Environment & Human Health: We're Poisoning the Earth and Ourselves
Environmental & Human Health
The Problem-We’re Poisoning the Earth & Ourselves
Reflections by Mike Seymour
· In the 1970s, 17 million tons of industrial waste was legally dumped into the ocean. In the 1980s, 8 million tons were dumped including acids, alkaline waste, scrap metals, waste from fish processing, flue desulphurization, sludge, and coal ash. (Source: MarineBio.org)
· The amount of electronic products discarded globally has skyrocketed recently, with 20-50 million tons generated every year. (Greenpeace)
· At least 70 of the 177 radioactive/hazardous waste tanks at the Hanford reserve in Eastern Washington have contributed over a million gallons of leaked waste in soils.
· 10,000 containers fall off cargo ships each year, and of the 100 million tons of plastic made annually, about 10% ends up in the sea. (Greenpeace).
· A “Trash Vortex” of plastic and other refuse swirling in the North Pacific is equivalent to the size of Texas. Only 30% of plastics in the ocean float, the other 70% goes to the bottom and is often ingested by fish. (Greenpeace).
· Each year nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizer run-off into the Mississippi causing algal blooms that starve the water of oxygen and create a “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico the size of New Jersey and massive fish kills.
· In 1998, U.S. industries reported manufacturing 6.5 trillion pounds of 9, 000 different chemicals, and in 2000, major American companies -- not even counting the smaller ones -- dumped 7.1 billion pounds of 650 different industrial chemicals into our air and water. (Alexandra Rome, sustainable Futures Group, Commonweal)
· Despite declines in children’s lead poisoning, approximately 434,000 US children between on and five years of age still have elevated lead levels. (www.faqs.org)
· Over 40% of the global burden of disease attributed to environmental factors falls on children below five years of age, who account for only about 10% of the world's population. (World Health Organization: Children’s Environmental Health)
· A study by the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York found a total of 167 chemicals among nine test subjects, of which 76 cause cancer in humans, 94 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 79 cause birth defects or abnormal development. These results represent the most comprehensive assessment of chemical contaminations in individuals ever performed. (The Environmental Working Group, Body Burden Study).
Learning more about the toxins you, I and everybody else on the planet are exposed to daily initially made me feel a bit uneasy. The prevalence of chemicals and substances that cause harm to animals, birds, fish and humans is a discomfiting because it’s about us, our bodies, health and, long-term, our survivability as humans. The subject is a challenge as well to manufacturers and oversight agencies to invest more in the safety of products and processes—a costly venture—and for consumers to become more aware and demanding about the health of our planet. The fact that we are poisoning our world and ourselves is something we must confront, and do so quickly before environmentally induced diseases become a run-away crisis among humans and animals.
Many people credit writer, scientist and ecologist Rachel Carson with starting the modern environmental movement with her celebrated and much-contested (at the time) book called Silent Spring (1962). Disturbed by the widespread use of synthetic chemical pesticides after World War II, Carson reluctantly changed the focus of her work in order to warn the public about the long-term effects of misusing pesticides. In Silent Spring (1962) she challenged the practices of agricultural scientists and the government, and called for a change in the way humankind viewed the natural world.
One of the principle targets of her writing was DDT, an insecticidal spray hailed and used widely around the world to combat mosquitoes carrying malaria, typhus and other insect-born human disease. But as is the case with so many chemicals, the initial success of DDT –which eradicated malaria in many parts of the world—came with a total blindness on the part of manufacturers, users and governments to its potential harmful effects. Aware of the sure negative reaction from chemical companies, Carson carefully prepared her argument against DDT with scientific precision as she detailed the harm to birds, animals and humans she had found. The threats Carson had outlined -- the contamination of the food chain, cancer, genetic damage, the deaths of entire species -- were too frightening to ignore, and both scientists and a segment of the general public took up the cause.
One result is that President John F. Kennedy ordered the President’s Science Advisory Committee to examine the issues raised in the book. In 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency under William Ruckelshaus put an end to DDT use in The United States. And it was his reading of Silent Spring, along with a course at Harvard on C02 concentrations, that set former Vice President Al Gore on his mission to make environmental issues a core part of his political career, leading recently to his championing the production of the documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, released in 2006.
Toxics and Health
Environmental and human health is not just about the really big, news-worthy accidents like the Exxon Valdez oil spill, or the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, but the myriad toxic materials we come in contact with daily. Chemicals found in many fabrics, home cleaning products, personal care products, insecticides in our food, contaminants in fish and other foods, airborne pollutants, run-off from sprays or fertilizers that enter streams and oceans, improper toxic waste handling, ocean dumping or flotsam and jetsam from sea-going container ships—these all play their part in making a lethal cocktail that is the by-product of the way we live today.
An average day in an industrialized country might look something like this. Snuggle more with our blanket, treated with flame retardants, when the alarm goes off. Then shampoo your hair in the shower with a sulfate-based product and perhaps clean the shower door with glass cleaner with methyl alcohol. Some of us put on lipstick composed of synthetic oils, waxes and artificial colors, like coal tar colorants. In the kitchen, we’ll make some scramble eggs in a Teflon pan from hens fed on genetically modified grains, and slice up an apple from Mexico that was treated with insecticides. On the way to work, we’ll sit on seat covers treated with flame retardant in a car which puts C02 into the atmosphere, buy a cup of coffee in a paper or Styrofoam cup which we later toss away; or perhaps we take a subway, train or bus to work with tell-tale residues of second-hand smoke. In the US, some of us suffer from living near one of over 1,700 superfund sites, areas so toxic and unsafe that they are regulated by the US Environmental Protection Agency and slated for clean-up. Some of us will go to work or school in buildings with poor air quality or outdated plumbing with possible traces of arsenic or lead in the water supply. For lunch, we might have a fish sandwich containing traces of PCB’s, (polychlorinated biphenyls) or heavy metals like lead or mercury and wrapped in a plastic cling-wrap containing phthalates (pronounced "tha-lates") used to soften PVC, and which can leak out into foods.
At this point, our day is barely half over and our exposure and contribution to the world’s waste steam and toxic burden is quite shocking, the more so because so few of us realize the potential dangers. What’s more, environmental health is a young discipline. The experts can’t really tell us if so-called “acceptable” levels of substances are OK for everyone, especially when you consider the unknown risks in having an accumulation of perhaps hundreds of different toxic elements in your body.
What we do know is that every person on the planet has what is known as a “body burden,” or an accumulation of chemicals and metals, many of which in large concentrations are known to have serious health effects. It could be mercury in fish, arsenic in drinking water, dioxin in meat and cheese, brominated flame retardants in fabrics, pesticide residues on fruit and vegetables, volatile organic chemicals (VOC’s) emitted from carpets. Scientists estimate (Coming Clean Network) that everyone alive today carries within her or his body perhaps as many as700 contaminants, most of which have not been well studied. This is true whether we live in isolated rural areas or in cities, because many chemicals can attach to dust particles or catch air and water currents and travel far from their source.
Body Burden
Environmental Working Group
http://www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden/
Coming Clean Network
http://www.chemicalbodyburden.org/
Body burden refers to the total number of chemical or metal agents that are present in the human body at any one time. Some chemicals lodge in our bodies for only a short period of time before being excreted, while others can remain in our blood, fat tissue, semen, muscle, bone, brain and other tissue for years.
The Environmental Working Group (cited above) has an excellent web site detailing the results of clinical testing of nine people, including well-known writer, journalist and part of the Johnson and Kennedy administrations, Bill Moyers. The blood and urine for each was tested for the presence of 214 industrial compounds including such materials as PCB’s, dioxin, furans, various metals, organochlorine insecticide metabolites, phthalates, and volatile organic chemicals (VOC). Tests discovered among other findings a total of 171 chemicals among all subjects, and an average of 56 carcinogens—or cancer producing agents—per person.
Another study was initiated by the Star Telegram newspaper serving the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, and reported by staff writer Scott Streater in December, 2006 with the clinical work done through the University of Texas, School of Public Health. This study found 49 chemicals suspected of causing cancer; 50 chemicals associated with development and neurological disorders, including birth defects; trace amounts of dioxins, the most toxic element regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency; and more than a dozen flame retardants.
What’s disturbing is that although levels of each compound may be considered acceptable, all of them combined could build up in such as way, experts say, as to weaken the body’s immune system, or ability to fight off illnesses. There are also special vulnerabilities in young children—or pregnant mothers who pass their chemicals on to the infant—which are not well known at this point. Growing children breathe more air and consume more food and drink in proportion to their weight compared to adults, and their central nervous, reproductive, immune, and digestive systems are more easily compromised. In a sense, children “grow” the toxins in their bodies, a process known as biomagnification. This also happens in the general environment when we eat the fish, cattle or chickens which themselves have ingested and metabolized chemicals.
Although the presence of trace levels of chemicals and metals does not mean a person will necessarily get sick, the fact that many of these substances in higher levels has a proven association with many illnesses is a great concern. Toxics found in humans are associated with a wide range of illnesses such as allergies, asthma, birth defects, cancer, dermatitis (or inflammation of the skin), fertility problems, heart disease, immune deficiency disorders, kidney disease, lead and mercury poisoning, vision problems and a host of other disorders. Moreover, of the 80,000 chemicals in commerce today, only a small percentage of them have ever been screened for even one potential health effect, such as cancer. Of the estimated 15,000 tested, few have been studied enough to accurately figure potential risks, and testing is done just on individual substances, not on what happens in combinations of chemicals.
Environmental & Human Health: Some Solutions
If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering right now “Eeek!! How can I get rid of those chemicals in my body?” Well, if you go to your regular physician or consult the standard medical literature, you’re apt to be disappointed, unless you’re referred to some alternative health solutions, like a naturopathic doctor. So, we’ll start our overview of solutions with the personal ones first, and then look at the broader areas of legislation, activism, and public health.
Alternative Health & Detoxification
Bastyr University for Natural Health
National Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine
http://niam.com/corp-web/index.htm
The Institute of Qigong & Internal Alternative Medicine
Alternatives to traditional medicine are on the rise today. People all over the world are experiencing the limits of conventional medicine. More people are now rejecting the world view that symptom-fixing is the way to go when, in fact, a far more holistic approach is needed, taking into consideration nutrition, lifestyle habits, emotional patterns, beliefs, relationships, work and personal habits. The most prevalent alternative health care in the US is naturopathy. Naturopathy is the practice and use of natural substances to provide a healthier balance of internal chemistry. Naturopathy is an holistic health system that treats health conditions by utilizing the body’s innate ability to heal. Naturopathic physicians aid healing processes by incorporating a variety of natural methods based on the patient’s individual needs. In particular, naturopathic doctors might prescribe a process of detoxification for body chemicals and metals using diet, body cleansing herbs, colonic therapies, periods of fasting and perhaps a regimen of sauna and steam treatments to excrete toxins through the skin and other eliminative functions. Other systems of health that can reduce the level of toxins in the body include Ayurvedic Medicine—practiced originally in India—and certain Chinese forms of medicine like Qigong which cleanse and improve the functioning of vital organs, like the liver-which are responsible for filtering and eliminating fats and foreign substances.
Legislation and Regulation
Environmental Protection Agency
The US Congress enacted the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in 1976 requiring those who manufacture and process chemical substances and mixtures to develop adequate data with respect to the effect of chemical substances and mixtures on health and the environment. The TSCA contains a number of major provisions that provide the Environmental Protection Agency with tools for assessment and control of chemicals used in commerce or proposed to be added to commerce. While the EPA does screen chemicals, critics say they are too lenient with their guidelines and have not required sufficient testing of chemicals for specific diseases. Being a government agency, the EPA is also subject to the political bias of administrations who feel business is already burdened with too much regulation, and so laws are often watered down for economic reasons.
Organic Farming & Healthy Diet
The Organic Farming Research Foundation http://ofrf.org/
EPA, National Agricultural Compliance Assistance Center http://www.epa.gov/oecaagct/torg.html#Background
In Deborah Koons Garcia's film The Future of Food, it is stated that the American market for organically grown food amounted to $1 billion in 1994, and $13 billion in 2003. Increasing awareness and concern over environmental issues is the main reason for this growth. Organic farming is a form of agriculture which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, plant growth regulators and livestock feed additives. In addition to these exclusions, organic farming practices can include protection of the soil (from erosion, nutrient depletion, structural breakdown), promotion of biodiversity (for example growing a variety of crops rather than a single crop or planting hedges around fields), and outdoor grazing for livestock and poultry. Organic farming as a movement began as a reaction to the industrialization and impersonalization of agriculture, during a time when small independent farmers were being put out of business by big, corporate agribusiness. Organic agriculture is being used around the world and now enjoys a degree of standardization and regulation by many governments today. Proponents of organic farming speak about reduced negative impacts to the environment and people from chemicals, like the nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers cited earlier which are culprits in the annual Gulf of Mexico dead zone. Importantly, organic farming today also means the rejection of genetically engineered products which, critics argue, has the potential to usher in consequences to humans which are as yet unknown and not well tested for.
As the largest percent of our body burden comes from the foods and liquids we take in, the best preventive measure against toxics is good nutrition; and most naturopathic doctors I have seen stress proper nutrition as the core to health. Start incorporating more organic vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts and juices in your diet, preferably from local or regional suppliers. In fact, a 2003 study at the University of Washington analyzed pesticide breakdown products (metabolites) in pre-school aged children and found that children eating organic fruits and vegetables had concentrations of pesticide metabolites six times lower than children eating conventional produce. So, moving toward eating organic foods will not only lower your body burden, but will support more sustainable local economies. You will also begin to reduce your ecological footprint by consuming less factory-made, processed foods which travel long distances and is wrapped in packaging which adds to the waste stream or cuts into our forests.
Green Chemistry
EPA-Green Chemistry http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/ http://www.greener-industry.org/
Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances at their source. The expansion of green chemistry is an outgrowth of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 which established a national policy to prevent or reduce pollution at its source whenever feasible.A more sustainable chemistry to make products of all kinds is becoming one of the big innovations and businesses of the future as more people, governments and regulatory agencies demand safer products.
Designing products from the beginning with the human and environmental impact in mind in a comprehensive way is relatively new. Up to now, most businesses felt that the kind of extensive testing of products needed for a sustainable world was not affordable, and that making a product that looks, tastes and smells nice with the minimal safety assurances required by law was enough. But with the pressure on, there is now a lot of basic chemical research into safe products. Research scientists are exploring new non-toxic, renewable substances that go into making fibers, fabrics, consumer products, food additives, wood products and thousands of other current materials now made with chemicals found to have toxic properties.
As one of many examples, Milliken& Co, a large manufacturer of floor and wall coverings, developed an adhesive-free installation system for wall and floor coverings, reducing the effects of several kinds of pollutants. New and ecologically sound chemistry was responsible for their design of a high-friction coating to help keep the carpet in place without the use of wet adhesives, floor sealers or primers. Among the many other cases is the Belgium company Ecover which makes a range of household and professional cleaning products, like detergents and bleach. Standard cleaning products usually contain materials known as surfactants that help remove dirt and grease. But many surfactants come from non-renewable sources, are not easily biodegradable and can cause allergies in some people. Ecover has designed a new class of biosurfactant that is produced organically by certain fungi, bacteria and yeast and which is both renewable as well as biodegradable.
Taking Action: When you finish with your computer, then what?
Greenpeace http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/toxics/hi-tech-highly-toxic Basel Action Network http://www.ban.org/
Investigators visiting waste sites in Guiya, Gunagdong Province in China noticed men, women and children pulling wires from computers and burning them, fouling the air with cancer-producing smoke. Others worked with little protection from the metals such as cadmium, lead, and were burning circuit boards or poured acid on electronic parts to extract silver and gold. The groundwater is so polluted drinking water has to be brought in.
A dangerous and unjust consequence of economic globalization comes from dumping the toxic waste (such as electronic waste) products from manufacturing on the poorer areas of the world, rather than manufacturering and recycling products in a safer more humane fashion. E-products, and computers in particular, are one focus of groups like Greenpeace and the Seattle-based non-profit the Basel Action Network. According to these sources, about 50% of our recycled computers are shipped overseas where their toxic components are polluting poor communities. Meanwhile, industry and government have resisted efforts to stem the tide of toxic dumping.
According to the Basel Action Network, 500 40-foot containers of used electronics and computers are being shipped from U.S. and Europe to Lagos, Nigeria, each month. There are also large volumes of used electronics being sent to other developing countries such as China, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Cambodia, and the Ivory Coast.
The vast majority of items in these shipments are not reused, recycled, or bridging the digital divide, because most of them are unusable. In Lagos, Nigeria local officials estimate that 80% of these electronics items are thrown away immediately upon arrival.
However, many countries and organizations like Greenpeace and the Basel Action Network are working to stem the tide of trans-national toxic waste dumping. In 1994, a coalition of developing countries, and some from Eastern and Western Europe, along with Greenpeace, managed to pass the Basel Ban. The Basel Ban decision effectively banned as of 1 January 1998, all forms of hazardous waste exports from the 29 wealthiest most industrialized countries.
This victory for international environmental justice was achieved despite powerful opposition from such countries as the United States, Australia, Germany, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom.
So, even though illegal dumping still goes on, the mechanisms are in place to force more environmentally sound manufacturing and recycling of computers and other e-products.
What You Can Do
Steps to Take
- Learn about and use green personal and home care products that do not cause harm to the environment or people. Check the environmental or public health links on your county and state web sites for information. Read the Guide to a Toxic-free home published by Seventh Generation http://www.seventhgeneration.com/living_green/toxin_free.php
- Include organically grown food in your diet, especially fruits, vegetables and grains. If you are a meat eater, ask your local grocer about grass-fed beef and free-range chickens.
- Especially if you are feeling chronic health symptoms that your regular doctor doesn’t know how to treat, see a naturopathic doctor and ask about a detox program.
- Learn about and support local or regional environmental efforts to control the use of toxic substances, like sprays along roadsides to control vegetation.
Resources
Topics for Study