The answer to what causes multiple chemical sensitivities in the body has proven elusive. One group of medical physicians, environmental/occupational physicians, and scientists believes that chemical sensitivities are induced by toxicological environmental agents while their peers believe that these same sensitivities are psychological in origin. Environmental Illness: Myth and Reality addresses the problem from a physiological point of view. Dr. Herman Staudenmayer advances the belief that the suffering experienced by individuals with idiopathic environmental illness, otherwise known as multiple chemical sensitivities, is physiological, not environmental in origin. The author presents scientific concepts and theories in a way that is understandable to the non-physicians who work in the area of occupational medicine. He lays out alternatives to toxicogenic explanations for symptoms attributed to low-level chemical sensitivities, or other putative environmental intolerances.
Environmental Illness: Myth and Reality takes the position that chemical sensitivity resides in the mind and is expressed through the biological systems and psychophysiological mechanisms, rather than being caused by toxic agents in the physical environment around us. This book will present questions and issues of general interest that are almost universally ignored in the scientific writings of professional journals.