Cape Cod Times Publishes Op-Ed on Glyphosate

Yesterday the Cape Cod Times published an op-ed I wrote for its column My View. My piece contains important information. In case you do not get the CCT, here's the text:

"May I make a confession? A decade ago I tried to kill my mom’s Virginia creeper by spraying it repeatedly with Roundup. This mindless act took place before I became an environmental activist, before NStar decided to use glyphosate under the power lines, before I learned how toxic the world’s most popular weed-killer is.

Chemical companies prey on non-scientific types like me. Surely their products would not be for sale were they dangerous? Surely the EPA has investigated their toxicity? Why else would Roundup-ready crops have been approved for use across America?

The truth is, tens of thousands of unregulated chemicals are currently manufactured and marketed here. Like stealth agents, they have infiltrated our lives. The chemical industry works hard to make people believe their products are safe, but many chemicals are proving harmful to health.

The industry gives these substances unpronounceable names like polycholorinated- biphenyl or polybrominated-diphenyl-ether. Recently the media created acronyms which are easier to retain. More consumers now recognize PCB, BPA and PBDE, and try to avoid them – not such an easy task.

Here’s what you may encounter in a single day: In the home or school: toxic cleansers. At the office: toxic dust that contributes to infertility. In the kitchen: organopesticide residue on fruit and veggies. At the checkout counter: BPA-coated cash register receipts. In the bedroom: flame-retardant mattresses. In the bathroom: skin products made with phthalates, an estrogen-mimic that is believed to increase breast cancer risk and may contribute to obesity. Since thousands of toxic chemicals exist, let’s focus in on one: glyphosate, the main ingredient in my bottle of Roundup.

When I sprayed Mom’s Virginia creeper, I had no idea I was using a poison. Sure, I saw the “precautionary statements” of “hazards to humans & domestic animals” on the label and the “Notice: Buyer assumes all responsibility for safety and use not in accordance with directions.” What I did not know then is that glyphosate has been linked to birth defects and is considered an endocrine disruptor.

Endocrine disruptor? Think of a hormonal train making stops within the fetus as it develops. If all goes well, the hormonal messages get to their destinations. Cells develop normally. But toxic chemicals can derail the messengers. The most critical period, the period you really do not want derailment, is pregnancy. ADHD may be one result.

Exposure to pesticides has also been linked to autism. “Certain pesticides are believed to alter thyroid function, interfere with brain development and cause deficits in cognitive functions in the developing fetus,” reveals the Endocrine Disruption page at beyondpesticides.org.

And, emerging science indicates endocrine disruptors can create adverse biological effects at lower doses than previously suspected.

Two years ago I force-fed myself a science diet in order to understand what would result from NStar’s arbitrary switch to herbicidal spraying. I learned glyphosate does not break down easily. It will filter through our sandy soil and contaminate Cape Cod’s sole-source aquifer.

A Swedish study reported a higher incidence of Parkinson disease amongst farmers who use glyphosate. American farmers, who plant Roundup-ready crops, find themselves obliged to use more herbicides than ever before as weeds have become resistant to the chemical. Super weeds, ADHD, breast cancer, birth defects, Parkinson’s, infertility …

So, where’s the good news? The Safe Chemicals Act, a bill that seeks to regulate toxic chemicals, is now before Congress and, last week, Senator John Kerry signed on as a co-sponsor.

What of my mom’s Virginia creeper? I didn’t even manage to kill the damn thing. And, Roundup remains prominently displayed in your local hardware store. Don’t buy it.

Got weeds? Try vinegar."

Kristof Speaks Out on Toxic Chemicals in Environment

Hurray for Nicholas Kristof who tackles toxic chemicals in an op ed in yesterday's New York Times. It's a subject I have written about over and over, as regular readers of this blog know. Please read How Chemicals Change Us, share with loved ones, and make sure to contact your senators about supporting the Safe Chemicals Act.

Thinking Toxic Chemicals Again

This week brought not one, but two articles in mainstream media regarding the omnipresence of toxic chemicals in our environment and in non-organic food.

The article “Don’t Believe that Label” in The Atlantic even links to Silent Spring Institute for tips on greening your cleaning and personal care products. The second piece deals with noxious plastic packaging and appeared in the Washington Post. “The whole system is stacked in favor of the food and packaging companies and against the protecting of public health,” Nudelman, of the Breast Cancer Fund, is quoted as having said. Of course, the American Chemical Council makes its asinine assertions that “there is no cause for concern.” Does anyone still believe them??

I’m glad to see my younger daughter is now Facebooking this stuff, too. She linked to the WaPo article so her friends could become informed, noting, “Researchers have found traces of styrene, a likely carcinogen, in instant noodles sold in polystyrene cups. They’ve detected nonylphenol — an estrogen-mimicking chemical produced by the breakdown of antioxidants used in plastics — in apple juice and baby formula. They’ve found traces of other hormone-disrupting chemicals in various foods: fire retardants in butter, Teflon components in microwave popcorn, and dibutyltin — a heat stabilizer for polyvinyl chloride — in beer, margarine, mayonnaise, processed cheese and wine. They’ve found unidentified estrogenic substances leaching from plastic water bottles.”

This is all very shocking. Why is it still going on? Because the FDA has been infiltrated by people who support the interests of Big Ag and chemical companies, like Monsanto.

I decided to print out the WaPo article for Wellfleet Marketplace management. I understand how difficult it is for shopkeepers to avoid these chemicals. Difficult? Impossible.

Wellfleet Marketplace does a good job of providing a selection for folks who must eat gluten-free. It's also possible to buy grass-fed local beef from a farm in Truro. Some organic food is for sale, too. On the door, there’s a sign, albeit, SMALL, suggesting shoppers bring their own bags. Still, I feel more must be done.

I went in to deliver the article yesterday, but the manager was out. At the cash register, the cashier pulled out a "cornstarch" bag for the customer in front of me.

"No thanks," the young man said. "I go green."

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone in town adopted this attitude?

Treasures from the Sea

When Sven and I were out walking at Duck Harbor last week, we passed a woman collecting shells and other treasures. She let me peek in her, ahem, plastic, ahem, bag, and take this lovely photograph. As I think about the latest news regarding toxic chemicals in the environment, I cannot help but notice the difference between the plastic, manmade, and the contents, nature-made. Do you sometimes feel as exasperated as I do with the Federal government? Today I read that the signatures on the Just Label It petition, one million strong, submitted last week to the FDA, were counted as ONE comment, not one million. This is ludicrous behavior. (Read why you should oppose GMOs here.) Every day brings new studies confirming toxic chemicals need regulation. Last week the FDA refused to ban BPA in packaging, as requested by the National Resources Defense Council and in infant formula. The numbers for autism have been lowered to one boy baby in 54. This will have incredible repercussions on society, not to mention the anguish for the parents of those children. Yesterday the New York Times Magazine ran a long article about the advancing age of puberty in little girls. Hel-lo?? Something is out of whack here. The President’s Cancer Panel, in its report last year, suggested chemicals probably are responsible for the increase in cancer cases. Women are getting breast cancer at an increasingly younger age, too, due to the estrogen mimics in our environment. Toxic chemicals. Who dares to deny the cause and effect? Our government. This is unacceptable. We need Congress to enact the Safe Chemicals Act. Folks at the Environmental Working Group must be tearing out their hair. Please read this message if you have Facebook, support the work of the EWG, and take measures to protect your own family.

On Point Does Show on Chemicals in the Environment

Excellent discussion Monday on BUR's On Point. The NPR show is entitled, "Household Cancer Hazards." Find an hour to listen to Dr. Julia Brody and Ruthann Rudel from the Silent Spring Institute, as well as Lynn Goldman, Dean of the School of Public Health and Health Services at George Washington University. Toxic chemicals were found to exist even in some products a consumer would judge safe, based on labels. "Are we living in an environment, in which we bring products into our homes, that turn into a menace to our own health?" is just one of the questions Tom Ashbrook asked. Find out which products are safe, and which not so much.

Update: Yesterday there was an article in the New York Times on this subject, mentioning Slow Death by Rubber Duck. Of course, there's a denial-of-potential-harm statement by a member of the American Chemical Council. What will it take to turn this situation around? Have you asked your senator to support the Safe Chemicals Act yet??

Do You Get It?

Here on Cape Cod, we do not need four herbicides sprayed under our power lines. (Tell the EPA to ban glyphosate by signing this petition.) Toxic chemicals will get into our sole-source aquifer. Traces will end up in drinking water. Years from now, our children will look back and say, why did you not stop this?

Did you know that a study, relating to Cape Cod, was published by Boston University this week? The neurotoxin PCE, used from the late 1960s to the 1980s as vinyl-lining in the pipes of eight Cape communities – but, fortunately, not Wellfleet – leached into drinking water. Cape Codders who were exposed to PCE before birth, or as infants and toddlers, are believed to have an increased risk of drug-related problems, "risky behavior," later in life. (Hat tip to Sharyn, who forwarded this article.) Will these people also get cancer, since PCE is a carcinogen?

Last week The New York Times reported a probable link between the use of Tylenol (acetaminophen) in childhood and asthma.

How many new studies do we need? Every week fresh information on the side effects of synthetic chemicals pops up and nothing is done about it. The FDA and the EPA are like hobbled horses. Chemical companies, bent on profit, hold the reins now. Yesterday EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson called for limits on mercury emissions, but will these new standards get blocked by Congress and the courts?

If I sound a bit hysterical, it's because I am. Last winter I read Pollution: The Making of Our Chemically Altered Environment by Benjamin Ross and Steven Amter, a book which describes how the chemical industry has systematically avoided regulation. These policies continue. When will we all wake up?

There has been a major miscalculation over the 60 years since the end of World War II. Synthetic chemicals have residual effects beyond their original use. We need to take this into account ourselves, since our government seems incapable of doing so. Toxic chemicals, once created and exploited, can remain in the environment for decades and will harm us. We may absorb them through the water we drink. We may take some into our bodies in the air we breathe, like, for instance, diesel fumes, (which may soon be better regulated in Boston). They can be on non-stick cookware and get into cooked food. Even non-organic food is dangerous, laden with pesticide residue and carrying the risk of BPA leached from packaging.

I feel like Cassandra, crying a warning. In shock I watched a video from Monsanto in which company reps explained to farmers that they must do whatever it takes to rid their fields of weeds resistant to Roundup. No thought is given to the toxic effect of additional pesticides in our food and groundwater. No one speaks out to ask why Roundup Ready crops have failed and require more pesticides, not less.

McKay Jenkins gets it. His book What’s Gotten Into Us? Staying Healthy in a Toxic World sounds the alarm. He hopes that if we change our focus and approach the problem as “a health issue that affects kids”, environmentalists may get more traction.

Carcinogen abolitionist Sandra Steingraber gets it. The author of Living Downstream and Raising Elijah got cancer at age 20. She looked around and asked herself why. Her examination of the evidence led to conclusions, which she explains at the Breast Cancer Action Web site.

I, too, wonder at the disconnect between what the “scientific community knows about environmental carcinogens (quite a lot) and what cancer patients are told (very little).”

How can we change this situation? Elect legislators who get it. Support groups like Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families.
In the meantime, do the best you can to protect your loved ones from the stealth toxins that have become part of 21st century life.

I like to hope that, over the past few years, posts like this one have helped you become more aware of the dangers posed by synthetic chemicals in the environment. Would I be correct in this assumption? I know, at least, that my own adult children pay more attention to the pollution of food, water, and air. Do you?

Fight Back: Choose Healthy Alternatives

Polly Schlaff’s November 18th post at Reclaiming Our Families, republished yesterday by Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, was so moving that I decided to share it with you. Since you read Chezsven Blog, you are already aware that the environment today is jam-packed with toxins, a very different situation from the pre-war society my parents and Sven’s parents inhabited. All four passed away in their nineties, of natural causes, not cancer. Many of us will not be that fortunate.

What chemicals? 80,000 strong, toxic chemicals are everywhere, unregulated. Take the supermarket shelf for instance, in this case, Wellfleet Marketplace will serve as a local example. I didn’t have time yesterday to turn over all these cleaning products and check the ingredients, but chances are many are hazardous to health. We have learned to live with chemicals in our air and water. (The Midwest even has glyphosate in rainwater now!) But we have choices and can choose to avoid them. Your dollar is your means of fighting back. Don't buy the nasty stuff.

A neighbor insists on Tide, although we both have septic systems and well water. Local well water, brought up from the ground, must contain some chemicals from her laundry rinse because the septic does not filter them out. Ecover and Seventh Generation are safer, both available at Wellfleet Marketplace.

Some people say Ecover and Seventh Generation are expensive at purchase. This may be so but shouldn’t we put health first?

Others say they add dryer sheets to the chemical cocktail that’s assaulting their body because the laundry smells fresher. Honestly, isn’t it wiser to cut the crappy chemicals out of our lives, since the government has not yet seen fit to do so yet?

Behind every toxic chemical stands a lobbyist. You can’t hear my fingers but I’m rubbing them together, the French way of indicating $$$.

The chemical industry even hires people to read blogs like mine. Imagine! They have that much extra money to spend. Oh, yes. They intend to keep toxic chemicals present in our lives. It's their livelihood.

I was amazed a couple weeks ago that a representative of that slippery stuff on modern flying pans zeroed in on this humble blog and commented that her company’s product was quite safe. Hel-lo?? We know better, don’t we? We have read Slow Death by Rubber Duck and other books on pollution.

It’s crucial that pressure be applied to legislators to let them know mothers and fathers across this mighty land of ours will no longer tolerate unregulated chemicals in the environment. Call your senator today and ask if he/she supports the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011, under consideration in Congress. Your children and grandchildren will thank you for speaking out on their behalf.

Are You An Environmentalist?

I was wondering today what the opposite of “environmentalist” is. Choose one:
1.) Litter bug/polluter,
2.) Earth squanderer,
3.) Capitalist.

Reporter Jeff McMahon asked this very question of his readers two years ago, and no one could come up with an exact antonym, at least no antonyms that weren’t pejorative.

The definition is “a person who is concerned with or advocates the protection of the environment.”

One reason to advocate is pollution. We are polluting ourselves out of existence. When you think about it, we should all be environmentalists.

Did you know this week is Pollution Prevention Week? (Do visit the EPA site and get some ideas on preventing pollution.)

I have not always been an environmentalist. I trusted the government to take care of the earth. But now I realize, with regret, that my trust was misplaced. Different times require different behavior. Environmentalism had almost gone out of style. But that, too, is changing. Bloggers can spread the word on how desperate the situation has become. We need to fight pollution on all fronts.

There’s plastic pollution, something I have weighed in on already.

Toxic synthetic chemicals surround us, polluting modern life. (Watch this brilliant short video from the Environmental Working Group and join the movement.)

In the Midwest, the air and water are polluted with glyphosate. Pesticide residue pollutes the food we eat. Monsanto has polluted our seeds with the insertion of GMOs.

The government will soon decide whether or not to allow the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, despite the ground swell of opposition to fracking and the fact that such a procedure will create pollution of the drinking water of millions of people.

Here on Cape Cod, NStar intends to pollute our sole-source aquifer by spraying four herbicides under the power lines. You may have seen the spectacular banners on Outer Cape bridges this month, created by Femke Rosenbaum of CWAACC (Clean Water Art Action Cape Cod). We don't want herbicides to trickle down. We cannot allow this pollution to move forward. These herbicides will remain in our drinking water for generations, creating chronic disease.

Do you consider yourself an environmentalist?

Toxic Chemicals Update ...

A reader requested an update on the NStar situation, so here goes: nothing has changed. NStar still intends to spray four herbicides under the power lines.

The good news? More people are realizing we are poisoning our environment. There was an article this week in Grist about glyphosate showing up in air and water. Another article in Mother Jones indicates glyphosate harms soil. And, WSNBC shared info on a large study showing pesticide residue leads to ADHD in children. (Glyphosate is sold retail as Roundup. Don't buy it!)

Also, good news for one hard-working environmentalist: Sandra Steingraber was awarded a $100,000 Heinz Award yesterday. Today, she donated this money to the fight against fracking. Hats off, Dr. Steingraber!

The bad news, here on Cape Cod? As I said, no movement from NStar despite the letters, banners, petitions. And, there is more local use of glyphosate to worry about … Did you hear the National Seashore plans to apply it to the phragmites at Herring Pond?

I called the Seashore yesterday to protest and spoke to Shelly Hall, Chief of Natural Resources, who said she understood my concerns. She said the project has been cleared with regional pest management, blah, blah, blah. They would use syringes, blah, blah, blah, and no surfactant, in a “highly controlled application.” They feel the threat to the ecosystem of having these reeds take over the ponds is not something the Seashore can permit. I asked, if there were no other way to get rid of phragmites, which I actually happen to like. “No, there is not,” she replied.

Actually, this information is not true. A machine exists to do the job, but the rental of this machine is expensive. (Source is Tracy Plaut, who used to live on Nantucket with husband Swede. "After we sued the town over the use of the herbicides, they brought in a piece of machinery that pulled them out at the root. It was more expensive which is why they wanted to do the chemicals in the 1st place, but effective. Swede said he doesn't remember who they rented the machinery from, but we know they didn't have to do it again for as long as we lived there.")

As if I were not upset enough as is, I read on the NRDC blog that President Obama and his staff have sided with the chemical industry and ordered the EPA to stand down in its effort to control the solvent TCE, a known carcinogen. I immediately wrote the White House to protest. The President’s decision represents a giant step backwards. I realize the EPA is under attack from the Tea Party, but having the White House throw such a curve ball must be upsetting to all who work on behalf of the environment.

Does this new development worry you? If so, what are you going to do about it? Are you inspired by Dr. Steingraber's donation?

Join the Movement to Regulate Toxic Chemicals

Walking at Newcomb Hollow last month, I noticed residue from boogie boards had washed up on the beach. What are boogie boards made of? The material looks suspiciously like polystyrene to me. Styrene is a known carcinogen.

Let's think about health a different way today. Imagine for a moment that HEALTH stands for

Help
Eradicate
A
Life-
threatening
Hazard.

I’m talking toxic chemicals. They are everywhere and must be regulated. We do not need them in our environment.

I received a comment on a recent blog post that neighbors were posting “Organic Lawn” signs, the way people used to post “Just Fertilized.” This gives me hope. But how far we must travel to take advantage of the legislation, proposed by Senator Kerry and Senator Moran (Endocrine-disruptive Chemicals Exposure Elimination Act) and Senator Lautenberg (Safe Chemicals Act)! Every day I hear about a new study indicating toxic chemicals can cause disease or that exposure has consequences on health.

There’s rocket fuel in Rialto, CA wells. Not good to drink the stuff. (Remember how shocked everyone was in 2005 when rocket fuel was detected in the breast milk of women in 18 states?)

The New York firefighters, those who responded to 9/11, are more at risk of cancer due to toxic chemicals in the dust they breathed in while trying to save lives at the World Trade Center. What was in the dust? Benzene and asbestos, among other things. According to today's Guardian, "Some contaminants in the World Trade Center dust, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and dioxins, are known carcinogens."

Studies confirm school age kids have lower IQs when their mothers are exposed to pesticides during pregnancy.

POPs may be linked to type 2 diabetes, according to a new Finnish study.

Locally, NStar intends to spray four herbicides under 150 miles of power lines on Cape Cod. One of these toxic chemicals is glyphosate, which has been detected in air and water in the Midwest. No wonder. More and more weed-killer must be sprayed on American fields because Roundup Ready crops don’t work and require additional herbicide, not less, as Monsanto had promised.

Endocrine-disruptors are often estrogen-mimics and are believed to cause breast cancer, reproductive problems, and the feminization of male frogs. Barnstable County already has a high rate of breast cancer. We do not need herbicides filtering down into our sole-source aquifer …

To make matters worse, the Tea Party is taking aim at the environmental regulations already in place.

The media ignores any studies that hint at the risk toxic chemicals pose, although a new study seems to get published every day. If bloggers and Facebookers do not spread the word, who will?

What can you do about this situation?

1.) Think HEALTH: Help eradicate this life-threatening hazard, toxic chemicals in our food, air and water. Support the movement. (I follow Safe Planet, created by the United Nations, contribute to Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families and watch for new reports about toxic chemicals on Cape Cod from Silent Spring Institute.)
2.) Get educated on the risks toxic chemicals pose.
3.) Tell friends and family.
4.) Write your legislators.
5.) Eat organic.
6.) Filter drinking water.
7.) Pray?

I have been posting every month or so about how toxic chemicals pose a risk to health. Has my writing made any difference in the way you perceive toxic chemicals?

Another Letter to the Editor Published Yesterday

The piece of glass above sticks out of the sand. We can see it, avoid stepping on the jagged edges and hurting ourselves. Not an option with pesticide residue on fruit or traces of herbicides in a glass of water. Here's my latest letter to the editor of the Cape Cod Times, entitled "Urge Senator Brown's Support on the Safe Chemicals Act," published yesterday:

I am very worried about the quality of Cape Cod drinking water. I have done extensive research over the past two years, since NStar decided to switch from mowing to spraying up to five herbicides under the power lines, and I have learned that these toxic chemicals can leach through the sandy soil into our sole-source aquifer.

Once chemicals get in our drinking water, there is little recourse, so we need to prevent this from happening. If it is known by tourists that drinking water is compromised with traces of endocrine-disruptive chemicals, tourists will stop coming. Real estate values will plummet.

I urge county government to take a firm stand against herbicides — not only those sprayed by NStar, but by all homeowners. Toxic chemicals need better regulation.

Please ask Sen. Brown to support the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011, now before Congress. Cape Cod is known for being a pristine place. Let's make sure it stays that way!

Please Support the MA Safer Alternatives Bill

Yesterday I spent the whole afternoon at my computer, composing a letter to the Chairs of the Joint-Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture. My letter explains why I support the Safer Alternatives bill and urge its passage in the MA House and Senate. The Safer Alternatives bill seeks to regulate toxic chemicals in everyday products here in our forward-thinking state of Massachusetts. The first hearing on the bill will take place July 12. Now that I have finished my letter, I am ready to help others with theirs.

Your letter can be much shorter than mine. Worry about BPA? Say so. Concerned when you see a friend using Windex? Let legislators know. Are you unlucky enough to have developed chemical sensitivities? Explain how the experience changed your life. What is important is to let legislators know citizens care about this issue.

There are lots of nasty toxic chemicals in everyday products: plastic water bottles, for instance. Furniture. Shampoo. Cosmetics. Yesterday, when I went to our new Wellfleet pharmacy, I saw Coppertone for sale and mentioned to the staff that next year their vote should go to one of the alternative and safer products listed in the Environmental Working Group Sunscreen Database. Today I received an email from the U.N.'s Safe Planet group about toxic dust in Boston buildings, dust that can cause reproductive problems. We need to do something about this situation now.

I will be your free scribe and editor. Have telephone and Mac, will use them.

If you prefer the online form, it can be easily filled out here.

Please take a moment to let legislators know you want chemicals like BPA regulated. We need to change the system. We need commonsense laws based on the precautionary principle. We need passage of the Safer Alternatives bill. Please help. Thank you!

Gloomy Thoughts on a Rainy Day ...

Over the past year I have accumulated a lot of Facebook friends who care about the environment and worry about the state of the world. Every day there seems to be more evidence indicating toxic chemicals are bad for the environment or additional research showing climate change is very real. Why don’t our legislators do something about these important matters?

Take yesterday’s article from Scientific American: Scientists Warn Chemicals May Be Altering Breast Development. Or, last week, 60 Minutes, Australia, apparently different programming from 60 Minutes, USA, brought a clear warning entitled, The Toxic Truth. Why doesn’t 60 Minutes, USA, report on this topic, too?

Yesterday a friend shared the five-page essay by Al Gore that will soon appear in Rolling Stone, entitled Climate of Denial. This piece came only days after Chris Hedges’ article The Sky Really Is Falling and a warning from scientists about the disastrous state of the oceans, worse than anyone had previously thought. The message in this Huffington Post article was echoed yesterday by CBS News: Mass Extinction Threat “Significant” in Oceans.

Locally, attempts to protect drinking water seem to fall on deaf ears. Of course, there’s the Cape Cod struggle against NStar, but I also follow the hydro-fracking controversy in Pennsylvania and New York, amazed to realize that word has gone out to legislators to support natural gas drilling, even if it pollutes groundwater.

A Green Room guest this week told me about Padukah, Kenntucky, where the aquifer was contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) and technetium-99 (Tc-99). She said the town was able to drill 800 feet down and find a second aquifer. Now, relate that to Cape Cod’s situation. There is no second aquifer here. We have a sole-source aquifer. If NStar is allowed to proceed with its plan to apply up to five herbicides under the power lines, our water will be contaminated with traces of these toxic chemicals. Glyphosate exposure may create birth defects in the unborn child: it does in lab animals.

Did you know toxic chemicals are also disrupting reproduction? Denmark reports sperm counts down 50%. Certain endocrine disruptors mimic estrogen. You have, no doubt, read about the feminization of frogs. I believe the same thing is happening to humans ...

Facebook postings in the Middle East led to revolution. Sometimes I wonder if that is where this country is heading. I wish we could clone Senators Frank Lautenberg and Bernie Sanders, who are obviously not swayed by lobbyists.

I also read a blog called Attainable Sustainable, where writer Kris Bordessa recommends one small change a day, reviving the art of sustainability. I think we should all apply this approach. But, I’m no longer sure all our little changes will save us, based on what Al Gore says, if legislators continue to put the wishes of corporate funders first.

Any ideas on what it will take to turn this dismal situation around?

7 Ways To Protect Loved Ones from E. D. on Earth Day

Above, Cape Coolers cross Uncle Tim’s Bridge during their annual Earth Day walk. Earth Day focuses attention on the environment, but I have been thinking about our environment for months, as regular readers may have remarked. Impossible to get out of my mind the January YouTube warning from Dr. Theo Colborn, who claims the issue of global warming is moot because endocrine disruption (E. D.) will get us first.

What is an endocrine disruptor? A “xenoestrogen” that “interferes with the synthesis, secretion, transport, binding, action, or elimination of natural hormones in the body that are responsible for normal cell metabolism, reproduction, development, and/or behavior.”

A xenostrogen is also called an estrogen mimic. They are, “industrially made compounds such as PCB, BPA and Phthalates, widely used in recent decades, that have estrogenic effects to the living organisms although they differ chemically from the naturally occurring estrogenic substances internally produced by their endocrine system. Their potential ecological and human health impact is recently under extensive study by many scientific institutions and independent researchers.” (Both definitions from Wikipedia.)

Exposure to endocrine disruptors prior to birth is especially critical. Studies have shown up to 200 different toxic chemicals in umbilical cord blood. As early as 1992, Danish medical doctors warned of a 50% drop in sperm count in the Northern Hemisphere over the previous 50 years due to endocrine disruption. So, let’s think about how Wellfleetians and visitors to the Outer Cape might encounter endocrine disruptors and learn to avoid them:

EATING: Canned goods are still lined with BPA; whether you bring cans from home, or buy cans here, if you eat what’s in those cans, you ingest BPA. Watch out for pesticide residue on fruit, especially cranberries, but also non-organic blueberries and strawberries. Eating out brings no guarantee meals will be chemical-free. Find out which restaurants serve organic produce. Buy fresh produce at farmers’ markets.

DRINKING: I believe any filter is better than none. At Chez Sven, we filter our water. Buy organic juices in glass bottles. Ask for squeezed organic oranges at breakfast. Join the local movement to stop NStar from spraying up to five herbicides under the power lines, which will put endocrine-disruptors in our sole-source aquifer, ie. the water we will drink for generations.

RENTING: Many rentals are sprayed with insecticides before each season to prevent ant infestation. Tell your rental agent you prefer ants to a risk of toxic chemical residue on surfaces children may touch. Demand the folks who clean your rental use non-toxic cleaners.

SUNBATHING: Avoid tanning agents that contain parabens and other endocrine disrupters. Check the products you buy at the Environmental Working Group 2010 Sunscreen Guide. (EWG also provides a cosmetic database called Skin Deep that was updated this month.)

HIKING: When you go out into the woods,
protect yourself from ticks, but eschew products with DEET. Instead obtain organic sprays that work, like Bite Blocker Xtreme Insect Repellent, available online. In a local department store, I found the shelves laden with DEET-products and one lone bottle of organic spray. (Today I wrote to the store and requested they go organic for the 2012 season.)

SHOPPING: We live in a plastic world. Do your part to turn this situation around. Bring your tote or basket when shopping. If an overzealous shopkeeper offers a plastic bag, say no. If he/she asks if you want a plastic bag, thank him/her for asking.

WASHING: Use natural soaps and safe detergent brands like Seventh Generation.

No time to watch Dr. Colborn’s video? Here’s a summary and please share with your loved ones on Earth Day: “If there is only one message you take home from this lecture, I want it to be that a vast number of widely dispersed fossil-fuel derived chemicals are altering how our children are constructed before they are born and how they behave and function in adulthood and could be posing a more imminent threat than climate change to the survival of humans and all living organisms on earth.”

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day?

Thoughts While Walking to Dyer Pond

Sven and I are fortunate to be able to walk through the woods to Dyer Pond, deep in the National Seashore. The walk only takes a dozen minutes or so. Every time we go, I'm struck by the magnificence of Nature. How almighty she is, how precious. I think of my children, my grandchildren. Why allow pollution? Why destroy the planet? What are Tea Partiers thinking in trying to dismantle the EPA? Since I've been doing a lot of reading prior to Earth Day, I looked at the blue, blue water of Dyer Pond and railed against the world greed has created.

My latest read, Pollution: The Making of Our Chemically Altered Environment by Benjamin Ross and Steven Amter. The book is not on our blue bookshelf because the text is too darn technical and rather depressing. Pollution recounts the conscious choices made right before, and right after, World War II, ie. how polluters went about ducking regulation and "corrupting democracy," in the words of Robert Kennedy, Jr..

It was Rachel Carson who turned the tide. Then, environmental crises at the end of the 1960s drew the attention of the public, and the EPA was created. I graduated from college in 1969 and remember how eagerly a friend's husband joined after law school. It only took a couple years for him to lament the limited purview of this environmental institution and leave government service.

Earth Day was proclaimed April 22, 1970, one day after my son's birth. I would love to say how far we have come, but we haven't. The chemical industry has us in a stranglehold and has no intention of letting go.

But, but, but, people like you and me can change that.

Yesterday I read an article in Salon about how a young writer's fear of having gotten cancer led him to realize the toxic chemical stew we live in may be making us sick.

I got an email this week from Breast Cancer Action, "the first national breast cancer organization to refuse funding from corporations that contribute to or profit from breast cancer so that our work remains uncompromised." BCA works to:

"Eliminate toxins that permeate our everyday lives and increase breast cancer rates.

Build national collaborations with under-served communities to overcome health inequity.

Put patients’ interests before corporate profits through legal and drug approval processes."

Wait. Read those statements again. BCA is targeting toxic chemicals in the environment and putting our interests ahead of corporate profits. We need more organizations like this one. That's where I will be sending a contribution this Earth Day.

I'm waiting for the tipping point, where people catch on, where toxic chemicals will be acknowledged as one cause of cancer, where politicians are brave enough to stand up to corporate interests.

Do you think that day will ever come?

Senator Lautenberg Introduces Safe Chemicals Act

Last week I attended a meeting regarding a Town Meeting warrant article that would require bio-degradable packaging for Wellfleet. The article was based on legislation enacted by Nantucket. Lydia Vivante, Chair of the Recycling Commission, led the discussion. This warrant article seems quite timely, for yesterday Senator Frank Lautenberg, of New Jersey, brought before Congress a bill called Safe Chemicals Act of 2011. Readers of this blog have often listened to my arguments in favor of the regulation of toxic chemicals in the environment. Now, it's time to do something about the situation. I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to support the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011. Please watch this video and spread the word. Thanks!

Why Think About Planet Earth Way Before Earth Day?

After an unseasonably cold week, milder temperatures show up in the forecast, and Dyer Pond will become even more appealing to our B&B guests. Sven and I still walk there when it’s cold at the ocean. Did you know the weatherman predicts snow for Friday? No doubt, the snow will contain more of the radiation that rode the winds across the northern hemisphere from Japan last week as rain. Oops! Sorry for that gloomy thought. I find myself thinking a lot about the modern world these days and the consequences for humanity of nuclear disaster, toxic chemicals in food and water, and other not-so-cheerful topics.

Did you know “most people use around 10 personal care products every day, with an average of 126 different ingredients,” most often not good for us? Environmental Working Group further emailed yesterday, “We'd like to believe that the government is policing the safety of all of the concoctions we put on our bodies, but it's not. Instead, these unregulated products pose uncertain dangers for our health and our environment.”

Strange. That’s exactly what I was thinking.

I don’t understand why our government doesn’t advocate for an environment free of toxins. Why can’t Michelle Obama take the obesity/diabetes issue a step further by mentioning recent research that indicates exposure to endocrine disruptive chemicals in the womb may play a role in the epidemic?

When I was a child, Smokey the Bear taught America not to litter. Over the past fifty years, consumerism has taken hold and corporations rule. Poor Smokey has been completely muzzled.

The more I read, the more upset I become.

New permits for oil rigs were handed out last week to potential polluters although the issue with BP's well has not been fixed. GMOs are not the answer, no matter what Monsanto may claim, and GMO seeds are spreading on the wind, endangering organic crops. (Check out the opinions of non-corporate specialists here.) The chemical industry defends BPA, a known endocrine disruptor, and will fight hard to defeat any effort at revision of the Toxic Chemicals Act, soon before Congress. Plastics end up in the stomachs of sea turtles, as well as in the fish we eat.

To make matters worse, most media outlets are owned by corporations, and in-depth reporting on the environment does not get much airtime.

But the Internet remains free and allows us to stay informed. We can read blogs like AttainableSustainable and make the necessary changes in our own lives, one day at a time. Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families offers Top Tips for Keeping Toxic Chemicals at Bay. Writer Jennifer Margulis tackles the subject of "pretty poisons" at Mothering Outside the Lines.

There was an article in the New York Times yesterday about food dyes. Chris Wragge asked this morning on CBS's The Early Show,"What is artificial food dye doing to your kids?"

Dare we hope regulation is on the way, that public opinion will force change?

If I am posting about this topic, it's because I know many of you are thinking along the same lines. Yesterday Irene emailed: “Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant. License runs out in 2012. NRC considering renewal through 2032. Check out Wikipedia. Now is the time. We should protest and insist that it be closed. There is no evacuation route on the Cape that would safeguard residents against nuclear fallout.”

It’s true. No valid evacuation route exists. As another blog reader commented on my post about closing Pilgrim nuclear plant, “What’s the plan? Swim east?”

In Wellfleet, Harriet, posted similar thoughts to Cape Cool Blog.

I was a member of the protest generation but did not protest the Vietnam war because I used to believe in the United States government. Then I moved to a foreign country and found myself obliged to defend American policies. Now I’m older and wiser. I have grandchildren, and I’m ready to protest.

Do you feel the same way? Are you ready to join the protest lines?

Hydro-Fracking Opponents Obtain Moratorium

There's no shale on Cape Cod, just sand. That's why our utility company's plan to spray herbicides under the power lines is such a bad idea. Toxic chemicals will filter down into our sole-source aquifer. We drink this water. In thinking about water, which we have not done here for a while, it's important to remember the battle being waged in New York and Pennsylvania where some legislators think injecting toxic chemicals into the ground to recover natural gas deposits is okay. It's not. New York State residents were able to obtain a moratorium until May 2011. Check out the details:

What Really Happened? Did We Win or Lose?

On Saturday, Governor Paterson issued an executive order barring horizontally-drilled high-volume hydraulic fracturing in New York State until July, 2011. At the same time, he vetoed a bill that would have barred all hydraulic fracturing in the state until May, 2011. .

Fact: New York is the first state in the union to legally impose a statewide moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF).

"Fact: The governor and both houses of the state legislature have called for a moratorium on HVHF because of substantial health and safety concerns.

Fact: By the time the executive order expires in July 2011, New York will have held off HVHF for three years-some HVHF well permit applications will have been sitting on the shelf in Albany for more than two and a half years.

Fact: Under the new executive order nothing is permitted now that was not already allowed under the de facto moratorium that's been in effect since June 2008.

At heart, the ultimate success of our efforts will depend upon one thing and one thing only-our ability to educate people about the realities of fracking. This was made evident last summer when two polls showed that an overwhelming majority of New Yorkers want nothing to do with fracking once they understand the risks involved. Every day that we can delay HVHF is another opportunity to provide the public with the facts."

For more information, go to Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy.

Why I HEART Dr. Gupta and Senator Lautenberg

Yesterday I wrote about blog abandonment and some of you rallied with comments, (thank you for that!), including a request for another photo of Uncle Tim's Bridge, above. I think it would be hard to stop posting, although there’s a good chance daily entries will be less of an option for me this winter. Next week B&B duties will diminish, but November is slated as renovation month at Seagull Cottage, so I will wield a paintbrush rather than a pen. It’s almost impossible to find blocks of hours to revise my novel when so many other circus rings are active and require attention. Facebook is in the middle ring and it sucks enormous amounts of time. I have discovered the site replaces the media to a certain extent in that Facebook friends often share news stories not covered in the press.

A status report by a Facebook friend alerted me to Sanjay Gupta’s participation in a New Jersey hearing on the regulation of toxic chemicals, organized by Senator Frank Lautenberg. I immediately shared this news: “Unable to move the Senate this session, Sen. Lautenberg of New Jersey took the debate on toxic chemicals to his home state. CNN's Sanjay Gupta is one of the people who testified that chemicals in the environment may be harming kids. (The rest of us, too, I might add.)”

Please read the CNN article or simply watch the video of Sanjay’s testimony. Dr. Gupta turned down the job of Surgeon General of the USA to retain his freedom, and it looks like this was the right decision.

I have not yet called for the first meeting of my green working group, and members are probably scratching their head as to why, but I do plan a November screening of Sandra Steingraber’s new award-winning documentary Living Downstream at the Wellfleet Public Library. I also continue my education on the impacts of body burden and endocrine disruption, and share what I learn here. So much to do, so little time!

Innkeeping is a job that requires work every day in season. What I mean is we do not get weekends off, unless we plan ahead. This is one of the reasons innkeepers burn out so fast, and why I harp on the fact that innkeeping is not an activity for retirement, unless, of course, one has the means to pay for help.

Are your days as busy as mine? Have you come up with ways to staunch the social-media time drain and get other things done once your work day is finished? Do you spread the word about toxic chemicals in the environment to family and friends? Did you watch Sanjay Gupta's CNN special Toxic America?

What's New On the Bookshelf?

Only one book on our bookshelf this month and it’s a douzy: Our Stolen Future by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers. Yesterday I blogged about BPA. A reader wrote in asking how to avoid it. Yes, it can leach out of certain types of plastic, but the chemical also turns up on cash register receipts and pizza boxes. The industry keeps finding new ways to use it. But BPA is not the only endocrine disruptor out there that you need to know about. It is simply the one that seems the most outrageous, being in baby bottles and infant formula cans. It stands out like a bully, on a playground, shaking another kid. You just want to reach out and make it stop. We need to worry about other toxic chemicals, too ....

Our Stolen Future describes how endocrine disruptors can affect unborn children. Turns out we better rethink our lives, from the picture-perfect lawns to flea collars for our pets, know where our water comes from, choose food intelligently, avoid unnecessary exposure. And wash hands even more frequently.

Sometimes I wonder what it's like to be Theo Colborn, whose scientific detective work and vision is described so well in Our Stolen Future. How distressing to have one’s research ignored, although her book is practically a sequel to Silent Spring, as Al Gore points out in the foreword.

I am not a science person. I got a D in physics/chemistry, the easiest of all science courses at Vassar. And, yet, Our Stolen Future contains science that it is urgent for us all to grasp and share.

As I understand it, prenatal exposure to endocrine disruptive chemicals, in the environment of the mother, at certain periods of prenatal development, can create the following problems once this child grows up:

Low sperm counts
Reproductive problems ranging from testicular cancer to endometriosis
Masculinizing females and feminizing males
Increase in hormone-responsive cancers (breast, prostate, uterine)
Enlarged prostate
Smaller penis size ...

You get the idea.

What's more, Dr. Colborn warns of transgenerational exposure, in other words, a problem may not show up until the next generation. And, this book is being ignored. It is so important to recognize the gravity of the threat toxic chemicals pose to humanity and support the bill now before Congress. Tomorrow, we will return to the beach and Wellfleet, but in the meantime, please read through two short excerpts and consider borrowing Our Stolen Future from your local library:

"If this book contains a single prescriptive message, it is this: we must move beyond the cancer paradigm ... The assumptions about toxicity and disease that have framed our thinking for the past three decades are inappropriate and act as obstacles to understanding a different kind of damage.  Hormone-disrupting chemicals are not classical poisons or typical carcinogens.  They play by different rules."

"At levels typically found in the environment, hormone-disrupting chemicals do not kill cells nor do they attack DNA.  Their target is hormones, the chemical messengers that move about constantly within the body's communications network.  Hormonally active synthetic chemicals are thugs on the biological information highway that sabotage vital communication.  They mug the messengers or impersonate them.  They jam signals.  They scramble messages. They sow disinformation.  They wreak all manner of havoc.  Because hormone messages orchestrate many critical aspects of development, from sexual differentiation to brain organization, hormone-disrupting chemicals pose a particular hazard before birth and early in life ... Relatively low levels of contaminants that have no observable impact on adults can have devastating impacts on the unborn.  The process that unfolds in the womb and creates a normal, healthy baby depends on getting the right hormone message to the fetus at the right time.  The key concept in thinking about this kind of toxic assault is chemical messages.  Not poisons, not carcinogens, but chemical messages."