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H
ow often do you feel like rip–
ping the phone directory into
little picccs, smashing a few
teacups, or swinging the cat by its
tail?
You say you ncver feel that way
al all?
Okay, maybe you're the quiet
type who isn't easily irritated. But
how many times lately ha ve you felt
down in the dumps for no apparent
reason? How many cvenings did
you come borne from work a nd
needed a cou pie of stiff ones before
you felt like greeting loved ones in a
civi l fashion? How many mornings
did you look in the mirror and won–
der if it was worth going through the
motions one more time?
Maybe you checked "none of the
above." But unless you're a rare
person indeed, you
do
feel mentally
or emotionally out of sync from
time to time. And when you do. per–
ha ps you blame your boss
or your mother-in-law fo r
yo ur sad sta te of affairs. But
gases and particulate matter. But
these new additions to our cnviron–
ment do more than wreck o ur
hea lth . They also ca n have quite an
effect on ou r minds.
SMOG.
Take smog, for instance.
Smog is something most of us big–
city dwellers have learncd to li ve
with. After a ll , on really bad days, it
on ly actua lly kills a few emphysema
suffercrs who probably wou ld have
gone soon anyway. The rest of us
can put up with occasional cye irri–
ta tion and faee ou r shortened life
spans with re lative equa nimity. But
wha t we don't rca lize is that smog
can do a lot more than contribute to
an occasional case of lung cancer.
According to Dr. Leroy Schieler, a
biochemist and consultant to indus–
tries on pollution control, smog can
affect the mood of a n cn tirc geo–
graph ica l arca over long periods of
time.
to menta l problems - such as ner–
vousness, irritability, depression.
and othe r more serious disabili ties.
Sorne noted rescarchers have even
speculated on the possible con–
nection between airborne chemicals
like hydrogen sulfide and the high
suicide rates of communities which
have industries that p roduce such
pollutants.
LEAD.
Ai rborne lcad - from gaso–
lin e add itives a nd stat iona ry sou rces
such as smelters - may also con trib–
u te to our mental-health problems
to a certai n degree. The widely pub–
licized lead poisoning of slum chil–
dren who eat peeling pa int is only
part of a frightening picture. Lead is
a cumu la tive poison, and every day
we take in a certain amount of it
from the air we brea the and the
food we eat.
Pasadena geochemist Dr. Cla ir
more than like ly, you blame
yourself. You just arcn't
cooking, don't havc it a ll
to-
gether. or can' t work i t
through.
Patterson of the California lnsti t ute
of Technology says that
there is a potentially dan–
gerous film of lead coating
the earth and nearly every–
thing on it. He stated that
"man has one hun dred
times more lead in his body
than he wou ld if lead tech–
nology had never been
ISOUR
ENVIRONMENT
But maybe a lo t of you r
emotional problcms a ren ' t
your fault - or you r boss'
or you r mother-in-law's.
Maybe you a re at times vic–
tim of something eom –
pletely ou tside your control.
Our Unhealthy Environment
Whether we realize it or
not, most of us livc in an
env ironmen t seem ingly tai–
lor-made to drive us ba–
nanas. Each year new a nd
exciting tcchnologica l ad–
vances bring wi th th em a
dazz l in g asso rtmcnt of
known a nd unknown s ide
effects, many o f which a re
haza rdous to our menta l
healt h .
l.'
1
l
DRIVINGUS
''BANAN~S''?
Mental illnesses, depressions,
runaways, suicides - psychological
problems of al/ i<inds are on the
upswing. ls it just coincidence that al/
this "inabi/ity to cope" is
occurring at
a
time when our
environment is being rendered more
and more unfriendly by both
chemlcal and
psychological pol/utants?
by
Carole Ritter
used."
Sorne researche rs believe
that a lthough most people
do not have classic symp–
toms of lead poisoning like
irrit ab ility, hallucinat ion, or
brain damage, wc may be
suffering from subclinical
symptoms as yet unrecog–
nized. Symptoms of lead in–
toxication such
as
headache, anemia, and
le thargy are vague and eas–
ily misdiagnosed. Herbert
L.
Nced lemait, assistan t
professor of psychiatry a t
Harvard Medica! School, a
researcher in lcad poison ing
and brain damage. believes
that many cases of lead poi–
soning in ch ildren are never
Each day we ingest sma ll
amounts of hundreds of highly toxic
substa nces. Our food contains carci–
nogenic add itives and p reservat ives.
Our wa t er supp l i es are co n–
ta m inated with unremovab le indus–
tna l effiu ent. Thc a ir we brea the -
even in rura l areas - conta ins un.–
hea lthy concentration of po isonous
lt
has been demonstrated that
componen ts of a ir po ll ution (such a
ni trous dioxides. hydroca rbons. car–
bon dioxide, ca rbon monoxide. oz–
one, lead , a nd o the r photochemica l
substanees) con tribute in varying
degrees not on ly to eyc irrita tion,
pain , nausea, and tiredness, but also
brought to a doctor's attention, and
many that are brought in are im–
p roperly diagnosed.
The
PLAIN TRUTH November 1976
ARTIFICIAL LIGHT.
Chemica ls
are not the only fac tors tha t affect
ou r menta l well-being. Recent stud–
ies indicate tha t cvcn something as
innocen t look ing as art ificial light
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