I Was Allergic to Toxic Chemicals

“I was always sensitive to pesticides, cosmetics and paint fumes, which resulted in rashes and headaches. Nothing to worry about​—so I thought. Little did I realize what these could lead to.” With this Millie began her story.

She continued:

“OH, THOSE flies!” So I put up some insecticide strips. Soon​—not a fly in sight. I thought, ‘How wonderful modern technology is!’ But this was a turning point for my health.

I began having heart palpitations, extreme muscle weakness, vomiting and outbursts of crying. What was wrong? I was happily married and had been enjoying life. Then we moved. Our new apartment was infested with roaches, so we sprayed it.

Suddenly I couldn’t get my breath. My husband, Jerry, rushed me to the hospital. After returning home I plunged into a depression, became confused and could hardly talk. Soon I was back in the hospital, where the doctor told Jerry: “Your wife has a mental disorder​—schizophrenia.” But when we moved to an older mobile home the symptoms cleared up.

Then the ants came. Exterminators sprayed an insecticide. The depression, nausea and crying spells all returned. I vomited every 30 minutes for 18 hours. I had diarrhea. My every bone ached. In despair we went to a mental hospital.

Hospital blood tests revealed a shortage of white cells, perhaps indicating an immune-system defect. Yet I never connected it with my problems. Then, after an examination, the psychiatrist stated: “You’re certainly not schizophrenic. You’re in better mental health than most people on the street.” In the hospital I improved. Then I went home. But once there my vision blurred. All the other symptoms returned!

“Every time I take her to the hospital she gets better, but she gets worse when she comes home,” Jerry tearfully told the doctor. “She hasn’t been the same since we sprayed the house for ants.”

“That’s it, that’s it!” fired back the doctor. “Get her out of that home for a while and we’ll know.”

For three days I slept in a trailer and my symptoms cleared. Still doubting that the problem was in the house, I returned. Immediately my throat tightened and my tongue swelled. Now I knew! I was allergic to toxic chemicals in the home. In time I began to react to perfume, household chemicals, hair dye, cosmetics, gasoline fumes, car exhausts​—even to synthetic clothing!

Millie was suffering from what has been called the 20th-century syndrome. True, hers was an extreme case. The reaction of most people to pollution is sneezing, itching or burning eyes.

Chemical Sensitivities

“After treating over 20,000 patients over a period of 30 years for various allergic reactions, I think that the chemical problem is rapidly becoming​—if it is not already—​the number one offender,” Dr. Theron Randolph of Chicago, Illinois, told Awake! “The load exposure from the environment and our industrialized diet is greatly increasing. These chemical sensitivities don’t hit everybody immediately, but it hurts most those who are subjected to the chemicals with any degree of persistence.”

But should not the body’s immune system counteract these pollutants? Dr. Alan S. Levin, an immunologist of San Francisco, explained: “Chemical pollutants weaken the immune system by poisoning and thereby reducing certain ‘T cells’ [a type of white cell] in the blood which act as ‘brakes’ for the immune system. As a result, a person’s immune system becomes uncontrollable and overreacts. He can become overly sensitive and react to virtually all synthetic materials and petrochemicals.”

Medical journals tell of persons reacting to soft plastic food containers, fumes from oil or gas stoves, denture materials, synthetic fabrics and a host of other modern-day products. So the emotional and physical problems encountered by Millie can be caused by a reaction to substances in one’s environment.

“But really, individual susceptibility is the crux of the problem,” states Dr. Randolph. After nationwide research, Dr. Irving Selikoff, director of Environmental Sciences Laboratory at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, reached the same conclusion. In an interview with Awake!, he said: “Individual susceptibility is tremendously important. One out of five persons who work with asbestos will die of lung cancer. Why not the other four? I don’t know. But this is true in many, many things.”

So what you react to may be no problem for another. The state of your health, heredity, mental outlook and stresses are all factors. Such knowledge should help us develop fellow feeling when others struggle with health problems that we may not have. (1 Peter 3:8) But the effects of environmental pollutants go further than just an allergic reaction.