Chemical sensitivity (or "multiple chemical sensitivity") describes people with numerous troubling symptoms attributed to environmental factors, from simple housepaint to complex building structures and materials in offices and schools. 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 some physicians who refer themselves as clinical ecologists. They use questionable diagnoses and treatment methods, while critics charge that these approaches are bogus and that "chemical sensitivity" is not a valid diagnosis. The complaints associated with chemical sensitivity include depression, irritability, poor memory, fatigue, drowsiness, constipation, sneezing, wheezing, skin rashes, headache, chest pain, pounding heart, swelling, upset stomach, paralysis, AIDS-like illnesses, psychotic experiences, and just about every other symptom noted in medical textbooks. One prominent clinical ecologist even claimed that chemical sensitivity patients may well be human "canaries" on an increasingly poisoned planet, and others have actually labeled chemical sensitivity as a disease. While some people are adversely affected by exposure to some chemicals, there is an overwhelming increase in false claims and reports from misled obsessive patients and opportunistic doctors. Chemical Sensitivity examines this phenomenon in depth and the scientific, legal, ethical, and political issues that surround it. The authors explore the speculations about environmental exposure in the light of scientific knowledge of human physiology, allergy and immunology, pathology, toxicology, and clinical medicine. They evaluate cases of chemical sensitivity relative to controlled tests, and reveal that symptoms were brought on by psychological factors rather than physical ones. Chemical Sensitivity also critically assesses claims related to "sick building syndrome," "mercury-amalgam toxicity," "yeast allergy," and Gulf War syndrome.
About the Author: Stephen Barrett, M.D., a retired psychiatrist, is a nationally renowned author, editor, and consumer advocate. He has been collecting information about chiropractic for more than twenty-five years. He is a board member of the National Council Against Health Fraud and chairs its Task Force on Victim Redress. His thirty-eight books include The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America; The Vitamin Pushers: How the "Health Food" Industry ls Selling America a Bill of Goods; Reader's Guide to "Alternative" Health Methods; and four editions of the college textbook Consumer Health: A Guide to Intelligent Decisions.

Ronald E. Gots, MD, PhD, is affiliated with the International Center for Toxicology and Medicine. Since 1975, he has devoted his professional activities to solving clients' problems in environmental medicine, toxicology, causation analysis, and risk communication. Dr. Gots has chaired two international symposia on "Multiple Chemical Sensitivities: the State of The Science." He sat on a committee convened by the International Programme on Chemical Safety (UNEP-ILO-WHO) to evaluate the "chemical sensitivity" issue (Berlin, Germany, February 1996). He is the author of six books, chapters in six books, and more than seventy articles on biochemistry, toxicology, mold, and mold toxins in insurance and legal literature. His most recent books are Chemical Sensitivity: The Truth About Environmental Illness and Keeping Buildings Healthy.