Facts

Toxic chemicals in the environment can and do lead to real health consequences. These consequences effect the nation as a whole. They also effect smaller communities. They are local issues everywhere.

The Solutions

Innovations taking place across the nation and the world are effectively addressing environmentally-based health concerns. These innovations show that solutions are possible and that people are making great and positive strides to reduce the overall toxicity of our environment.

The Economic Benefits

Some businesses are profiting handsomely by presenting the public with less toxic and non-toxic goods and services.

The Problems

Pesticides

Pesticides may cause a range of harmful health effects in humans, including: cancer, short- and long-term injury to the nervous system, lung damage, reproductive dysfunction, and possible dysfunction of the endocrine (hormone) and immune systems;

Since 1962, pesticide use has doubled in the U.S.;

53 pesticides classified as "carcinogenic" are presently registered for uses on major crops, including apples, tomatoes, and potatoes;

By the 1990s, Dursban and Lorsban, both chlorpyrifos, a pesticidal nerve poison, were being applied 20 million times a year in homes, schools, and offices. Toxic insult to humans from the poison had been reported as early as 1971;

In 1978, public outcry forced the Israeli government to ban the pesticides benzene hexachloride, DDT, and lindane. Breast cancer mortality rates, which had increased every year for 25 years, dropped nearly 8% for all age groups and by more than a third for women ages 25 to 34 by 1986.

Synthetic chemicals, general

Industrial solvents and related chemicals (volatile organic compounds), are present in ground water used to provide drinking water for 35 million Americans;
From 1940 through the 1980s, production of synthetic chemicals increased by a factor of 350%;
Human breast milk has more dioxin, more PCBs, more DDT and fat-soluble pesticides than any other food;
Chemicals recognized as "probable human carcinogens" are regularly allowed into commerce;
Everything perchloroethylene, a chemical used in dry cleanging, touches except for clothes is considered hazardous waste;
Beached beluga whales from the St. Lawrence River are so riddled with toxic compounds that Canadian law classifies them as hazardous waste.

Cancer facts, general

An estimated 496,000 Americans died in the five wars the U.S. fought in the last century. Cancer claims 550,000 lives in the U.S. every year;
In the U.S., a woman dies of breast cancer every 11 minutes;
Significantly greater use of certain productslawn services, dry cleaning, and pesticidesamong higher socioeconomic status women contributes to their higher rates of cancer when compared to women of a lower socioeconomic status;
Since the 1971 declaration of national war on cancer, the U.S. has spent over $30 billion on cancer research.

Southeastern Michigan

More than 653,000 pounds of 2,4-D, an aquatic herbicide that leaches into groundwater, were spread on Michigan lakes in 1998. More than a third of that total was spread in the seven county metro Detroit region;

Michigan is roughly the 5th largest user of aquatic herbicides in the country;

Seventeen companies are polluting Detroit's water and sewer systems by dumping significant amounts of metals, arsenic, fats, and grease into them;

Municipal waste water treatment plants in Metro Detroit cannot remove heavy metals such as lead, zinc, and other pollutants;

Grosse Pointe and Harper Woods Michigan have significantly higher incidences of breast cancer than other similar Michigan communities (see the report).

Solutions

Environmental Innovation

Since 1996, Patagonia has used only organic cotton (grown without artificial pesticides or fertilizers) in its clothing;
Business tycoon Malcolm Walker who heads Iceland, a British retail food chain with 760 stores and annual revenues of $2.7 billion, is a leader in marketing freezers and refrigerators using isobutane, which does not damage the atmospheric ozone layer. Walker has also eradicated all artificial colors and flavors from Iceland-label products;
Gerber Products Company, the nation's largest manufacturer of baby food, told its fruit growers to phase out organophosphates. In 1998, mating-disruption pheromones, which inhibit insect reproduction without chemicals, protected all of Gerber's peaches;
Toyota and Honda have gas/electric hybrid cars on the market now;
In December, 1999, Mattel Inc., the world's largest toy maker, announced that it would begin to eliminate petroleum-based plastics linked to environmental and health problems from its most popular doll Barbie, and many other toys. Mattel will use plant and vegetable-based plastics instead of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC.

National and International Initiatives

In 1995, in lieu of spraying for insects with unsatisfactory results, the Northmont City School District in Ohio, hired consultant Steve Tvedten who got rid of pests by using talcum powder, borax, carbon dioxide, and natural enzymes;
The California Zero Emission Vehicle mandate says that by 2003, 10% of all cars sold in California must produce no pollution;
Because carcinogenic ingredients in plastic can leach in to a child's mouth when he chews plastic toys, 15 countries of the European community required safety labeling on plastic toys that are not designed for the mouth but often end up there;
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced MTBE, an ingredient in gasoline that has been shown to cause cancer in animals, will be greatly reduced or eliminated from gasoline. Corn-based ethanol and other substances will be used as a replacement.

Economic Benefits

Profits from natural foods businesses

In 1990, sales of organic food reached $1 billion; projected sales for 1999 were $6.46 billion;
"Natural food" supermarkets are more than a $25 billion catagory, growing at 15% to 20% a year;
Annual sales for Wild Oats, a Colorado-based natural foods supermarket, were nearly $900 million in 2001;
Whole Foods Market grew sales to $2.27 billion in 2001, up from $1.83 billion the previous year.

Sources of Information

Christian Science Monitor: November 11, 2000.

Government Accounting Office, "Pesticides

Use, Effects, and Alternatives to Pesticides in Schools"; November, 1999.

"Sierra," the magizine of the Sierra Club; May/June, 1999.

"Sierra";September/October 1999.

Turning Point Project; New York Times; January 31, 2000.

U.S. News & World Report; November 8, 1999.

New York Times; November 23, 1999.

The Breast Cancer Fund: Breast Cancer 2000: An Update on Facts, Figures and Issues.

New York Times; February 15, 2000.

Smithsonian Magazine; November 1999.