Ah, springtime and Indiana's air will be sweet with Atrazine, 2,4-D and other toxic pesticides. In the ongoing war against unwanted plants and bugs, farmers, lawn care companies, golf course superintendents and homeowners will casually broadcast over one billions pounds of these deadly chemicals on America this year.
Our planet has undergone over 50 years of this irresponsible and immoral chemotherapy and what are the results?
Sixty years ago there were 32 pesticidal active ingredients registered with the federal government. Today there are 860, compounded in 20,000 different pesticide products. Today, there are over 500 species of pesticide resistant insects and 273 species of resistant weeds. Crop losses have doubled since the 1940's in spite of more than 1,000-fold increase in insecticides. No safe level of exposure to cancer-causing chemicals exists according to the National Cancer Institute. One in three Americans will suffer cancer and one in five will die of it. Farmers are six times more likely to develop non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; they also have elevated rates of leukemia, brain and prostate cancer. World Health Organization (WHO) reports that industrial countries have far higher cancer rates than non-industrial countries (adjusted for age and population size). Indiana emits over twice the tonnage of cancer-causing industrial chemicals as California (10 million pounds vs. 3.8 million). Worldwatch reports three new synthetic chemicals are introduced every day with little or no knowledge about long-term health and environmental effects. Of the 75,000 synthetic chemicals less than 3% have been tested for carcinogenicity. Every living thing on Earth has been contaminated with novel toxicants which can disrupt life's fundamental processes at levels in the parts per trillion (ppt). One ppt is equivalent to one drop in a train of tank cars 10 miles long!
Due to space constraints I've concentrated on pesticides and cancer. It's important to remember that the health effects of the witches' brew of toxic chemicals we're exposed to daily also includes: Nerve damage, birth defects, decreased IQ, early puberty in girls, endometriosis, behavior deficits (aggressiveness), immune suppression, Parkinson's Disease, miscarriage, decreased sperm counts, etc.
As biologist and author Sandra Steingraber says, "Environmental education in this country tends to focus on individual actions [recycle, drink bottled water, stop eating meat, don't track lawn chemicals into the living room, etc.] This relentless attention to individual sacrifices seems almost unique to environmental issues. Other human troubles - shootings in schools, intoxicated drivers…cigarette addictions among teenagers - are widely understood as political problems requiring political solutions." Instead of trying to "shop our way" out of a toxic world by purchasing bottled water, air and water filters and special soap to remove pesticides from vegetables, we need to address causes of our toxic world.
A highly profitable relationship exists between polluters who cause disease and those who "treat" these conditions. Some enterprising companies do both! Remember that Eli Lilly & Co. produces cancer drugs (Oncovin, Gemzar and Velban), has a patent on a breast cancer test and emits 264 tons of known carcinogens into Indiana air every year. True job security. It's significant that until recently the cancer industry even had its own magazine - Cancer Economics!
How on earth can we change this mess? For starters, find out what chemicals are released near your home. Visit ... and type in your zip code. Then reflect on the ideas and emotions you experience at being a "final filter" for cost-cutting industry. That's right - you and your family filter those chemicals through your lungs, skin, liver and kidneys…sometimes they make us sick and sometimes they kill us. Is there a human rights problem here?
We have to confront a corrupt political system which dances to the tune of immensely powerful campaign contributors and industry lobbyists. Brave Americans have prevailed before - Abolitionists ended slavery; women got the right to vote; workers won the 40-hour workweek. There are safe alternatives to polluting technologies.
We can all stop using synthetic pesticides! Bugs and weeds don't cause cancer. Everyone needs to pressure legislators to pass publicly-financed election reform (Clean Money Election Reform). We pay their salaries and we must demand some say in who is elected. As politics stand today, voters are merely allowed to "confirm" the pre-selections of polluting moneyed interests.
Also when a loved one dies of cancer, have the memorial contributions made to HEC or the Cancer Prevention Coalition instead of the industry- sponsored American Cancer Society (ACS).
Jack Miller is president of the Hoosier Environmental Council.