Poisoned by an insecticide in 1992, recent Carroll College grad Elizabeth Pritchard-Sleath now suffers the onset of multiple chemical sensitivity.

"Whether it's a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, a leafy green salad topped with chopped red peppers and tomatoes, an orange sauce over a succulent duck breast, or a juicy golden apple … farmers and growers in Europe depend on chlorpyrifos products to protect their major export crops."

- Dow AgroSciences

There are times when the smell of gasoline causes Elizabeth Pritchard-Sleath to feel frantic, and when the scent of diesel fumes causes her to forget.

Sometimes, her body aches but she can't describe the pain, and her memory isn't what it used to be.

"My life is much different," said Pritchard-Sleath, setting down a magazine at Carroll College to discuss the changes her body has undergone this past decade. "It's kind of scary, actually."

Pritchard-Sleath wasn't always this sensitive to her environment. But while on the job in 1992, she said she was poisoned by an insecticide marketed as Dursban and manufactured by Dow AgroSciences.

"I still have a fair amount of neurological problems from that exposure," she said.

The onset of multiple chemical sensitivity has changed her life in more ways than one. While it triggered reactions to simple colognes and common fumes, it also sparked an interest in neuropsychology.

Recently graduated from Carroll College, Pritchard-Sleath will leave for Wales this September to pursue her master's and Ph.D. in clinical neuropsychology. While the program will enable her to counsel others suffering from multiple chemical sensitivity, it will also let her research the effects of neurotoxins on the inner brain.

"It seems to be an area of the brain we don't know nearly enough about," she said. "It's a frontier area of the human anatomy."

The work being conducted in Europe, she said, doesn't get funded by the drug companies, "so they're taking a more homeopathic approach."

Aside from her academic pursuits, endless reading on the subject of multiple chemical sensitivity has turned Pritchard-Sleath into something of an expert on the dangers of organophosphates.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Dursban, which contains chlorpyrifos (a compound in organophosphates), was one of the most widely used insecticides in the United States in the 1990s. The product was used for indoor flea control, indoor foggers, paint additives, and direct pet care applications, such as shampoos, dips and sprays.

But the EPA found that most Dursban poisoning cases involved routine exposures in which the product was used as directed, like that involving Pritchard-Sleath. The most common symptoms of poisoning included chronic headaches, nausea, vomiting, problems breathing, muscular pains, and the onset of multiple chemical sensitivity.

As a result of her own poisoning, Pritchard-Sleath became party to a lawsuit filed against Dow Agro. The case has not been settled and the company didn't respond to questions.

But literature provided by Dow Agro says that chlorpyrifos, the active ingredient in Dursban, is an organophosphate insecticide. The product works by inhibiting certain enzymes that result in the accumulation of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, at nerve endings. This prompts nerve impulses to over-fire causing mortality in the target pest.

"The pesticide is toxic to birds and wildlife and extremely toxic to fish and aquatic organisms," the Dursban label reads.

Still, Dow Agro calls chlorpyrifos "a great success story in pest control today." The company also says its product is safe to humans when used as directed.

According to Dow Agro, more than 3,600 studies have been conducted on products containing chlorpyrifos and their impact on human health and safety. What's more, the company said that more than $100 million has been spent examining the impact of chlorpyrifos on the environment.

"In terms of human health and safety, no pest control product has been more thoroughly studied," Dow Agro says.

But Pritchard-Sleath isn't convinced. She suffers chronically from what she describes as an "aching pain, as if you have the flu." Coupled with fatigue and memory loss, it isn't far, she said, from what many military veterans have described as the so-called Gulf War Syndrome.

Pritchard-Sleath said such similarities only make sense, as organophosphates were created in World War I and deployed as a nerve gas in following conflicts. Some experts have even suggested a correlation between the possible combat application of organophosphates in Iraq and the Gulf War Syndrome.

"It turns out that Gulf War veterans were exposed to organophosphate pesticides," said Pritchard-Sleath. "The people who are the most gravely ill of the veteran groups have problems with memory. Their short term memory is very poor."

Reporter Martin Kidston can be reached at 447-4086, or by e-mail at mkidston@helenair.com