http://www.cma.ca/cmaj/cmaj_today/05_23a.htm
eCMAJ NewsDesk:
Delve deeper into environmental illness, defense minister begs
Date: May 23, 2001 Time: 2:37 pm
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Canada's defense minister used an appearance at a recent meeting to
"implore" scientists and physicians to "think outside the box" in
attempting
to recognize and treat environmental illnesses.
Art Eggleton made an unscheduled speech at an international conference
on
environmental illness held in Ottawa May 18, shortly after he returned
from
a 2-day Canadian Forces Health Service symposium on chemical
sensitivity.
Eggleton, who noted that the Canadian Forces is currently grappling with
medical problems faced by personnel who served in the Gulf War 10 years
ago,
said the root of the problem is that the scientific community says the
existence of multiple chemical sensitivity cannot be proved, and
therefore
the medical community doesn't want to recognize it.
"It leaves people like me in a difficult situation. I want to try to
right
this situation and help these [soldiers] in terms of medical services
and
pensions," he said. "There's got to be an openness on the part of
caregivers
to deal with these patients. I implore you to think outside the box."
Eggleton acknowledged that many Gulf War personnel are experiencing both
psychological and physical problems. "I've seen some of our people who
left
healthy and strong and came back a broken shadow of themselves, with
considerable challenges as a result of the illness they have
experienced."
Sponsored by the 5-year-old Environmental Illness Society of Canada and
the
Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary, the
conference
was designed to "support physicians."
- Barbara Sibbald, eCMAJ
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