manchester news
Thursday, 15th December 2005
'Home is just like a prison for me’
Tony Howard  INSIDE looking out: Brian HopkinsonBrian Hopkinson, 55, is bed-ridden for 16 hours every day, can only watch television for one hour a day and is restricted to speaking to his nieces and nephews over the phone due to a rare condition called multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS).
Brian is allergic to chemicals used in clothing, fabrics, common agricultural pesticides, perfumes, carpets, washing-up liquid, disinfectants, plastics and even the air.
As a result his home is stripped bare and the only time he leaves his house is for rare trips to the local shop. And he hangs new clothes on the washing line for months to allow the rain to wash out chemicals before he can wear them. He believes the condition is a result of exposure to industrial pesticides in his job as a school groundsman, which he had to give up after symptoms began in October 1988.
symptoms
MCS, medically recognised since the 1940s, causes symptoms, similar to those of ME, of fatigue, concentration lapses, depression, weakness, dizziness and headaches which the patient believes are caused by exposure to environmental chemicals.
Brian said: "I can’t talk for long because I am so drained. If I do too much I struggle to recover until the day after.
"I struggle to help my partner Eileen with the housework. I used to be a sportsman and runner but that is all in the past now. I’ve had to get an expensive organic bed because mattresses are coated in fire-repellent chemicals.
"I’ve had a pair of jogging bottoms for four months now, but I daren’t wear them. I was told by an allergist that the Manchester rain will make the garments wearable if I leave them long enough, so I hang clothes up in the garden for months.
"The world of chemicals is a ticking time bomb for me and anyone else predisposed to sensitivity. Unless the industry comes to be regulated in some way there will be a growing army of victims."
Brian is now pinning his hopes on acupuncture, which was shown to reduce patients’ symptoms in an American study.
He said: "I just hope the treatment comes over here, then maybe I can get cured of this condition for good." Submit your comments
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