Why do I get a sore throat from chemicals?

August 5, 2007 9:52 AM

AllergyFilter. What could I be allergic to that causes me extreme throat irritation upon exposure to certain chemicals?

Any time that I've been exposed to Simple Green cleaner, I've gotten a terrible sore throat for a week. Someone happened to spray it in my presence today and the sore throat is back. This also happens to a lesser extent when I am close to someone with a lot of perfume (I can't wear it at all) or wear clothes washed in non-chemical-free detergent. What is this condition called? What can I do about this sore throat? My health coverage sucks and getting medical attention for this any time soon is out of the question.

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (7 answers total)

IANAD, but it sounds to me like you have a relatively mild case of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. It's not strictly speaking an allergy, in that no histamine reaction is involved, and many people think it's entirely psychosomatic, but I've met enough people who seem to have symptoms that I'm fairly convinced it exists.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a great deal that can be done about it other than trying your best to avoid chemicals.
posted by cerebus19 at 10:09 AM on August 5, 2007

Yup, as cerebus19 says, MCS is one name we sufferers have come up with for this problem. I had a question about it before in askme, and you can see the attitudes of doctors and others in that thread. It's hard to identify which chemical may bother you, per se, as there are tens of thousands of poorly tested man made and toxic compounds mixing together in your environment. In my experience, the problem has something to do with throat, mouth, nose and other tissues becoming more sensitive and reactive to various things.

It is best to avoid, in my opinion. Not being able to get medical assistance is perhaps a blessing. I went the nasal spray and inhaler route which supressed my explosive nose and throat reactions and allowed me to continue working. Then I got what I describe as brain reactions -- sudden speech and thought problems, vertigo, hearing problems and a bizarre migraine. These were various and unpredictable and scary as hell and I'm glad I removed myself from exposure rather than then experimenting with drugs that affect the brain. I have spoken with many people who became seriously debilitated by allowing themselves to continue being exposed. I didn't want to use medical help to create that situation for myself.

I find I can handle the odd exposure, but if I get too many, I start to get reactions again. Clearly avoidance is best until someone takes this seriously and studies it and solves it, if that happens. Having an invisible disability and accommodating it yourself is better than trusting those who will let you get hurt more and then you become a pauper on a disability benefits pittance.
posted by Listener at 10:27 AM on August 5, 2007

I have the exact same problem with a certain scent of glade plug-in air fresheners. Anyone who says it's psycho-somatic can take a flying leap, because the simple fact is that EVERY time I am in a small room with one of those things for more than ten minutes, I get a headache and a terrible sore throat with post-nasal drip that lasts for at least a couple of days. I am incredibly skeptical about pretty much everything so I tried to convince myself it was a coincidence, but the fifth time it happened, I realized it couldn't be. I had a bit of a falling-out with a friend over it - she was having a birthday party, and I asked her if she could unplug the air freshener a couple of days before, and she told me it was all in my head and I was just trying to be difficult and that I was a snob (I might have mentioned in the past, in no way referencing her glade plug-in, that I really hated cheap air fresheners in general) . I couldn't go to her party, and our friendship hasn't been the same since. There's also a woman who sits near me at work who absolutely HATES me because I very nicely asked that she stop spraying herself with her cheap, baby powder-scented perfume in the middle of the office two or three times a day. It got to the point where I left the office for ten minutes every time I saw her digging around in her purse. The perfume didn't make me sick, but it definitely gave me a headache a few times.

Anyway, definitely avoid the stuff (I hate the way Simple Green smells, anyway), and don't be shy about asking people not to use it when you're around. There's no way that someone else's preference for perfume or a certain cleaner trumps your right to be comfortable, and their preference most definitely doesn't trump your right not to get sick. Don't let anyone cow you with their skepticism, either.
posted by cilantro at 12:08 PM on August 5, 2007

Fellow fragrance sufferer, you are not alone. For me, it's cologne and perfume that cause most of my troubles: headache, nausea, brain fog, etc. At $3 a dose, I don't take Maxalt-MLT often enough, though it certainly helps. Strong coffee and aspirin are good, too. But avoidance is the only "cure."
posted by Carol Anne at 1:12 PM on August 5, 2007

Simple Green may not be so simple. It contains large amounts - double-digit percentages - of chemicals that are considered air pollutants when measured in parts per billion.

According to that article, lots of people react badly to it.

"Multiple chemical sensitivity" isn't a discrete entity; it's a bunch of different things filed all together under "we don't understand these things, so let's lump them all together." It is a waste of time to talk about it as though classifying it this way produced any useful result. The unsurprising advice offered to people with chemical sensitivities is to identify and avoid triggers.
posted by ikkyu2 at 2:48 AM on August 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

MCS is a pain.
Our office just changed to "green products", and they bother me worse than the old, nasty chemical products.
I know which air freshener that is; it has the same scent in it as poison perfume. It gets me too.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 5:51 AM on August 6, 2007

A friend of mine has a similar problem, and has to avoid perfume, etc. She does not keep any of the bothersome items in her house, uses natural soaps and shampoos without any perfumes. She asks visitors not to wear perfume. I sometimes wear lavender oil, which does not bother her.

I don't think there is much you can do about it aside from communicating with the people around you so they don't expose you to chemicals. You can call it an allergy, that seems to be a more socially acceptable label. Feel free to lie and say your doctor says you must avoid it if you need to.
posted by yohko at 2:25 PM on August 6, 2007