Chemicals and People –
Adverse Effects
We live in a chemically saturated world in which many chemicals are inhaled and harm the brain. People usually know they inhaled odorous or irritating rotten egg gas, ammonia, chlorine, formaldehyde, gasoline or diesel exhaust. They may be less aware of insecticides, plastics, PCBs or incinerator smoke that do not have noxious odors. What they do not know is that these airborne chemicals can make them befuddled, forgetful, worried, unsteady in walking, distressed breathing with shortness of breath and/or wheezing. A clue may be that trouble began shortly after smelling or using a chemical cleaning agent, insecticide, aldehyde or gas or being a bystander to its use. Some accompanying effects are unaccustomed fatigue, depression, confusion, weakness with sensitivity to insecticide, perfume and other common inhaled agents. Another clue is rapid aging, acting 65 when 40 or 75 when under 50, premature mental aging. In 475 patients I have associated over forty chemicals with the troubles described and measured impaired brain function.
A swift and dramatic chemical confrontation is easy to associate but many small insults may go unnoticed until they pile in a heap. This occurred in Phoenix, AZ and Tucson, AZ and Glendale, CA from trichlor (TCE, trichloroethylene), a solvent and metal cleaner and from dichlor (dichloroethylene) in Lake Charles, LA.
Homes concrete slabs, crawl spaces or basements can collect and build up rotten egg gas, trichlor and other solvents.
Insecticides
The most dangerous chemicals are insecticides. Exposures to 3 groups may be inadvertent or deliberate. First are the banned but still used organochlorines (OCs) like chlordane, aldrin, deldrin, lindane, heptachlor, toxaphene and others including DDT. Second are organophosphates (OPs) (nerve gas derivatives), chlorpyrifos (Dursban), diazinon, parathion, methathion and the carbamates that imitate OPs. Third are pyrethroids, synthetic derivatives of chemicals from the chrysanthemum flower like permethrin, fenvalerate and fenpropinate. Danger is underscored by the worst chemical incident in history. Methyl diisocyante for manufacturing insecticides exploded at Bhopal, India in 1984 killed 3,000 people and injuring the brains, eyes and lungs of 200,000 neighbors.
Gases
Hydrogen sulfide is recognized easily by its rotten egg odor when it strikes neighbors of petroleum and natural gas drilling, collecting, desulfuration (to remove it) and storage. Other sources are manure pits, waste lagoons from paper pulping, hog raising, holds of fishing boats and geothermal sites.
Chlorine from treatment plants for drinking water, sewage and swimming pools, paper and cloth bleaching and making plastics spills from tankers on rail or road, delivery and storage.
Ammonia from chemical, explosive manufacture, fertilizer and cold storage plants (as refrigerant gas) and soil injection as nitrate.
Formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde and other aldehydes from fiberglass batt making, fabricating aircraft fuselage, cabin and wing parts, carbonless copy paper and for medical-dental sterilizing and fixing tissues for sectioning and microscopic diagnosis.
Trichloroethylene – trichlor – TCE, a metal degreaser and cleaner poisons the underground rivers from dumping. It was spilled massively in Phoenix, AZ from microchip manufacture and in Tucson, AZ and Glendale, CA, Oklahoma City, OK from construction mothballing and recovering aircraft. Moving back to the surface under homes it poisons indoor air. Almost all chlorine containing, nonflammable solvents have similar toxic effects. Common ones are chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, tetrachloroethylene dichloroethylene and trichloroethane.
PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls banned in 1975 but still in us, in polar bears and animals of this planet contaminated the Hudson River. Among the worst sites are villages across America where pumping station pumps, lubricated with Pydrol that is 50% PCBs push natural gas north and east. Leaked and discarded PCBs rich in dibenzofurans and dioxanes poison people in these villages.
Other chemicals are encountered that harm the brain, more that 40 are represented by one or more of my patients. Your experience with mine can help identify “new ones”.
Incinerators create PCBs from PVC plastics and other chlorine containing waste and spew them widely from stacks to reach nearby workers and communities’ miles away.
How should you proceed?
First, consider the possibility. Identify how chemical exposure may have hurt you. Describe your job when exposed. Chemicals known. Processes being used. What were you making? When and for how long and what happened? Begin with immediate effects (like burning, tears, cough, headache and nausea) what happen in the next days, added to these what went away. What effects came later thus were delayed? How much better did you get and at what interval after being exposed?
Second, what is measured? The brain diverse functions are tested from complexity we select about a dozen simple measurements that can determine how you balance, your reaction time, color discrimination, visual field, blink reflex latency, grip strength and hearing loss. A second dozen mental function tests assay problem solving ability with designs, vocabulary, digit-symbol substitution, placing pegs, making trails (connection numbers and these alternating with letters), recall memory of 2 stories and 3 long-term memory tests.
Third, make the arrangements. Testing is done by appointment in Pasadena, CA in a comfortable suite with garden surroundings. Hotels and motels are nearby. Tests take 4 hours. A confidential report is mailed within a week containing measurements, scores and comparisons to your estimated functional ability before exposure. Interpretation taken into accounts, the pattern, the chemical agent or agents and is a “best fit” analysis.
The cost is $1,500 to be paid at the time of testing. We will provide you with a statement for you to bill your insurance company.
Call: 626-798-4299 Fax: 626-798-3859
