stay in environmentally controlled unites, by daily physical therapy and heat, and integration therapy to reduce the oxidative stress, which is typically very high in MCS patients.

Since Multiple Chemical Sensitivity can vary greatly from case to case and over time, with people completely disabled and others who suffer with mild symptoms occasionally, the International Consensus in 1999 recommended to characterize each diagnosis with quantitative and / or qualitative impact on life or disability (ie: minimal, partial, total); severity of symptoms (ie: mild, moderate and severe), frequency of symptoms (ie: daily, weekly, monthly), and sensory implications (identifying what sensory systems are involved – olfactory, trigeminal, gustatory, auditory, visual and / or touch, including perception of vibration, pain, and hot or cold – showing a change in sensitivity (more or less) and / or tolerance to normal levels of stimulation both chronically, and in response to exposure to specific chemicals).

In Italy there are already dozens of seriously ill persons with disability pension for MCS at 100%, and some cases of recognition of disability with escort, but these are cases where the disease was at such an advanced stage that there was no doubt about the diagnosis and disability status, while there is the need for a preventive protection and for the recognition of disability even in those who are still employed in order to keep them as long as possible active citizens in society.

In United States MCS is recognized as a disease and disability by ADA (American with Disabilities Act), the U.S. Department of Building and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), agencies, commissions, institutions and federal departments, state and local governments, as well as judgments of federal and state courts.

In Germany, Austria and Japan, MCS was included in the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization, ICD-10, with the code T78.4 relating to “unspecified allergy”. The German Ministry of Welfare also equalises MCS to a motor disability.

The Agency for Environmental Protection in Denmark published in 2004 a report on MCS, which concludes that there is ample scientific evidence that chemical sensitivity is caused by environmental factors and the Danish Government has pledged to minimize the use of materials emitting gas in indoor environments in order to prevent the development of this condition.

The diseases that can involve an hyper-sensitivity to chemicals are neurotoxic encephalopathy, encephalitis myalgic or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Fibromyalgia, Hyper-Reactive Airway Syndrome, nonspecific asthma, migraine, Daunderer Syndrome, Sjogren’s syndrome, atopic dermatitis, cancer (especially in case of chemotherapy) and many other conditions.

Another growing environmental disease in recent decades, which incidentally also affects many patients with MCS, is the Electromagnetic Hyper-Sensitivity (EHS), which involve multi-organ reactions to electromagnetic fields in everyday life, such as those emitted by power lines at high voltage (power lines), radio and television transmitters, by household appliances and business tools (eg. video terminals) and, especially, by mobile phones and by mast stations. It is a condition that can lead to troublesome and occasional symptoms up to a serious illness resulting in the reduction or loss of earning capacity and to a deterioration in the quality of life.

“Double blind” scientific studies showed that EHS subjects were able to correctly recognize the presence of electromagnetic fields and they suffered the symptoms they attributed to these fields, as a result of provocation. Moreover, in recent years, more and more experimental evidence support the objectivity of “Electromagnetic diseases” and their possible molecular, cellular and functional basis. Prof. Olle Johansson at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden discovered, in particular, an increase of mast cells and other substances secreted by them in samples of skin of the face of EHS people posed in front of computer screens. Mast cells play a role in allergic, hypersensitivity and anaphylactic reactions, but also in the production of substances responsible for vasodilation and contraction of the muscle and they might be responsible for stroke-like symptoms reported by some EHS individuals after the exposure to electromagnetic fields.

In Sweden, where according to some researchers EHS affects up to the 10% of the population, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) recognized the condition as a “reduced capacity that makes a person unfit in their relation to the environment” and suggests doctors to classify this condition with the International Classification of Diseases with the Code R68.8 ICD, related to “Other specified general symptoms and signs of illness” (Socialstyrelsen, enheten klassifikationer och för terminologists 2009-03 — 09 Dnr 55-2573/2009). The EHS subject then receives grants to improve his/her living or work environment, for example by shielding with paint or tents, or in severe cases with an accommodation away from electromagnetic sources.

In Canada EHS is recognized as a debilitating condition and there is also help from the pension system for the seriously ill cases.

In United States EHS is listed under the law for disability ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act).

The WHO believes that the EHS involves 1 to 3% of the population, while other estimates produced in 2005 by the Research Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Berne, Switzerland, indicated an incidence of 5% of EHS Swiss people. According to Gino Levis, former professor of Environmental Mutagenesis at the University of Padua, and permanent member of the Commission Toxicology at the National Institute of Health in Rome, these percentages will rise dramatically paralleling the spreading of wireless technologies.

On 2nd April 2009, the European Parliament, underlying that wireless technologies (cellular, Wi-Fi/WiMAX, Bluetooth, DECT phone lines) emit magnetic fields that can have adverse effects on human health, has called on the Member States to recognize as disabled people those who suffer from Electromagnetic Hyper-Sensitivity so as to ensure adequate protection and equal opportunity, as Sweden did for several years:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/FindByProcnum.do?lang=en&procnum=INI/2008/2211

Some U.S. and Canadian Governors proclaim the May as “Month for the awareness of MCS and Electromagnetic Hyper-Sensitivity “, while the ones affected by these conditions in our country are in fact left to their own and only who possess the necessary financial resources may leave their jobs, improve own home or to relocate to a healthier place.

In November 2009, sixteen cities in France decided to reduce experimentally the top limit of EMF exposure to the one recommended by BioInitiative (0.6 V/m), also in response to the invitation (May 2009) by the Ministry of Environment to “adopt more stringent limits”.

The Israeli Ministry of Environment informed (July 2009) the population about the careful use of the phone.

Environmental pollution has produced a considerable increase in allergies which are often complicated by a framework of poli-allergies that are difficult to handle by the only vaccination or drug treatment. In some severe cases the poli-allergic patient is forced to avoid the allergens. Moreover it’s known that many patients with chemical sensitivity or poli-allergies also suffer from hyper-reactivity to drugs.

There are also a number of other environmental conditions that are due to an enzyme deficiency or to a metabolic deficiency. Consider, first of all, those with a reduced activity of catalase, glutathione sulfur transferase or superossidismutasis, but also the patients with favism that must not come into contact with traces of legumes, both by ingestion and by inhalation.

This bill aims to give an answer to all those who, to maintain a healthy state, are forced to follow a protocol of avoidance of agents that trigger a reduction of their psycho-physical wellness.

In this regard, this bill refer to the precautionary principle enshrined by the European Treaty of 1992; to the European Court of Justice that has repeatedly stated that the content and scope of this principle in law is a cornerstone of policy protection sought by the Community in the field of environment and health; to the binding criteria adopted by the Commission in its communication of 2 February 2000 on the precautionary principle (COM (2000) 0001); to the European Parliament resolution of the April 2, 2009 has recommending to Member States to involve the market operators in improving indoor air quality and in reducing the exposure to electromagnetic radiation in their property, their subsidiaries and in their offices. To date this recommendation has been unheard.

This bill appeals especially to the United Nations Convention on Equality of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities and to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities stating that all humans are entitled to live in a society based on equality. Patients suffering from the above conditions are in fact excluded from this basic right to health and from the right to equality because of the lack of specific regulations about Environmental Illness or Environmental Disability and, above all, because of the poor training of the medical profession about the environmental medicine, due to insufficient public funds, thus delegating medical training mainly to industry, whose interest it to focus the attention only on chemical therapeutic remedies rather than to the real causes of disease.

LAW PROPOSAL

ART. 1. (Definition and recognition of environmental illness as a social disease and defining the rights of those with Environmental Disabilities)

1. Environmental Illness is defined as any condition that results in an altered state of health induced by environmental factors while Environmental Disability defines a reduced capacity of the individual in his/her relationship to the surrounding environment. Such definition covers all diseases that are known to have a predominantly environmental origin, such as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), Electromagnetic Hyper-Sensitivity, allergies, asthma, hypersensitivity to chemicals, but also all those conditions of different or unknown pathogenesis which involve the same kind inability to relate with the surrounding environment, such as Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the sick building syndrome, the favism, as well as metabolic disorders or complications of chemotherapy.

2. The Minister of Labor, Health and Social Policy shall, through a decree, implement the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article, within one month from the date of entry into force of this Act, in order to make the necessary modifications to the decree of Minister of Health dated December 20, 1961, published in the Official Gazette No. 73, 20 March 1962 as the “Framework Law for the assistance, social integration and rights of persons with disabilities” No 104 of 5 February 1992.

ART. 2. (Aims)

1. The provisions in this law, together with the National Health System general support, are meant to guarantee the fundamental rights to equality and to equal opportunities and to foster integration into normal social life of people suffering from Environmental disease or disability and to promote research about environmental medicine.

2. The regions and autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano shall, within their health plans and within the limits of resources from the National Health Fund, design objectives, actions and other appropriate programmatic initiatives to address the Environmental Disability.

3. The national and regional provisions in subsections 1 and 2 are directed to the following:

a) to establish a National Reference Center for Environmental Medicine, entirely funded by the National Health System and exclusively managed by specialists who also a training in clinical toxicology and who are completely free of conflicts of interest, or who are free of private enterprises or interests (a part from their profession), who have not worked even occasionally for the industry over the five years preceding their appointment, who do not belong to any professional organizations or associations sponsored by the industry and, finally, who don’t hold shares or holdings in chemical or pharmaceutical industries of an exceeding value of five thousand dollars.

b) to facilitate the access to essential levels of assistance guaranteed by art. 3 of the Constitution, changing the structures of the Public Health System with the adoption of specific protocols for first aid and with the creation of at least one clinic for every province dedicated to persons with Environmental disabilities, realized under the rules of the Environmentally Controlled Units of the international environmental medicine hospitals that provide access direct from the outside, the use of green building techniques and materials, the use of inert and odourless materials, free of radon-emitting and of particulate, but also with the adoption of controlled ventilation and air purification systems in order to isolate the environment from the rest of the hospital;

c) to impose a ban on mobile phone use, smoking and on products containing fragrances in all healthcare settings (hospitals, clinics, medical), as well as in schools, offices and public utilities, and the requirement – for all local businesses, including the tourism facilities – for warning signs regarding: the use of Wi-Fi system or wireless communications, the use of insecticides, herbicides or pesticides (in the ten days before), the presence of products such as potpourri or scented air fresheners, the presence of beans or legumes;

d) to prevent the complications of environmental illness or of diseases involving an Environmental Disability promoting a greater awareness in local authorities and in the health professionals about the importance of indoor air quality, about the harmful effects of chemical substances in everyday products (detergents, insecticides, paints, building materials, etc..), as well as about the dangers associated to the wireless communication technologies (cellular, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Bluetooth, DECT, etc.) in order to prevent the onset of diseases with a particular emphasis on children, the chronically ill, elderly, pregnant women and especially on those with a reduced genetic detoxification of xenobiotic substances that are most likely to contract Parkinson MCS and cancer;

e) to make arrangements to facilitate the act of voting in an environment consisting with the Environmental Disability, including, where appropriate, the possibility to vote by mail, under the provisions of Article 8;

f) to improved health education of the population on Environmental Disability;

g) to promote health education of the individual suffering from sickness or disability of the Environmental and of their family;

h) provide training and retraining of health personnel in relation to the Disability Environmental;

i) to provide education and training of staff from social services and Law Enforcement in relation to the Environmental Disability;

l) to provide for the revaluation of pensions of the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (INAIL) in favor of those who have been exposed to chemicals or electromagnetic fields in the workplace; of those whose occupational disease evolved into an Environmental Disability; those who are unable to work due to their reduced ability to detoxify their body; or those with a hyper-sensitivity, sometimes determined by genetic factors;

m) to establish the appropriate tools for Environmental Disability research;

n) to update the law 104/92 in order to include the needs of those with severe environmental disabilities and to ensure the provision of therapeutic aids, funds needed to change their home environment and to improve their integration into social life;

o) to offer home visits and health care for people with Environmental disabilities.

ART. 3. (Diagnosis and Prevention of Environmental Disability)

1. In order to offer early diagnosis and prevention of MCS, regions and autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano, through their health plans and actions referred in the Article 2 about the criteria and methodologies established by special act of guidance and coordination of the Minister of Labor, Health and Social Policy, point out to local health authorities the most appropriate operational measures to:

a) to establish a structured program which ensures basic and further training for medical personnel in relation to the Environmental Disability, in order to facilitate the identification of people suffering from conditions that could develop into an Environmental Disability, as in the case of allergy sufferers who risk to become MCS or in the case of cancer patients risking the sensitization to chemical agents after chemotherapy;

b) to prevent the complications and the monitoring of diseases associated with MCS, Electromagnetic Hyper-Sensitivity and poli-allergies;

c) to define the monitoring of people suffering from environmental disease or disability through a National Observatory.

2. For the realization of the actions referred to in paragraph 1, the local health authorities rely on centres accredited by the regions and by the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano, characterizes by documented experience of specific diagnostic and therapeutic activities, as well as regional and provincial centres of reference, whose mission is to coordinate the network in order to ensure early diagnosis, including the adoption of specific protocols agreed at national level.

3. The local health authorities also undertakes to:

a) to call the primary care teams for the adoption of hospitalization protocols for people with Environmental Illness or disabilities to be implemented in cases of necessity and urgency;

b) to set up, in each autonomous province and in each region, a reference center for diagnosis and treatment of diseases involving an Environmental Disability;

c) to facilitate the training of the doctors involved in treating the Environmental illness or disability at international accredited Environmental health services in order to gain a clinical experience required for research, diagnosis and treatment;

d) to arrange home consultations from specialist and/or for laboratory testing by trained health personnel who know, depending from the kind of Environmental Disability, they have to decontaminate themselves from fragrances, traces of cigarette smoke, or, in the case of EHS people,  who have to take off their mobile phones;

e) to provide mobile dental units, made by compatible materials with the requirements of Environmentally Controlled Unit, and home health assistance and/or treatments for diseases involving an Environmental Disability.

ART. 4 (Economic support for food and personal care)

1. To ensure a balanced diet for people with environmental illness or disability there is a contribution for the purchase of special products or tolerated mineral water bottled in glass.

2. The Minister of Labor, Health and Social Policy, through a decree, establishes the ways and forms for the recognition of the contribution referred to in paragraph 1 and 2.1.

ART. 5 (Provision of drugs, nutritional supplements and therapeutic aids)

1. The National Health Service ensures the delivery of lifesaving drugs and medicines which contribute significantly to improving outcomes for people with Environmental Disabilities.

2. The National Health Service provides dental care, acupuncture therapy, motor rehabilitation, including home care, the oxygen therapy and hyperbaric chamber therapy for single use or collectively, if they are compatible with absence of fragrances and chemical fumes and not to any therapy which is demonstrably an improvement of psycho-physical condition of the patient.

3. The National Health Service also ensures the provision of free treatment aids for individuals with Environmental disabilities depending on their degree of disability. Expected therapeutic aids for people suffering from diseases or disabilities for Environmental chemical toxic overload include: sauna, cloth masks, masks with activated carbon filters, air and water purifying systems, cotton gloves, vented boxes for reading and for personal computers, other aids prescribed by a physician of the regional or provincial reference center in Article 3, paragraph 2. Regarding the expected therapeutic aids for EHS there are screened computer, screening paint and curtains for isolating the patient’s housing, his car or a special vehicle, and other aids if prescribed by a physician of the regional center or provincial reference in Article 3, paragraph 2.3.

ART. 6 (Building and Planning Rules)

1. The right to housing for people with Environmental Illness or disability who have an economic hardship is guaranteed through several measures:

a) tax relief of 55% on restructuring of the houses owned or rented for meeting the requirements imposed by the Environmental Illness or disability on the base of the advice of medical healthcare systems;

b) the development of housing at least every public building in the provincial capital made under the rules of environmentally controlled units or housing preferably positioned within the Natural Parks, and in any case far from sources of exposure to chemical and electromagnetic accommodation will be made green building materials, inert and odorless, radon-emitting and / or particulates with controlled ventilation systems and air purification means to isolate each unit;

c) the performance by the Civil Defense, mobile units made according to the principles of environmentally controlled units for their temporary stay in safe areas, the people with Environmental Illness or disability in the event of natural disasters or in cases where the subject must necessarily leave their home, for example, in case you need to step away from dangerous exposures around his house or the like.

1. The use of insecticides, pesticides and chemical herbicides is prohibited within a radius of 100 meters in urban areas and 500 meters in the agricultural context from the household of a person with MCS; compulsory notification about the time and the day of spraying at least a week before. These products have to be replaced by mechanical operations or natural products whenever possible.

2. The use of air fresheners, paints containing solvents and solvents is prohibited within a radius of 50 meters from the house of a person with MCS and in public offices (waiting rooms, sanitation, first aid, ambulances, etc.). These products are replaced by products to water, low emissions of volatile organic compounds and free of fragrances.

3. Installing Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, DECT, mobile phone or radio and television antennas is prohibited in the vicinity of the dwelling or employment office of a person with EHS or with Environmental disability incompatible with the exposure to biologically active electromagnetic fields and the Local Health Service (ASL) will ensure the measure the magnetic field in and around the house or work place that is acceptable for the patient in order to ensure that the EMF characteristics are unchanged over time, even if the exposures are below the limits stabled by existing legislation;

4. Municipalities prepare the plan of the roads, the traffic plan and release the permissions for commercial activities and installations of antennas depending on the presence of homes or workplace of people with Environmental Illness or Disability;

5. Municipalities regularly and frequently measure the EMF levels and air emissions, conducted by independent offices (with the collaboration of associations representing people with Environmental illnesses or disabilities) with prompt and immediate information to the target audiences;

6. The regions promote with incentives the creation of White Zones, preferably within natural parks, but not only, that are characterized by the complete absence of chemical contamination arising from industrial activities, crafts or agriculture, and by electromagnetic fields below 0,1 volt / meter, a limit considered safe for people with EHS.

ART. 7 (Protection of the right to work and study)

1. In order to protect the right to work of people with Environmental Illness or disability through the following measures:

a) adoption of appropriate aids in the workplace, including in particular those listed in Article 5, paragraph 3;

b) the use of detergents with low emissions of volatile organic compounds and free of fragrances for cleaning the premises for work-related and sanitation in the case of chemical sensitivity;

c) use of furnishings that Hexalin volatile chemicals in case of chemical sensitivity;

d) allocation in environments equipped with scrubbers and / or air exchange equipment that release fragrance of ink and volatile chemicals (eg, toner, etc.).

e) possibility of changing jobs, if incompatible with being an individual with a disability environment;

f) ban the use of wireless communication systems (Wi-Fi, cellular, DECT) in the offices in which there is a person with a EHS or an Environmental disability incompatible with biologically active electromagnetic fields;

g) maintenance of the professional group for those who have contracted an illness or disability causes of environmental work;

h) promote telework in all cases where it is advantageous for the person suffering from sickness or disability Ambientale.

2. In order to protect the right to education of people with Environmental Illness or disability are provided adequate solutions to stay in a school environment treated, both in building materials for those necessary to teaching, and should ban the use of fragrances and chemical cleaners in the case of chemical sensitivity, for example, or with the prohibition on the use of Wi-Fi systems or the prohibition to leave the phone switched on, even in stand-by, using, in severe cases, learning and monitoring from a distance.

ART. 8 (Exercising the right to vote for election and participate in competitions and private)

1. In order to guarantee the right to vote to people with Environmental Illness or disability, the right to vote by mail required by law of 27 December 2001, n. 459, is extended to the same subject, in accordance with the provisions in paragraph 2 of this article.

2. In order to ensure the right enshrined in Art. 51 of the Constitution for public office and access to public office on equal terms, if elected people with Environmental Illness or disability in the Parliament, municipal councils, provincial, regional or at other public bodies, they will be entitled to secure access in public facilities, arranging for the same protocol for amending the buildings, furniture and, ultimately, if protection policies (such as the smoking ban, a ban on wearing perfume, to keep cellular approaches, etc.. ) should not be sufficient, how to be prepared to participate in meetings and votes at a distance.

3. The individuals with Environmental Disabilities participating in competitions both public and private, have the right for decontamination measures of chemicals in areas reserved for competition tests.

ART. 9 (Report to Parliament)

1. The Minister of Labor, Health and Social Policy submit to Parliament an annual report on the state of knowledge and new scientific knowledge in the field of Environmental Diseases and Disabilities, with particular reference to problems of early diagnosis and monitoring of complications.

ART. 10 (Financial coverage)

1. The amount associated with the present law, estimated at 10,000,000 per year from the year 2009, provided for by reducing the appropriation in writing, the three-year budget for 2009-2011, under the special fund the current account of the estimate of the Ministry of Economy and Finance for the year 2009, to partially using the provision for the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Policy.

2. The Minister of Economy and Finance will monitor the costs arising from implementation of this law, even for the purposes of Article 11-ter, paragraph 7 of the Law of 5 August 1978, No 468, as amended, and forward to the chambers, accompanied by relevant reports, any decrees issued pursuant to Article 7, second paragraph, number 2) of Law No 468 of 1978.

3. The Minister of Economy and Finance is authorized to make, by decree, the necessary budgetary changes.

On. Dott. Domenico Scilipoti

Neurons lacking in plasticity are a factor in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and mental retardation. Essential nutrients help maintain normal neuronal plasticity. Nutritional deficiencies, including deficiencies in the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, the amino acid methionine, and the trace minerals zinc and selenium, have been shown to influence neuronal function and produce defects in neuronal plasticity, as well as impact behavior in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. 

Nutritional deficiencies and mercury exposure have been shown to alter neuronal function and increase oxidative stress among children with autism. These dietary factors may be directly related to the development of behavior disorders and learning disabilities. 

Mercury, either individually or in concert with other factors, may be harmful if ingested in above average amounts or by sensitive individuals. High fructose corn syrup has been shown to contain trace amounts of mercury as a result of some manufacturing processes, and its consumption can also lead to zinc loss. Consumption of certain artificial food color additives has also been shown to lead to zinc deficiency. Dietary zinc is essential for maintaining the metabolic processes required for mercury elimination.

Since high fructose corn syrup and artificial food color additives are common ingredients in many foodstuffs, their consumption should be considered in those individuals with nutritional deficits such as zinc deficiency or who are allergic or sensitive to the effects of mercury or unable to effectively metabolize and eliminate it from the body. 

Reference:

Dufault R, Schnoll R, Lukiw WJ, Leblanc B, Cornett C, Patrick L, Wallinga D, Gilbert SG, Crider R., Mercury exposure, nutritional deficiencies and metabolic disruptions may affect learning in children, Behav. Brain Funct. 2009 Oct 27;5(1):44.

Twenty-eight incapacitated individuals (average 43 years old, 7 males, 21 females, range 12-70) exposed to molds and mycotoxins were studied and treated with a protocol of cleaning up or changing their environment to be mold free.

Injections of the optimum dose of antigens were given as part of the treatment protocol as was oral and intravenous (i.v.) antioxidants; heat depuration (sauna); physical therapy with massage and exercise under environmentally controlled conditions; oxygen therapy at 4-8 L/min for 2 hours with a special wood-grade cellophane reservoir and a glass oxygen container. Many patients were sensitive to plastics; therefore, exposures to these were kept to a minimum. Autogenous lymphocytic factor (ALF) was given as an immune modulator.

Of 28 patients, 27 did well and returned to work. One patient improved but did not return to work during the period of study

Reference: Rea WJ, Pan Y, Griffiths B., The treatment of patients with mycotoxin-induced disease, Environmental Health Center – Dallas, TX, USA, Toxicol Ind Health. 2009 Oct-Nov;25(9-10):711-4.

Guest post at Canary Report by Martin L. Pall, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Sciences, Washington State University and Research Director, the Tenth Paradigm Research Group.

Martin Pall: I have emailed the following as an open letter to the Denver Post in response to the article on multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) that was published this weekend. I think the published article was generally a step forward in terms of public understanding of MCS. But the article left out a number of important things and this letter is an attempt to deal with some of those. I have asked them to consider publishing this as an Op-Ed piece, but wanted to make it available regardless of whether or not they opt to do so.

Thank you for writing this article on multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), the term that is used in most of the scientific literature on this disease. There are vast numbers of people who have been afflicted in this epidemic of chemical sensitivity and I am sure that they are all thanking you. I also thank you for mentioning a bit of my work on this disease.

Some of your readers have already made quite a number of important points about MCS so I can focus here on just a few remaining issues. How do chemicals act in MCS? We know now that the seven classes of chemicals implicated in MCS all produce a common toxic response in the body, excessive activity of a receptor in the body called the NMDA receptor. So even though we have a vast array of such chemicals, we know how they can produce similar responses in people.

There is compelling genetic evidence that these chemicals act as toxic agents (toxicants) in the body. Four such studies have been published by three research groups in three countries. Collectively they implicate six genes as influencing susceptibility to MCS, such that people carrying some forms of each of these genes are more susceptible to becoming chemically sensitive than are people carrying other forms of the same genes. All of these genes control the activity of enzymes that metabolize these chemicals into other forms. Most of these studies show a high level of what is called statistical significance. In the Schnakenberg and colleagues studies, the chances of getting their results by chance are less than one in a million billion. So obviously, these are not chance results. What these studies show is that chemicals are acting as toxicants in causing cases of MCS and that genes that metabolize these chemicals into other forms influence, therefore, susceptibility to getting MCS. These studies, then, provide compelling evidence that cases of MCS are caused by toxic chemical exposure. Clearly they also show that MCS is a real disease, otherwise one would not be able to do such studies clearly linking the chance of becoming ill with MCS to the action of chemicals acting as toxicants.

Dr. Herman Staudenmayer has, for some 20 years claimed just the opposite. He claims that MCS is psychogenic, caused by psychological responses and according to him, is not a toxicological phenomenon. He has maintained this claim by ignoring contrary data wherever it occurs. He has ignored all of the evidence that chemicals implicated in MCS produce a common response in the body; he has ignored the roughly two dozen studies showing that MCS patients show objectively measurable responses to low level chemical exposures, responses that differ from those of normals. He has ignored all of the evidence implicating excessive NMDA activity in MCS; he has ignored the dozens of animal model studies on MCS; he has ignored over 50 studies that show that cases of MCS typically occur following chemical exposures; he has ignored the various other measurable physiological changes reported to occur in MCS. This has all been documented in my book “Explaining – Unexplained Illnesses” and in my article on the toxicology of MCS that is coming out next month in a prestigious reference work for professional toxicologists “General and Applied Toxicology, 3rd Edition”. It is also documented on the MCS web page of my web site: The Tenth Paradigm

Clearly you cannot do science by simply ignoring the existence of vast arrays of contrary data. However, Staudenmayer provides us with a couple of other tests of his views in his book, predictions that allow us to test his theory. He predicts that psychological factors are necessary and sufficient to account for the properties of MCS. This, of course, is contradicted by all of the evidence I referred to earlier. Therefore we should reject his hypothesis based on his own prediction. He provides a second prediction as well (the exact quotes from his book on these predictions are provided on my MCS web page). He predicts that the variation of susceptibility to MCS is not caused by variable responses to toxic chemicals. Clearly the genetic studies discussed above have shown that this is false and therefore, his hypothesis should be rejected for that reason, as well.

It is clear, from the above, that Staudenmayer’s construct was basically a house of cards. Now that it has collapsed, where does that leave us?

Firstly it leaves us with reversing the errors of the past. We need to start treating MCS sufferers as victims of unsafe chemical exposure. Many of them have previously been used, abused and discarded. If we live in a society where people are not disposable items we need to “do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”

We obviously need to start regulating chemical usage much more carefully, to avoid initiating new cases of MCS. It is imperative to develop tests for chemical activity in MCS, just as we have developed tests for chemical activity as carcinogens. Then we need to use these tests to effectively regulate the use of toxic chemicals.

We need to develop specific biomarker tests for MCS, tests that can be used to objectively confirm diagnoses initially based on subjective symptoms. I think we already have several very promising approaches to doing this in the scientific literature and a minimal amount of further study may be all that is needed to develop such tests.

We need to confirm that chemical avoidance is key to therapy and to develop other therapeutic approaches to work along with avoidance. The environmental medicine physicians and others have already made very important progress in this direction and I am optimistic that further progress can be made quickly. Such progress is relevant not only to the treatment of MCS patients but also to the treatment of clearly related diseases including chronic fatigue syndrome/mylagic encephalomyelitis and fibromyalgia. All of these diseases are caused by what I have called the NO/ONOO- cycle and the way to treat them, in my judgment, is to lower the activity of that vicious cycle mechanism.

Martin L. Pall

Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Sciences, Washington State University and Research Director, the Tenth Paradigm Research Group

Reprinted with permission from the author. Dr. Pall cautions the reader that he is a PhD, not an MD, and none of this should be viewed as medical advice.

• Original Article posted by Canary Report Thank you for the permission to reprint Susie!
• Link to Martin Pall’s website: The Tenth Paradigm
• Link to an extended excerpt from Palls book Explaining “Unexplained Illnesses.”

A recent paper on sauna therapy by Dr. Martin L. Pall argues for a novel mechanism for its mode of action (1). Pall argues that sauna therapy acts primarily by increasing the availability of a compound called tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) in the body. BH4 is reported or thought to be depleted in a number of medical conditions that are also reported to respond positively to sauna therapy, including multiple chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, hypertension, vascular endothelial dysfunction and heart failure. This pattern of action can be explained, therefore, if sauna therapy increases the availability in the body of BH4.

Pall argues for two distinct mechanisms by which sauna therapy is expected to increase availability of BH4. Both of these act by increasing the synthesis of an enzyme, known as GTP cyclohydolase I, the rate limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of BH4.

Sauna therapy is known to produce large increases in blood flow in the outer heated parts of the body and the consequent increase in vascular shear stress has been shown to induce large increases in GTP cyclohydrolase I activity and consequent increases in BH4.

A second such mechanism is mediated through the action of the heat shock protein, Hsp90, a protein known to be induced by modest tissue heating and a protein that is recruited into a complex of proteins containing GTP cyclohydrolase I. The Hsp90 protein lowers the proteolytic degradation of GTP cyclohydrolase I protein, leading to increased BH4 synthesis and this has been shown to lower, in turn, the partial uncoupling of the eNOS nitric oxide synthase. Increases in BH4 synthesis in response to both of these two mechanisms may be expected to feed BH4 to various tissues in the body including those not directly impacted by sauna therapy.

The health benefits of vigorous exercise may also be mediated, in part, via these same mechanisms.

A number of additional diseases are reported to involved BH4 depletion including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, asthma, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, pulmonary hypertension and type 2 diabetes so that each of these may respond to sauna therapy, as well.

It has been commonly assumed that the response of MCS cases to sauna therapy is mediated by a detoxification process known as depuration. There is some published evidence that some increase in detoxification does occur in response to sauna therapy. However the main influence of sauna therapy on MCS cases and certainly in these other medical conditions may well be through increased BH4 availability.

Reference: 1. Pall ML. 2009 Do sauna therapy and exercise act by raising the availability of tetrahydrobiopterin? Med Hypotheses. 2009 Jul 4.