The Tomato Effect
An Award-Winning Documentary Film by Faun Kime
Left to Right: Faun Kime and Tina Sederholm
The Tomato Effect is a documentary about Faun Kime's search for answers into
her father's mysterious death during a mountain-climbing accident. It
begins at a trailhead in the high sierras of California.
Conspiracy theories about his death drove Faun to investigate. However, she
is soon unraveling his controversial life as a physician practicing
Environmental Medicine. When he died, Zane R. Kime MD, had been practicing
Environmental Medicine and had become the target of a governmental
prosecution against this specialty. Dr. Kime filed a lawsuit which
threatened the vested interests of the chemical industry and the outcome
looked hopeful for a decision in his favor. However, with his death, the
case was dismissed and some say, the threat eliminated.
Faun narrows her investigation to one particularly contentious issue and example
of this phenomenon...the diagnosis and treatment of Multiple Chemical
Sensitivity (MCS) or Gulf War Syndrome. Official recognition of this syndrome
would translate to billions of dollars in liability to the chemical industry. As
toxic tort liabilities have increased across the country, an
alliance has emerged between the chemical industry and physicians who are
part of the old paradigm that denounce MCS. Large sums of money were paid to
these physicians to testify that victims claiming to have MCS were psychotic
and that physicians who diagnosed it were quacks. Memos evidence the
chemical industry's strategy to terminate Environmental Medicine; educate
the state medical licensing boards (government agencies, not to be confused
with the AMA) across the nation about the illegitimacy of this new field of
medicine. It worked. Starting in the early 1980s, prosecutions to revoke
the licenses of physicians practicing Environmental Medicine, and
alternative medicine, began nationwide.
The Tomato Effect chronicles a microcosm of this tragedy when an entire
group of ten physicians in the San Francisco area are run out of medicine by
the Medical Board of California. However, Zane R. Kime, MD refused to
capitulate and fought back in a legal case that progressed to the appellate
court, gained nationwide attention and wide medical interest. But as
everyone waited for the decision, he was killed in an "accident" and the
case was dismissed. Faun's investigation not only uncovers shocking secrets
about her father's death, but the disturbing truth about the state of health
care.
Review by Janine Ridings:
I had the opportunity to attend a special screening of "The Tomato Effect" On Sunday, May 7, 2006. A special thanks to the hosts of this event, Dr. Jonathan Wright, medical director of the Tahoma Clinic (http://www.tahoma-clinic.com/index.shtml) and Tina Sederholm. I found the film to be very insightful and eye-opening as to the reality of the politics involved in the battle for the recognition of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. I highly recommend this film to anyone who would like a "behind-the-scenes" look at how many physicians in the San Francisco area were targeted unfairly by the Medical Board of California because of their desire to help chemically injured patients. For more information on this film, or to find out if there will be a screening in your area, see: www.rabble-rouser.com (Note: This film is not rated, but be aware that there is "brief language." Both the words "Jesus" and "hell" are used as profanity once each in the film.)