TOXIC POLLUTION

Poisoning our World

We are poisoning each other

Every time we put herbicides on our lawns, fill our tanks with gasoline, buy pressure treated lumber, purchase plastic, we threaten our neighbors, human and non-human.

• Over 98 percent of all families use pesticides at least once a year

More than a billion pounds of pesticides are released every year in the United States, 3/4 of it on farms.

1. Dan Fagin in Resisting Toxic Culture.

Toxic chemicals >> child development and learning

disabilitiesOne Billion pounds of developmental and

neurological toxins were released in 1998– into the air and water of the USA

• According to EPA Toxic Release Inventory

12 Million children suffer from developmental, learning, or behavioral difficulties (retardation, autism, birth defects, to name a few).– National Academy of Science estimated that 3% of

such defects are caused by directly toxic chemicals, and 25% in combination with genetic factors.

In the United States, according to the U.S. Government, over

• 70,000 chemicals are in use.• almost six trillion pounds are produced annually

• most are not even minimally tested

WE ARE ENGAGED IN A MASSIVE, UNCONTROLLED EXPERIMENT ON THE

ECOSYSTEMS UPON WHICH WE DEPEND

Cancer and Humans

Environmentally Caused Cancers cause, at least, 10,940 deaths per year (more than die from hereditary breast cancer)

(Steinbgraber in Resisting Toxic Culture)

Mercury in the Midwest

Tiny amounts damage the human nervous system, especially in children and the unborn, causing brain, lung, kidney damage and even death.

Mercury injures the reproductive abilities of wildlife including frogs, rainbow trout, zebra fish, ducks, loons and terns.

Mercury contamination in rain exceeds EPA’s safe levels by these amounts:

Chicago 42 times safe levels

Detroit 65 times Duluth, 6 times Illinois/Wisconsin

border, as high as 56 times safe levels

Pesticide releases are not even inventoried!

Nor do we know what most of the chemicals released into the environment do to animal bodies.

Unless evidence links chemicals to injuries, no studies are performed to determine their impacts– Chemicals get the benefit

of the doubt– “Precautionary principle”

missing

Dan Fagin: “Risk Assessment” is . . . 1. designed to demonstrate no or minimal

harm2. manipulated by industries that support it

and its premises3. not based on replicable, credible science

(and thus assessments cannot be disproved)4. And, citizens groups rarely have resources

necessary to evaluate assessments• Dan Fagin in Resisting Toxic Culture.

Risk Assessment ~ A Sham?

Environmental Toxins & Environmental Justice

Minorities, especially African Americans, are exposed to more toxic pollution– In 14 of 25 of counties subjected to the

greatest toxic releases African American populations exceed the US average.

Hope on Toxics?

Right to Know movement growing: – Rachel Carson: it is a human right to know about

poisons introduced into one’s environment

150 Countries working on treaty on POPs – These countries are targeting 12 persistent toxic

chemicals world wide, including dioxins.• POPs = Persistent Organic Pollutants)

International Joint Commission for Great Lakes Water Quality called for elimination of the release of any persistent toxic substances.

Public Pressure Leads to New Research

• The Chemical Industry agreed to fund research designed to determine the risks of many of the most suspect chemical classes (in 1998).

• The industry nets 400+ Billion/Year

• Chlorine Chemical Industry establishes “responsible care” codes and a dialogue on sustainability with Environmental Ethics experts.

• Some European countries are dramatically reducing chemical pollution.

TOXIC POLLUTION

Poisoning our World