Steve Chalmers
@fstevenchalmers.bsky.social
Retired person, was in tech industry for 37 years
Self and family got multiple chemical sensitivity from a sick house incident in the mid 1990s
Heretic, with a heretical research hypothesis on the nature of MCS and a dozen other complex chronic illnesses
Self and family got multiple chemical sensitivity from a sick house incident in the mid 1990s
Heretic, with a heretical research hypothesis on the nature of MCS and a dozen other complex chronic illnesses
When I got my first driver's license in Ohio in the early 1970s, parallel parking was half of the driving test, and it took a lot of practice to pass that test.
But before we got our licenses, we practiced in some deserted parking lot with poles as markers, not with people's cars on a real street!
But before we got our licenses, we practiced in some deserted parking lot with poles as markers, not with people's cars on a real street!
September 2, 2025 at 4:17 AM
When I got my first driver's license in Ohio in the early 1970s, parallel parking was half of the driving test, and it took a lot of practice to pass that test.
But before we got our licenses, we practiced in some deserted parking lot with poles as markers, not with people's cars on a real street!
But before we got our licenses, we practiced in some deserted parking lot with poles as markers, not with people's cars on a real street!
...deposit on the lung surface, and pass at some rate through that surface, which means into the bloodstream (and out, as well).
My wife can "smell metals in the air" as a storm is coming in, the same conditions in which some people with old injuries feel them hurt again. MCS reaction. We stay in.
My wife can "smell metals in the air" as a storm is coming in, the same conditions in which some people with old injuries feel them hurt again. MCS reaction. We stay in.
August 27, 2025 at 8:57 AM
...deposit on the lung surface, and pass at some rate through that surface, which means into the bloodstream (and out, as well).
My wife can "smell metals in the air" as a storm is coming in, the same conditions in which some people with old injuries feel them hurt again. MCS reaction. We stay in.
My wife can "smell metals in the air" as a storm is coming in, the same conditions in which some people with old injuries feel them hurt again. MCS reaction. We stay in.
So if one treats the lung surface as simply a semipermeable membrane with molecules moving in both directions (which is necessary for nebulizers and the nice officer's breathalyzer to work), then humidity droplets in the air are small enough that those already dissolved metal salts will deposit...
August 27, 2025 at 8:54 AM
So if one treats the lung surface as simply a semipermeable membrane with molecules moving in both directions (which is necessary for nebulizers and the nice officer's breathalyzer to work), then humidity droplets in the air are small enough that those already dissolved metal salts will deposit...
This framing is completely at odds with how physicians and the public are taught to think about the blood/air barrier in the lungs
From an aerosol science or atmospheric chemistry perspective it's well understood that metal salts in aqueous form are ubiquitous in the air
part natural, part manmade
From an aerosol science or atmospheric chemistry perspective it's well understood that metal salts in aqueous form are ubiquitous in the air
part natural, part manmade
August 27, 2025 at 8:53 AM
This framing is completely at odds with how physicians and the public are taught to think about the blood/air barrier in the lungs
From an aerosol science or atmospheric chemistry perspective it's well understood that metal salts in aqueous form are ubiquitous in the air
part natural, part manmade
From an aerosol science or atmospheric chemistry perspective it's well understood that metal salts in aqueous form are ubiquitous in the air
part natural, part manmade
While it may have nothing to do with your experience,
Over the last 29 years since we all got sensitized in the same sick house incident
My wife, son, daughter, and self are affected to different degrees by weather, but it's not the temperature
I think it's what's dissolved in the humidity in air
Over the last 29 years since we all got sensitized in the same sick house incident
My wife, son, daughter, and self are affected to different degrees by weather, but it's not the temperature
I think it's what's dissolved in the humidity in air
August 27, 2025 at 8:50 AM
While it may have nothing to do with your experience,
Over the last 29 years since we all got sensitized in the same sick house incident
My wife, son, daughter, and self are affected to different degrees by weather, but it's not the temperature
I think it's what's dissolved in the humidity in air
Over the last 29 years since we all got sensitized in the same sick house incident
My wife, son, daughter, and self are affected to different degrees by weather, but it's not the temperature
I think it's what's dissolved in the humidity in air
just as policymakers (ie CDC and NIH) seem to have fallen to regulatory capture -- by emotional argument, not facts -- on ME/"CFS". as described in "Osler's Web" and her more recent "The Why"
The people driving the effort to deny/trivialize ME/"CFS" have shown their faces only twice in 40+ years
The people driving the effort to deny/trivialize ME/"CFS" have shown their faces only twice in 40+ years
August 27, 2025 at 8:43 AM
just as policymakers (ie CDC and NIH) seem to have fallen to regulatory capture -- by emotional argument, not facts -- on ME/"CFS". as described in "Osler's Web" and her more recent "The Why"
The people driving the effort to deny/trivialize ME/"CFS" have shown their faces only twice in 40+ years
The people driving the effort to deny/trivialize ME/"CFS" have shown their faces only twice in 40+ years
I have often wondered over the last 29 years if the preponderance of med school professors reminding med students patients lie/omit/misperceive isn't deliberately induced by such special interests (by emotional appeal to the professors, of course, not by bribes)
August 27, 2025 at 8:38 AM
I have often wondered over the last 29 years if the preponderance of med school professors reminding med students patients lie/omit/misperceive isn't deliberately induced by such special interests (by emotional appeal to the professors, of course, not by bribes)
…peer reviewed medical literature for about US$10 million in less than a decade. For a bit more spent on unethical advocacy that basis can then be used to drive a coercive standard of care on physicians requiring that a physician make that anxiety/phobia/deconditioning diagnosis for such patients
August 27, 2025 at 8:35 AM
…peer reviewed medical literature for about US$10 million in less than a decade. For a bit more spent on unethical advocacy that basis can then be used to drive a coercive standard of care on physicians requiring that a physician make that anxiety/phobia/deconditioning diagnosis for such patients
It's far worse than class warfare
Special interests with large sums of money at stake (or their very existence at stake) can get disinformation written into the peer reviewed medical literature saying a particular condition is always, say, anxiety or phobia or deconditioning, written into peer...
Special interests with large sums of money at stake (or their very existence at stake) can get disinformation written into the peer reviewed medical literature saying a particular condition is always, say, anxiety or phobia or deconditioning, written into peer...
August 27, 2025 at 8:32 AM
It's far worse than class warfare
Special interests with large sums of money at stake (or their very existence at stake) can get disinformation written into the peer reviewed medical literature saying a particular condition is always, say, anxiety or phobia or deconditioning, written into peer...
Special interests with large sums of money at stake (or their very existence at stake) can get disinformation written into the peer reviewed medical literature saying a particular condition is always, say, anxiety or phobia or deconditioning, written into peer...
…cannot possibly occur if the basic theory underlying medical practice and research today (ie what's taught in med school) is correct and complete
we wouldn't need medical research if it was
perhaps teach physicians that 1 in 3 patients have such conditions, don't dismiss their lived experience
we wouldn't need medical research if it was
perhaps teach physicians that 1 in 3 patients have such conditions, don't dismiss their lived experience
August 27, 2025 at 8:28 AM
…cannot possibly occur if the basic theory underlying medical practice and research today (ie what's taught in med school) is correct and complete
we wouldn't need medical research if it was
perhaps teach physicians that 1 in 3 patients have such conditions, don't dismiss their lived experience
we wouldn't need medical research if it was
perhaps teach physicians that 1 in 3 patients have such conditions, don't dismiss their lived experience
A thought from a patient who, with his family, got what for lack of understanding by the medical profession I call Multiple Chemical Sensitivity from a sick house 29 years ago:
1 in 3 patients walk into clinic, or the ED, with a physical complex chronic condition which can't possibly occur if...
1 in 3 patients walk into clinic, or the ED, with a physical complex chronic condition which can't possibly occur if...
August 27, 2025 at 8:25 AM
A thought from a patient who, with his family, got what for lack of understanding by the medical profession I call Multiple Chemical Sensitivity from a sick house 29 years ago:
1 in 3 patients walk into clinic, or the ED, with a physical complex chronic condition which can't possibly occur if...
1 in 3 patients walk into clinic, or the ED, with a physical complex chronic condition which can't possibly occur if...
That said, as a retired computer designer who went to university only a decade after the last time AI overpromised and underdelivered, I don't think profligate use of electricity by AI data centers is good for society, and it's time to figure out how to do that work for 1/100th the electricity
August 26, 2025 at 9:48 AM
That said, as a retired computer designer who went to university only a decade after the last time AI overpromised and underdelivered, I don't think profligate use of electricity by AI data centers is good for society, and it's time to figure out how to do that work for 1/100th the electricity
…asking people to sacrifice, deeply, to save the planet would never win politically. There would always be a demagogue in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry who would convince people their sacrifice wasn't necessary
There's enough energy in the sunlight landing on our planet for everyone.
There's enough energy in the sunlight landing on our planet for everyone.
August 26, 2025 at 9:46 AM
…asking people to sacrifice, deeply, to save the planet would never win politically. There would always be a demagogue in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry who would convince people their sacrifice wasn't necessary
There's enough energy in the sunlight landing on our planet for everyone.
There's enough energy in the sunlight landing on our planet for everyone.
Two thoughts on this:
First, your observation is valid. We humans do need to use energy wisely rather than profligately.
Second, when my son was majoring in political science at Stanford 15ish years ago, he also became passionate about climate change. He realized that asking people to sacrifice...
First, your observation is valid. We humans do need to use energy wisely rather than profligately.
Second, when my son was majoring in political science at Stanford 15ish years ago, he also became passionate about climate change. He realized that asking people to sacrifice...
August 26, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Two thoughts on this:
First, your observation is valid. We humans do need to use energy wisely rather than profligately.
Second, when my son was majoring in political science at Stanford 15ish years ago, he also became passionate about climate change. He realized that asking people to sacrifice...
First, your observation is valid. We humans do need to use energy wisely rather than profligately.
Second, when my son was majoring in political science at Stanford 15ish years ago, he also became passionate about climate change. He realized that asking people to sacrifice...
Quite relevant, and I applauded it when first published
ME/"CFS" is only one (maybe two) of what I counted one day as two dozen complex chronic illnesses whose mechanisms medicine simply doesn't understand...
or simply cannot occur as patients experience them if current medical theory is correct
ME/"CFS" is only one (maybe two) of what I counted one day as two dozen complex chronic illnesses whose mechanisms medicine simply doesn't understand...
or simply cannot occur as patients experience them if current medical theory is correct
June 1, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Quite relevant, and I applauded it when first published
ME/"CFS" is only one (maybe two) of what I counted one day as two dozen complex chronic illnesses whose mechanisms medicine simply doesn't understand...
or simply cannot occur as patients experience them if current medical theory is correct
ME/"CFS" is only one (maybe two) of what I counted one day as two dozen complex chronic illnesses whose mechanisms medicine simply doesn't understand...
or simply cannot occur as patients experience them if current medical theory is correct
PACE seems designed to write into the peer reviewed medical literature conclusions which provide cover for payers of disability income to reject every claim for ME/"CFS" because it can be cured by exercise and a harsh talking to.
Methods were changed when the data did not support that conclusion.
Methods were changed when the data did not support that conclusion.
June 1, 2025 at 10:59 AM
PACE seems designed to write into the peer reviewed medical literature conclusions which provide cover for payers of disability income to reject every claim for ME/"CFS" because it can be cured by exercise and a harsh talking to.
Methods were changed when the data did not support that conclusion.
Methods were changed when the data did not support that conclusion.
PACE was not just paid for, but assisted in many ways, and had its results amplified, by a set of payers of disability income and their ecosystem of consultants, not just DWP in the UK, but worldwide.
June 1, 2025 at 10:52 AM
PACE was not just paid for, but assisted in many ways, and had its results amplified, by a set of payers of disability income and their ecosystem of consultants, not just DWP in the UK, but worldwide.
Yes, this was a hard read.
I remain convinced S.W. is a vector for disinformation, not a scientist. A tool, not a principal.
My only question is, is he a prejudiced "true believer" being used by the special interests with $trillions at stake, or knowingly conveying their talking points?
I remain convinced S.W. is a vector for disinformation, not a scientist. A tool, not a principal.
My only question is, is he a prejudiced "true believer" being used by the special interests with $trillions at stake, or knowingly conveying their talking points?
June 1, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Yes, this was a hard read.
I remain convinced S.W. is a vector for disinformation, not a scientist. A tool, not a principal.
My only question is, is he a prejudiced "true believer" being used by the special interests with $trillions at stake, or knowingly conveying their talking points?
I remain convinced S.W. is a vector for disinformation, not a scientist. A tool, not a principal.
My only question is, is he a prejudiced "true believer" being used by the special interests with $trillions at stake, or knowingly conveying their talking points?
taking the word "Chemical" out of the name stops pointing the blame for what's happening at the chemical industry
In the end, the renaming wasn't of much consequence. Flooding the peer reviewed literature with papers pointing to psych/anxiety causes created illusion of consensus. That was enough.
In the end, the renaming wasn't of much consequence. Flooding the peer reviewed literature with papers pointing to psych/anxiety causes created illusion of consensus. That was enough.
June 1, 2025 at 3:24 AM
taking the word "Chemical" out of the name stops pointing the blame for what's happening at the chemical industry
In the end, the renaming wasn't of much consequence. Flooding the peer reviewed literature with papers pointing to psych/anxiety causes created illusion of consensus. That was enough.
In the end, the renaming wasn't of much consequence. Flooding the peer reviewed literature with papers pointing to psych/anxiety causes created illusion of consensus. That was enough.
But think about it: the chemical industry wanted to insulate itself and its customers from lawsuits claiming that injury from chemical industry products had caused Multiple Chemical Sensitivity disability (sometimes total disability) in people
"Idiopathic" means we have no idea what causes it
and
"Idiopathic" means we have no idea what causes it
and
June 1, 2025 at 3:22 AM
But think about it: the chemical industry wanted to insulate itself and its customers from lawsuits claiming that injury from chemical industry products had caused Multiple Chemical Sensitivity disability (sometimes total disability) in people
"Idiopathic" means we have no idea what causes it
and
"Idiopathic" means we have no idea what causes it
and
The original members of the session all walked out when they realized they were outnumbered and the session was being hijacked, and history was of course written by the victors.
The influence of the nonprofit was sufficient that IEI was used as a neutral name for a decade or two after that
The influence of the nonprofit was sufficient that IEI was used as a neutral name for a decade or two after that
June 1, 2025 at 3:21 AM
The original members of the session all walked out when they realized they were outnumbered and the session was being hijacked, and history was of course written by the victors.
The influence of the nonprofit was sufficient that IEI was used as a neutral name for a decade or two after that
The influence of the nonprofit was sufficient that IEI was used as a neutral name for a decade or two after that
...hijacked a very small sub session -- a handful of people from around the world in a conference room for a few hours -- at a UN sponsored science conference, to use the name of that session as the origin of renaming "Multiple Chemical Sensitivity" to be "Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance"
June 1, 2025 at 3:18 AM
...hijacked a very small sub session -- a handful of people from around the world in a conference room for a few hours -- at a UN sponsored science conference, to use the name of that session as the origin of renaming "Multiple Chemical Sensitivity" to be "Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance"
A second point:
You are right about names. A set of advocates, working for or more broadly funded by grants or consulting fees from a nominal nonprofit funded by the chemical industry in the 1990s to "make Multiple Chemical Sensitivity go away" for litigation defense purposes, hijacked a...
You are right about names. A set of advocates, working for or more broadly funded by grants or consulting fees from a nominal nonprofit funded by the chemical industry in the 1990s to "make Multiple Chemical Sensitivity go away" for litigation defense purposes, hijacked a...
June 1, 2025 at 3:16 AM
A second point:
You are right about names. A set of advocates, working for or more broadly funded by grants or consulting fees from a nominal nonprofit funded by the chemical industry in the 1990s to "make Multiple Chemical Sensitivity go away" for litigation defense purposes, hijacked a...
You are right about names. A set of advocates, working for or more broadly funded by grants or consulting fees from a nominal nonprofit funded by the chemical industry in the 1990s to "make Multiple Chemical Sensitivity go away" for litigation defense purposes, hijacked a...
Erik doesn't think much of my ideas and my own armchair activism. That's OK.
And he's so angry at science for its choice to work from selected facts and political hypotheses, rather than the messy facts on the ground 41 years ago, that he's hard to interact with.
But he's not getting any younger
And he's so angry at science for its choice to work from selected facts and political hypotheses, rather than the messy facts on the ground 41 years ago, that he's hard to interact with.
But he's not getting any younger
June 1, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Erik doesn't think much of my ideas and my own armchair activism. That's OK.
And he's so angry at science for its choice to work from selected facts and political hypotheses, rather than the messy facts on the ground 41 years ago, that he's hard to interact with.
But he's not getting any younger
And he's so angry at science for its choice to work from selected facts and political hypotheses, rather than the messy facts on the ground 41 years ago, that he's hard to interact with.
But he's not getting any younger