Breathing easier
Artist with multiple chemical sensitivity is displaying her works at non-toxic inn

For overnight guests, the Topia Inn in Adams is literally a breath of fresh air.

For people who suffer from multiple chemical sensitivity, fresh air can make a world of difference in their quality of life.

Photographer and painter Karen Judith Andrews of West Stockbridge began exhibiting signs of MCS in 1992 while she was living in New Haven, Conn., and working in studio space created in a converted factory.

Eventually, she joined the millions of Americans for whom the modern environment most people take for granted is a toxic mix of perfumes, cleaning solutions, tobacco, paints and varnishes.

She moved to the Berkshires in 1997 and began capturing the region's natural beauty through a camera lens. Her work includes an exhibition titled "Enchanted Forest Series," which has been displayed at hospitals and healing centers throughout the Northeast.

Her health has benefited dramatically from her move away from the inner city.

"I'm probably about 75 percent better," Andrews said. "I'm not all better. I'm not sure anyone gets totally cured. I don't really understand it. Nobody does. The medical community isn't quite there."

In fact, the American Medical Association does not recognize MCS as a physiological condition, although it has been asked to do so by MCS America.

According to England's multiplechemicalsensitivity.org, symptoms of MCS include burning, stinging eyes, wheezing, breathlessness, nausea, extreme fatigue/lethargy, headache/ migraine/vertigo/dizziness, sore throat, cough and sinus problems.

People who suffer from MCS can try to improve their environment at home by reducing or eliminating air fresheners, choosing frangrance-free laundry detergents and painting with non-VOC (volatile organic compound) paints.

But when they leave their homes, they usually take their chances.

"For people like me with chemical sensibilities, traveling can be a nightmare," Andrews said. "I call ahead and ask hotels if they have carpeting, what kind of heating they use, whether they can remove the fragrances from the room. There is a very small list of places like that."

Andrews was happy to find one - Adams' Topia Inn - very near her adopted hometown.

"I was aware of what Nana (Simopoulos) and Caryn (Heilman) were doing, building a non-toxic building, and I kept my eye on it," Andrews said. "I met Caryn once at a cafe, and then I went up there with the idea of showing work at their place. And they suggested this event."

That event is the Center for Ecological Technology's 2007 Green Buildings Open House Tour, in which the Topia will participate Saturday, Oct. 6. That day also will mark the beginning of a three-month show at the inn of Andrews' exhibition "The Forest and the Factory."

The exhibit combines elements familiar to those who know Andrews' "Enchanted Forest" series and photos she took at industrial sites around the county.

"I was always interested in the look of machinery and equipment," Andrews said. "When I was printing work (from a quarry and a defunct paper mill) and looking at it in connection with the environmental work, I realized they fit together.

"There's a whole piece there about what we're doing to ourselves and what we're manufacturing and what that's doing to people like me."

Andrews said that awareness of MCS is still limited, but it is growing. And the marketplace is responding to the needs of people who require cleaner, chemical free alternatives.

"If you look at the paint industry, every manufacturer produces low-VOC paint," she said. "At doctor's offices, you'll sometimes see a plaque asking people to be aware and not use perfume in this office. The whole city of Halifax (Nova Scotia), I've heard, is fragrance-free."

Andrews said products that are chemical-free and safer are becoming more readily available.

"It's starting to happen," she said. "But unless you're personally affected or know someone who is personally affected, you are not aware ... and I wouldn't have known either if it hadn't happened to me.

"People just don't get it yet how much stuff they're exposing themselves to."

Info: topiainn.com or innervision-studio.com.