Victims Of The Chemical Feast
The Age
Sunday July 9, 1995
from Judy Stellato-Pledger, president, Allergy and Environment Sensitivity Support and Research Association.
We are pleased that the AMA is officially recognising the relationship between chemical pollutants and human health (The Age, 26/6).
Our association was set up in 1982 to support people with allergies and environmental, particularly chemical, sensitivities.
Through overseas contacts we know that Australia is far behind other countries in both the recognition of chemical injuries and the banning of extremely hazardous chemicals, especially pesticides.
Misdiagnosis of environmental illness and consequent inappropriate treatments have caused many people untold suffering and hardship.
The suffering is exacerbated by the attitudes of health professionals and the general public, who have tended to see these people as misguided, neurotic malingerers.
It is to be hoped that the conference in October will alert the medical profession, particularly GPs, to the possibility that some of their patients may be suffering from environmental illness, and they are entitled to proper diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
Judy Stellato-Pledger, East Bentleigh.
© 1995 The Age