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.

Allen H. Lebovits, Andrew Baum, Jerome E. Singer