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Wed. Jun. 13, 2001
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Health & Science > Nature > Pollution
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Recycling Toxicity: From The Garden To The Table
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Against all odds and after ten years of hard labor, a final report on dioxin by the Environmental Protection Association (EPA) was completed last month. However, it might be another several years before it is presented at a government hearing. It currently faces intense opposition from Republican congressional representatives, industrial groups, the American Chemistry Council, the Chlorine Chemistry Council, the Chemical Manufacturers Association, the American Meat Institute and the National Cattlemen's and Beef Association. Furthermore, the Bush Administration itself has already challenged several environmental and public health rulings (including the tough measure on arsenic in drinking water) that were made during the Clinton Administration. This is because the new Administration considers these rulings to be scientifically and economically unsound. The question now is - will they continue to put up challenges against the environment?
It seems likely that they will. With a contribution of $1,171,000 to Bush's election campaign, the political clout of the chemical, livestock and meatpacking industries has placed the EPA study on dioxin on the back burner (Pianin, p.1, 2). In 1985, the EPA released its first dioxin health assessment, which drew strong protests from the chemical industry because its findings showed that dioxin was one of the main causes of cancer in humans. A reassessment study completed in 1994 showed the risk of getting cancer from dioxin exposure to be ten times greater than previously believed (Pianin, p.4).
Dioxin is an air-borne chemical by-product that is created by burning plastics, medical waste and other substances that contain chlorine. Furthermore, dioxin builds up in water, soil and vegetation, where wildlife and humans can then consume it. It remains in the bodies of animals and humans for years, accumulating in animal fats and increasing in concentration as it climbs further up the food chain.
A study commissioned by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (NACEC) found that 70-82% of the dioxin in Nunuvut, Canada came from the U.S. This 1997 study revealed that the emissions originated from municipal wastes incinerators, backyard trash burners, cement kilns, copper smelters and iron sintering plants from the eastern and mid-western parts on the U.S. (Belchak, p.1, 2). The research was part of an ongoing assessment under the environmental pact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
In addition, a report released this month reveals that Americans are unknowingly purchasing fertilizers made from industrial toxic waste, thus effecting both farms and private gardens. The report, "Waste Lands: The Threat of Toxic Fertilizers," released by the national and state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG) found that of the 29 fertilizers tested, 22 contained toxic metals. Frontier Geosciences, a Seattle-based independent laboratory, discovered arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium and the chemical dioxin in the fertilizers. Lead, cadmium, mercury and other toxic elements can remain in the soil for decades only to become absorbed by food crops.
The report specifies that between 1990 and 1995, 600 companies from 44 states sent 270 million pounds of toxic waste to farms and fertilizer companies across the U.S. The steel industry's contribution to this waste was 30%. Uninformed, the public and farmers become consumers of a product with no labeling laws to vouch for its content (Lazaroff, p.1, 2,3).
These fertilizers also contained dioxin, the most toxic form of which is known as TCDD, the same contaminant found in Agent Orange, a defoliant (that causes trees to lose their leaves) used during the Vietnam War to reduce ground cover. Thousands of U.S. troops who handled it during the war went on to develop cancer or father deformed babies (Hutchinson, p. 13). The Air Force found a 'significant relationship' between diabetes and blood stream levels of dioxin in its ongoing study of people who worked with Agent Orange (Pianin, p. 4).
Mercury is another contaminant found in our soil and it too can have dangerous effects on humans. Known as Minamata Disease, mercury poisoning largely occurs via the consumption of fish, including those from areas like the San Francisco Bay, the Great Lakes region, some Northeastern states and the Florida Everglades. Upon entering the environment, mercury becomes mobile and bio-accumulative…retained in organisms (Cone, p.1). In combining with organic materials, the organic compound methylmercury forms and is quickly absorbed by higher organisms and dispersed through the food chain. Levels of methylmercury in fish are 100,000 times greater than in the surrounding water in which they swim. Exposure to high levels of elemental mercury vapor can cause damage to the nervous system as well as personality alterations. Exposure to methylmercury through fish consumption can also cause numbness in extremities and sensory loss and exposure of the fetus through maternal intake can cause neurological developmental abnorm lities in cognitve and motor functions.
Jeremiah Baumann for PIRG said, "EPA should not just be limiting the amounts of toxic waste in fertilizers - they should be prohibiting toxic wastes in fertilizers" (Lazaroff, p.3). The Qur'an makes a similar recommendation when it states, "Ye people: eat of what is on earth, lawful and wholesome" (2:168).
Sources:
- Applesforhealth. "Fetuses At Risk of Mercury Poisoning."Applesforhealth. July 2000.
- Belchak, Alicia Marie. "Artic Dioxin Tracked To North American Sources" Enviromental News Service. Oct 2000. p.1,2.
- Department of State, Florida. "Mercury Poisoning." Department of State, Florida. January 2000.
- Lazaroff, Cat. "Toxic Wastes Found In Fertilizers." Environmental News Service. May 2001. p.1-3.
- Pianin, Eric. "Dioxin Report By EPA On Hold." The Washington Post. Apr. 2001. p.1,2,4.
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Hwaa Irfan is a staff writer for Health and Science section of Islamonline
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