Multiple chemical sensitivity epidemiology

The most commonly accepted definition of MCS was written by Mark Cullen, M.D., a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Yale University. In Workers With Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Occupational Medicine 2 (1987) 655-626, he writes, Multiple chemical sensitivities is an acquired disorder characterized by recurrent symptoms, referable to multiple organ systems, occurring in response to demonstrable exposure to many chemically unrelated compounds at doses far below those established in the general population to cause harmful elfects. No single widely accepted test of physiologic function can be shown to correlate with symptoms. ... 

The 2004 study, titled Case-control Study of Genotypes in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity CYP2D6, NATl, NAT2, PON1, PON2, and MTHFR, by McKeown-Eyssen et al., was published in the InternationalJournal of Epidemiology and is available online http // ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/dyh 251vl. 

While individual VOCs like benzene and toluene have been linked with acute myeloid leukaemia and neurotoxicity, respectively [ 111,112], epidemiological studies of the health effects of indoor VOCs have related TVOC rather than individual VOC levels to exposure. The outcomes of such studies have been mixed [113]. In some cases,positive associations between SBS,building-related illness or multiple chemical sensitivity syndromes and TVOC levels were observed... 

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