June 12, 2006 - Day 6 - Week 10 - Hair Spray and Pesticides

Seven days of quoting my little book has perhaps made you think that Peter is taking liberties with his daily writings.  Actually, I wanted to make the connection between concerns I have had about the direction we have been moving in our culture and the environment.  I recognized we invest billions of dollars to eradicate the scourge of cancer, yet the more money we invest the wider the problem becomes.  Why this is so has always intrigued me.

I remember a huge billboard in Westwood California that told the observer how many cigarette deaths were attributable to smoking every year.  Clear concise connection between first and second hand tobacco smoke and human health has been established. No one doubts the empirical data today and we are deterred from smoking because the consequences are well appreciated.  I used to find skeptics in this arena, but no more.

However, there abound many who make little of the connection between cancer and chemicals.  Of course, some industry spokespersons, investors, bankers, stock brokers etc., those who benefit from strong performances from the chemical companies discount any data presented, but more and more discerning individuals are beginning to make changes. The environmental connection to cancer is neither widely funded or given the status it demands.

I am sure that a parent discourages a toddler from playing on grass fertilized with chemicals.  It just make sense, but why fertilizer at all with chemicals that contaminate the external as well as potentially the internal environment of humans, especially children.  Make the connection!

I am trying to figure out why I arrived at stage 4 mantel cell lymphoma.  The Cancer Prevention Center offers two concrete reasons that are intriguing.  Pesticides and hair spray.  The latter does not apply to a balding man who began balding in prep school.  The other should not apply as well because we use no chemicals on our lawns or gardens at all.  I have not wandered through the conventional cotton farms of California or the soybean fields of Illinois, nor have I knowingly placed myself in the presence of agricultural chemicals.

On closer examination, I started playing football and baseball on fields of green when I was only a young lad in Short Hills, New Jersey.  I played sports all the way through college, and even played in the Red Sox organization in the Cape Cod League for two summers.  The athletic fields were always well manicured and very green. I played golf as a kid, caddied at the local course, and put golf tees in my mouth because it looked cool.   Golf greens and fairways are the envy of any homeowner in America, but contrary to my professional direction in life, green is not always good.  Why were they green? Why are the lawns, fields, courses, and parks – grass everywhere, so darn green? 

We love green grass. -  We compete to have the greenest grass. - Green means healthy to most people.- Because we fertilize the heck out of our grass.

An aside:  Our lawn is green, very green.  We put on the rock mineral fertilizer Eco-Min and fish emulsion.  The fish smell is noticeable for about 4 hours, and that is the only downside.  Our grandchildren are welcomed to our home because it is toxic free.

In addition, upon closer examination hair spray was a part of my early years.  My mother sprayed the living daylights out of her hair.  The style was such that keeping every hair in place was a must, and hair spray smell was everywhere, every day.  Perhaps this is the single reason why I hate hairspray today.  Currently, the make-up artist on Earth Talk Today gives me a little shot to keep the 17 hairs on my head in place, but she assured me that it is a nontoxic product, unlike what my mom used throughout her life. Yes, my mother died of lymphoma cancer.

Pesticides and hair spray may or may not have directly caused my cancer.  The jury is out, but the precautionary principle is now in affect big time on these products.

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