Power, politics, and the framing of environmental illness

The medical community, along with other government agencies, has created it s own frame of environmental illness. This frame has been generally accepte d by the American public. In this paper we discuss framing in general and t he factors related to how the environmental illness frame has been construc ted and maintained. We offer a brief history of the medical institution and illustrate the frame with its definitions of environmental illness. Qualit ative data from a study of Oak Ridge, a contaminated community located in T ennessee, are examined to analyze the consequences of challenging the envir onmental illness frame. Implications for future research are discussed.