The
Tomato Effect
By Faun Kime
The
Tomato Effect begins with my personal quest to climb the mountain where my
father, Zane R. Kime MD, was killed in 1992. Local authorities had ruled his
death an accident, but the circumstances were mysterious. I wanted answers to
many questions; beginning with how a seasoned, careful climber like my father
could have fallen in the manner described by his climbing partner - a man he'd
just met.
While
I start by exploring the questions surrounding his death, I am soon unraveling
a controversy in his life as a physician practicing environmental medicine. It
seemed that the diagnosis and treatment of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS),
as recognized by my father and other environmental physicians, threatened
several entrenched interests, including the powerful chemical industry - the
largest business consortium in the country. MCS was first identified in the
1950's, along with the chemical revolution, and was instantly a divisive
diagnosis. Like Julianne Moore's character in the film SAFE, patients
complained of severe, intolerable reactions to chemicals. Some physicians,
frustrated because they were unable to find a conventional laboratory test to
evidence MCS, referred patients to psychiatry and denounced the existence of
the syndrome. In contrast, the research of those practicing environmental
medicine validated that MCS was very real, much to the alarm of the chemical
industry. As toxic tort cases increased across the country, an alliance emerged
between the chemical industry and those physicians denouncing MCS. Large sums
of money were paid to these physicians to testify that victims claiming to have
MCS were psychotic and the physicians who diagnosed it were quacks. This
sometimes proved successful, but often the jury could not ignore the
environmental physician's testimony that a plaintiff had been harmed by
chemicals and was indeed suffering from MCS. Memos evidence the chemical
industry's new strategy to terminate environmental medicine; educate the
licensing boards across the nation about the illegitimacy of this new field of
medicine. Starting in the early 1980's, prosecutions to revoke the licenses of
physicians practicing environmental medicine began nationwide. In the Bay Area
alone, eight out of ten of my father's colleagues experienced harassment from
the Medical Board of California. Many of these physicians capitulated, in order
to save their licenses, and stopped diagnosing or treating MCS. However, when
they came after my father, he refused to be coerced and fought back in a legal
case that gained nationwide attention and wide medical interest. As I
investigate my father's eight year legal battle with the Medical Board of
California, I discover the tremendous stakes in the outcome of his case which
had progressed to the appellate court and threatened to set precedent. Those in
environmental medicine were thrilled and confident of a decision in my father's
favor; a decision that would change the face of environmental medicine,
embarrass the Medical Board of California and open the chemical industry to
huge losses in toxic tort cases. But as everyone waited for the decision, my
father was killed in an "accident" and the case was dismissed. I look
deeper at this accident, ask tough questions, hire a private investigator and
ultimately try to interview the only witness to his death; a man who threatened
to sue my family if we ever contacted him again. The Tomato Effect explores
universal human themes of coping with a tragic loss. Simultaneously it
illuminates a controversial, yet unpublicized, battlefield over MCS and asks,
what part of this is the "tomato effect" and what part the chemical
industry protecting its bottom line? If you’d like more news about The Tomato
Effect or Multiple Chemical Sensitivity sign up for “The Tomato Effect
Newsletter.” We’ll send you news about the film’s progress and release date as
well as cutting edge information about chemical sensitivity.
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