Bell - Poisoned: how a crime-busting prosecutor turned his medical mystery into a crusade for environmental victims

Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of those mentioned in this book.

Copyright 2017 by Alan Bell

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Brian Peterson

Cover photo: iStockphoto

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-0264-6

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-0265-3

Printed in the United States of America

C ONTENTS

F OREWORD

W E ALL FACE UNFORESEEN OBSTACLES in our lives. Sometimes they defeat us. Other times, with courage, we overcome insurmountable adversity.

For Alan Bell, a former organized crime prosecutor, a mysterious illness posed not just an obstacle but a near-death sentence. Forced to live in an isolated bubble in the Arizona desert for a decade, he saw his promising career evaporate and his marriage crumble. Yet, despite all odds stacked against him, Alan refused to allow his illness to define or defeat him. Instead, his ordeal transformed him, as he turned his personal misfortune into an opportunity to save others from a similar fate.

Baffled by Alans symptoms, doctors ran test after test as they attempted to diagnose his condition, suggesting everything from chronic fatigue syndrome to a revenge poisoning by one of the criminals hed prosecuted. Ultimately, Alan discovered a terrifying truth: his condition was caused by exposure to the same toxic chemicals were all surrounded by on a daily basis in our homes, schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods.

Environmental toxins are devastating human health worldwide. More people become ill or die from exposure to environmental toxins than are seriously injured by AIDS, auto accidents, war, and violent crime combined. On the eve of the twenty-first Climate Change Conference in Paris, world health organizations warned of the profound impact environmental pollution has on our Earths population. Clinicians and scientists consistently report that widespread exposure to toxic environmental chemicals is threatening healthy human reproduction and exacerbating major health disorders such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.

Such worldwide concern about how we are destroying our environment, and how our environment is killing us, must serve as a clarion call for our collective awakening and action on an unprecedented scale.

Alan Bells descent into the hell of environmental poisoning puts a human face on this global issue. His journey is an alarming portrait of a tenacious and talented mans pursuit of the American dream, and how his seemingly charmed life turned into a nightmare. It is also an eternal story of how, even in our darkest hours, the healing and sustaining power of love can take root and grant us the strength to keep fighting for our lives even when all hope seems lost.

No one is immune to environmentally linked diseases. Toxicity doesnt discriminate along social, political, economic, financial, geographic, racial, or religious divides. We are all equally at risk: mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, sons, and daughters. Like Frankenstein, mankind has created a monster. Humanity must now stop it before its too late. Poisoned is an overdue call to action that we must heed.

In the words of Justice Brandeis, if there is to be justice , the world will need the truth. Then we must act on what we know to be true.

Jan Schlichtmann

P ROLOGUE

A LAN ! A LAN ! MY MOTHER SHOUTED .

I was lying on the couch in my parents Miami Beach condominium. My hair was soaked with sweat as I struggled to breathe.

The air around my own home was saturated with smoke from wildfires burning in the Everglades. Recently, Id been seeking sanctuary at my parents home as my mysterious asthma attacks became more frequent and intense. They often progressed into full-blown seizures, causing my eyes to roll back and my lungs to shut down. My arms and legs would flail, my vision would blur, my ears would ring, and stabbing pains would rocket through my body in violent waves. Any time this happenedand I could never predict whenit was like a neurological fireworks show.

Alan! my mother yelled again, her voice high and tight with terror.

I couldnt answer, rendered mute by lack of oxygen.

I didnt understand what was happening. Why was my body betraying me like this? Id never been sick in my life, other than a few bouts of strange flu symptoms in recent months and now these progressively worsening attacks.

Alan! Please, get up! My mother, truly panicked now, was trying to help me sit up, but it felt like she was far away as I concentrated on trying to drag air into my lungs.

My father heard the commotion and hurried into the room. Whats wrong? What is it?

Its Alan! she said. We need to get him to the beach.

He quickly tried to help lift me. Despite my recent attempts to find doctors who might be able to solve the puzzle of my rapidly deteriorating health, the only tonic wed found so far was the beach. For some unknown reason, the warm, clean air of the Atlantic Ocean always seemed to revive me.

At that moment, my younger brother, Bobby, arrived with his gym bag. Whats going on? he asked, alarmed by the sight of my parents struggling to get me off the couch.

He didnt bother to ask twice. He knew the answer didnt matter. At this moment, all that mattered was getting me to the beach.

I was only vaguely aware of my parents and brother half-carrying me across the room to the elevator. I felt the drop of the elevator as we went down to the first floor, but it was as if I were watching the scene from outside my body.

After what seemed like years, we were finally outside the building. I could hear the noises of cars and people. More importantly, I also felt the miraculous ocean air.

I leaned heavily on my family as we crossed the street to the beach, where I collapsed on the sand with a groan and continued to concentrate on the only thing that mattered: drawing a single breath. And then one more.

I was scared. But in the weeks, months, and years to come, I was about to learn that, just when I thought things were scary, they would get a great deal scarier.

And, whenever I thought things were bad, they would always get worse.

So much worse.

1 T ROUBLE IN THE T OWER

S HORTLY BEFORE T HANKSGIVING IN 1988, I was sitting in the research library of my law office at 110 Tower in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when I started perspiring and feeling oddly dizzy. It felt like I was on a ship navigating a rough sea. The room was tipping from side to side.

What is this? I wondered, closing my eyes.

I braced myself against the desk, waiting for the spinning to stop. After a few minutes, I felt well enough to push myself up from the chair and start gathering my files, but I still struggled to keep my balance as I staggered back to my office.