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Nova Scotia only province to provide clinic for "environmentally sensitive" patients.

A n Atlantic squall has swept across Halifax, bringing a torrential downpour, but the rain doesn't bother the 300 Nova Scotians who have thronged into a ballroom in a nurses residence at the Victoria General Hospital. Most are patients on the waiting list to enter a program for "environmentally sensitive" patients and have ignored the driving rain to seek advice about personal problems. In the hallway outside the room they left behind wet coats and other items, especially synthetic fabrics that might cause reactions. Huge fans in each corner of the ballroom were blowing filtered air over the crowd, and everyone was politely asked to wash off perfumes. Instead of coffee, paper cups and large glass tankards of mineral water were available. These measures were taken because of concern that some people might react strongly, perhaps to the point of swooning, because of exposure to various natural and human-made substances. Most of them had already discussed their ill-defined symptoms with numerous general physicians and specialists before joining the 30-month waiting list for an appointment at Dr. Jerry Ross's clinic. Every 2 months Ross travels from his Dallas office to treat "environmentally sensitive" Nova Scotians at the Nova Scotia Environmental Medicine Clinic. The clinic is a pilot project sponsored by the Nova Scotia government. It's a measure of the public pressure over this issue that even in these days of massive health care cutbacks the province spends about $200 000 annually on a program that mainstream medicine has yet to embrace. The money is spent bringing Ross and two Dallas-based nurses to Halifax six times a year to maintain the clinic's cramped offices on the fifth floor of the Victoria General Hospital's Bethune Building; it is also used to pay a part-time local registered nurse and receptionist. Despite continuing controversy about the scientific validity of environmental illness, and even differences of opinion about what environmental maladies should be called, environmental medicine centres are becoming increasingly common throughout North America. The Halifax operation is unusual, however, because it was established and paid for by government funds. "Internationally, Nova Scotia is seen as taking a leadership role in the promotion of further knowledge and expertise in this field," says Ross. Since the clinic opened in September 1990, Ross has seen about 27 new patients during each visit, as well as 63 patients making return visits. "I have been both pleased and dismayed that there has been such a flood of referrals to the Environmental Medicine Clinic," Ross wrote in a recent report to the provincial health department. "On the one hand, I am pleased to find there is such a high demand for the ser-