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Empty O
Our business is fueled by a love of beauty and form. This is expressed in our designs and rare gemstone jewelry. We also offer some of the first sculpture pieces available by E.M.T. O'Nan since being disabled in 1987 by pesticide exposures. Pesticide injuries resulting in a disabled child, an inoperable brain tumor and Toxicant Induced Loss of Tolerance (TILT), which requires avoidance of common chemicals, present special hurdles in producing these sculptural forms. Exposures to inadequately regulated pesticides affected a profound change in the life of the artist. It is not unusual to find allegorical themes involving chemicals and their affects reflected in the artists work. Fatigue and chronic pain from the brain tumor together with effects from neurological, immune, and endocrine damages and dangerous reactions to chemicals prevent participation and ability to function in normal environments where chemicals are a ubiquitous presence. Since 1987 E.M.T. O?Nan has served as director for the non profit support organization for the chemically injured and disabled, Protect All Children?s Environment (PACE). PACE offers all volunteer guidance and support for the chemically injured and disabled by the chemically injured and disabled. TILT and other chemical injuries are poorly recognized. Few opportunities exist for individuals and families to find proper medical care, assistance with alternative housing when homes must be abandoned due to contamination (homeowner?s insurance excludes coverage for contamination), alternative education when poisoned children can not attend school, or funding for the special medical needs that are not covered by insurance or Medicare/Medicaid. Patients find there is no one to help them start over when they lose their health, their household possessions and their home due to contamination. The Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and local churches have all repeatedly turned a deaf ear to this suffering. Few, if any, plaintiff attorneys fully grasp the extent of chemical injuries or the added expense of living with chemical induced disabilities. When guilty corporations have been ordered by courts to establish clinics to monitor and treat chemically injured children, plaintiff attorneys, after receiving profits from litigation, have failed to enforce these court orders. Thus children do not have access to this essential medical care which may have served to further prove their injuries. Plaintiff attorneys have also refused, after settlement disbursements, to pursue court orders requiring disclosure of secret ingredients and information on potentially liable materials suppliers in chemical injury cases. These of course are instances of professional malpractice, but few survivors are capable of pursuing malpractice claims after years of chronic physical suffering without medical or financial assistance. Additionally, the courts have become far less accessible to chemical injury survivors due to caps on damages and other lawsuit abuse attacks on consumers that indemnify corporations for damages and injuries. These circumstances have served to restrict justice and access to the courts especially for the chemically injured and disabled. No summer camps or schools accommodate chemically disabled children who live their lives with chronic illness in socially isolated bubbles. Therapeutic riding programs rarely accommodate TILT disabilities and have often refused to admit chemically disabled children. There are no resources to replace contaminated clothing and household goods with the very expensive least toxic products that are needed. The added expense of organic food, clothing, linens, personal products, bedding, and furniture are not considered in public assistance through social services or Social Security disability payments. There are no physical sanctuaries in our National Forests for TILT children to have a least toxic environment in which to grow and learn. The added expense of locating a home on sufficient acreage in an area of relative environmental safety has never been considered as a factor in replacing contaminated housing. The social, medical, economic, and educational difficulties of isolated living are not considered. Medical assistance for the chemically injured is virtually impossible to find as medical studies are usually funded by private corporations. Corporations go to great trouble to deny the existence of chemical injuries that would threaten their profits. The 9/11 disaster has shown a large part of our national weakness is that physicians can neither identify nor treat chemical injuries in case of chemical warfare agents such as anthrax or sarin gas. In response to the inadequacies in public assistance, medical and legal services for the chemically injured and disabled, 5% of all profits made by Empty O shall be donated to a fund dedicated to assistance for the chemically injured and disabled and public education regarding the causes and results of chemical injury. When one buys from Empty O know that 5% of the purchase will go toward alleviation and prevention of suffering for the chemically injured and disabled.
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