1.5 millions of Americans diagnosed with cancer

The President’s Cancer Panel is a group established in 1971 by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a group of experts who review America’s cancer program and report directly to the president. On May 6 2010, the Cancer Panel released its annual report and stated that in 2009, 1.5 million Americans were diagnosed with cancer, and 562,000 died from the disease, while recognizing that cancer resulting from environmental and occupational exposures could have been prevented through appropriate national action.

The Panel recognized that “environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated” and 80,000 chemicals on the market, used by millions every day are “ understudied and largely unregulated, exposure to potential environmental carcinogens is widespread ”. The panel stated that chemicals during pregnancy are the greatest and 300 contaminants have been detected in umbilical cord blood of newborn babies, furthermore the Panel reported the nation needs a comprehensive, cohesive policy agenda regarding environmental contaminants and protection of human health.

Environmental hormones are a danger to developing human embryos, industrial and agricultural chemicals, the are named endocrine disruptor. From the schoolchildren in Minnesota that discovered frogs with extra legs and eyes on their shoulders at their local pound after pesticides was dumped. Or, the Alligators of the Lake Apopka almost all dead, the only survivors showing feminine characteristic, the phenomena has long been observed. Nowadays, the argument seems more political than scientific; against or for environmental regulations.

The purpose of environmental legislation is to protect human health and the environment from pollutants; however, chemical regulations of the federal government are challenged by strong business incentives represented by lobbyists. If it was not about economical interest in the commercialization of chemicals, the precautionary principle should have been applied, anticipating instead of reacting.

Endocrine disruptors had represented a great danger for many years and it should be proved safe instead of the sickness of people proving that it is harmful. In addition, here is a notion of environmental justice that must prevail on political believes or unclear scientific skepticism. In 2006, the American Cancer Society noted that “significant number of annual cancer deaths in the U.S. is caused by environmental pollutants and occupational exposures; lower-income workers and communities are disproportionately affected by these exposures”.

Fortunately, Congress has enacted numerous statutes in the last thirty years, such as, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) regulating pesticide production; the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) and Clean Water Act (CWA) that regulates pollutants discharged into waters.

Addressing environmental issues and ethics necessitate the use of science for long-term environmental sustainability since safer alternatives to currently used chemicals are urgently needed such as green chemicals and the development of a green industry, while stronger regulation should limit all environmental contaminants.

References:

National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute. 2008–2009 Annual Report President’s Cancer Panel. http://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/pcp/annualReports/pcp08-09rpt/PCP_Report_08-09_508.pdf

Berg, L.R., & Hager, M.C. (2009). Visualizing environmental science (2nd Ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

National Cancer Institute. 2008-2009 MEETING SERIES Environmental Factors in Cancer http://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/pcp/glance/At-a-Glance_Environmental.pdf

Climate negationists are financed by industry Lobbyists

The Global Climate Coalition, a group representing industries with profits tied to fossil fuels, which led an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign against the idea that emissions of heat-trapping gases could lead to global warming. In 1997, the year of the Kyoto Protocol, the budget of the Coalition totaled $1.68 million much more than the 1.9 Millions allocated to the EPA programs.

Throughout the 1990, the coalition conducted a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign challenging the merits of an international agreement, policy makers and pundits were fiercely debating whether humans could dangerously warm the planet. By questioning the science on global warming the Global Climate Coalition were able to dulled public concern and delay government action. The coalition disbanded in 2002, but some members from the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute, continue to “lobby against any law or treaty that would sharply curb emissions”.

  

Far from special interests, the IPCC is a scientific body of 2,500 scientists from all over the world committed to the work of the IPCC on a voluntary basis and an intergovernmental body endorsed by 194 governments and the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel. The IPCC believes than 90 percent of human activities, namely fossil fuel burning, explained most of an indisputable warming of the planet in the past 50 years. The panel said temperatures will likely rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 Celsius (3.2 and 7.8 Fahrenheit) this century.

Today, the rapid degradation due to climate change highlights the urgency of changing laws and regulations without further delay. The visible degradation of our planet required more flexible, adaptable policy and regulation than the one shaped so far by our industries. We are now seeing the first environmental refugees in the South Pacific, an entire country is slowly disappearing; Bangladesh. We have experienced an another winter of record-setting cold in many parts of North America. The list of critical issues is long, the global climate is out of control.

We are the last generation on earth that would be able to curb current and future emissions, we are collectively responsible and we have to stop pretending that we are not warned. Researching the topic of global climate change I realized that science and technology are ahead of economics, politics and people consciousness.


References:
 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Retrieved April 24, 2010 http://www.ipcc.ch/

How can we get digital cable and Internet in our homes, but not clean water?

“19.5 million Americans fall ill each year from drinking water contaminated with parasites, bacteria or viruses and this number does not include illnesses caused by other chemicals and toxins” , declared the scientific journal Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, that an estimated.


The New York Times has compiled data on more than 200,000 facilities that have permits to discharge pollutants from the Environmental Protection Agency. These hundreds of thousands of water pollution records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act regarding violation of Safe Drinking Water Act and publishes a series of editorials and investigations on a blog called “Toxic Water; a series about worsening pollution in America’s water and the regulator respond".


- Find Water Polluters Near You
http://projects.nytimes.com/toxic-waters/polluters
- What’s in Your Water
http://projects.nytimes.com/toxic-waters/contaminants
- Clean Water Act Violations, check enforcement record
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/09/13/us/0913-water.html


An example of water pollution and environmental injustice:

In a remote corner of Appalachia in West Virginia, 10 years ago, a terrible smells began coming from local taps, and water was sometimes gray, cloudy and oily. Bathtubs and washers developed "rust-colored rings that scrubbing could not remove and industrial water filters turned black". Tests showed that their water contained toxic amounts of lead, manganese, barium and other metals which can contribute to organ failure or developmental problems.

At the same time, closed coal companies started pumping industrial waste into the ground, to wash their coal to remove impurities. A black fluid containing dissolved minerals and chemicals was disposed in vast lagoons into dumped mines, then the liquid flows into water supplies. Coal companies have injected more than 1.9 billion gallons of coal slurry and sludge into the ground since 2004 and millions more gallons have been dumped into lagoons. This pose serious health risks in violation of state regulations and the Safe Drinking Water Act and are illegal concentrations of chemicals including arsenic, lead, chromium, beryllium or nickel. Nationwide, polluters have violated the Clean Water Act more than 500,000 times.


These chemicals contribute to cancer, organ failures and other diseases; nevertheless, these companies were never fined or punished for those illegal injections, according to state records. They were never even warned that their activities had been noticed. Worsening symptoms, like gall bladder diseases, fertility problems, miscarriages and kidney and thyroid issues became common. The community sued in county court, seeking compensation. That suit is pending. Until now the community gets regular “deliveries of clean drinking water, stored in coolers or large blue barrels outside most homes”. The construction of a pipeline bringing fresh water to the community is on the way, however, most residents still use polluted water to bathe, shower and wash dishes.


“How can we get digital cable and Internet in our homes, but not clean water?” said Madam Massey, her son has scabs on his arms, legs and chest due to bathwater and many of “his brother’s teeth were capped to replace enamel that was eaten away”.


Reference:
Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering. (2009, September 12). New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13water.html?pagewanted=4