Bodies in Protest. Steve Kroll-Smith
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Bodies in Protest
Bodies in Protest
Environmental Illness
and the Struggle over
Medical Knowledge
Steve Kroll-Smith and H. Hugh Floyd
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
Copyright © 1997 by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kroll-Smith, Steve, 1947–
Bodies in protest : environmental illness and the struggle
over medical knowledge / Steve Kroll-Smith and
H. Hugh Floyd.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8147-4662-4 (acid-free paper)
1. Environmentally-induced diseases. 2. Allergy.
I. Floyd, H. Hugh, 1943–. II. Title.
RB152.K76 1997
616.9’8—dc21 97-4665
CIP
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
PART ONE
1. Environmental Illness as a Practical Epistemology and a Source of Professional Confusion
2. Chemically Reactive Bodies, Knowledge, and Society
PART TWO
3. Something Unusual Is Happening Here
PART THREE
6. Representation and the Political Economy of a New Body
7. A New Body in the Courts, Federal Policies, the Market, and Beyond
8. Bodies, Environments, and Interpretive Space
Steve Kroll-Smith dedicates this book to his parents, Jack and Betty Smith, who in staying the course are showing their children and grandchildren the way.
Acknowledgments
A book is never written alone. Like a child, it takes a community to bring it to maturity. A research initiation grant from the University of New Orleans supported the first author through several months of interviewing. Vern Baxter, Valerie Gunter, and Susan Mann, colleagues in the sociology department at the University of New Orleans, read and commented on earlier drafts. Friend and colleague Pam Jenkins remained a patient listener to “tales from the field.” Mike Grimes, a sociologist from Louisiana State University, provided insightful comments on chapters 1 and 2. Martha Ward, research professor of anthropology at the University of New Orleans, read chapters 1 through 3, attending to their symbolic, somatic arguments. Susan Kroll-Smith read each chapter from the standpoint of one versed in psychodynamics and interested in bodies and environments. Steve Couch and Phil Brown, good friends and colleagues, provided emotional and intellectual support throughout.
Several graduate students at the University of New Orleans assisted at various stages of the project. Melanie Diffendall assisted in compiling interview lists and organizing demographic data on respondents. Jennifer Boles worked on referencing and coding interviews. Molly Biehl coded interviews and prepared them for inclusion in the text. Finally, Sandra McMillan assisted in the preparation of a final draft. Jennifer Platt and Amanda Stallings from Samford University also contributed their skills to the project.
Finally, this book would not be possible without the expert help of the environmentally ill themselves. To Diane Hamilton the first author owes a particular thanks for inviting him to meetings at her house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was in the Human Ecology Action League (HEAL) group meetings that the initial, firsthand revelations of the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of living with an environmentally ill body became evident. In several interviews with Diane herself, a woman was revealed who was made stronger by a chronic, disabling illness. To the over 140 people who disclosed themselves in thoughtful narratives about their bodies, personal sufferings, and hopes for the future, we owe our biggest debt. We are privileged to have heard your stories. We hope that you find yourself and your body represented in this book. Thank you.
Preface
Another pandemic illness is emerging in American society. It is called, among other things, multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), environmental illness (EI), and somewhat ominously, twentieth-century disease. It invites comparison with that most deadly modern pandemic, AIDS. In two important respects the terms multiple chemical sensitivity