This is a true story, written in first person. It chronicles the discovery of an air pollutant in Houston, Texas, and the effects of that pollutant on neighborhood citizens. As it turns out, the pollutant, namely cyanide, is universal in our atmosphere, with billions of pounds emitted into the air and with a half-life of airborne cyanide measured in years. So then, what effects do inhaling small amounts of cyanide have on human health? To provide some answers to this question, simply do an internet search for diabetes and air pollution , and/or autism and air pollution , and/or fatigue and air pollution , and/or autoimmune diseases and air pollution . Why has society been guarded against knowledge of this pollutant and its effects? This book unveils, only too clearly, the political and economic corruption that places money on a pedestal at the expense of truth, knowledge, health, and the welfare of humanity. Timothy Swiss is the pen name of Timothy R. Oesch, M.D. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * On September 26, 1981, an employee from an industrial plant in Houston tested positive for exposure to cyanide. Thereafter, the Heights physician who performed the test, Dr. Timothy R. Oesch, began testing neighborhood residents who also yielded positive tests for blood cyanide. Patients seen by Dr. Oesch were suffering symptoms of cyanide poisoning. Meanwhile, the City of Houston Department of Health belittled Dr. Oesch’s claim of environmental cyanide poisoning and suggested that the positive findings for blood cyanide were due to laboratory errors. Severance and Associates Laboratories stood behind their findings; and consequently, Dr. Oesch obtained additional positive tests for cyanide from Mayo Clinic Laboratories, Bio-Science Laboratories, Metpath Laboratories, and National Medical Services; and another physician obtained a positive blood cyanide test from SmithKline Laboratories. Before responding to a call to active duty in the United States Navy in July of 1982, Dr. Oesch acquired one hundred positive tests for cyanide exposure from eighty patients. In addition, the City of Houston Department of Health acquired numerous positive blood cyanide tests that were reported by the Harris County Medical Examiners. Furthermore, the City of Houston found cyanogen chloride, a toxic war gas that causes cyanide poisoning, in industrial effluent that was discharged into the public sewer system, but this finding was kept secret from Dr. Oesch and was also kept secret from the citizens of Houston. Cyanogen chloride is very volatile, meaning that it will readily escape liquid and become airborne, and it causes cyanide poisoning when inhaled. Despite extensive evidence to the contrary, the City of Houston Department of Health continued to belittle the existence of environmental cyanide poisoning. After his experience in Houston, Dr. Oesch became involved with issues of airborne cyanide in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey, and then later in East Tennessee. He concluded that maladies and sufferings caused by exposure to airborne cyanide are widespread, afflicting a significant percentage of the world’s population. And, in the final chapter of Autobiography of a Pioneer Researcher: Air Pollutant Causes Diabetes, Autism, Fibromyalgia, and Autoimmune Diseases , another individual named Sherrie Farver shares her incredible undertakings in dealing with industry, illness, and politics associated with airborne cyanide. The events and discoveries presented in this book are authentic, as are the many scanned laboratory reports and documents.