Clinical Ecology

PHYSICIANS who practice clinical ecology believe that exposure to low levels of environmental substances present in the air or ingested from food and liquids causes in susceptible individuals a variety of ill-defined symptoms affecting nearly every organ system. MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITY SYNDROME Most physicians who practice clinical ecology (clinical ecologists) maintain that a number of patients have the multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome (MCSS) (also called clinical ecological illness, environmental illness, chemical AIDS [acquired immunodeficiency syndrome], 20th-century disease, environmental hypersensitivity disease, total allergy syndrome, and cerebral allergy).1-10Clinical ecology has been defined as the orientation in medicine in which physicians primarily work with patients to uncover the cause-and-effect relationship between their ill health and food or low-level chemical exposure.9Other definitions have been offered and no general agreement exists that clinical ecology and MCSS are synonymous.8-10The lack of a clear definition or diagnostic test for MCSS has