This narrative, written in 1991 by James M. Miller, M.D., was part of Diana Fairechild's legal challenge to United Airlines for toxic chemical poisoning. Humans, like all living creatures, are by nature biochemical organisms. Our continued good health is dependent upon the proper functioning of innumerable enzymes participating in an enormous number of biochemical reactions. These reactions must take place at the proper time, at the proper rate, to the proper extent. We see, smell, taste, hear, balance, walk, talk, chew, swallow, reproduce, sleep, think, and remember as a result of the proper functioning and proper balance of the many biochemical processes that support these functions.
Chemicals enter our bodies through the skin, the gastrointestinal tract, and the respiratory tract.
Certain substances are useful to the body and support its biochemical mechanisms, while others are not useful or are even harmful. The latter are called xenobiotics. We exercise relatively little ability to be selective and tend to take in some of all the chemical substances presented whether they are desirable or not. Once in the body, chemicals are distributed by the blood to all organs. Chemical substances, which are not inert, have the capacity to combine with the chemical substances of the tissues, forming new compounds and altering the function of the tissue elements with which they have combined.