The good news is… if you are reading this you must have mastered this portion of your environment to some extent.  Try as we might in the modern world, for most of us, attempting to get along with out electronics is like endeavoring to get by with out clothing.  It’s just something we are stuck with.  The dirty little secret of micro chips and consumer electronics is that they are made out of some extremely toxic materials.  So much so that most urban garbage companies will not even take your old computers and TVs.  In theSeattlearea we are required to take such items to our local Household Hazard Disposal site for proper recycling and removal. 

 

In the last ten years I’ve had to learn a lot about computers.  The only way I have been able to afford the ones that I wanted was to build them my self.  I have worked with many different components and discovered one surprising thing.  Although the electronic components will be a significant Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MSC) trigger for about a week, the real culprit has often been the plastic that houses them.  I have not purchased a computer part that did not cause me some level of discomfort for at least a few days.  With use of that part, the discomfort has almost always gone away.  The pieces that have caused me the worst and most prolonged MCS reactions have been mice, key boards, and monitors.  One thing these items have in common is plastic, or more to the point they have plastic that has a nasty fire retardant as an ingredient.

 

Back up a few years to the day Bill Clinton was elected President of theUS.  That day I jumped into my friends Mazda hatchback and drove to the Bon Marche.  That evening I purchased a Magnavox 27’ TV, the first major possession I had ever acquired with my own money.  I loved that TV.  The VCR looked great with it and the Nintendo was glorious.  Now, this was back when MCS was an idea that was still many years in coming.  I was experiencing a bad MCS reaction 24/7 and had no idea what was going on.  Looking back on bringing that TV into my environment I don’t remember feeling any different, but then again I felt terrible all the time any way.  One clue I had was that if I played video games for more then about an hour I would start to feel even more out of it. At the time I just chalked that up to a normal reaction to playing Nintendo for too many hours at a time. 

 

One day I had to bring the TV into the shop.  By this time I had discovered a little about what was going on with me and I was starting to notice how I felt at different times in relation to my surroundings.  My TV was not in the apartment for a couple of days.  I noticed I felt better with it gone.  When I got back I felt worse.  I did not want to believe that this prized item of mine was not good for me.  I kept in back in the apartment for a week and I did not again feel better.  Then I placed it out in the hall for a day and I started to feel better.  Damn, I loved that TV.  If I got rid of it would I never be able to own a TV again?  Movies and video games are a wonderful diversion, was I ready to give them up? 

 

I wound up giving my TV to a friend who had just moved out of his boyfriend’s house.  It was a sad day parting with my TV.  I lived for about a week without one then bought a used TV that was just about as old, it messed with me even more then the last.  A few weeks later a friend of mine was buying a brand new TV for himself.  He was selling his old TV and it was only a year or two old.  I bought it from him and to my amazement it did not trigger any MCS reactions at all.  I was happy, but also curious.  What was going on between the different TVs? 

 

Around the same time as the TV, I was having a similar experience with a computer monitor.  Both of these items did not fit my usual pattern of experience.  Usually the older and more ‘aired out’ an item was the better it was for me.  These two things were the opposite of this pattern, the newer the better.  I believe the main culprit in this was the class of fire retardant known as PBDEs.  The form that are used in electronics are known as Deca.  This was an item used in consumer plastics for years.  It has been outlawed in the EU and is still allowed on the federal level of the US.  On the state level Washington (2007) and California (2003) have banned the use and sale of products containing this material.  Main (2007) has enacted a partial ban.  As a result many manufactures have stopped using it all together.  What does this mean for those of us with MCS?  When it comes to consumer electronics the newer can at times be the better. 

 

Getting rid of that TV was a great move.  It was creating a huge amount of background toxicity for me.  When I finally got rid of it my life improved dramatically.  If you own a TV or other large piece of plastic made before 2003 - 2007 try getting it out of your environment for a few days and seeing if there is an improvement in how you feel.  If you are not sure bring it back and then move it out again.  If the TV is not an item then see if there is that one item that is the ‘elephant in the living room’, that thing that is just there that no-one wants to see.  Test a few things out.  Try muscle testing a bunch of different items in your house.  If you can clear out one big item then it will be worth it.

 

There is one other major item to consumer electronics that I have not mentioned yet.  That item is…