SKEWED
by Martin Walker
reviewed by Robert Allen
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Skewed is an essential text that needs to be available to everyone who goes to college with the ideal in their head that they want to work in the chemical industry or practice medicine. It also needs to be in every major bookstore, and the author needs to appear on tv, radio and in print telling his story. For too long industry and its apologists have dominated the media with their cynicism and their lies.
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Sore in Southampton
Fifty four year old Val Newsome knew that "the terrible
pain down the left hand side" of her body had something to
do with the swarf fire which had begun on Southampton's
Northam Bridge quayside.
As the smoke and fumes drifted over most of Southampton she
wondered if anyone else in her immediate area of Bitterne
Park was suffering. Embarking on a tour within a two mile
radius of her home she visited over 30 houses and
interviewed mothers outside playgroups and on the phone,
asking them the same question: "How have you been feeling
because I've not been feeling at all well?"
Her enquiries indicated that over 80 people had multiple
symptoms, "predominantly severe headaches, nausea and
stomach upsets but also chest pains, tension, coughing,
sore throats, vomiting, skin rashes, cramps, mental
confusion, loss of memory and unsteadiness. Many said they
had a sense of being drugged. Asthma attacks were increased
and some children became asthmatic. People complained of
stinging eyes, tight chests, increased catarrh and
stiffness of joints".
The 2,000 tonnes of mixed swarf - metal shavings with waste
oils - spontaneously combusted despite concern from the
local fire brigade and local authority about the amount
that had built up on the quayside. It raged for five weeks
and was allowed to burn out. Despite the concerns of the
communities who believed their ill health was a consequence
of the fire, Dr Simon Voss, a public health consultant, was
able to tell the media that he was satisfied there had been
no danger to the health of the public.
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By dismissing the anecdotal evidence of communities,
individuals, soldiers and workers exposed to low level
pollution, health authorities, medical practitioners,
medical institutions and insurance companies are abrogating
their responsibility to public health, content instead to
allow industry to dictate health standards that do not
reflect the reality of peoples' lives or even contemporary
scientific knowledge.
Evidence of pollution allows industry to argue that their
processes are not to blame for modern illness like Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome, Gulf War Syndrome, Myalgic
Encephalomyelitis (better known as ME) and Multiple
Chemical Sensitivity. It is now becoming obvious that acute
exposures to the chemical mix in the air, in the water and
in our food can trigger diverse reactions in chemically
sensitive individuals and occasionally lead to sensitivity
in otherwise healthy people.
Chemicals are regarded as relatively harmless if clinical
damage cannot be detected. According to those prepared to
accept that there is a real problem, animal models,
clinicopathological studies and epidemiological
investigations are regarded as not sensitive enough to
detect the effects of low level exposures to pollutants.
Animal models are used to study the effects of high doses
of chemicals but as Nicholas Ashford and Claudia Miller
note in Chemical Exposures: Low Levels and High Stakes,
"rats, mice and other animals are unable to tell
researchers if they have headaches, fell depressed or
anxious or are nauseated"; they conclude,
"thus, the subtle
effects of low level chemical exposure may be missed
completely".
Epidemiological studies point to associations between
events, but as multiple chemical sensitivity is the
consequence of multiple triggers resulting in multiple
health effects, according to Ashford and Miller,
"epidemiology may be an insensitive tool".
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Problems in the Port
Cora Lonsdale thought the doctors' response was absurd. Fed
up with the intransigence of the local health authority she
had put together a questionnaire herself and sent it out.
It was a simple exercise; she wanted to know what
environmental illnesses people were suffering from. In her
own estate, Stanney Grange, 325 forms covering 928 people
were returned. Another 136 forms covering 496 people were
returned from neighbouring areas of Ellesmere Port. Out of
the total of 461 forms (1,424 people) she noted 183 cases
of asthma, 30 of bronchitis, 217 relating to chest, eyes
and nose and 52 to eczema, cancer, angina and heart. On her
own estate the 52 of the 129 asthma cases were in children
under 10 years of age.
"These are only the ones we know about," she announced. "We
know something is going on and we will not be fooled any
longer. This survey proves the point and some of the
results are frightening. We just hope it can be the start
of an in-depth enquiry by the council; if they can send out
forms for elections and the census they can come round and
find out in detail about our health problems. They would
get a hell of a shock."
But the council weren't impressed. Their medical advisor,
Dr Paul Hunter, challenged the survey, suggesting that it
was statistically open to bias. Smoking rather than local
pollution was as likely to have an adverse effect on health
trends. The increase in asthma, he added, was consistent
with the national average.
Cora Lonsdale refused to have her survey dismissed so
lightly. "There was no statistical bias in our survey, just
the truth, and you are left wondering what these people are
trying to hide. What they say to patients privately is that
Ellesmere Port's atmosphere is not conducive to good
health. Why don't they say that publicly; who is pulling
their strings? What we have heard from the doctors so far
hardly gives confidence, but one thing is certain, smoking
is not at the root of Ellesmere Port's health problems and
it is a joke to even suggest it."
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And clinicopathological studies, because they rely on the
presence of a clinical sign, laboratory measurement or
tissue pathology, are, add Ashford and Miller,
"not likely
to be sensitive to the early effects of low level
exposures, that is prior to end-organ damage".
This is a snapshot of the accurate and honest science. Val
Newsome and Cora Lonsdale were not aware that science had
revealed some of the clues about the strange illnesses
communities all over the world are experiencing. They were
not aware because the chemical industry and its apologists,
which include the academic and medical professions, has, in
the words of Martin J. Walker, a way of stifling science
with cynicism, lies and revisionism.
Newsome and Lonsdale were lucky. The medical profession
chose to dismiss them. In different circumstances they
might have found themselves "sectioned" and carted off to a
mental institution. The stuff of spy thrillers surely. No,
the stuff of reality, because you see Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome, Gulf War Syndrome, ME and Multiple Chemical
Sensitivity do not exist. They are the figment of tortured
imaginations.
According to Walker,
"Those who propose the view that these
illnesses have a psychological origin, really mean just
that - these illnesses and all their manifestations are
produced by a disturbance of mental processes, an aspect of
mental ill health".
The fact that science has known for a long time that
chemically induced illnesses are a consequence of industry
and its processes is really not the issue, that issue is
liability - who pays? For the majority of the 20th century
it was the sufferers of chemical induced illnesses who paid
while the chemical industry, the medical profession and the
insurance companies carefully and cleverly invented the Big
Lie, because they and those who used industrial products,
including the militaries of the world, did not want to pay.
This is the essence of Martin Walker's book. Sadly, the
history of the collusion between the chemical industry and
the medical and insurance professions is not in the public
domain. Walker is among a small group of people who have
struggled to reveal the cynicism, lies and revisionism, and
to give hope to people, including those who have been
wrongly accused. This is the real essence of his book, the
simple fact that people like Newsome and Lonsdale were not
crazy in the head, that their studies based on anecdotal
evidence were true, and that chemically induced illnesses
such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Gulf War Syndrome, ME and
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity not only exist, they are
harming people.
Skewed is an essential text that needs to be available to
everyone who goes to college with the ideal in their head
that they want to work in the chemical industry or practice
medicine. It also needs to be in every major bookstore, and
the author needs to appear on tv, radio and in print
telling his story. For too long industry and its apologists
have dominated the media with their cynicism and their
lies.
The title of the book suggests that the medical profession,
particularly the psychiatric wing, is biased. There is
clearly no argument about that, yet Walker has not
prejudged them.
"It is important with respect to the
academics and scientists involved that we retain a balanced
perspective," he writes.
"We have to assume that these
individuals have sincerely held beliefs, which they act out
according to their professional understanding".
Given his own knowledge - and Skewed is one of the best
examples of investigation around - this is an admirable
stance. At the conclusion of the book Walker is correct
when he states that it
"would be unwise to hold our breath
in anticipation of a serious, well funded, scientific
medical or even judicial examination of the cause of ME and
other fatigue illnesses".
It is unwise because the cost to industry would be too
high, leaving us all to
"the mercy of corporate interests
and those who act consciously or unconsciously as their
agents".
Martin Walker's book reveals only one aspect of this story.
It is a not a book about science nor even a book about the
illnesses involved. It is a book about the extent industry
will go to protect its interests. We need more writers
doing investigations like Martin Walker to make industry
accountable for their actions, and to make them pay, as
individuals, for these actions.
– Email: Robert Allen
SKEWED can be obtained from:
Slingshot Publications
BM Box 8314
London WC1N 3XX
England.
Cheques made out to
Slingshot Publications must be sent in advance with orders.
The cover price of SKEWED is £12. Single copies cost £12
plus postage and packing, which comes to £14.40. Anyone
wanting ten copies or over can have them with a £4
reduction on each copy and no postage or packing charge.
Individuals or organisations involved in ME, CFS, Gulf War
Syndrome, and MCS, who are interested in raising money for
their group can obtain copies of SKEWED at even more
greatly reduced rates, after discussions with Slingshot.
Information about Slingshot Publications, flyers, order
forms and details of other books, can also be obtained from
the box number.
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