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Multiple Chemical Sensitivities: A Workshop
Residents of communities whose air or water has been contaminated by chemicals
Individuals who have had personal and unique exposures to various chemicals in domestic indoor air, pesticides, drugs, and consumer products
These four groups are listed for comparison in Table 1. Note that they differ in professional and educational attainment, age and sex, and the mix and levels of chemicals to which they are exposed, but that all have multiple symptoms involving multiple organ systems with marked variability in the type and degree of those symptoms. Symptoms are often "subjective". For example, central nervous system (CNS) symptoms such as difficulty concentrating or irritability are common, and physical examinations are frequently unremarkable for individuals in each category.
TABLE 1
Chemically Sensitive Groups
Group
Nature of Exposure
Demographics
Industrial workers
Acute and chronic exposure to industrial chemicals
Primarily males: blue collar, 20 to 65 years old
Tight-building occupants
Off-gassing from construction materials, office equipment or supplies; tobacco smoke; inadequate ventilation
Females more than males; white collar office workers and professionals; 20 to 65 years old; schoolchildren
Contaminated communities
Toxic waste sites; aerial pesticide spraying; water contamination; air contamination by nearby industry and other community exposures
All ages, male and female; children or infants may be affected first or most; pregnant women with possible effects on fetuses; middle to lower class
Individuals
Heterogeneous; indoor air (domestic), consumer products, drugs, and pesticides
70-80% females; 30 to 50 years old (Johnson and Rea 1989); white middle to upper middle class and professionals
Many affected individuals report a major precipitating (inducing or "sensitizing") exposure which marked the onset of their chemical sensitivities. In one survey of 6,800 persons claiming to be chemically sensitive, 80 percent asserted that they knew "when, where, with what, and how they were made ill" (National Foundation for the Chemically Hypersensitive, 1989). Of the 80 percent, 60 percent (that is, almost half of those who replied) blamed pesticides. The respondents to the survey were self selected, and the result
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