The Sensitives

May 1, 2020
A journalist takes to the road to meet people suffering from hypersensitivity to chemicals and toxins. "Environmental illness" has increased dramatically since it was first recognized in 1962, affecting as many as 30% of Americans, baffling the medical establishment, and eluding sufferers' quest for a cure. Making his nonfiction book debut, journalist Broudy offers an animated recounting of his search to meet some "sensitives," as they call themselves, to understand their experiences, and to reflect on his own concerns about the prevalence of synthetic chemicals--85,000, he discovered, including 9,000 food additives and 17 pesticides--to which most people are habitually exposed. Thyroid, liver, and kidney cancer rates have skyrocketed, as have autism, intellectual impairment, allergies, obesity, the early onset of puberty, and birth defects. "I am trying to be sane," writes the author, but he questions whether chemicals have a role in these burgeoning numbers. Certainly, sensitives believe the environment is assaulting: Although they are a diverse group with varying susceptibilities, Broudy found that hypersensitivity could be induced by "a single, massive toxic exposure," such as a house renovation, insect fumigation, or household mold; or by "years of low-level exposures." Once afflicted, sensitives experience symptoms that include asthma, rash, headache, fatigue, memory problems, inflammation, and shortness of breath, which they try to control through diet (one sensitive touted protein bars made of organic grass-fed lamb meat), supplements, esoteric bottled water, and relocation, likely to the high elevation, dry air, and relative isolation of the desert Southwest. Broudy evokes that landscape in painterly prose, offering sharply drawn portraits of the sensitives he meets along the way and contextualizing their plight with lively digressions into conventional, and unconventional, medical history. Sensitives, frustrated with mainstream medicine, tired of being diagnosed with psychosomatic illness, and despairing of making their experience credible, have found a respectful, if sometimes bemused, chronicler in Broudy. A sympathetic portrayal of a perplexing illness.

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June 1, 2020

Journalist Broudy introduces readers to the world of environmental illness (EI). Those who live with EI are highly sensitive to a wide variety of environmental irritants, everything from perfume to mold to new carpets, and sometimes refer to themselves as "sensitives." When they are triggered, sensitives can experience an array of symptoms, from typical allergic reactions to headaches to a feeling of constant malaise that varies from mild to severe. Many are dismissed by traditional medicine and have difficulty finding a doctor who will listen. Broudy travels through the Southwest with one sensitive, James, on the trail of a man who was a leader in the EI community but then dropped out of sight. On the journey, Broudy and James encounter other sensitives and the doctors who treat them; the physicians are often themselves members of the EI community who switched specialties after becoming sensitive. VERDICT Throughout this balanced account, Broudy weaves a history of the mind-body connection, the chemical industry, and the specialty of allergy-immunology, providing a solid introduction to a widespread but often invisible problem.--Rachel Owens, Daytona State Coll. Lib., FL

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2020
Some modern ailments?chronic Lyme disease, Gulf War Illness, fibromyalgia?are mysterious or controversial, as is Environmental Illness (EI). Broudy's commendable exploration of EI balances journalistic objectivity and empathy in portraying the anguish, desperation, and perhaps paranoia of individuals whose sickness and suffering are mostly denied clinical legitimacy by the medical establishment (including the AMA and CDC). EI patients refer to themselves as "sensitives." Their malady stems from an extreme reaction to mold or toxins, routinely used chemicals that for most of us are not harmful. Symptoms can include fatigue, muscle aches, memory problems, perhaps anxiety and depression. Broudy ventures on an 1,800-mile road trip to the Southwest over six days, accompanied by an eccentric "sensitive" named James. They meet folks afflicted with EI and a few health professionals who treat them. Many are sympathetic characters, others are quirky, and some are both. Broudy contemplates notions of credibility and quackery, uncertainty and scientific accuracy. He acknowledges that "illness has a way of splitting us from ourselves." Today's environment contains about 85,000 synthetic chemicals, products in our grocery markets carry 9,000 types of food additives. Maybe these "sensitives" are the proverbial "canary in the coalmine" warning us all of hidden dangers. It's wise and compassionate to learn much more about their plight.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)