1st Toxic-Free Apartments in U.S. Near : Environment: Federally subsidized housing complex designed for people with chemical sensitivities is in San Rafael, Calif. Occupancy is set for Nov. 1.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Imagine living in an apartment where you can’t wear cologne or perfume, where the managers must approve which cleansers you can use. And you’re asked to keep windows closed when you cook.

Sound a bit tyrannical?

Actually, for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity-Environmental Illness, it sounds like paradise.

“The way I live, all the windows are taped up, curtains closed, because of all the toxics that are right outside my door. It’s not fun,” said Jane Herman, a San Francisco resident who has MCS-EI.

Herman is on the board of Ecology House, a nonprofit organization that will manage the nation’s first federally subsidized apartment complex designed for people with chemical sensitivities.

Each one-bedroom unit in the 11-unit complex comes with a high-powered ventilation system, concrete and tile floors, metal kitchen cabinets and no fluorescent lights.

If it sounds a bit sterile, that’s the point.

“There won’t be any roses or gardenias in the courtyard,” said Katie Crecelius, a development consultant.

The laundry room has three dryers and washers, one of which is reserved for using only baking soda to clean clothes. New furniture, recently dry-cleaned clothes or other smelly items can be placed in a special room where residents can air out their belongings.

Even the driveway and parking lot are downwind, minimizing the amount of exhaust exposure.

Many people with MCS-EI must use baking soda to clean everything from their car to clothes; some have wrapped their walls and cabinets with aluminum foil to prevent particles from wafting through the air.

But at the $1.8-million Ecology House, residents will be able to save their foil for covering leftovers. Outside stairwells are concrete; a special vapor barrier sheeting lines ceilings and walls.

Almost 100 applications have been received for the complex, which will probably be fully occupied by Nov. 1.

MCS-EI has long been controversial. Experts have disagreed whether it is a psychological condition or a true medical disability.

What has puzzled doctors is that each person has different reactions to different chemicals. It is unclear how many people have the affliction, but some researchers and advocates estimate that about 15% of the U.S. population is prone to it.

In some extreme cases, just a whiff of garlic or perfume or sitting near electrical appliances can be temporarily paralyzing. For others, smelling ammonia, roses, shampoo or a new carpet can cause what appears to be a drunken stupor.

Susan Molloy, 45, became ill in 1981. Her throat and nasal passages would swell closed when she was around cigarette smoke, cleansers and many foods. For a year, she ate only brown rice and, occasionally, Japanese azuki beans.

Today, she lugs around an oxygen tank to most places. “You feel like you’re on the wrong planet,” said Molloy, who was instrumental in creating Ecology House.

Her condition has forced her to move to Snowflake, Ariz., a high desert town where the air is cleaner than it is in the San Francisco Bay Area.

For years, doctors believed that MCS-EI was a psychological condition resulting from emotional disorders.

But within the past few years Social Security, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other federal agencies have recognized it as a disability. Scientists are investigating evidence that MCS-EI is caused by acute chemical exposure that can weaken the immune system.

“We live in a chemical world. Once people become sensitive, anything can set them off,” said Nicolas Ashford, an MIT professor. “The problem is that probably the brain has been poisoned,” he said. “If there is to be a reversal of the problem, the brain has to be freed of the assault of chemicals.”

And while Molloy dreams of chemical-free world, she works on the reality of creating safe housing like Ecology House. “Having to turn people away is going to be such a heartbreaker,” she said.