Page 581 - Demo

Aging Gracefully575like Lynn are the lucky ones, because avoiding the low-level, longterm exposures means they%u2019re able to avoid getting the more serious, often life threatening, conditions? After I finished my soliloquy, Lynn reminded me of something we%u2019d first heard in the 1980s. Back then, chemical sensitivity was known as Environmental Illness (EI) and our early reading about the condition had likened it to canaries in a coal mine. Coal miners took canaries underground with them. The birds were more sensitive than people, and when the birds stopped singing and keeled over, the miners knew the air was getting toxic, and they should return to the surface. In the EI literature, chemically sensitive people were seen as an early warning sign to society to pay heed to the dangers in the air, just as the sensitive birds had warned the miners.Lynnand I both realized that one of the differences between the 1980s and today was that now there was actual evidence for a variety of illnesses affecting younger people that hadn%u2019t yet manifested 40-50 years ago. Perhaps the reason lay in the degree of exposure. After all, Lynn and I grew up in an earlier time, before indoor air pollution and processed food were so pervasive. Young people today, on the other hand, have been exposed their entire lives %u2014 even in utero. By having exposures from conception, they might be more likely to have more, and more severe, symptoms. Perhaps that%u2019s why cancer, asthma, obesity, mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders, Type 2 diabetes, and hypertension are becoming more prevalent. Of course, not everyone gets these diseases. But as minor changes occur in our species%u2019 immune system over several more generations, such diseases may become even more common.The next day, Lynn photocopied the article and mailed it to two of her chemically sensitive friends. She%u2019d sent copies of the older Discover article when it came out, so she thought they%u2019d like to see this one as well. A few days later she received a note from each of them, and their thoughts were the same as ours %u2014 the article was very interesting, but it wouldn%u2019t have a direct effect on us, because we had learned long ago how to modify our lifestyle to minimize exposures. It was nice that research was continuing, and nice that other people would benefit, but we were doing quite well.