The birth of my first grandchild changed the way I approach the world. As the months passed, I realized Juliette’s life would be a treacherous obstacle course with the avoidance of toxic chemicals as the biggest challenge. Now, the President’s Cancer Panel has issued a warning and the Cancer Society has pooh-poohed it as overstating risks. Huh?? Come again? I say, President Obama, pay attention. This is a crucial issue that needs immediate attention.
Five years ago all my energy went into locating organic cotton sheets, non-toxic cleansers, natural amenities for my green bed & breakfast. Juliette’s existence pushed me onto another level of greenness, a plateau where I thought about the significance of these choices. Why were so many chemicals necessary for the manufacture of non-organic cotton – up to 200, per plant, per season? Why would the United States Government allow us to use cleaning products that require a warning on the bottle to the effect that they may be dangerous to health? Why were Parabens and synthetic fragrance added to shampoos, lotions, soaps? Why had it become necessary to buy organic food and vegetables to avoid pesticide residue?Slowly I began to question the status quo because the future of my grandchild was at stake.
This transformation did not happen overnight. I started paying closer attention to investigative reporting on PBS. Public television had already increased my awareness of body burden in 2003, when Bill Moyers expressed shock at chemicals found in his own blood. I read articles on pollution and discovered DEET had been detected in municipal water in Chicago. I learned of the existence of endocrine disruptors, like phthalates. Then I listened to Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, interviewing Charles Duhigg, who recommended the use of a filter for tap water. I had tuned in after reading Duhigg’s report in The New York Times about water contamination caused by the popular weed killer Atrazine. A grandmother looks at the world through a different lens. What I saw was deplorable.
As Juliette exchanged her diapers for frilly cotton dresses, my sentences all seemed to start with HOW. How can farmers give cows artificial growth hormones so people drink a toxic brew rather than the pure milk our ancestors consumed? How did the government allow thousands of chemicals to enter the environment unchecked? How was no attention paid to the content of personal care products before they went on the market? How did flame-retardants (PBDEs) get into dust? How could perchlorate, a jet fuel additive, show up in breast milk? How was it possible to permit the application of bisphenol A (BPA) to sales receipts, not to mention baby bottles and the lining of canned goods? How did no one link the phenomenal increase in cancer to the toxic chemicals that are now pervasive in our environment?
“Just one thing of which you must beware: don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air,” sang Tom Lehrer on his album “That Was the Year That Was,” recorded in 1967. No longer could this song about the effects of pollution be laughed off. While I was raising my own children, Love Canal had happened. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire. Erin Brockovich brought down a California power company that was polluting a city’s water supply.
I never expected to emulate Erin Brockovich, but guess what? I’ve become an activist. Our utility company plans to spray up to five herbicides under the power lines here on Cape Cod. Federal law requires control of vegetation but not the use of toxic chemicals. We have sandy soil, private wells, a single source aquifer. These chemicals will filter into groundwater. I will march, write letters, lobby the State House. Whatever it takes. Polluting drinking water makes no sense.
On September 23, the EPA released a list of 104 “priority drinking water contaminants for regulatory consideration,” chosen “based on their potential to pose health risks through drinking water exposure.” Judging from reaction to the Presidential Cancer Panel’s conclusions, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson will need the support of regular citizens: bloggers, treehuggers, grandmothers, grandfathers. No doubt lobbyists for the chemical industry are already hard at work, shooting off denials at the panel’s claim chemicals cause cancer, figuring out new ways to avoid EPA regulation.
The welfare of future generations is at stake. Time to put two and two together. Toxic chemicals + food + water = people with disease.
You may not be a grandmother yet, but I invite you to join me. Get outraged.
Published in 2020 by MuseWrite Press in Impact, Personal Portraits of Activism, but it never gets old.
