Our Children's Stewards
Hello to all. This is an email I sent to my family and friends and a post I made on Barak Obama's website. I just joined his campaign – which is really beside the point, but this post (below) generally sums up what I think is the most important issue we are facing today. Something that I’ve sort of been aware of on a sub-conscious level has really broken through the surface. I happened upon a story about perchlorate (in rocket fuel) and PBDEs, among quite a number of other toxins, in our babies’ blood and breast milk, our food supply, our water supply, our soil, and fish. And I lost it. I’ve been crying for nearly a week now, because I suddenly and fully realized that I cannot protect my children from this. I have fed them organic food, dressed them in organic cotton when I could, thrown out all of the toxic chemicals in our house including cleaning supplies, perfumes, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, etc. And still, I am feeding them poisons – from my very body, and from every other source available to us. Frankly, knowledge of the magnitude of this problem and its ramifications is overwhelming and I forgive myself for not being able to pull my head out of the sand to face it for so long. This is not a subject for granola people, treehuggers, liberals, democrats, and environmentalists. This isn’t a case of “wouldn’t it be nice if …” – the perfect world syndrome. This is real. This is a disaster. It affects us all. We are stewards for those who come after us. We must do something. Among other things, I personally am attempting to file suit against the government for failing in its duty to protect us. Please feel free to forward this to anyone you’d like, to copy it, print it, post it on a billboard or anything else you’d like to do with it. Please, please, look this stuff up, read it. It will make your blood run cold. It is incomprehensible. Ignoring it will not make it go away.
Love,
Shannon
I can provide a great deal of legitimate scientific research to verify this if you wish. It is easily available.
We have a number of government agencies assigned the responsibility for protecting our health and safety: the EPA, CPS, FDA, etc. And yet, in mothers' breast milk, babies' bloodstreams and tissues, fish, our fruits and vegetables, our water, our soil, our air are toxic chemicals: brominated flame retardants in our babies' bodies, PCBs, dioxins, perchlorate from rocket fuel in our crops and our babies, organochlorines, cancer causing chemicals from perfumes, shampoos, soaps, and personal care products, lead, arsenic, and mercury, of course – all of these as a result of our own actions through pollution, manufacturing, pesticides, etc.
We know this. We also know that these chemicals cause cancer, say, or brain damage, or reproductive issues. We know that many of these toxins accumulate in tissues and are not naturally flushed from the body. These we know of - there are many more we don't know of yet or are just beginning to find out about. Many, if not all, of these toxins have been banned in the rest of the “civilized” world (for lack of a better term – meaning those who can afford to protect themselves). And lo, the levels of these chemicals in their children’s tissues and breast milk went down.
It is one thing to say that parents have to know the risks to their children and are responsible for protecting them – but what happens when businesses and our government’s negligence have made our job impossible? Our children must eat, they must drink, they must breathe. And what about their children? The levels and numbers of these toxins are increasing. I’m not talking about minute traces of one pollutant in a few babies in isolated locations here and there – not that that would be alright either! – I’m talking about many known toxins at measurable levels in samples taken across the country and around the world before other countries began banning them – not just from children but also from food sources, water, soil, breast milk.
Why are we standing for it? Why do we tolerate it? Business/industry must be responsible. It is all fine and well to set a fair price on a product and to make a profit by setting a price so you can – but a company’s profits are not more important than our children’s future health. It is irresponsible, negligent, and even insane, to say the least, to just “wait and see” – the current EPA motto – what these chemicals will do to our children, our precious, precious babies.
NO ONE has the right to comfort or profit that is gained as the result of harm to another. It is our government’s responsibility to protect us and our responsibility to insist upon it and to do our part as well.
Love,
Shannon
I can provide a great deal of legitimate scientific research to verify this if you wish. It is easily available.
We have a number of government agencies assigned the responsibility for protecting our health and safety: the EPA, CPS, FDA, etc. And yet, in mothers' breast milk, babies' bloodstreams and tissues, fish, our fruits and vegetables, our water, our soil, our air are toxic chemicals: brominated flame retardants in our babies' bodies, PCBs, dioxins, perchlorate from rocket fuel in our crops and our babies, organochlorines, cancer causing chemicals from perfumes, shampoos, soaps, and personal care products, lead, arsenic, and mercury, of course – all of these as a result of our own actions through pollution, manufacturing, pesticides, etc.
We know this. We also know that these chemicals cause cancer, say, or brain damage, or reproductive issues. We know that many of these toxins accumulate in tissues and are not naturally flushed from the body. These we know of - there are many more we don't know of yet or are just beginning to find out about. Many, if not all, of these toxins have been banned in the rest of the “civilized” world (for lack of a better term – meaning those who can afford to protect themselves). And lo, the levels of these chemicals in their children’s tissues and breast milk went down.
It is one thing to say that parents have to know the risks to their children and are responsible for protecting them – but what happens when businesses and our government’s negligence have made our job impossible? Our children must eat, they must drink, they must breathe. And what about their children? The levels and numbers of these toxins are increasing. I’m not talking about minute traces of one pollutant in a few babies in isolated locations here and there – not that that would be alright either! – I’m talking about many known toxins at measurable levels in samples taken across the country and around the world before other countries began banning them – not just from children but also from food sources, water, soil, breast milk.
Why are we standing for it? Why do we tolerate it? Business/industry must be responsible. It is all fine and well to set a fair price on a product and to make a profit by setting a price so you can – but a company’s profits are not more important than our children’s future health. It is irresponsible, negligent, and even insane, to say the least, to just “wait and see” – the current EPA motto – what these chemicals will do to our children, our precious, precious babies.
NO ONE has the right to comfort or profit that is gained as the result of harm to another. It is our government’s responsibility to protect us and our responsibility to insist upon it and to do our part as well.
posted by Shannon at 3:49 PM
2 Comments:
Your horror is right on the mark. Everyday I read yet another report of some poisonous substance leaching into our bodies -- through our mouths, through our lungs, through our very pores. The most recent of which I sent to you: The loophole that allows beef houses to sell meat loaded with e coli if its sold as "cook only," ie: for use in pre-cooked products like Sloppy Joe mix. The problem is, there's no way to determine whether it has already contaminated the equipment used for uninfected meat. Wonderful. You are taking on an enormous task and you have my admiration.
I heard about the toxicity of breast milk this week and just felt like giving up. Let's hope there is a heaven.
Post a Comment
<< Home