Word: toxicants
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...given cyclosporine, a powerful drug that dampens the immune system and prevents it from attacking the foreign tissue. Intriguingly, clinical trials in the U.S., Canada and France have shown that cyclosporine, when given to people with Type I diabetes, can turn off the autoimmune attack. Cyclosporine is an extremely toxic drug and, in most cases, a very poor trade for insulin. But the clear demonstration that diabetes can be stopped has stirred excitement in the medical community...
...Type I diabetics. It is now possible for the Joslin team to predict which otherwise symptomless relatives are likely to develop the disease in three years' time. Last May the Joslin and two other medical centers launched a program to treat identified potential diabetics with an antirejection drug less toxic than cyclosporine. The ambitious goal: to block the onset of disease. In the future, researchers imagine launching molecular missiles that will seek out and destroy the rogue immune cells that cause Type I diabetes. They also envision a vaccine that will rally the immune system against the traitors...
...Perhaps the most disturbing recent report concerns lead, which had been shown to impair fetal growth when mothers were exposed while pregnant. At a meeting last month of the American Public Health Association, Silbergeld reported on a study in which male rats subjected to even low levels of the toxic metal -- comparable to amounts found in the dust and dirt of many inner-city neighborhoods -- often sired offspring with "substantial" changes in brain development...
...Draize test, which is usually used in developing new cosmetic products, involves inserting experimental substances into rabbits' eyes to test for irritancy. In the LD-50 test, animals are fed potentially toxic substances to determine how dangerous they may be for humans...
Once the avoidance begins to work, the patient cares less about the diagnosis. Fear loses its power to instruct. Urgency vanishes before magic. The country glides into a toxic subjectivity. The eyes glaze a little, and clouds close over the glimpse of death. The problem will vanish, the earth will get well. The mind billows off to locate better memories, if it can (old glories, myths of its own innocence, old muscles, resources long since squandered, wars won when the nation was young and saved the world, when its virtue shone and sped by on tail fins). Americans con themselves...