June 8, 2006 - Day 2 - Week 10 - Chemicals

If I were to invent something of value to share with my children and grandchildren it would be a meter to detect the amount of chemicals they are exposed to on a daily basis. Yet, the meter would have a vitamin delivery system to mitigate the harm that chemicals cause.  In my little book from 1995 I have a big chapter on the subject of chemicals.  In re-reading this I discovered that irrespective of the time frame the material remains relevant today.  Certainly no Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, yet her book written in the early 60’s framed for me the debate about the impact of chemicals on my life.

I quote beginning on page 38 of the Earth’s Killer C’s.

Headline Los Angeles Times July 10, 1991:

“Pesticide Flows into Shasta Lake.  A toxic green river of pesticide poured into Lake Shasta early Wednesday as scientists carefully tracked the chemical’s potential threat to the state’s drinking water supply and an army of frustrated officials from a dozen public agencies stood by helpless, unable to stop the flow or clean up the contamination.”

“Fourteen years ago, the future of 140 miles of Montana’s Clark Fork River looked as bleak as any science fiction writer could have imagined. Forming the largest polluted area in the nation some 50,000 acres of river corridor were littered with arsenic, copper, zinc, cadmium and lead. Heavy rains swept these toxic metals into the river. Toxic dust denuded a forest. Then came Superfund: Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation act, an ambitious plan to finance the cleanup of the nation’s most hazardous abandoned dumps.  $100,000,000 worth of cleanup is underway in and around Clark Fork. But for all that surprisingly little has changed.”

These stories and one’s like it get little play unless you live in the community or region affected.  Out of sight out of mind is our general behavior pattern, but sometimes the impact of chemical drift or movement is too big to ignore.

I began this chapter in the book with the two stories because there is increasingly scrutiny of chemical contamination and the impact on human health.  My prejudice is coming to light, and I guess it has been in existence for 15 years.  We live in a chemical cocktail that has not been tested on the human and animal family.  It is my presupposition that illness and disease relates directly to chemicals in our environment.