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Toxic substances are everywhere, two UW profs say
From United Press International (in the Wisconsin State Journal)
Toxic substances endanger the health of virtually every Wisconsin resident, two University of Wisconsin professors told the Assembly Natural Resources Committee Thursday.
“Where are toxics substances?” asked Joseph Delfino, director of the UW Environmental Sciences Section and state Laboratory of Hygiene. “They’re everywhere.”
John Rankin, chairman of the UW Department of Preventive Medicine, said asbestos and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) were recognized as chief among the toxic substances threatening man today.
Rankin said epidemiological studies indicated asbestos was the cause of between 35 and 44 percent of cancer deaths. He said between 8 million and 11 million workers have been exposed to asbestos since World War II.
“PCBs we can find anywhere we look for them today.” Ranking said. He said they could be found in the fat of polar bears in the arctic and the milk of nursing mothers.
Rankin also said substances found in plastics were the cause of many deaths during fires. He said many deaths ruled due to smoke inhalation were really caused by poisonous gases from plastic materials burned in fires.
Rankin said new chemicals were being produced at the rate of 2,000 a year, but it takes at least three years to test one for harmful effects.
Delfino said that besides cancer and death, toxic substances can cause behavior abnormalities, genetic mutations, reproductive malfunctions or physical deformities.
Both urged legislators to establish an agency that could monitor and control the production and disposal of toxic substances in Wisconsin. Rankin estimated initial costs at between $100,000 and $200,000 a year on a contingency basis.
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Wow! What bold, clear conclusions and proposals from these university profs!
Too bad they were written in 1979, not 2021.
What if we had actually established a state agency in the late 70s or early 80s to “monitor and control the production and disposal of toxic substances in Wisconsin,” as these scientists proposed?
When they made these bold proposals, “forever chemical” PFAS compounds had been manufactured since the 1940s and had been in people’s bodies for decades. Internal corporate and military studies in the 50s and 60s showed they were toxic. But UW and State Lab of Hygiene scientists hadn’t measured them yet–or if they had, it wasn’t shared publicly.
Now, in 2021, far too late, we are just starting to measure PFAS everywhere.
And the thousands of “older” chemicals these scientists raised concerns about–PCBs, asbestos, plastic– are far from gone. They are still “everywhere” and still cause cancers, deaths, “behavior abnormalities, genetic mutations, reproductive malfunctions or physical deformities”–and a whole lot more. Since 1979, thousands of new chemicals have been created by chemists and most are in our air, water, soils, food, and bodies.
Scientists knew plastic compounds caused endocrine disruption by the 1960s, if not earlier. How many millions of tons of toxic plastics have been produced since then? We all know the story. Now “micro-plastics” are being found in the ocean, in fish, in food, and in placentas of unborn babies. As a source in the article sadly says, “babies are being born pre-polluted.”
Many thousands of scientific studies (perhaps millions–it’s impossible to count, there are so many) have documented direct and indirect associations between these hazardous materials, toxic chemicals and health problems and diseases that cause millions of deaths worldwide every year.
Where is the public outrage now? Where are the scientists with bold proposals to do something about it? Sadly, since the 1960s (prompted by Rachel Carson’s brilliant book on pesticides) and the 1970s (when PCBs were found everywhere), scientists, politicians, media, and public have seemingly become accustomed to toxic chemicals being everywhere.
In the 1970s, people were shocked to learn that PCBs were everywhere and they were regulated and banned by the end of the decade. Now? It would take several books to unpack how things have changed since the 1970s when it comes to toxic chemicals and health. Suffice it to say, we live in a very different world. For a taste, read some of our past posts on Kipp’s PCBs and Truax Field’s PFAS…
