a Lipkin, who sought a healthier environment, dies 3-20-1999

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a Lipkin, who sought a healthier environment, dies

Minneapolis Star Tribune

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a Lipkin dedicated half of her life to counseling others with

environmental illness. In the 1970s she cofounded the Twin Cities Chapter of

the Human Ecology Action League (HEAL), now known as the Chemical Injury

Resource Association of Minnesota, a self-help and advocacy group.

Lipkin, who since childhood had environmental illness (EI), which can take

the form of many sicknesses, died Tuesday at St. ph' s Hospital in St.

. She was 52.

Her passion was working to protect the environment and to change the health

care industry's views on the rights and care of EI patients, said a friend,

McCaffrey of St. . He said she tried to raise environmental

awareness in everyone she met.

``She was like an angel to me,'' said McCaffrey, who had chronic fatigue

syndrome when he met Lipkin in 1977. He said she taught him how to protect

himself from environmental elements by using organically produced goods.

``She could have easily been a physician,'' he said.

Near the end of her life, Lipkin had to stay home, but she continued to help

people through the phone, he said.

Her sister, Lipkin of Minneapolis, said: ``a was my only sister,

so we were very close. She was so connected to anyone who was in contact

with her. And her illness made her, on a daily basis, appreciate life, and

[she] loved it more.''

Lipkin said her sister was so sensitive to the environment that she

could feel the effects of an oil spill 10 blocks away, and bus fumes often

made her faint. Even tap water burned her skin.

``All those fumes impacted a,'' she said. ``She likened herself to the

canaries in the coal mines'' that were used to test whether fumes were

toxic.

In a July 1993 Star Tribune article about chemical use in yards and gardens,

a Lipkin said that she remembered catching fireflies as a child and

asked why no one in the Twin Cities sees them anymore.

``I go outside or open a window, and instead of smelling fresh air, I smell

lawn spray, bug spray. It is disheartening,'' she said then. ``I prefer to

use the organic treatment, not just on the lawn but also as insect

control.''

In addition to her sister, Lipkin is survived by her parents, Sol and Betty,

of Minneapolis, and two brothers, Bill, of Minneapolis, and , of

Golden Valley.

Services were held Friday.

Copyright 1999 Star Tribune. Republished under license to Infonautics Corp.

All other rights reserved.

Lucy Y. Her; Staff Writer, a Lipkin, who sought a healthier environment,

dies., Minneapolis Star Tribune, 03-20-1999, pp 11B.