Lynn Lawson

Staying Well in a Toxic World: Understanding Environmental Illness, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Chemical Injuries, and Sick Building Syndrome by Lynn Lawson

"I wish someone had told me" (about the illness with the above names) is often heard by author Lynn Lawson, which is what prompted her to write her 488-page book, published by Lynnword Press in 1994, and its 80-page "new millennium update," published in 2000. Since World War II more than 80,000 new synthetic chemicals have been added to our environment, most of them untested for human health effects, and they are making a lot of people sick. Often the victims don't know the cause. From one reader, "When I was mysteriously magnetized to it at Border's Books years ago, I cracked it open, read two paragraphs, and finally knew what was wrong with me."

The original book is loaded with resources, references, and suggested reading. The supplement updates the resources and notes changes that have occurred in the world of exposure to toxic chemicals since 1994.

unsolicited comments

• "It should be read by millions, including members of Congress, TV producers, and newspaper and magazine editors"--William G. Crook, MD.
  
  
• "Lynn Lawson has documented, in a highly readable fashion, the devastating effects our surroundings are having on one particular endangered species--human beings."--John Bower, Healthy House Institute, author of Healthy House Building and The Healthy House
  
  
• "It's the Silent Spring of the 90s"--Anne Jackson, coordinator, Environmental Health Association of Los Angeles.
  
  
• "I started reading your book on the beach today--and it's a page turner. I can't put it down"--Kay Hartmann, graphic designer.
  
  
• "I think it should be required reading for living on earth, and everyone should have a copy"--support-group member Lauren Jonik.
  
  
• "I found it a terrific read!"--Lucie Young, New York editor of Elle magazine

from book reviews

• "Riveting. . . . the best popular book about our unconsenting toxic exposures in the modern world, how these assaults are allowed to continue, and what we can do about them. Despite its title and its excellent advice and referral sections at the end of chapters, Staying Well does not belong to the self-help genre. Instead this work paints a complex picture of the failures of our civilization, and engages us to become part of the solution. Don't be daunted by the length of this volume; you can read a section or two at random. . .if you can put it down"--New York Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, Fall 1994.
  
  
• "Staying Well in a Toxic World binds together the various aspects of pollution, whether it be from formaldehyde in particleboard, pesticides in lawn care, chemical additives in processed foods, or perfumed 'skunk mail.' The author succeeds in connecting these various aspects to the larger picture of the environment"--Beatrice Trum Hunter, in the November 1994 Townsend Letter for Doctors.

bio

Lynn Lawson grew up in a small Wisconsin farming community before World War II, at a time when women wore cotton or silk stockings, farmers spread manure on their fields, and everyone ate organic food. In 1946, at the beginning of the Chemical Revolution, she received a BS in chemistry and ten years later an MA in English. Forty years later she discovered that her increasingly severe, incapacitating sick headaches were caused by her diet and environment. Once she learned what chemicals and foods to avoid, how to avoid them, and how to build up her immune system, her health improved dramatically.

Being correctly diagnosed turned not only her health but her life around. She has spent the past sixteen years helping others with this illness: listening, writing, speaking, networking, and organizing. The introduction to Staying Well in a Toxic World tells of working for years as an editor, writer, and university instructor while getting sicker and sicker and not knowing why. For seven years she coordinated a Chicago-based support group, now known as MCS: Health & Environment, and for ten years she edited its newsletter, CanaryNews. In 2002 she was a presenter at the Second Annual Environmental Writers' Conference and Workshop in honor of Rachel Carson.