AS RESEARCHERS AND CLINICIANS with experience in the study, evaluation, diagnosis, and/or care of adults and children with chemical sensitivity disorders, we support the stated goal of the National Institutes of Health 1999 Atlanta Conference on the Health Impact of Chemical Exposures During the Gulf War “to fully characterize the nature of multiple chemical exposures within the Gulf War veteran population and to relate this characterization to what is known about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and related conditions and disorders within civilian populations.”(1) Based on research conducted by state and federal government agencies, we already know that MCS is one of the most commonly diagnosed chronic disorders in civilians and the most common—but still largely undiagnosed—disorder of any kind in Gulf War veterans of the United States.

In statewide telephone surveys of randomly selected adults, conducted by health departments in California in 1995 and 1996 and New Mexico in 1997, investigators found that 6% of adults in California(2) and 2% of adults in New Mexico(3) indicated that they had already been diagnosed with MCS or Environmental Illness, whereas 16% in both states said they were “unusually sensitive to everyday chemicals.” When randomly selected adults in other states were asked if they were “especially sensitive” (instead of “unusually” sensitive), one-third consistently maintained that they were.(4–6)