The INSTITUTE FOR
AESTHETIC ADVOCACY

What is “Environmental Illness?”

 

Environmental illnesses are clusters of symptoms (nausea, muscle aches, skin disease, etc.) that are attributed to the prevalence of toxins in one’s physical environment, such as water or air pollutants. Millions of people in the United States have gotten sick from these illnesses, and all too often companies and organizations are complicit in the maintenance of low environmental safety standards.
 

 

Isn’t The Medical Community Taking Care of It?

 

Unfortunately, medical organizations often have contradictory notions of environmental illness and inconsistent ways of dealing with it.  Many doctors and policy makers don’t even recognize environmental illness as a diagnosable problem in its own right due to its elusive nature.  Diagnosis of symptoms can often remove causation by glossing over their potential environmental causes (i.e., someone may be diagnosed with “Irritable Bowel Syndrome” even though the symptoms associated with it – like nausea – come from external factors).

 

How Does The IAA Address It?

​

The IAA creates juried installations and curates exhibits tailored around making environmental illness into a perceivable, tangible, and actionable issue (for a more detailed example, check out our EMF page). Doing so enables conversations on environmental illness between those who suffer from them, those who study them, and those with the resources to do something about it.