DEAR DIANA

"As a flight attendant, I was exposed on to APU oil aboard an Airbus. Prior to that, during a routine physical, my blood work was normal. After my exposure, my blood showed elevated levels in my liver. I now suffer from hypothyroidism. Two other flight attendants were also exposed and are now experiencing similar health problems. Our employer, U.S. Airways, has refused compensation for us."-JR

DEAR JR

I am sorry to hear about your health problems. Researchers now blame chemical poisoning for many illnesses, though they go by a variety of names including Gulf War Syndrome, Sick Building Sydrome, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), Environmental Illness, and Toxic Induced Loss of Tolerance (TILT).

In addition, neuro-degenerative diseases linked to toxins include lupus, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, and lymphoma. Even Alzheimers apparently needs an enviromental trigger.

Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes are also tracked to toxins.

My NONI book introduces more about this subject and here is a narrative was written in 1991 by James M. Miller, M.D., as part of the court record in my attempt to get Workers' Compensation from United Airlines for poisoning her in my workplace, which I believe will be helpful to you in understanding this problem.

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"Humans, like all living creatures, are by nature biochemical organisms. Our continued good health is dependent upon the proper functioning of innumerable enzymes participating in an enormous number of biochemical reactions.

"These reactions must take place at the proper time, at the proper rate, to the proper extent. We see, smell, taste, hear, balance, walk, talk, chew, swallow, reproduce, sleep, think, and remember as a result of the proper functioning and proper balance of the many biochemical processes that support these functions.

"Chemicals enter our bodies through the skin, the gastrointestinal tract, and the respiratory tract. Certain substances are useful to the body and support its biochemical mechanisms, while others are not useful or are even harmful. The latter are called xenobiotics. We exercise relatively little ability to be selective and tend to take in some of all the chemical substances presented, whether they are desirable or not.

"Once in the body, chemicals are distributed by the blood to all organs. Chemical substances, which are not inert, have the capacity to combine with the chemical substances of the tissues, forming new compounds and altering the function of the tissue elements with which they have combined.

"A xenobiotic that combines with an enzyme will alter the function of that enzyme. As a result, the chemical reaction dependent upon that enzyme may become too slow, ineffective, or perhaps not take place at all. This would result in either a deficiency of some essential substance or an accumulation of some intermediate substance, both of which are harmful to the coordinated, balanced, physical/chemical mechanisms of the body. Xenobiotics can combine with and alter the function of any tissue component in the body, i.e., cell membranes, proteins, as well as enzymes.

"We are fortunate in that we are endowed with an excess capacity in all our organ systems. We have two kidneys but can survive on the functional capacity of one normal kidney. We have two lungs but can survive on just one.

"The capacity of most of our enzymes and biochemical processes is greater than we usually require. Because of the excess capacity in all our organ systems, we are able to sustain considerable injury and diminution in functional capacity before there is any organ malfunction and therefore any symptoms. Xenobiotic chemicals do their damage to our body's chemical mechanisms one molecule at a time.

"Individuals exposed to xenobiotic chemicals on a regular basis will experience regular injuries that will accumulate over time to eventually result in organ malfunction.

"Whether or not one develops illness from chemicals depends upon the extent of the injury caused by any given exposure, the rate at which the injury can be repaired, and the frequency with which the exposure and the injury are repeated.

"If one goes to work and sustains an eight-hour exposure to a solvent, some of the solvent will enter the body and combine with some of the tissue components causing a finite amount of injury. This is true even though the level of the solvent exposure may never have exceeded the OSHA standard or any other standard that might be considered "safe." If the injury can be completely healed in the sixteen off-duty hours, the individual returns to work at 100% capacity and the situation is sustainable indefinitely. If the extent of the injury is greater than can be repaired in the sixteen off-duty hours, the individual returns to work at less than 100% capacity.

"This sequence of events will be repeated each work day and the individual will accumulate injuries, injuries which will eventually lead to erosion of the excess functional capacity and organ malfunction. This process will remain unnoticed until the loss of functional capacity results in symptoms. At this point, the slightest increase in this dose of the xenobiotic in question will provoke symptoms each and every time it is encountered.

"There is a period of time when the injury is occurring but the excess capacity has not yet been eroded away, so there are no symptoms. There is another period where the extent of the damage results in symptoms but the individual can still sustain life and might recover if the exposure were to be terminated, although not necessarily without residual damage.

"There is the final period where organ damage is irreversible and incompatible with life. This sequence pertains to exposures to chemicals such as cyanide, solvents, pesticides and any other chemical capable of entering the body.

"Sensitivity to a chemical results when the previous exposures to that chemical, and/or other xenobiotics, have caused sufficient cumulative injury that the excess functional capacity has been eroded away. At this point, a chemical exposure that appeared to be well tolerated previously is no longer tolerated, and is now encroaching on vital capacity.

"It is a common observation that individuals who become sensitive to one chemical often begin to react to others. This is because the body has a limited number of detoxification mechanisms.

"When the mechanism has been damaged, all chemicals that are eliminated through that mechanism will not be well handled and will provoke symptoms. Individuals vary greatly in their abilities to resist the damaging effects of chemicals. It is always the individuals with the least capacity to tolerate chemicals who are the first to become sick. Others in the group might tolerate the same chemical exposure indefinitely without apparent illness.

"Nobody in the world today is free from some degree of chemical body burden. Individual tolerances and exposures may vary greatly, but we are all somewhere on the spectrum between minimal burden and having taken on that last bit of chemical that pushes us over the brink into a state of chronic illness."