Key Takeaways:

• Introduces the concept that some individuals are unusually sensitive to low‑level exposures of chemicals in food, air, and water—long before “multiple chemical sensitivity” became a recognized term.
• Frames environmental illness and chemical sensitivities as legitimate physiological conditions, countering the tendency to dismiss sufferers as psychosomatic or neurotic.
• Advocates elimination diets, unprocessed foods, and low‑chemical environments as both diagnostic tools and therapeutic strategies.
• Helps found the field of clinical ecology, influencing later debates about sick‑building syndrome, indoor air quality, and hidden environmental triggers of chronic illness.