A 51-year-old Ontario woman with severe sensitivities to chemicals died by medically-assisted suicide after her desperate search for affordable housing free of cigarette smoke and chemical cleaners failed, advocates say.
The woman’s assisted death appears to be a first in the world for someone diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivities , a chronic condition also referred to as an environmental illness or environmental allergies, say patient support groups and doctors familiar with her case.
“This person begged for help for years, two years, wrote everywhere, called everywhere, asking for healthy housing,” said Rohini Peris, President of the Environmental Health Association of Québec . Letters she wrote said that indoor cigarette and pot smoking increased, sending fumes through her Scarborough apartment building’s ventilation system. More chemical cleaners were used in the hallways that worsened her symptoms. She confined herself to her bedroom -- or “dungeon,” as she called it -- for most of the pandemic, sealing the vents to keep cigarette and pot smoke from wafting into her unit.
When asked about specific allegations Sophia made about her living situation and lack of accommodations, Salvation Army spokesperson Caroline Knight responded: "Thank you for the opportunity to comment – we have nothing further to add." The letter was signed by Dr. Lynn Marshall, an environmental physician, Dr. Chantal Perrot, a family physician and MAiD provider, Dr. Justine Dembo, a psychiatrist, and Dr. James Whyte, a family doctor and psychotherapist. The physicians who wrote the letter all declined to speak to CTV News.
Peris said that Sophia’s letters and the one written by the physicians did not generate responses from any of the officials they were addressed to. “She felt desperate to try and do something and she self-advocated harder than anybody I've seen,” Brayton told CTV News. Her research is finding biological causes make the immune system overreact in people with environmental sensitivities. The theory is that either one brief exposure to chemicals or repeated low-level contact with them can trigger an allergic reaction that may alter how some immune cells function.