ABSTRACT
Some researchers and physicians have long refused to acknowledge chemical sensitivity as a clinical entity both because its symptoms are diverse and because they have not taken the opportunity to study its identifiable patterns or its progression under controlled conditions. Because of this lack of interest in exploring the parameters of chemical sensitivity, sufficient clinical and experimental evidence has been unavailable to demarcate its underlying mechanisms. A significant body of research is finally emerging, however, that demonstrates the occurrence of alterations of detoxification systems by pollutant overload. As chemical sensitivity becomes more specifically identifiable, our ability to study and evaluate its symptoms and physiological and biochemical mechanisms of operation also increases. Today we are able to recognize symptomatic expression of chemical sensitivity and intervene with appropriate prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Further study and increased understanding of the mechanisms that underlie this entity will facilitate our ability to manage it. This chapter, therefore, intends to introduce the enzymatic and nonenzymatic aspects of pollutant transformation that are influential in the onset and continuation of chemical sensitivity. Although we do not know at this time the initial mechanism by which good health gives way to chemical sensitivity, we do know that once this change has occurred, dysfunction of these biochemical mechanisms becomes relevant.
