Flu-like onset and pesticides

[Guest guest]

I know I'm beating this pesticide topic to death, but I found an article in

Environmental Health Perspectives, the Journal of the National Institute of

Environmental Health Sciences (which appears to be a branch of the NIH?) that

begins with the story of a woman who has MCS. It describes how a flu-like

illness can follow an acute pesticide exposure, then progress to additional

debilitating symptoms. I have always believed the flu-like illness, and

apparent

viral onset, could easily be a secondary occurence after an acute brain injury

by

toxic chemicals. Here's one interesting depiction of that -- go to the link

to read the full article.

Peggy

<<Dianne Wiganowsky heard an unusual noise outside her house in Cheyenne,

Wyoming, in September 1992, so she went to look out her screen door. She did not

expect the potent stream of lawn chemicals that struck her in the face, nor

could she know that, at that moment, her health would begin to decline to the

point that most of her time is spent monitoring pain.

What hit Wiganowsky was a strong mix of active agricultural organophosphates

and fungicides that a lawn care company was spraying, carelessly, with a

bullet nozzle on a neighbor's shrubs and trees. The powerful stream hit

Wiganowsky

at the door with such velocity that the chemical mixture ran down the rear

wall of her living room.

Two days later she had " the worst flu in the world, " followed by lethargy so

severe she couldn't get out of bed, succeeded by pneumonia. She visited five

different doctors, all of whom couldn't find anything wrong, and all of whom

referred her to a psychiatrist. When Wiganowsky, 54, went outside, her eyes

turned red and bloodshot, her lips cracked and bled, and pain roamed her body,

settling in different areas. >>

Read the full article at:

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1994/102-9/focus1.html