June 10, 2006 - Day 4 - Week 10 - Chemicals and Children

I once had a child take my hand and ask why her daddy got sick with cancer.  My response, 20 or so years ago, was inadequate and evasive.  Today many pastors, rabbis and priests are requested to take the hand of parents who ask, ‘why did my 5 year old get cancer.’  When questions of life and death are directed at well trained professionals and they feel inadequate with their knowledge and hence their answers are less than helpful, we need to go back to the drawing board.  Now back to the book.

In the Earth Killer C’s chapter on chemicals I wrote:  “It is estimated that by the age of 5 a child will have consumed 7.5 pounds of chemical food additives.  The NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) has found that pesticides are present in at least 35% of all analyzed food samples.  Our children are also encouraged to play outside on our green lawns and fields fertilized with a variety of pesticides.  Also, there are 25 million adults who play gold on the 3000 square miles of fertilized gold courses in the United States.

Frankly, more chemicals go on our manicured adult playgrounds than on our food, but both are excessive.  We also create sport and game time at our schools, both in suburban communities and inner city sites.  All this running and exercising, that is supposedly good for our development, is often done in places where our air is filled with lethal chemicals. Our children’s lungs become the filters for the pollutants in our atmosphere.  In other parts of the world the situation is worse.  Some families in Mexico City will not allow their children to go to school there anymore because of the pollution.  If you can believe this; they come to America because of our cleaner air.

In addition, many world class athletes can no longer train in their contaminated home-towns. (Hong Kong, Santiago Chili, Guatemala City Guatemala, Beijing China, to name a few)  Athletes should form coalition with clean air advocates because their ability to perform at peak levels depends upon them having healthy environments.

“A sensible idea might be that in addition to giving our children a primer on the history of the industrial revolution, or our athletes weight training guides, we might serve them well by offering a subscription to SAFE FOOD NEWS or THE CLEAN AIR CAMPAIGN literature.  Personal knowledge about alternatives may be the first line of defense in our children’s counter-attack on chemicals.”

A few radical suggestions then, but good sense ideas today.  I year or so ago I inquired of  our friend and longtime veterinarian Dan Didden if he had seen an increase in cancer in the animals he treats.  Yes, most definitely,  was his emphatic response.   I attribute it to chemicals on our lawns.

Chemicals are ubiquitous; a favorite word meaning everywhere present.  If they are found in our pets, and our children are increasingly manifesting disease related to chemical exposure, we have created an almost untenable situation.  We are a culture that loves its children and its pets more than anything else.  Now is the time to make the connection between chemicals and cancer, period!

Back to Week 10