11 Reasons To Stop Using Fragrances and Implement Fragrance-free Policies

Here are 11 excellent  reasons to stop using and allowing fragrances in your home, at work,  in healthcare, in housing, at school, in transportation, in retail, and in other public places:

Note that there are 2 copies of this list. The first one has no hyperlinks, but if you keep scrolling down, the second one has links to more information. This has been done since some people have visual difficulties with the high-lighted links. 

1. Everyone is being subjected to unlabeled toxic chemicals via fragranced products, and removing them makes the air quality healthier for all to enjoy.

2. Millions of people are injured and disabled by fragranced products, and having to avoid exposures restricts their lives in almost unbelievable ways, so removing fragrances is a practical way to provide disability related accommodations, in other words, fragrance-free policies remove accessibility barriers that are systemic and virtually impossible to navigate one person at a time.

3. Some of the ingredients in fragrances are linked to epigenetic, and reproductive damage, neurodevelopmental issues and IQ loss, others are carcinogens, asthmagens, obesogens, neurotoxins, and more…


How Dis History Became Drunk History

How did something as obscure yet historically pivotal as a landmark ’70s sit-in by disability rights advocates end up on the brilliantly skewered TV show, Drunk History?

The short answer is, “Hey, it’s Hollywood. It’s not what you know, but who you know.”

A wonderful woman named Candace Cable — nine-time Paralympian, eight gold medals, first woman to medal in both the summer and winter Para games, writer, speaker, educator — had an idea. Her sister was the costume supervisor for Drunk History, now in its fifth season on Comedy Central, and Candace was hanging around the set one day when a light bulb went off in her head. What a perfect format to tell one of the central tales of the rise of disability rights in America: the nationwide sit-in of federal buildings in April, 1977, to force the government to enact the first major anti-discrimination law allowing people with disabilities unencumbered access to all government facilities. The part of the law in question was called Section 504. The main sit-in, in San Francisco, lasted 28 days and remains to this day the longest non–violent occupation of a federal building ever, by anyone. In the end, the occupiers got what they came for. They changed history.

Candace and I are friends, so she called me with this idea. Not only did I think it was brilliant, I had connections. Jeremy Konner, the co-creator and director of Drunk History, just happened to be the son of Ronnie Konner, a charter member of the group I chair, the Writers with Disabilities Committee at the Writers Guild of America. I knew the guy’s mom! I call Ronnie, Ronnie calls Jeremy, Jeremy says, “Freaking A!,” and we’re off!


'Drunk History' Highlights Fight for Section 504 and Disability Rights

If you haven't seen the clip yet, it is very funny....

https://goo.gl/HE4BMS

Tuesday night’s episode of “Drunk History” on Comedy Central included a segment on Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. As part of the show, each week a new narrator recounts a part of history to Derek Waters, one of the show’s creators, while getting drunk. A cast of actors and comedians play out the drunk narrator’s version of history.

The episode, which was focussed on civil rights, featured a retelling of Section 504 sit-ins. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in places or programs that receive financial assistance from the government. Before the enforcement of Section 504, “Disability [was] basically dismissibility,” Suzi Barrett, the narrator for the episode, said.

Section 504 was the first disability civil rights law in the United States. Passed in 1973, regulations enforcing Section 504 were not made until 1977 after the sit-ins. The largest sit-in was in San Francisco at the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare and lasted almost four weeks. Other sit-ins took place around the country, but only lasted a few days.

Section 504 paved the way for the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). The American Coalition of Citizens With Disabilities (ACCD) led much of the fight for the implementation of Section 504 through country-wide sit-ins and protests.

Most Hollywood portrayals of people with disabilities are portrayed by able-bodied actors. Twenty percent of Americans have a disability, but less than 2 percent of characters on television have a disability, and 95 percent of those roles are played by able-bodied actors, according to the Ruderman Family Foundation.

“Drunk History,” however, cast actors with disabilities to play these trailblazers. Sean Berdy, a deaf actor, plays Frank Bowe, a deaf man who founded the ACCD. Ali Stroker, an actress who uses a wheelchair known for her role on “Glee,” played Judy Heumann. Another “Glee” alum, Lauren Potter, an actress with Down syndrome, also made an appearance. Other notable cameos include actor and comedian Zach Anner and Ajani “AJ” Murray, both of whom have cerebral palsy.

The “Drunk History” episode was met with praise on Twitter from people in the disability community including Judy Heumann, one of the organizers of the sit-in. Actors in the episode also tweeted about the show.





Provider downsizing halted amid state ombudsman concerns over moving frail residents

https://goo.gl/SvVHS6

A plan to downsize a Michigan nursing home that led to public outcry is on hold, according to the facility's CEO.

In January, the Harold and Grace Upjohn Community Care Center in Kalamazoo announced its plans to move 42 residents out of their home as part of an overall facility overhaul.

But the state's Long Term Care Ombudsman's office called the plan unacceptable, citing a federal law that limits reasons for which residents can be evicted.

“None of those circumstances apply in this case,” Alison Hirschel, legal counsel for the Ombudsman's office, told Michigan Radio. “And so we're deeply troubled that very fragile residents are being forced to leave when it doesn't appear it meets any of the federal or state requirements for an eviction.”

Hirschel said some nursing home residents already left the Upjohn Center without being told they had the right to appeal an involuntary move. The radio station reported the affected residents are mostly in their 80s and 90s, and one is receiving hospice care.

The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs said it had not  formally identified any non-compliance.


Recognizing the Experiences of People Who Identify as Mentally Ill Within the #MeToo Movement

https://goo.gl/3YRv5r

A seismic shift has taken place in the world of many sexual assault victims: their experiences no longer feel like dirty little secrets that must be hidden from view.  The “#MeToo” movement has become a powerful tool for women (and men) of sound mind to come forward and share their trauma. And society, by and large, has been extremely supportive.  But I can’t help wondering if the same support would exist for those victims who are not necessarily of sound mind?

I am mentally ill. I have been under a psychiatrist’s care since age twelve. I was raped at fourteen. The former makes the latter twice as hard.

First there’s the intensified paranoia. I was already having issues with feeling unsafe before the assault – I would obsessively check the locks of my home. After the rape, I had to check them multiple times, convinced something terrible would happen if I didn’t. My hallucinations became more violent — and uncomfortably sexual for a young teenager. My depression increased tenfold. My medications didn’t seem to help the same way they did before. But this wasn’t the worst part — the worst part was the forgetting.

Officially, it’s called retrograde amnesia. I stuffed the whole memory deep inside of me and didn’t remember again for eight years. And then I remembered all at once. The fear, the pain, the blood. And I wished nothing more than to forget again.

When a woman is raped, there are already questions about whether or not she is telling the truth. It’s one of the hardest things any survivor is up against. When she is mentally ill, skepticism increases. And if that mentally ill girl and has only just recently remembered her assault, it’s almost a joke. I could have made it up for attention – need for attention is part and parcel of my bipolar disorder. I could have hallucinated the whole memory – I’ve hallucinated many things before. It could be a delusion from my paranoia.