When the Air Hurts: Living with a Mother Who Was Allergic to the Modern World
The author remembers when they were young, and their mother became allergic—to life as they knew it. That’s how they understood it, anyway. The world outside, full of scents and substances, made their mother sick. Perfumes, new carpet, diesel exhaust, synthetic fabrics, cleaning products—they could all set off days of misery. Even food was a hazard.
The soundtrack of my childhood wasn’t music or cartoons, but the soft sniffling sounds coming from her darkened bedroom. There were days she couldn’t get up, her body aching and her head heavy with pain. Her skin was sensitive, her joints hurt, her energy vanished. She visited doctors, who mostly shrugged. Depression, maybe? Anxiety? It made her furious. “You’d be anxious too if a spritz of air freshener meant you couldn’t breathe or pick up your kid from school,” she’d say.
She eventually found practitioners in holistic health who gave it a name: multiple chemical sensitivity. It wasn’t an official diagnosis according to most medical authorities, but it was the only one that made sense.
And she wasn’t alone. An estimated 25% of American adults report some kind of chemical sensitivity—yet most of the medical establishment either ignores or questions the legitimacy of it. Institutions like the World Health Organization and American Medical Association don’t formally recognize it. They argue there’s no clear explanation for why someone would react so severely to such small doses of chemicals—or why symptoms don’t improve with time.
But living with someone who has chemical sensitivity leaves no room for doubt. My mom tried everything: detoxes, elimination diets, acupuncture, lymphatic massages, red-light therapy, even saunas and antidepressants. Some things helped for a bit. But nothing cured her. The condition dictated how we lived—what we wore, ate, cleaned with, and even where we could go.
I always felt there had to be an explanation. Eventually, I found one—through the quiet yet powerful work of Dr. Claudia Miller.
Dr. Miller isn’t a household name, but to people in the chemically sensitive community, she’s something of a hero. A professor emeritus at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, she’s testified before Congress, advised global governments, and published dozens of papers. One attorney who advocates for people exposed to toxic environments called her “Saint Claudia.”
Her research focuses on something she named in 1997: TILT, or Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance. It’s a theory that may explain the mystery of chemical sensitivity. According to Miller, our bodies can lose tolerance after a big exposure to a chemical—or through smaller, repeated exposures over time. Once this “switch” flips, the body becomes hypersensitive to even small traces of common substances: cologne, cleaning sprays, the gas from a stovetop burner.
In essence, these people become “TILT-ed.” And the reactions aren’t just in the mind—they’re real and physical. Like developing an allergy, the body starts mislabeling harmless substances as threats.
To help identify those struggling with TILT, Miller and her team developed a survey called the QEESI (pronounced “queasy”), which screens for chemical intolerance. It’s been used in research across the world—but most U.S. doctors have never heard of it. That’s part of the problem. Despite a growing body of evidence, mainstream medicine hasn’t caught up. And without an official diagnosis, many people suffer alone or in disbelief.
Dr. Miller believes the culprit isn’t a single chemical, but the cumulative load of modern life. We’ve gone through a chemical revolution since World War II, she explains. Plasticizers, pesticides, synthetic fragrances, “forever chemicals”—all of it adds up. Most of us are surrounded by these substances every day, in our homes, schools, offices, and bodies.
But some bodies cry out under the weight.
For people like my mom, life becomes a series of calculations: Is that room safe? Will this lotion make me sick? Can I hug my child without reacting to their shampoo? It’s not just exhausting—it’s isolating. I remember how she stopped going to parties, avoided public spaces, even limited visits from friends and family. And I’ll never forget the woman she knew who moved into a remote trailer to escape chemical triggers—until even that became unbearable. Her story ended in tragedy.
Imagine feeling desperately ill from a freshly painted wall, or a stranger’s cologne, and then being told it’s all in your head. My mom heard it for years. So did many others. The world becomes, in Miller’s words, “a torture chamber.”
Miller’s work offers hope—not just because it gives a name to the condition, but because it anchors the experience in science, not stigma. Her research validates what so many have long known in their bodies: they are not crazy. They are reacting.
At the San Antonio Botanical Garden, where I once met Miller, we walked slowly beneath the flutter of monarch butterflies and the heavy scent of summer blooms. She moved carefully, her silver hair tied back, her voice so soft I had to lean in to catch her words. But her impact has been immense.
Science still hasn’t caught up with all the answers. We don’t fully understand why some people become chemically intolerant and others don’t. But as research progresses, there is one thing we can do now: believe them.
My mother may still struggle, but she’s no longer alone. Thanks to researchers like Miller and advocates around the world, the conversation is shifting. Slowly.
And that, at least, is something to breathe easier about.
References
1. Miller, C. S., & Prihoda, T. J. (1999). The Environmental Exposure and Sensitivity Inventory (EESI). Toxicology and Industrial Health, 15(3-4), 370–385.
2. Miller, C. S. (2001). Toxicant-induced loss of tolerance—an emerging theory of disease?. Environmental Health Perspectives, 109(Suppl 4), 639–643. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.01109s4639
3. National Center for Environmental Health, CDC. (2023). Chemical Sensitivities. https://www.cdc.gov/nceh
4. American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. (2021). Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. https://www.aaaai.org/tools-for-the-public
5. World Health Organization. (2010). WHO Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality: Selected Pollutants. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789289002134
