Access in the Works (kind of...):
EHN PROTESTS ACCESS BOARD STALEMATE ON MCS

By Susan Molloy

The San Francisco Hilton was the inaccessible site, March 15, 1993 of the federal Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board's final hearing on architecture and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In support of testimony by dozens of people with EI/MCS, every other principled disability group present expressed dismay and outrage that EI/MCS access to hospitals, schools, housing, and public facilities was omitted from ATBCB's final regulations despite the pounds of invited documentation and testimony we submitted during the past two years.

In a meeting in EHN's "Hospitality Suite" (the now legendary Hilton Room 1073, for which we paid $75 for respite from ATBCB's hearing room) following the official hearing, members of the Access Board and their lawyer made such points, to a room packed full of thoroughly sick and exhausted E.I.s, as:

• "there isn't enough conclusive scientific data for us to help you;"

• "our staff is too small to help you;"

• "you people don't all react to the same thing so we can't help you;"

• "we have personally had a conversation on the phone with Mary Lamielle;"

• "the jury is still out on this one so we can't help you;" etc.

Kathleen Parker is Board Chair of the ATBCB. Larry Roffee is ATBCB's Executive Director. The ATBCB staff person assigned to MCS access, as of March 16, is Paul Beatty, 800-872-2253, ext. 19. Or call David Capozzi, manager of ATBCB's Office of Technical Information Services, (202) 272-5434, ext. 23. ATBCB's address is 1331 "F" St., NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20004-1111.

See if you can determine what it will take to get some help from this agency.

This article, above, can be found reprinted on page 254 of The BEST of the Reactor 1985 - 1995, edited by Susan Molloy. See http://ehnca.org/www/books/bookordr.htm

1. See list of august organizatons, with links, which acknowledge that fragrances trigger a variety of serious health problems
http://ehnca.org/www/ehnlinx/a.htm#AVOID

2. See Analysis http://ehnca.org/www/FDApetition/analysis.htm

3. FDA http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-206.html

4. Air "Fresheners" http://ehnca.org/www/ehnlinx/a.htm#Fresheners

5. Sierra Club's Resolution against "Excessive Use of Fragrance Products in Public Places"
http://tamalpais.sierraclub.org/chapters/sanfranciscobay/policy/december1998.htm