Our Mission: We are igniting a movement that inspires parents to protect young children from harmful chemicals. Donate »
Charity Navigator 4 Star CharityBlog
Forty-five Years After ‘Silent Spring,’ are Pesticides Still a Danger
Healthy Child
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
On May 27, we celebrated the centenary of the birth of noted biologist, author and mother of the modern environmental movement, Rachel Carson. Carson died of breast cancer in 1964, two years after she published “Silent Spring.”
Her writing warned of the risks of DDT and other pesticides to the environment, to wildlife and to human health. Though many have tried to discredit Carson, her courageous work has stood the test of time and offers continued inspiration for reducing our exposure to toxic chemicals.
Silent Spring outlines how the post-World War II boom in the agricultural use of pesticides wreaked havoc on our environment, resulting in massive die-offs of birds and fish. The chapter on cancer is titled “One in Every Four” because in 1962, that was the risk level to humans for developing cancer. Today, the risk is one in two for men and one in three for women. Unfortunately, we have not learned the lesson of Silent Spring.
The use of DDT was banned in the United States in 1972, but more than 30 years later the toxin continues to be found in fish, human fat and breast milk. Some countries still use DDT for malaria control, even though safer alternatives are available.
In Mexico, a project was able to achieve a 50 percent reduction in malaria at the national level without the use of DDT.This project achieved malaria control through expanded public education, planting trees with mosquito repellant properties, clearing vegetation near homes, using lime as a mosquito repellant, removing algae and using larvicides.
The World Health Organization recently reaffirmed its concern about the health effects of DDT and its commitment to the reduction of DDT use for malaria control.
We have entered the 21st century with thousands of new chemicals contributing to a growing toxic legacy in our environment and in our bodies. All us of carry a “body burden” of up to 200 or more chemicals to which we are exposed through air, food and everyday products. These chemicals include dioxins from chlorine-based products, phthalates and bisphenol-A from plastics, and pesticides found in food, water and other direct exposures.
PCBs used in electrical equipment were banned in 1976 due to their persistence in the environment and damaging human health impacts. But like DDT, 30 years later, PCBs are still found in fish tissue, human fat and breast milk.
PCBs and more than 200 other tested chemicals have been found to cause breast cancer in animals. Many of these chemicals are in common consumer products, including cleaning products, plastic food packaging, building materials, herbicides like Atrazine and a host of others. The fact that two-thirds of women who develop breast cancer have no family history of the disease points to the contribution of environmental factors, including chemicals found in everyday products. In addition to cancer, exposure to toxic chemicals contributes to learning and developmental disabilities, infertility, Parkinson’s disease and scores of other health problems.
The bottom line: Our regulatory system is failing us. The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, the key law regulating industrial chemicals in the United States, lacks the authority to require companies to collect and submit safety data on new chemicals before they are authorized for use in consumer products. While 20,000 new chemicals have entered into commerce since 1979, the Environmental Protection Agency has only evaluated 200 for their potential environmental and human health impacts. Though a growing body of scientific evidence points to human health risks from exposure to thousands of chemicals, under the TSCA the EPA has banned only five, none since 1990. This broken regulatory system needs fixing.
The good news is we don’t have to sacrifice the health of our economy to do it. Many U.S. businesses are already investing in new technologies and safer alternatives that won’t damage the environment and public health. Rachel Carson opened our eyes to the dangers of DDT and we acted. Now that our eyes are open to the risks from thousands of other chemicals that pollute our planet and our bodies, it’s time to act again.
Kathleen Schuler is a public health scientist and Carin Skoog is program coordinator for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis.
Originall published in Duluth News Tribune, Saturday, May 26, 2007.
