Photo - Quote by Martin Luther King Jr. - Instagram.
‘Ancient wisdom teaches us that evil is rooted in ignorance but as Steven Hawking alluded to, “the greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.” In other words the greatest barrier to the truth is psychological, not intellectual.’
That was said by Dr Aseem Malhotra, Consultant Cardiologist, in his recent speech at the House of Commons members dining area on Thursday July 10th which was attended by over 100 people that included healthcare leaders, politicians and clinicians.
(“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge” was a quote by Daniel Boorstin):
It is a powerful and deeply resonant quote, relevant to the way injury from organophosphates (OP’s)/exposure to chemical formulations containing OP’s and other forms of environmental or toxic injury are handled by official bodies in the UK and elsewhere.
For decades, thousands of people ~ pilots, cabin crew, farmers, rural residents, Gulf War veterans, and others — have suffered life-changing harm after exposure to toxic chemicals. Yet those responsible for protecting public health and occupational safety have failed us.
Daniel Boorstin’s insight that “the greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge”hits at a critical truth.
When individuals or institutions believe they know, and act as gatekeepers of that presumed knowledge, they close themselves off from genuine inquiry, the experiences of those affected and inconvenient evidence while clinging to the illusion that they already understand the science, the risks, and the consequences.
This is not simple ignorance. It’s the performance of certainty, often motivated by the desire to protect a status quo, a political position, or institutional credibility.
Psychological Dismissal as a Tool of Control
The systematic tendency to dismiss or psychologise harm caused by OPs and other environmental exposures often serves several overlapping functions:
Deflection of Liability: If harm is due to a mental health issue or psychosomatic response, there is no need for regulatory change, compensation, or accountability.
Preservation of Authority: By dismissing the experiences of poisoning victims, their diagnoses, medical certificates and clinical reports, in favor of so called “expert" interpretations that lack clinical engagement or toxicological depth, those in positions of authority preserve the illusion of competence and control.
Institutional Inertia and Risk Aversion: Admitting harm would mean that longstanding protocols including exposure limits, which were mostly set by the chemical industry, were flawed and that regulatory frameworks failed. That’s an admission many governments or agencies are institutionally incapable of making without massive repercussions.
Do They Know Enough to Deny the Harms?
Many officials and experts who make these dismissive claims:
- Lack specific knowledge of toxicology, neurology, immunology, endocrinology and mitochondrial dysfunction - fields central to understanding injury from Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals.
- Fail to meaningfully engage with emerging evidence, especially when it contradicts existing policy or so called “safe levels” of exposure.
- Appear knowledgeable - because of credentials, titles, or institutional backing, yet they may be deeply uninformed about the real-world complexities and chronic impacts of chemical exposures.
This is ‘the illusion of knowledge’.
It’s especially dangerous because it looks like reasoned authority.
Having that authority and power is a key part of this because denial is easier when you control the narrative. But the cracks are showing — particularly as more scientific evidence accumulates and more injured individuals refuse to remain silent.
We are challenging the psychological and institutional mechanisms that keep victims unheard and unsupported.
Aerotoxic Syndrome — caused by exposure to contaminated air onboard aircraft — is still denied by UK authorities and authorities all over the world, despite years of medical and scientific evidence and countless testimonies.
The same has happened with:
Pesticide Poisoning, affecting farmers who handled and used/sprayed OP-based pesticides as well as rural residents
Sheep Dip Poisoning, affecting sheep farmers and rural workers who handled OP-based sheep dips and who handled the sheep.
Gulf War Syndrome, affecting thousands of veterans exposed to toxicants and nerve agent prophylactics.
Occupational poisoning in aviation, agriculture, and other industries — from chemical formulas, many of which contain organophosphates, has not only wreaked havoc on the lives of tens of thousands of people in the U.K. alone, but has consistently been mislabelled as psychological or "medically unexplained."
The Failure of Oversight in the U.K.
Both the UK Committee on Toxicity (COT) and the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) have repeatedly failed to act on the available evidence.
They have dismissed serious symptoms as coincidence or ‘non specific’, and have labelled disabling injuries as psychosomatic, and in doing so, excluded entire groups of people from recognition, support, or compensation.
This is not just bureaucratic neglect.
It’s a systemic betrayal — where those in powerful positions claim expertise they do not have, and deny harm they have never taken the time to fully investigate.
An example:
On 28th March 2000, a Workshop was held in London on ‘Research on Organophosphates’.
On page 12 - written by David Coggan (a member of the COT at that time and Chairman from 2008 until 2015) it states: ‘However, a major gap in current knowledge was identified’.
And:
‘This relates to the possibility that low doses of OP’s might cause important disabling neurological or neuropsychiatric disease in a small sub-group of exposed persons’ and asks the question:
‘Other than acetylcholinesterase inhibition, what mechanisms play an important role in the causation of adverse health effects by OP’s?’
Yet, in that same document on page 5 it clearly states:
‘5.7 In turning to issues not identified by COT as those which should be addressed by further research, consideration was given to the possible immune or hormonal effects of OPs. It was noted that there had been a small number of studies including an item in the Lancet circa 1996 which had examined extensive disturbance of cellular components of immunity in a laboratory study. Reference was also made to a WHO document indicating an OP eliciting auto-immune response and, therefore, advising caution in undergoing vaccination following exposure to OPs. It was suggested that there was also a possibility of an OP impact on hormones (as endocrine disruptors) which could be synergistic or additive.’
https://cot.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/cot/opworkshop20mar00.pdf
How could David Coggan and the other members of that committee have missed such an important opportunity for research into the endocrine and immune effects - which was ‘the gap in the current knowledge’ that had eluded them?
Plus, it was known from the 1950’s through until the late 1990’s that repeated low doses of OP’s was the main problem!
Another example is shown on page 15 of the document shown in the link below. It was written in 2001 by Lesley Rushton, who is the current Chair of the Industrial Injuries Advice Council in the U.K.
See the last paragraph regarding the practice of disinsection onboard aircraft on page 15:
‘ However, airline representatives stressed that the World Health Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization lay down rules for disinsection; only pesticides that are not injurious to the health of passengers and crew and that cause the minimum of discomfort are permitted. It has recently been reaffirmed that there are still very valid reasons to continue the practice.’
Why wasn’t Lesley Rushton aware of the dangers of Permethrin use, particularly in enclosed environments like aircraft cabins, when it was one of the most commonly used insecticides for this practice?
It’s harmful to human health, capable of causing liver and kidney damage which is not helpful for airline crew who have to continuously metabolise and remove many other chemicals from their bodies; it’s also reported to cause nerve damage and is an endocrine disrupting chemical:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15599112/
https://bmcpharmacoltoxicol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40360-022-00586-2
1R-trans phenothrin is another active ingredient currently being used and here are some facts which it’s doubtful aircrew have been made aware of.
The WHO and manufacturers claim it’s ‘safe’, just as they claimed Permethrin was safe:
https://nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/documents/fs/3727.pdf
Those are just two examples of the level of scientific expertise and the illusion of knowledge within two of the U.K. Government’s top scientific committees.
Aerotoxic Syndrome: A Warning Ignored:
A clear and concise warning was given twenty years ago in this closing statement by the General Secretary, Jim McAuslan at the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) Conference of 2005:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ByqC7Vt1XzA
Some of the Endocrine Effects:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749119370150?via%3Dihub
Organophosphate Pesticide Poisoning - A Warning Ignored - since the 1950’s:
Toxic Chemicals in Agriculture Report of 1951 - VI. DANGERS TO MAN — MODE OF ACTION - 19.
‘Death can occur as a result of a single exposure ; but chronic toxicity is the main problem. Repeated absorption of parathion may result in cumulative poisoning.’
‘Successive small doses of parathion may progressively lower the cholinesterase level without producing symptoms, but may render the individual increasingly susceptible to further doses. Owing to the slow restoration of cholinesterase to its normal level, this susceptibility will persist for a long time, maybe for some weeks.’
http://www.oprus2001.co.uk/zuck1951.htm
HSE - MS17 1980:
http://www.oprus2001.co.uk/ms171980.pdf
Organophosphate Sheep-Dip - A Warning Ignored:
https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/farm-policy/crucial-sheep-dip-poisoning-document-destroyed
The Gulf War: A Warning Ignored
What happened to Gulf War veterans should have been a national wake-up call. In the early 1990s, thousands of UK troops were given a toxic mix of prophylactic drugs, multiple vaccines, pesticides, and insecticides — all under the guise of protection. These included:
- Pyridostigmine bromide (PB)tablets to pre-empt nerve agent exposure — a drug now known to affect the nervous system and brain.
- Multiple vaccines administered in rapid succession, often without informed consent and sometimes using immune-reactive adjuvants.
- Routine exposure to organophosphate pesticides, DEET, permethrin, and similar neurotoxic agents.
- Confirmed contact with sarin and cyclosarin nerve agents during munitions destruction at sites like Khamisiyah.
- And in many cases, long-term exposure to toxic smoke and fumes from burn pits, where waste, fuel, plastics, and chemicals were incinerated in open air, releasing highly hazardous airborne contaminants.
The result? Tens of thousands of veterans returned home with chronic, debilitating illness — known today as Gulf War Syndrome. But rather than acknowledge the chemical injuries involved, UK authorities, as with Aerotoxic Syndrome, sheep dip poisoning and pesticide poisoning, dismissed their suffering as psychological.
Helicopter Crews: A New Chapter of the Same Story
Now, many UK helicopter aircrew members are reporting cancers and other serious illnesses after inhalation exposure to engine exhaust fumes inside cockpits and helicopter cabins — fumes known to contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), ultrafine particles, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
Once again, these risks were downplayed or ignored by the very authorities responsible for occupational safety.
This is yet another example of a pattern that cannot be ignored: a refusal to admit that long-term, low-dose chemical exposures can cause cumulative, multisystem damage.
In each of these public health failures — Gulf War Syndrome, Aerotoxic Syndrome, Sheep Dip Poisoning, Pesticide Poisoning to farmers and rural residents and wider OP exposure - including the use of Organophosphate Flame Retardants (OPFR’s) extensively in fabrics and furniture — the regulatory system has chosen to protect the illusion of safety rather than confront the reality of harm.
The common thread is chilling: when people are harmed by government-endorsed chemicals or protocols, the response is not care or accountability — but dismissal, deflection, and denial.
The illusion of knowledge once again becomes the enemy of the truth.
The Bigger Picture: Endocrine and Mitochondrial Damage
Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDC’s) interfere with the body’s hormonal signalling at incredibly low doses.
Their effects are now linked to thyroid dysfunction, reproductive disorders, immune imbalance, neurological symptoms, and cancer — precisely the types of health problems reported by affected groups.
Moreover, mitochondrial dysfunction is increasingly recognised as a central mechanism in chemically induced illness. Mitochondria — the energy-producing engines of the cell — are especially vulnerable to organophosphates, solvents, and exhaust particles. When damaged, the consequences can include chronic fatigue, neurodegeneration, endocrine disruption, and inflammatory diseases including cancer.
The scientific evidence on Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals & Mitochondrial Damage is growing continuously. I’m not going to list the hundreds of studies and reviews; they are readily available on the internet for anyone who is interested or concerned enough to look for them.
For those of us who have been injured or have had to cope with the untimely death of a loved one, because of exposure to toxic fumes from aircraft oil or hydraulic fluids, exposure to pesticides or sheep-dips or helicopter or aircraft exhaust, this isn't abstract. It's personal. We are living with the consequences of their illusion of knowledge — while being told our suffering is somehow not real, or not caused by the exposures we experienced (or indeed, not caused by the exposures that many of our deceased colleagues and loved ones experienced), and that only acute exposures to toxic chemicals at very high levels can cause injury which is not only incorrect, but is deceitful and dishonest.
What We’re Fighting For
Our petition now has well over 100,000 signatures. That means our voices are being heard — even if the institutions continue to resist change.
We are demanding:
- A full U.K. public inquiry into contaminated cabin air and Aerotoxic Syndrome
- Recognition of chemical injury — not just in aviation, but in all affected sectors.
- Reform of the bodies that are meant to advise government and protect us — including the COT and IIAC.
- Change and rectification on the issue of low level exposure to toxic chemicals, particularly Endocrine and Mitochondrial damage, in light of the scientific evidence now available.
- Medical research, proper care and support for all those suffering the long-term effects of chronic OP and toxicant exposure
- Acceptance that this is not only a U.K. problem, but a worldwide problem.
We will not be silenced, and we will not accept denial in place of truth.
Never have we been so much in need of Leaders within our Governments who are not in love with MONEY, but in love with JUSTICE. Not in love with publicity, but in love with HUMANITY…..
The poisoning of innocent people has to stop.
Finally, A Celebration of the Life of Dr Susan Michaelis is taking place on Saturday 30th August.
This is a fundraising event and everyone is invited:
‘As summer draws to a close, join us for the final Leonardslee Lates of the season. Wander through 240 acres of lakes and landscaped grounds as the sun sets, soak up the relaxed atmosphere, and enjoy performances from exceptional musicians. Indulge in a variety of food offerings and toast the season with our award-winning sparkling wines.
This special edition of Leonardslee Lates will also include moments of reflection celebrating the inspiring contributions of Dr. Susan Michaelis, from Horsham whose remarkable work to advance our understanding of lobular breast cancer and in the field of aviation safety, through short films and talks from friends - as well as current and former MPs.’
Tickets
All proceeds from these tickets will go directly to the Loraine Michaelis Foundation.
Book here:
https://www.leonardsleegardens.co.uk/all-events/leonardslee-lates-summer-2025
Donations can be made here:
https://www.lorainemichaelisfoundation.org/
For further information on Aerotoxic Syndrome please visit Unfiltered VIP: