Illness and the Environment: A Reader in Contested Medicine - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814747280 ISBN 13: 9780814747285

Publisher: New York University Press, 2000

Synopsis

In myriad ways, humans have gradually tailored their world to meet immediate material needs. In so doing, we have, in the minds of many, systematically altered a formerly hospitable environment into one more ambiguous in its effect on the human organism. Just as environments have adapted in response to human activity, so too is the human body now, in turn, forced to adapt to these altered conditions. Today, mysterious illnesses, from chronic fatigue to Gulf War Syndrome, meet us at every turn. Yet even as an increasing number of people attribute ailments to environmental problems, the suspected relationships between illness and environment remain unclear.

Illness and the Environment examines how sick people and their allies struggle to achieve public recognition of somatic complaints and disabilities that they contend are related to "manufactured environments." The first of its kind, the anthology considers the political, legal, and medical conflicts arising from these illnesses, and will prove invaluable to researchers, scholars, public policy makers, trial attorneys, and activist organizations.

About this title

About the Authors

Steve Kroll-Smith is Research Professor of Sociology at the University of New Orleans.

Phil Brown is Professor of Sociology at Brown University, author of Radical Psychology, and coauthor of No Safe Place: Toxic Waste, Leukemia, and Community Action.
Valerie J. Gunter is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Environmental Research Institute at the University of New Orleans.

Valerie J. Gunter is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Environmental Research Institute at the University of New Orleans.

Edition details

• Publisher: New York University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814747280
• ISBN 13: 9780814747285
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 464
• Editor: Kroll-Smith Steve, Brown Philip M., Gunter Valerie