by Parris Kidd, Ph.D.
Dr. Doris Rapp’s Manual
for Surviving the Toxic Holocaust
IN 1962 THE SCIENTIST, WRITER AND ECOLOGIST Rachel Carson stunned the world with Silent Spring, her testament against environmental pollutants. Now more than four decades later, the physician Doris Rapp makes a compelling argument that chemicals threaten our survival as a species. Her newest book Our Toxic World—A Wake Up Call 2004, ©Environmental Medical Research Foundation
con.rms for me that we are experiencing what I
call a Toxic Holocaust.
Our Toxic World is loaded with useful information
on how to avoid toxin exposure, everything
from protecting the hometown against irresponsible
contamination to cleaning up the home
environment. For those already suffering from
exposure, this book is a detailed “how-to” manual
for detoxifying the body and mind.\
The book is also highly personalized. Many
case histories are given that walk the reader
through individual patients’ subtle or puzzling symptoms and illustrate the sometimes novel approaches that
bring about cure. Chapter 10 follows one family as they journey
from home contamination to appropriate medical management
and recovery.
Dr. Rapp shares with us many detailed, conventional and
unconventional protocols for detoxification that have worked
in her practice. She also skillfully merges her discussion of
environmental chemicals with the topic of food pollutants and
contaminants and their links with food allergies and intolerances.
Fact is, these are all part of a whole: the body having to
cope with substances that it is not designed to process.
Dr. Doris Rapp’s, medical qualifications are impeccable—board-certified in Environmental Medicine, Pediatrics and
Allergies and a homeopath. She earlier wrote three landmark
books. Is This Your Child?, Is This Your Child’s World? and The
Impossible Child at School and Home, earned her national exposure
via “Larry King,” “Oprah,” “Donahue” and other mass
media. In Our Toxic World, her medical wisdom, skilled practice,
gift for technical writing and personal sincerity convey a
frightening urgency to control toxic chemicals.
This book should be on the bookshelves of lay people, doctors
and scientists alike. It runs more than 500 pages and virtually
exudes useful information. It is especially unique
because it doesn’t stop at cataloguing the harm that chemicals
can do. Dr. Rapp has drawn on her decades of practice in
assessing and treating tens of thousands of chemically poisoned
patients (many of them children), to provide us with
concrete options and protocols to survive this planetary-scale
assault on our health.
Each year at least 220 billion pounds (yes, that’s a “b”) of synthetic organic chemicals are manufactured. This translates to more than 36 pounds of potential toxin produced per human being per year. There
are some 80,000 chemicals in
commercial use, of which fewer than
8,000 have had any testing for toxicity. In the
U.S. alone, at least 1.2 billion pounds are
released into the air and water each year. Chapter
1 suggests that some 74 million Americans are
suffering from some form of harmful sensitivity
to chemicals.
Today’s chemicalized environment causes or
contributes to multiple chemical sensitivities,
cancers, chronic fatigue syndrome, brain and
nervous system degeneration and myriad other
life-threatening conditions. But the book also
makes a compelling case that synthetic organic
contaminants in our air, water, home environment
and foods cause reproductive failure in men and women. These chemicals can be carried with the
semen and breast milk to impair the health of children into the
third generation.
 Our Toxic World proves beyond debate that everyone is being
affected by today’s Toxic Holocaust. It provides the documentation
that all of us carry environmental chemical toxins in our
fat. One-third of our babies float in uterine fluid that contains
toxins, including DDT, which was officially banned decades
ago. Pesticides and other chemicals are linked to miscarriages,
stillbirths, birth anomalies and delays in nervous system development.
And after birth, mother’s milk contains deadly chemicals.
Millions of American children presently suffer from developmental,
learning and behavioral difficulties. Toxins pervade
their everyday environment. Dr. Rapp states that some 20
studies show pesticides, used inside and outside homes or
schools, on lawns or playgrounds, can cause leukemias, brain
tumors and lymphomas.
Of the 64 active pesticides used in schools, statistics show
16 are probable causes of cancer; 24 are related to birth
defects; 44 appear to cause reproduction problems; 49 can
affect the central nervous system; 54 can damage the kidneys
and 59 may cause eye and skin problems. Parents must ask
why these chemicals continue to be used in schools or homes
when safe alternatives are available.
Against this frightening background, Chapter 5 on Sex and
Chemicals raises the stakes even further. Boys can become
feminized from dioxin and PCB exposures in the womb. The
past 30–40 years have seen a 30–40 percent increase in undescended
testicles and deformed penises. Girls can become masculinized and experience early puberty;
sometimes their breasts can fail to mature. If
a pregnant woman uses flea soap or a pest
collar on her dog, her unborn child has a 4- to
6-fold chance of developing a brain tumor,
leukemia or lymphoma by the age of six years.
Among men, the higher the chemical
levels in their bodies, the smaller their genitals.
Up to 85 percent of males can be ineligible
as sperm donors. Sperm count
averages have dropped from 125 million per
milliliter in 1932 to 50 million per milliliter in
1998. Many experts speculate that men
could be reproductively eliminated within 70
years.
Of all the diseases we can fall prey to,
most people dread cancer the most, “Breast,
prostate and testicle cancer are up 50 percent
in 50 years” says Dr. Rapp. In children, since 1973, brain
tumors are up 21 percent and lymphomas up 30 percent. Over
90 percent of children and adults have toxic brain-damaging or
cancer-causing chemicals in their urine or blood.” She asks,
“What are they doing to us?”
Some will ask, isn’t the government taking care of this
problem? Chapter 7 puts the government’s role into context.
Government agencies routinely ignore, evade or manipulate
existing regulations in favor of vested chemical interests. They
seem to be part of the toxic problem rather than part of its
solution.
The U.S. government hasn’t even come to terms with the
scandalous mercury issue. Mercury is still being put into
dental fillings, even though the dentist has to dispose of the
leftovers as hazardous waste. My in-depth reviews indicate
mercury is linked to Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis,
ADD/ADHD and autism. Yet it is still manufactured and
employed in commerce. Parent outrage forced manufacturers
to begin removing mercury from childhood vaccines.
Many of Dr. Rapp’s patients are children. Early on she
started making videotapes of kids, first as they reacted to
chemicals or offending foods, then later their positive
responses to neutralization of the offending agents. Her successful
management protocols build on numerous pioneering
environmental medicine practitioners and other heroes whose
achievements mostly go unrecognized by the medical mainstream.
The 10 chapters are extensively referenced with peerreviewed
published papers. There are six appendices that list
allergy elimination diets; other health professionals competent
in this field; environmental home evaluations with environmentally
safer products; books and other resources, including a
plethora of Web sites; newsletters for the public and physicians,
and professional societies such as the American Academy for
Environmental Medicine. Any sick person needing help would
find specific help somewhere in these pages.
Our Toxic World is not restricted to discussing what has
gone before. It makes cogent arguments against genetic engineering,
bovine growth hormone and irradiated foods. Doris
Rapp also advocates centers and villages for diagnosis, treatment
and research of chemical toxic damage. Speaking with her, I learned that she intends to devote the
rest of her life to creating, one by one, such
integrated centers. Each would combine
the very best of traditional and alternative
medicine, intended to be “diametrically
opposite of the current HMO type of clock
watch and drug-oriented medicine” (page
429).
Dr. Rapp envisions that each treatment
center would be staffed by traditional MDs
to do detailed histories; chiropractors
and/or osteopaths to keep the spinal
column clear; acupuncturists to open the
meridians; environmentalists/allergists;
digestion, detoxification, lymphatic
drainage specialists; nutritionists and
herbalists; homeopaths and even hypnotherapists.
Anyone who has tried to get treatment for chemical/food toxicities from mainstream institutions
can attest that this type of center is desperately needed.
Then there is her vision of the environmentally safe village.
There entire families could go for clean air, water and food, for
yearly vacations and appropriate medical care. These would be a
“totally chemical-free environment” (page 430). If only these villages
already were in existence; in the past, certain chemically
afflicted individuals who were unable to find refuge committed
suicide rather than continuing to suffer on a daily basis.
Realistically it’s already virtually impossible to find a chemical-free
place anywhere on the planet. We’ve got to clean up everywhere.
I personally believe there should be a planetary ban on synthetic
organic chemicals so that everyone could live in a
toxin-free environment. Already most European countries have
adopted the “Precautionary Principle” that manufacturers
must prove their products are safe before release. Dr. Rapp
suggests that Americans ask their government why is this not
also their philosophy.
In Chapter 7 Dr. Rapp says, “We must live by a higher than
ordinary standard if our world is to survive. Americans are worried
about possible chemical warfare in the Middle East.
Realistically we need to be at least equally worried about the
everyday toxic chemical exposures that are present and
allowed in our own air, water, foods, homes and schools.”
She goes on to praise the anticancer activist Samuel
Epstein, M.D., and quotes from his classic book, The Politics of
Cancer Revisited. His summary says it all: “The pattern of
industry-sponsored fraudulent scientific research, supported
by bribed government officials and corporate-controlled mass
media, is so common that it can be considered business as
usual in the United States.” He provides more than enough
data to support his statements. I believe we all have to take off
the blinders” (page 305).
Dr. Epstein’s and Dr. Rapp’s entire careers, Erin Brockovich,
Love Canal and other activist experiences demonstrate what it
will take to head off the Toxic Holocaust. We’ll have to organize
community by community for our right to live without pollutants.
This book will help us stay alive until the real cleanup is
done. Purchase copies toll-free at 1-800-787-8780. Mention
totalhealth magazine and you’ll receive 20 percent off. Buy
extra copies for your loved ones.
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