Amputated Lives: Coping with Chemical Sensitivity

by Alison Johnson

Book Overview

The condition of multiple chemical sensitivity has been rapidly growing with the proliferation of new, untested chemicals in our environment. In recent decades, people from many walks of life have... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0967561914
• ISBN13: 9780967561912
• Release Date: November 2008
• Publisher: Cumberland Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Paying Attention when Culture Injures

Amputated lives is the first book to eloquently integrate the problem of illness caused by chemical exposure via a number of incidents and disasters including Katrina, the Gulf War, the Exxon-Valdez clean-up, the Waterside Mall renovations at the EPA, and the World Trade Center Bombing of 9/11. The book also illustrates the relationship between these incidents and the problem of multiple chemical sensitivity, a condition where persons become sensitized and intolerant of low-level chemical exposures in everyday settings. Johnson uses overviews of each incident as well as individual stories to document the devastating effects of illness from chemical overexposure. I use this book as a teaching tool in a senior seminar for college undergraduates with excellent results and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to better understand how the industrial distribution and use of toxics is literally taking away people's lives. First they are made ill, then disbelieved, then denied benefits and health care. I recommend this book and Johnson's video "The Toxic Clouds of 9/11" to anyone interested in understanding this growing problem. Both are excellently researched and presented.