The woman’s assisted death appears to be the first in the world for someone diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS), a chronic condition also referred to as an environmental disease or environmental allergy, say patient support teams and doctors familiar with the case.
“The government sees me as consumable rubbish, a complaining, useless and in pain in a **,” “Sofia” said in a video shot on February 14, eight days before her death, and shared on CTV News a from her friends.
She died after a frantic attempt by friends, supporters and even her doctors to obtain her safe and affordable home in Toronto.  She also left behind letters showing a desperate two-year search for help, in which she begs local, provincial and federal officials for help finding a home away from the smoke and chemicals that fall into her apartment.
Sophia asked a supporter to share her correspondence with the media, but asked that her real name not be used to protect her family.  She also did not want media attention before her death, her friends say, fearing being evicted and delayed by her medically assisted death.
“This person has been begging for help for years, two years, writing everywhere, calling everywhere, asking for healthy housing,” said Rohini Peris, President of the Environmental Health Association of Québec (ASEQ-EHAQ).
Perry said she spoke to Sophia daily after discovering that the woman had applied and been approved to die with medical help.  The Quebec group was helping Ontario patients with MCS after a similar organization closed in Ontario years ago due to a lack of funding.
“It’s not that she didn’t want to live,” Peris said from her home in Saint Sauveur, Que.  “He could not live like that.”
Research shows that many of the symptoms of MCS disappear when the chemicals are removed from a person’s environment.  But like Canadians across the country, Sophia had to spend a lot of time at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its limitations.
In the letters she wrote, she reported that indoor and pot smoking increased, sending fumes through the ventilation system of her apartment building in Scarborough.  More chemical cleaners were used in the corridors, which worsened her symptoms.  She confined herself to her bedroom – or “dungeon” as she called it – for most of the pandemic, closing the ventilation holes to prevent cigarette smoke and pots from falling into her unit.
Sophia’s apartment was commanded by the Canadian Salvation Army.  According to letters sent to CTV News, Sophia wrote to officials at all levels of government, the apartment was renovated to allow her to live in her bedroom, with ventilation holes sealed to prevent smoke.  However, he said the owner refused other accommodations that complement the room with heating and air conditioning.
“My landlord does not think anything is wrong with me and refuses to do anything else to help me make this apartment safe to live in.  “I have lost hope and applied – and now qualify for – for MAID,” he wrote.
In an email to CTV News, the Salvation Army said that “he was deeply saddened to hear of the death of a former resident in one of the Grace Communities housing estates.  We are currently sending our deepest condolences and prayers to our family, friends and loved ones. “
Asked about specific allegations made by Sophia about her living conditions and lack of accommodation, Salvation Army spokeswoman Caroline Knight said: “Thank you for taking the opportunity to comment – we have nothing more to add.”
CTV News also contacted the environmental health clinic at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, where Sophia was ill, but hospital doctors were not available for comment.
Four Toronto doctors were aware of Sophia’s case and also wrote to federal government housing and disability officials on her behalf.  In that letter, doctors confirmed that her symptoms had improved in cleaner environments and sought help to find or build a home without chemicals.
“We doctors consider it Unconscious that no other solution to this situation is proposed other than medical assistance in death,” they wrote.
The letter was signed by Dr.  Lynn Marshall, environmentalist, Dr.  Chantal Perrot, family physician and MAiD provider, Dr.  Justine Dembo, psychiatrist, and Dr.  James Whyte, family physician and psychotherapist.  The doctors who wrote the letter all refused to speak to CTV News.
“It was an easy solution,” said Dr.  Riina Bray, a doctor from Toronto who treats people with environmental sensitivities.  “He just needed help to find a suitable place to live, where there was no smoke and through the airways.”
“If people have to go and commit suicide, that would be very pathetic and it would be heard by the rest of the world because it is not acceptable,” Bray said.
The underlying problem is that there is no government agency assigned to help people with environmental sensitivities obtain chemical-free housing.
Peris said that Sofia’s letters and those written by the doctors did not provoke any answers from any of the officials to whom they were addressed.
In an email to friends, Sophia suggested that her death was, in a way, a protest against her and her doctors’ failure to respond.  “If my death helps me show the government that those of us with MCS will continue to have MAID if they do not act soon, then I’m glad I could help someone else not to suffer like me,” he wrote.  .


WHAT IS MCS? 
Environmental allergies are a condition overshadowed by controversy and mistrust, even in the medical community.  MCS can occur either through a single exposure to high levels of chemicals or through constant low level proximity to them.  Some people become hypersensitive to common chemicals used in perfumes, cleansers, pesticides and tobacco.
A 2014 survey found that approximately 2.4 percent of Canadians, or more than 770,000, have been diagnosed by an MCS health care provider.
Some affected people have minor symptoms.  Others become completely disabled and can not work.
MCS is also considered a disability by the Ontario and Canadian Human Rights Committees.  However, there is controversy as some researchers believe that some of the symptoms are associated with anxiety and depression.
However, there are three exclusive clinics based in Canada that treat MCS in Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax.
Bonnie Brayton, an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities in Montreal, says she has a sticker with Sophia’s name on her computer, having worked desperately with her to find accommodation and a solution, to no avail.
“She felt desperate to try to do something and supported herself harder than anyone I have ever seen,” Brayton told CTV News.
“She was not given a choice,” Brighton said, adding that Sophia was living on disability support and could not afford a better apartment herself.  “Sophia’s death is a tragedy and a shameful sign for this country … It’s less of an effort to die.”
Friends organized a fundraiser and raised about $ 12,000 to try to help Sophia get better housing, away from chemicals and smoke.  But until then Sophia had an appointment for a medically assisted death.
“If nothing comes up before FEBRUARY 22, please know it’s okay,” Sophia wrote in an email in early 2022. “I already have a way out. I do not have the energy to fight anymore.”


CASE WINNING INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION 
“I find it incredible what happened,” said Dr. Claudia Miller, an honorary professor in the Department of Allergy / Immunology and Environmental Health at the University of Texas, referring to Sophie’s death.
Her research discovers biological causes that make the immune system overreact to people with environmental sensitivities.  The theory is that either a brief exposure to chemicals or repeated low-level contact with them can trigger an allergic reaction that can change the way certain immune cells work.
The solutions, he said, are to clean up the environment to avoid new cases and get rid of smoke and chemicals in homes and apartments.  He has never heard of a patient being assisted with death instead of adequate housing.
“It is a sad statement.  “Or people are so desperate they want to die,” Miller said in an interview with CTV News from her San Antonio home.  “I think this is completely a sign of a huge failure; a social failure.  “It…’s such a bad statement not only for the Canadian government, but for any government that allows this to happen.”
On March 17, 2021, the revised MAID legislation came into force which expanded who could claim assisted death.  Previously, only those whose natural death was reasonably predictable – called Track One patients – were considered.  These are usually patients with end-stage cancer and other deadly diseases.  The new law allows those who “NOT reasonably foreseeable” natural death to apply for and be approved for MAID.  These are called Track Two cases.
Sophia was in this category.  Two doctors must approve the patient’s request and “must consult a clinician who has such” know-how “in the patient’s illness.”
There is a 90-day waiting period to determine “whether certain treatments or services could help reduce their pain, such as counseling, mental health and disability services, community services.”
“This is a worrying case,” said Trudo Lemmens, a professor of health law at the University of Toronto who is studying MAID expansion in Canada.  “I think it underscores the concerns that some of us had about the expansion …