Ive just written to my mep: Dear Elizabeth, Im writing to you as I believe it is really important to tackle the causes of allergy which blight 30% of the population and are becoming ever problematic. I personally suffer from contact allergies and have been allergic to Perfume since I was young. After my second child my eczema has gotten out of control and I want to demonstrate to you how difficult this is to deal with, with known allergens being in everyday circulation. We need Europe to tackle this before a higher percentage of the population become allergic. Once allergic there is no going back and a person has to learn avoidance. When I grew up people saw perfume as a luxury and applied for special occasions. Now I cant walk through an airport without 500m dash past the perfume sellers - I button my coat up to the neck and run ( I travel weekly). I cant visit the toilet without being dosed with airfreshner, I had my air con in the car serviced, they used a perfumed cleaner and for 3 weeks I had a serious reaction. I cant got to a wedding, party or event without knowing for 3 weeks afterwards Ill have a terrible rash which is painful, unsightly and causes disturbed sleep. In addition to perfume I now find Im allergic to methylchloroisothiazolinone and methylisothiazolinone. These commonly used preservatives are endemic. As an example I believe this allergy could have been triggered by Huggies baby wipes - I bought the ones which were pure, fragrance free as gentle as cotton wool and water. 10% of the population at least have a known allergy to MIT contained in these wipes let alone what impact this has on babies. My baby has had eczema from 8 weeks. Could be from these wipes. Ive since complained to the advertising standards agency and Huggies have reformulated. As an example of how hard this is to manage, MIT is also known as Kathon, Euxyl, Grotan as well as variants on the full chemical name. I have a degree in chemistry and find it difficult to keep a track of all the variations. What can you do? Well like food allergies we need some standardisation here. One allergen, one name. I think cosmetics should be forced to list all the allergens like food companies do and I would push for this to be on the. Actual bottle not on the box or leaflet which get thrown away. Id also like to get greater awareness of use off allergens in situations where people cant be aware. I understand MIT is somehow in air conditioning systems in hospitals! I had patch tests recently at monklands. They sent me home with some tape to reapply the patches. When I used this tape I had a severe reaction within mins. I suspect the tape had MIT in it. If a dermatology clinic is inducing allergies what hope do we have? I recently watched a panorama or horizon doc about allergies. The take away message was that in 30 years we have moved from a very minority of the population having allergies to 30% and growing. Their research was about the limited exposure to diverse bacteria which protected the body. We need more allergy research and awareness as a priority. I cant tell you how unbearable it is if you cant sleep for days and you want to claw you skin off your body as it is burning and itchy. My experience of the NHS and private consultations is that dermatology is all about treating the symptoms not tackling the cause. Can you help? Kind regards
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 12:11:09 +0000
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