A hidden epidemic is poisoning America. The toxins are in the air we
breathe and the water we drink, in the walls of our homes and the
furniture within them. We cant escape it in our cars. Its in cities and
suburbs. It afflicts rich and poor, young and old. And theres a reason
why youve never read about it in the newspaper or seen a report on the
nightly news: It has no name and no antidote.
The culprit behind this silent killer is lead. And vinyl. And formaldehyde.You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap
inside your parents. And asbestos. And Bisphenol A. And polychlorinated
biphenyls. And thousands more innovations brought to us by the
industries that once promised better living through chemistry, but
instead produced a toxic stew that has made every American a guinea pig
and has turned the United States into one grand unnatural experiment.
The
culprit behind this silent killer is lead. And vinyl. And formaldehyde.
And asbestos. And Bisphenol A. And polychlorinated biphenyls. And
thousands more innovations brought to us by the industries that once
promised better living through chemistry, but instead produced a toxic
stew that has made every American a guinea pig and has turned the United
States into one grand unnatural experiment.
Today, we are all
unwitting subjects in the largest set of drug trials ever. Without our
knowledge or consent, we are testing thousands [PDF] of suspected toxic
chemicals and compounds, as well as new substances whose safety is
largely unproven and whose effects on human beings are all but unknown.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) itself has begun monitoring our
bodies [PDF] for 151 potentially dangerous chemicals, detailing the
variety of pollutants we store in our bones, muscle, blood, and fat.
None of the companies introducing these new chemicals has even bothered
to tell us were part of their experiment. None of them has asked us to
sign consent forms or explained that they have little idea what the
long-term side effects of the chemicals theyve put in our environment
and so our bodies could be. Nor do they have any clue as to what the
synergistic effects of combining so many novel chemicals inside a human
body in unknown quantities might produce.
The story of how
Americans became unwitting test subjects began more than a century ago.
The key figure was Alice Hamilton, the mother of American occupational
medicine, who began documenting the way workers in lead paint pigment
factories, battery plants, and lead mines were suffering terrible
palsies, tremors, convulsions, and deaths after being exposed to lead
dust that floated in the air, coating their workbenches and clothes.
Soon
thereafter, children exposed to lead paint and lead dust in their homes
were also identified as victims of this deadly neurotoxin. Many went
into convulsions and comas after crawling on floors where lead dust from
paint had settled, or from touching lead-painted toys, or teething on
lead-painted cribs, windowsills, furniture, and woodwork.
Instead
of leveling with the public, the lead industry, through its trade
group, the Lead Industries Association [PDF], began a six-decade-long
campaign to cover up its products dire effects. It challenged doctors
who reported lead-poisoned children to health departments, distracted
the public through advertisements that claimed lead was safe to use, and
fought regulation of the industry by local government, all in the
service of profiting from putting a poison in paint, gasoline, plumbing
fixtures, and even toys, baseballs, and fishing gear.
The CDC
estimates that in at least 4 million households in the U.S. today
children are still exposed to dangerous amounts of lead from old paint
that produces dust every time a nail is driven into a wall to hang a
picture, a new electric socket is installed, or a family renovates its
kitchen.Compare prices and buy all brands of luggagetagfor
home power systems and by the pallet. It estimates that more than
500,000 children ages 1 to 5 have elevated levels of lead in their
blood. (No level is considered safe for children.) Studies have linked
lost IQ points, attention deficit disorders, behavioral problems,
dyslexia, and even possibly high incarceration rates to tiny amounts of
lead in childrens bodies.We offer over 600 chipcard at wholesale prices of 75% off retail.
Unfortunately,
when it came to the creation of Americas chemical soup, the lead
industry was hardly alone. Asbestos is another classic example of an
industrial toxin that found its way into peoples homes and bodies. For
decades, insulation workers, brake mechanics, construction workers, and a
host of others in hundreds of trades fell victim to the disabling and
deadly lung diseases of asbestosis or to lung cancer and the fatal
cancer called mesothelioma when they breathed in dust produced during
the installation of boilers,A group of families in a north Cork village
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in a landmark case. the insulation of pipes, the fixing of cars that
used asbestos brake linings, or the spraying of asbestos on girders.
Once again, the industry knew its products dangers early and worked
assiduously to cover them up.
Despite growing medical knowledge
about its effects (and increasing industry attempts to downplay or
suppress that knowledge), asbestos was soon introduced to the American
home and incorporated into products ranging from insulation for boilers
and piping in basements to floor tiles and joint compounds. It was used
to make sheetrock walls, roof shingles, ironing boards, oven gloves, and
hot plates. Soon an occupational hazard was transformed into a threat
to all consumers.
Today, however, these devastating
industrial-turned-domestic toxins, which destroyed the health and
sometimes took the lives of hundreds of thousands, seem almost quaint
when compared to the brew of potential or actual toxins were regularly
ingesting in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we
eat.
Of special concern are a variety of chlorinated
hydrocarbons, including DDT and other pesticides that were once spread
freely nationwide, and despite being banned decades ago, have
accumulated in the bones, brains, and fatty tissue of virtually all of
us. Their close chemical carcinogenic cousins, polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs), were found in innumerable household and consumer products like
carbonless copy paper, adhesives,Bay State parkingguidance is
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paints, and electrical equipment from the 1950s through the 1970s. Were
still paying the price for that industrial binge today, as these
odorless, tasteless compounds have become permanent pollutants in the
natural environment and, as a result, in all of us.
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