This report considers the effects of very low
doses of the toxic substances to which we are all exposed, concluding that
current toxicological models, and the policies that flow from them, are
inadequate. The BSAENM identify MCS as an allergic response to environmental
contamination, urging the government and other decision-makers to adopt policies
which will reduce people’s overall toxic load.
‘In spite of the availability of potent
medicines, the numbers of the population who claim to have chronic illness rose
66 per cent between 1972 and 1996’, the report observes. ‘There is a
prevalence of ‘medically unexplained’ symptoms, and conventional medical
management for these conditions is, by definition, inadequate. Toxicant-induced
loss of tolerance (TILT) may cause conditions with many different medical and
surgical diagnoses (including asthma, eczema, rhinitis, attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, migraine,
depression and chronic fatigue) … as well as many tiresome symptoms which are
largely disregarded by the medical profession.’
The Society suggests that TILT will
ultimately be recognised to be as important to the understanding of disease
causation in our day as the germ theory of disease has proved to be.
There has been a massive, recent, increase in
environmental toxins to which we are exposed. Five million different chemicals
are now recognised, and few have been adequately tested for toxicity to man or
the environment: the ‘minimal’ toxicity data required by the OECD for a
preliminary assessment of health hazards are not publicly available for 75% of
those in large scale use. There has been little study of exposure to
combinations of different chemicals, either simultaneously or in sequence.
Because of their biological roles, it has
been suggested that pesticides (designed to interfere with enzymes) and hormone
mimics may have a particular place in inducing MCS. However, the evidence also
implicates volatile organic compounds and other compounds such as diesel
particulates and the nitrogen oxides. A large study in Bristol has found
associations of air freshener and aerosol use with increased prevalence of
certain symptoms in both mothers and babies.
The recent epidemic increase in allergic
disease started early in the industrial revolution when hay fever was first
reported. Although variously attributed to changing patterns of infection, gut
flora, and immunisations, the close correlation with industrialisation both in
the UK and world wide implicates increasing exposure to synthetic and pollutant
chemicals.
According to the BSAENM, patients with MCS
need help, both from society in making it easier for them to avoid chemical
exposure and from the medical profession in the recognition of the disorder and
in its management. We should be attempting to reduce exposure of the population
in general to synthetic and pollutant chemicals (whether inhaled, ingested or
absorbed through the skin) so that fewer individuals become sensitised;
preventing the provocation of symptoms in sensitised individuals requires much
more stringent exposure control.
The report recommends that particular
attention should be paid to reducing exposure to pesticides, persistent organic
pollutants, volatile organic chemicals (including artificial fragrances),
synthetic food additives, and pollutants from smoking, chemical manufacturing,
power stations, and traffic. It urges that exposures during development (in
utero, infancy and childhood) when the risks are highest, should be cut down,
preventing the young from accumulating persistent organic pollutants before they
have their children.
Dr Keith Eaton, one of the authors of the
report, says that toxicological concepts are going to have to change. ‘In the
OP controversy, for example, it is becoming evident that a person may not be
susceptible to compounds A, B and C separately, but could be to A, B, and C
acting together’.
The peer-review quarterly journal of the
BSAENM has been published for eleven years, but has still not been accepted for
listing by Medline, on which most medical practitioners and researchers rely. Dr
Eaton claims that this is prejudice at work, and that a blinkered culture in the
medical profession, dominated by pharmaceutical solutions, is stifling vigorous
enquiry into these crucial issues.
Copies of the report are available from PEX, or from the BSAENM, PO Box 7, Knighton LD7 1WT, www.bsaenm.org.uk
[Published in PEX Newsletter No.7, June 2000]