‘Clinical Ecology’: Critical evaluation

Abstract

The term ecology was introduced by Haeckel in 1866 when referring to the interrelation of organisms to their physical conditions of life and to one another as originally described by Darwin [11]. Almost a century later, Randolph proposed that “human ecology embodied the concept of a person’s adaptation to the conditions of his/her existence.” It was postulated that the ecologic effects of chemical “excitants” could be easily demonstrated by first insulating an individual from their total chemical environment and then observing the subject’s response to reexposure to previously avoided parts of it [2]. Randolph observed that “chemical excitants” (e.g., poisons, irritants and various lesser man-derived chemical exposures) could induce acute or chronic clinical effects depending on dosage and host susceptibility. Massive exposures to corrosive toxicants were readily apparent and universally harmful. At the other extreme, “subtle impingement” of frequently encountered lesser exposures were becoming a problem for an ever-increasing “susceptible minority”. These postulated differences in human adaptation stimulated Randolph to write his original treatise on the various physical, biological and chemical excitants capable of inducing “susceptibility” and impinging on the health of many individuals, i. e., “man as a biologic unit and his adaptation to a chemically contaminated world.”