Symbols of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS)
and electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS)

 

 

A variety of symbols are used by activists advocating for people with environmental illnesses (MCS and EHS).

 

Keywords:    multiple chemical sensitivity, MCS, electromagnetic hypersensitivity, EMR syndrome, activist, symbols

 

 

About the picture

Marie LeBlanc in front of the Red Deer city hall in Alberta, Canada. The building is lit up in yellow for the 2025 MCS Awareness Month. Marie is wearing a T-shirt with a yellow canary (photo collage).

 

Symbols are important

Symbols are all around us. Every country, state, and province has a flag. Many corporations and products have their logos.

 

Activists of all kinds also use symbols, either their own, or borrowed (such as the national flag).

 

Symbols talk to people’s emotions and are visual, thus very different from dry factual information that doesn’t reach people in the same way. Once a symbol is widely known, people instantly recognize it, so they know what those displaying the symbol are about.

 

American veterans organizations often display a black flag with a bowed head and a guard tower to symbolize soldiers held captive or are missing. The rainbow symbolizes diversity. In the past, it was used by hippies (Rainbow Gathering) and one politician (Rainbow Coalition). Today, it is especially used by the LGBTQ movement.

 

There are many colored ribbons to symbolize diseases, such as pink for breast cancer, purple for fibromyalgia, and blue for chronic fatigue syndrome (also called myalgic encephalomyelitis).

 

Symbols used for environmental illnesses

The movements advocating for people with multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) and electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) use multiple symbols.

 

For MCS, the most common symbol is the yellow canary. Face masks and respirators are also used.

 

There isn’t a common symbol for EHS, though some use a yellow heart.

 

Empty chairs and mannequins can symbolize that people with MCS or EHS are not even able to be present.

 

The canary

The canary refers to the birds miners used to take with them into underground mines. The mines were poorly ventilated, and some of them contained toxic carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is heavier than air, so it can concentrate in some parts of the mine.

 

Poster made by Tom M. Brooks around 1997. We were unable to locate Tom to get his permission.

 

Canaries are more affected by the gas than humans, so they were used as an early warning. If the bird fainted and fell off its perch in the cage, the miners knew to leave the area immediately. Sometimes the bird actually died.

 

People with MCS see themselves as warning signs that our living environment is dangerous for human health.

 

The canary is not used by EHS activists, though they too are affected by a toxic environment in the form of electropollution.

 

Multiple activists have voiced opposition to using the canary as a symbol. They point out it symbolizes a victim mentality, as it sits there in its cage and just falls over without resistance. That it is “too easy to push around,” as one wrote. Also, the canary is a delicate bird, living with MCS is brutal and not something for fragile people.

 

The canary may elicit some sympathy, but it won’t garner respect. People don’t respect a bird that is a wimp, for them to see. People’s respect is more valuable than their pity.

 

These activists would rather see some fierce bird that can do battle with the polluters rather than be a passive victim. One suggested a hawk with a sharp beak.

 

It could also be helpful with a symbol that could unite people with MCS and EHS.

 

Masks

Respirators and simple dust masks are used to symbolize the reality of life with MCS. Respirators are more visually intimidating than the dust masks. There have been incidents where spectators became afraid that the people wearing respirators were terrorists.

 

The dust masks are much cheaper, easier to carry, and less intimidating, as they are smaller and people have often seen construction workers wear them.

 

T-shirt with respirator logo. Unknown artist.

 

In one display in Ridgeway, Colorado, several dust masks were hung from clotheslines set up in a public park. Each mask had the name of someone suffering from MCS.

 

The yellow heart

The yellow heart is used as the symbol for an annual EHS awareness campaign that is organized in France.

 

The World EHS Day logo. The French words mean “Make visible the invisible (people).”

 

 

Mannequins or cut-outs

Activists have used life-sized cut-outs or mannequins to symbolize that people with the illness cannot be there in person, since the radiation level is too high, or the air is too toxic.

 

The cut-out named “E.I. Jane.” Here in a dressed-up version.

 

The cut-out usually holds up a simple sign, or holds a stack of flyers.

 

The idea originates in Sweden, where EHS activists have used it at several fairs to staff a booth by itself, or together with humans. (Someone enters periodically to make sure the booth is okay).

 

The idea has also been used in the United States and Denmark.

 

Empty chairs

Empty chairs are used to symbolize the people who are unable to be present at a public meeting. Pictures of specific people may be taped to the backrests to make it more obvious.

 

The color yellow

Yellow is the universal color of warning or caution. It is also the color of the canary bird (perhaps why yellow became the color of warning).

 

MCS and EHS activists have used yellow ribbons, yellow hearts, yellow clothing, and lit up public buildings with yellow lights to bring attention to their plight. However, yellow has been used by so many other causes, from the Israeli movement to get hostages in Gaza released to the yellow umbrella protesters in Hong Kong. For many years, yellow ribbons has meant to miss someone.

 

The color green

Green symbolizes a healthy environment, which includes humans. It is too broad to be used alone to symbolize people with environmental illnesses.

 

 

 

Combining yellow and green

Using both yellow and green together appears to be a combination that is unique to the environmental illness movement. It both symbolizes the warning and the safe environment.

 

In some cases it may not be practical to display both colors together, such as when illuminating some buildings. In that case, one color must be chosen.

 

Logos

Some organizations have symbolic logos. The Chemical Injury Information Network used a horse from a merry-go-round, which apparently symbolized the run-around done by medical authorities.

 

Logo for the Swedish Wavebreaker organization. The text says: “The
environmental organization against health-damaging electromagnetic radiation.”

 

The Swedish anti-EMF activist organization Vagbrytaren (The Wavebreaker) uses a sharp edge that cuts through an EMF wave as their logo.

 

 

More information

More articles about environmental illness advocacy work at www.eiwellspring.org/activist.html.

 

2025.2