Review of the Video

Volume I, How Chemicals May Be Affecting Your Health

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This review of the video Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: How Chemical Exposures May Be Affecting Your Health appeared in the November/December 1998 issue of CanaryNews, the newsletter of the Chicago-based group called MCS: Health & Environment.

This is a terrific video. While there may be some people who would remain unconvinced by it, they must be few and far between. Born in Alison Johnson's head as a reaction to John Stossel's infamous program, it has now been fleshed out by award-winning filmmaker Richard Startzman.

Interviews with more than a dozen patients in six states are judiciously interwoven with explanations by Gerald Ross, M.D., a past president of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) and by well-known academic researchers Nicholas Ashford, J.D., Ph.D.; Iris Bell, M.D. Ph.D.; Gunnar Heuser, M.D., Ph.D.; William Meggs, M.D., Ph.D.; and Claudia Miller, M.D., M.S.

Beautifully filmed and carefully planned, the video presents several children; a college student; men and women from varied professions and occupations; their loss of jobs (despite strong desires to work); their difficulties in obtaining workers' compensation; Gulf War Syndrome and its similarities to MCS and other related illnesses; SPECT and PET brain scans; psychological reactions such as mood swings, depression, and anger; all the toxic exposures so familiar to us; research needs; and, yes, keeping a sense of humor. It describes problems of the chemically sensitive in obtaining work and housing and is especially good in dealing with the common misconception that "it's all in your head."

The tone of the video is moderate and balanced, but the ominous implications of these patients' sufferings and struggles are never far below the surface. While it may strike some as slow-moving and lengthy, its essential dignity and honesty are part of its effectiveness. It is a video to ask your library to buy; to give to principals and teachers, religious leaders, and politicians; and to give to skeptical or nonskeptical health care professionals, relatives, and friends (copies will be on my holiday gift list). People who are too busy to read a book on the subject may be willing to watch part or all of a nonstrident, nonhype, fascinating (to me) video.

I cannot recommend it too highly.

Lynn Lawson, author of Staying Well in a Toxic World