Nearly everyone has heard something about chemical sensitivity, either from personal
experience with someone who has the condition or from the media. The television series
Northern Exposure recently featured a chemically sensitive attorney who lived in a
geodesic dome in Alaska, and L.A. Law depicted the struggles of a Persian Gulf veteran
with chemical sensitivities who lost his case against the Veterans Administration, but may
appeal later in the season. Television news programs and the printed media have showcased
patients living spartan existences in remote areas or in aluminum foil-lined rooms. Our
views of the illness no doubt are colored by our own personal experiences of it. While
some discount or make jokes about chemical sensitivity or these patients, physicians who
have seen a number of them are discovering that many appear to be credible individuals
with prior good work records who say they became ill following an identifiable exposure to
chemicals.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
American Academy of Allergy and Immunology. Executive Committee of the
American Academy of Allergy and Immunology
(1986). Position Statements Clinical
Ecology. J. Allergy Clin.
Immunol.78(8):
269271.
2.
American College of Physicians
(1989). Position paper: Clinical Ecology.
Ann. Intern. Med.111(2):
168178.
3.
ASHFORD, N.A. and MILLER, C.S. (1989). Chemical
Sensitivity. A Report to the New Jersey State Department of Health.
4.
ASHFORD, N.A. and MILLER, C.S.
(1991). Chemical Exposures: Low Levels and High Stakes.
Van Nostrand Reinhold, New
York.
5.
Association of Occupational and Environmental
Clinics (1992). Advancing the
understanding of multiple chemical sensitivity. Toxicol. and
Ind. Health.8(4):
1257.
6.
BASCOM, R. (1989). Chemical Hypersensitivity
Syndrome Study: Options for Action, a Literature Review, and a Needs Assessment. A Report
to the State of Maryland Department of Environment.
7.
BELL, I.R., MILLER, C.S., and
SCHWARTZ,
G.E. (1992). An
olfactory-limbic model of multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome: Possible relationships
to kindling and affective spectrum disorders. Biol.
Psychiatry32:
218242.
8.
BRODSKY, C.M. (1987).
Multiple chemical sensitivities and other environmental illness: A
psychiatrist's view. Occup. Med.: State Art
Rev.2(4):
695704.
9.
California Medical Association Task Force on Clinical
Ecology (1986). Clinical
ecology: a critical appraisal. West. J.
Med.144(2):
239245.
10.
CATHEBRAS, P.J., ROBBINS, J.M.,
KIRMAYER,
L.J., and HAYTON, B.C. (1992).
Fatigue in primary care: Prevalence, psychiatric comorbidity, illness
behavior, and outcome. J. Gen. Intern.
Med.7: 276286.
11.
CULLEN, M.R., ed.
(1987). Workers with multiple chemical
sensitivities. Occup. Med.: State Art
Rev.2(4):
655806.
12.
DAUM, S. (1983).
Nitroglycerin and alkyl nitrates. In:
Environmental and Occupational Medicine (W. Rom, ed.).
Little, Brown and Co.,
Boston, pp.
639648.
13.
DOTY, R.L., DEEMS, D.A.,
FRYE,
R.E., PELBERG, R., and SHAPIRO, A.
(1988). Olfactory sensitivity, nasal resistance, and
autonomic function in patients with multiple chemical sensitivities.
Arch. Otolaryngol. Head Neck Surg.114:
14221427.
14.
Environmental Protection Agency (1989). Report to
Congress on Indoor Air Quality, Volume II. Assessment and Control of Indoor Air
Pollution.
15.
FIEDLER, N., MACCIA, C., and
KIPEN,
H. (1992). Evaluation of
chemically sensitive patients. J. Occup.
Med.34(5):
529538.
16.
HACKNEY, J.D., KARUZA S.K., and
LINN,
W.S. (1977a). Effects of ozone
exposure in Canadians and southern Californians, evidence for
adaptationArch. Environ. Health32:
110116.
17.
HACKNEY, J.D., LINN, W.S.,
MOHLER,
J.G., and COLLIER, C.R. (1977b).
Adaptation to short-term respiratory effects of ozone in men exposed
repeatedly. J. Appl. Psychol.43:
8285.
18.
HUBER, P.W. (1991).
Galileo's Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom. Basic
Books, New York.
19.
JOHNSON, A. and REA, W.J.
(1989). Review of 200 cases in the Environmental
Control Unit, Dallas, presented at the Seventh International Symposium on Man and His
Environment in Health and Disease, February 2526, Dallas,
TX.
20.
LEZNOF F, A.1993.
Multiple chemical sensitivity: Myth or reality.
Practical Allergy Immunol.8(2):
4852.
21.
MEGGS, W.J. and CLEVELAND, C.H.
(1993). Rhinolaryngoscopic examination of patients with the
multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome. Arch. Environ.
Health48(1):
1418.
22.
MILLER, C.S. (1992).
Possible models for multiple chemical sensitivity: Conceptual issues and
role of the limbic system. Advancing the understanding of multiple chemical
sensitivity. Association of Occupational and Environmental
Clinics. Toxicol. Ind. Health8(4):
181202.
23.
MILLER, C.S. and MITZEL, H.C.
(1994). Chemical sensitivity attributed to pesticide
exposure versus remodeling. Arch. Environ. Health. In
press.
24.
National Research Council (NRC)
(1992). Multiple Chemical Sensitivities: Addendum to Biologic
Markers in Immunotoxicology. National Academy
Press, Washington, D.C.
25.
NETHERCOTT, J.R., DAVIDOF F, L.L.,
CURB,
W.B., and ABBEY, H. (1993).
Multiple chemical sensitivities syndrome: Toward a working case
definition. Arch. Environ.
Health48(1):
1926.
26.
O'BANION, D.R. (1981).
Ecological and Nutritional Treatment of Health Disorders.
Charles C. Thomas,
Springfield.
27.
RANDOLPH, T.G. (1987).
Environmental Medicine Beginnings and Bibliographies of Clinical
Ecology. Clinical Ecology Publications, Inc.,
Fort Collins, CO.
28.
RANDOLPH, T.G. and MOSS, R.W.
(1980). An Alternative Approach to Allergies.
Harper and Row, New
York.
29.
RIIHIMAKI, V. and SAVOLAINEN, H.
(1980). Human exposure to m-xylene. Kinectics and acute
effects on the central nervous system. Ann. Occup.
Hyg.23: 411432.
30.
SELNER, J.C. (1988).
Chemical sensitivity. In: Current Therapy in
Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology (L.M. Lichtenstein and A.S. Fauci, ed.).
B.C. Decker, Inc., Philadelphia,
PA. pp. 4852.
31.
SIMON, G.E., DANIELL, W.,
STOCKBRIDGE,
H., CLAYPOOLE, K., and ROSENSTOCK, L.
(1993). Immunologic, psychological, and neuropsychological
factors in multiple chemical sensitivity. Ann. Int.
Med.19(2):
97103.
32.
SIMON, G.E., KATON, W.J., and
SPARKS,
P.J. (1990). Allergic to life:
Psychological factors in environmental illness. Am. J.
Psychiatry147:
901906.
33.
STAUDENMAYER, H. and SELNER, J.C.
(1987). Post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS): Escape into
the environment. J. Clin.
Psychology43(1):
156157.
34.
TERR, A.I. (1986).
Environmental illness: A clinical review of 50 cases.
Arch. Intern. Med.146:
145149.
35.
WALLACE, L., PELLIZZARI, E.D.,
and GORDON,
S.M. (1985). Organic chemicals
in indoor air: A review of human exposure studies and indoor air quality
studies. In: Indoor Air and Human Health (R. Gammage and
S.
Kaye, ed.). Lewis
Publishers, Chelsea, MI. pp.
361378.
