Imagine that you wake up tomorrow and feel incredibly tired, even though you just had a full night's rest. You go to work, but while walking through a hall where workers are putting down carpet and painting the walls, you are overwhelmed with nausea. You take a sick day and return home hoping to rest and recuperate, but no matter what you do, you can't shake a constant feeling of illness. For some people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCS), this is reality.



For people suffering from MCS, common household cleaning chemicals, pesticides, paint and construction glues can trigger feelings of nausea and general discomfort. Sure, allergic reactions to one of the previous chemicals could explain these symptoms in most people.

However, for some, the environment you and I live in that we take for granted is a hostile one, full of offending chemicals. Any one of these chemicals can trigger feelings of illness. Harmful chemicals can even be bled from the cooling fans of many types of desktop and laptop computers.

"Multiple Chemical Sensitivity" in the News

Recently, multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome received the attention of the New York Times. A story covering the measures that Colorado resident Caryl Shonbrun has to take to avoid illness from offending chemicals came out October 19, 2006. In "Seeking Modern Refuge from Modern Life," Caryl and her husband moved to Fort Collins to build a chemical free house and succeeded, to a degree.

The actions of their neighbors by laying down pesticides still caused Caryl discomfort. The reality that people with MCS will have a hard time creating an environment that keeps them feeling healthy is made worse by the fact that modern medicine hasn't really explored MCS extensively. There is also a lack of literature on the subject available to the public.

How are you Feeling?

You may be wondering as you sit in front of your computer and feeling quite normal, what MCS has to do with computers? The problem of potentially offensive chemicals in computers lies within the case of your desktop or notebook and in the construction of its components.

Motherboards of almost all computers are manufactured in oxygen filled environments. Toxic and carcinogenic solder flux and many times even a toxic and carcinogenic washing solution to get the flux off the board, have to be used to manufacture the electronics.

Once the computer sits on or under your desk, these toxic chemicals can gas out when the computer warms or heats up and is then distributed in your work environment by the cooling fans.

So how does this affect you? You have made it this far in the article and probably aren't feeling too ill I assume. While the chemicals from computers may not produce noticeable symptoms in everyone, that doesn't mean there aren't negative impacts on the body. Just because you don't notice feeling ill, doesn't mean your body isn't having to expend energy to combat any side affects that may arise from chemicals within your desktop or laptop.

With flu season upon us, we need all the energy we have to combat illnesses which always seem to make their way around our homes and offices. While the chemicals being expelled from computers may not make everyone in the office sick, it could make them more vulnerable to a bug that is already going around.

What's Next?

Information on the relationship between MCS and computers is important because it can affect your health. We promise to continue monitoring the media and pursuing this issue with more articles on chemical sensitivity and computers shortly.