Increasingly frequent environmental exposures to hazardous substances
present mental health professionals with groups and at times communities
of people, faced with high levels of psychological threat. As a result
of an increasingly industrial and technological society, a new type of
group cohort has emerged - individuals exposed to hazardous substances
that present the possibility of immediate and chronic threats to their
health and their families' health. Although the medical sequalae to such
exposure had been established, little attention had been paid to the
mental health issues or to possible integrated psychophysiological
consequences. Originally published in 1986, this book focuses on
reactions to exposure to toxic substances as well as some predictors of
response in groups faced with increased medical risk subsequent to some
of the most common and hazardous toxic exposures found at the time:
radiation, toxic waste, asbestos, lead, contaminated water, and toxic
chemical fire and leak.