Stories, explainers, and reflections on living with MCS
The ASEQ-EHAQ blog shares practical explainers, community stories, and perspectives on living with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), environmental health, and the right to breathe clean air.
Resilience 2025: A Ground-Breaking Event Building Momentum Toward Resilience 2026
In May 2025, Resilience convened researchers, clinicians, policymakers, advocates, and people with lived experience from across Canada and around the world for a landmark international conference on MCS.
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Explainers, community stories, and perspectives from the ASEQ-EHAQ community. Posts open on the current site as they are migrated.
A Growing International Movement
Resilience 2025 brought together voices from multiple continents, framing MCS as a global challenge that needs coordinated, cross-sectoral responses.
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Centring Lived Experience and Human Rights
Testimonies from people living with MCS sat alongside scientific and legal expertise, examining how disability-rights frameworks can be strengthened.
ReadAdvancing the Science of MCS
Presentations spanned environmental medicine, public health, indoor air quality, toxicology, and epidemiology — reinforcing MCS as a recognized disability.
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Looking Ahead to Resilience 2026
Building on the 2025 report, Resilience 2026 deepens the science on Day 1 and elevates lived experience and policy solutions on Day 2.
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Forever Chemicals: Why 2023 Was Just the Beginning — and What You Can Do
A closer look at PFAS — the “forever chemicals” found in our products, water, blood, and environment — and the steps you can take.
ReadA Grim Choice: When Inaccessible Spaces Lead to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD)
For over 1.13 million Canadians with MCS, inaccessible public spaces, workplaces, and housing can carry profound consequences.
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Introducing RESILIENCE 2025: A Groundbreaking Conference on MCS
Announcing a landmark conference on a condition affecting over a million Canadians and millions more worldwide.
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Embracing Scent-Free Living: Towards a More Inclusive Future
Reflections after attending a strictly scent-free event hosted by COPHAN — and what genuine inclusion can look like.
ReadEmpowering Change: A Member’s Journey to Fragrance-Free Accommodation
One member’s story of securing fragrance-free accommodation in a shared laundry setting in rural Ontario.
ReadBreaking the Silence: The Social Stigma of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
Everyday scents can trigger profound physical reactions. A look at the stigma people with MCS navigate every day.
Read8 Common Myths About Climate Change
Climate change threatens clean air, safe water, food, and shelter. Clearing up eight of the most common misconceptions.
ReadMonth of May — Take Back Your Power!
May is MCS awareness and education month — a time to raise visibility and share knowledge about the condition.
ReadHousing is a Human Right
Shelter is a basic need, yet chemicals, fragrances, and smoke make many homes inaccessible for people with MCS.
ReadURGENT: Help Save Sophia’s Life
A call to help secure accessible, chemical-free housing for Sophia, a woman in Toronto living with MCS.
ReadWorldwide Study Shows Air Pollution and Birth Complications Are Linked
A study in PLOS Medicine links fine-particle air pollution (PM2.5) to birth complications around the world.
ReadQuestions for All Political Parties
People with MCS face barriers to grocery stores, transit, and public life. Questions to put to every political party.
ReadOpen Your Mind and Change the World: Support Someone with MCS
Over a million Canadians live with MCS, yet many have never heard of it. How to support someone who has it.
ReadEnvironmental Triggers Impacting Everyday Life
We’ve grown so used to exhaust, cologne, and cleaning products that we rarely stop to question their effects.
ReadSunscreen’s Environmental Cost
Why coastal regions have banned certain UV-blocking chemicals, and what it means for marine environments.
ReadToxicology: It’s Not Just the Dose That Makes the Poison
Revisiting Paracelsus: why timing, mixtures, and individual susceptibility matter as much as dose.
ReadMechanisms of the Impact of Pollution on Brain Function
How airborne chemicals affect brain development, neurodegeneration, and sensitization in susceptible people.
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