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Chemical Sensitivity:
The Truth about Environmental Illness

Stephen Barrett, M.D.
Ronald E. Gots, M.D., Ph.D.

Many Americans believe that exposure to common foods and chemicals makes them ill. This book is about people who hold such beliefs but are wrong. Their misbeliefs can be very costly-to health and/or pocketbook-not only for them, but for employers, insurance companies, and others who pay indirectly. Ironically, these accusations are being made at a time when our food supply is the world's safest and our antipollution program is the best we have ever had.

This 220-page book spotlights the "environmental" conditions for which diet and/or chemical exposure are falsely blamed:

• Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a term used to describe people with numerous troubling symptoms they attribute to foods, airborne chemicals, and a long list of other alleged "stressors." Many such people are seeking special accommodations, applying for disability benefits, and filing lawsuits claiming that exposure to common foods and chemicals has made them ill. Their efforts are supported by a small cadre of physicians who use questionable diagnostic and treatment methods.
  
• Candidiasis hypersensitivity is a diagnosis based on the far-fetched notion that multiple common symptoms result from allergies to the common yeast Candida albicans. Its promoters claim that more than eighty million Americans suffer from such a problem.
  
• Sick building syndrome is a term used to describe nonspecific symptoms -- for which no single cause can be identified -- that arise where indoor air quality is under suspicion.
  
• Hyperactivity in children has been blamed on both dietary factors and chemical exposure in school. These claims are made by MCS promoters and by advocates of the Feingold diet.
  
• Mercury-amalgam toxicity is said to be a problem for everyone with "silver" tooth fillings. Promoters of this concept claim that significant amounts of mercury escape from the amalgam and poison the body and can cause multiple sclerosis and a long list of other health problems. The authors debunks these claims and tell how the leading anti-amalgamist had his dental license revoked.
  
• Gulf War syndrome is a controversial though ill-defined condition said to involve thousands of Gulf War veterans.

Many recipients of these diagnoses wind up being financially exploited as well as mistreated. In addition, insurance companies, employers, educational facilities, homeowners, other taxpayers, and ultimately all citizens are being burdened by dubious claims for disability and damages.