Cancer is nearly everywhere; it is one of the most complicated and
disturbing diseases that face Americans on an everyday basis. One in
three people are affected by this deadly illness. Virtually everyone
in the United States knows someone who has cancer, if they do not they
will surely meet some in their lifetime. Cancer is not one solitary
disease, there are over one hundred different types of cancer and they
are found all over the world. There are various factors in assessing
the epidemic of cancer, in this paper I am going to look at some
environmental issues that have been the cause in many cases of two
major types of cancer: breast cancer and childhood leukemia. (1)
Breast cancer is one the most common cancers in the United States.
Primarily it affects woman, only 1 per cent of cases are male. (1)
Activists, such as the Silent Spring Institute, which is a research
foundation that studies potential relations between environmental
dangers and women?s health (3), advocate that exposure to certain
pesticides that were not originally in the environment may be
accountable. Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, also known as DDT, is
a pesticide that has been used all over the world to fight malaria,
lice, and Colorado Potato beetles. DDT was invented by accident by
German chemist Othmar Zeilder, and then patented in the United States
in 1943. Biologist Rachel Carson blew the whistle on this deadly
poison with her books ?Silent Spring? in 1962 and then again with ?Our
Stolen Future.? DDT was banned in the United States in 1972 (4)
The significantly developed areas of the northeastern United States
(New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut) stood out in reports of
geographical patterns of breast cancer frequencies. (3) During the
time between 1982 and 1990 the women of Cape Cod, Massachusetts showed
a 20 per cent higher occurrence of breast cancer than that of the rest
of the state. The Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition wanted to know
why. They knew that ?there had been spraying of the bogs where
cranberries grew, spraying of golf courses to protect weeds, and
spraying of trees to control gypsy moths?there was a U.S. Air Force
base on the Cape that has carelessly discharged fuel wastes, unused
explosives, and other chemical wastes?that seeped into the
groundwater.? (3) In 1994, to explore what environmental aspects had a
part in the prevalence of breast cancer, the Silent Spring Institute
started conducting a long-term study on the women in the Cape Cod
area.
In a state financed research study done in Long Island, New York,
found a resembling pattern as that of Cape Cod. Long Island reported
that they were 15 per cent higher than the rest of the state for
breast cancer happenings. The report was done on areas that were near
industrial toxic waste dumps. Breast cancer organizations then rallied
congress to fund an investigation to see if there was a link to
pesticides and breast cancer on Long Island. The study consisted of
two groups of women. One group who had been diagnosed with breast
cancer and the other group of women had not been diagnosed and they
both had been exposed to the same risk factors during the same time
period. The Long Island study is also weighing in electromagnetic
fields as a factor as well. (3)
The Silent Spring Institute did a further report on vicinities of high
and low rates in Newton, Massachusetts from 1982 until 1992. Major
discoveries were, only 5 per cent of the difference between high and
low areas were a result of reproductive history and family history of
breast cancer and a 14 per cent difference was contributed to
environmental factors such as education and use of pesticides. In all
of the studies done with women who had been in contact with pesticides
or chemicals, the women who were around it more were higher in breast
cancer regions compared to those women who had not been in contact
with them except for the women who handled flea and tick products. The
women who were around the flea and tick products were in the low
section. (9)
In the Bronx there is a public park named Pelham Bay Park. A portion
of the park became a landfill for the neighborhoods garbage,
construction and commercial waste in 1963. For the next fifteen years
the residents around Pelham Bay had to with stand the tainted air and
unsightliness of the park until in 1978 when the dumping was stopped.
In 1986 the first of many cases of childhood leukemia surfaced in this
small region. Studies were done and benzene (a well known carcinogen,
known for causing leukemia) and other toxic elements were found in the
air, in the ground and in the water surrounding the town. Pelham Bay
Park and the children who had leukemia that lived there is sadly not
an isolated story. (3)
In 1979, in Woburn, Massachusetts, two wells and a lagoon that had
high quantities of chromium, arsenic, lead and other chemicals were
exposed. These pollutants are to blame for a cluster of childhood
leukemia cases. These cases spawned a book and a movie ?A Civil
Action.? In Pelham and in Woburn the stories are comparable. Company?s
mismanagement of toxic waste. The toxins? entered the water table in
Woburn and was leaked into the towns? drinking water. In water samples
taken from the wells, arsenic was 1099.95 parts per million over the
federal standards. Chromium was 77999.95 parts per million over in
another well. The chemicals were not the only matter found under the
soil; animal hair and drums overflowing with slaughterhouse wastes
were found. (6)
Eight cases of childhood leukemia occurred in 2000, in a small town
Fallon, Nevada, which is located 60 miles east of Reno. Twice as much
arsenic as allowed by law was found contaminating the drinking water
in this rural town. There are currently studies going on to find the
cause of these cases. Director of quality risk management for
Churchill Community Hospital in Fallon, Arlene McDonnell has said,
?some people speculate about the effect of nuclear testing outside
Fallon in the 1960s or activities associated with the Fallon Naval Air
Station.? (5)
In Toms River, New Jersey another cluster of childhood leukemia was
discovered. In a study done in 1997 by the New Jersey Department of
Health found that between 1979 and 1995 the children of Toms River
were four times higher than the rest of the state with leukemia. (3)
The neighborhoods in Toms River were livid and wanted some answers.
There were two companies polluting the land these people lived on.
First there is The Ciba-Geigy Corporation that ran a dye manufacturing
plant from 1952 to 1990 in the New Jersey town-ship. The company
hoarded their unused and desecrated materials in almost 70,000 barrels
or the materials were treated and drained underground to the Atlantic
Ocean. In 1983, it was found that the draining wastes were seeping
into the underground water lines and in 1989 they were mandated to
clean the site and the water. The second company was the Union Carbide
Corporation. In 1971 the landlord of the Reich Farm rented out a
section of his farm to the company. The same year 4,500 garbage
barrels were found deserted on the property, reading Union Carbide
Corp. on the side of them, also there were ditches filled with waste
products. This land also was above the aquifer that was the major
water source for the town. Then in the mid1990s, there were 90 kids
that were diagnosed with leukemia. (7)
The New Jersey Department of Health and the federal Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry did a study to estimate if there were
any links to the pollution and the childhood cancers. 199 families
were questioned, of those 40 of the families had children with
leukemia. The studies results showed that there was not one sole
reason to be wholly responsible for the rise in cancer, but the
carcinogens that were found if mixed together could potentially cause
childhood leukemia. Also, girls that were exposed to the pollutants
before or after birth had a higher risk of contracting leukemia than
boys. (2)
There are numerous factors to which cancer can be attributed. Diet and
exercise are just two aspects, which are choices that one can make for
themselves. Landfills, pesticides, and pollution are effects that are
out of our control. Decades ago the harmfulness pesticides would have
on our society today were unknown. Now that we can test products to
discover what detrimental effects it will have on our culture we can
protect our children and grandchildren from sickness and disease. It
is extremely heartbreaking to read stories of these little children
who are continually getting sick and dying from apathetic people, who
are careless and indolent, or big corporations that throw the
chemicals and waste from their products into pits and wells that will
affect the surrounding communities. The environment has an
extraordinary impact on our lives, if we do not start taking care of
our environment, sooner of later there will not be an environment to
take care of us.
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References Cited
(1) www.cancermba.com
(2) www.eces.org/archive/ec/health/cancer.html
(3) Goldstein, I.F. 2002. How Much Risk? New York, New York.Oxford
University Press
(4) www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.htm
(5) www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg58321.html
(6) www.northshoreonline.com/woburn/lagoon.htm
(7) www.rarediseases.about.com/cs/leukemiasrare/a/031602.htm
(8) www.silentspring.org/newweb/research/cape.html
(9) www.silentspring.org/newweb/research/newton.html |
