Upload
others
View
0
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
ENVIRONMENTAL ILLNESS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
By
MARILYN THORLAKSON
Integrated Studies Project
submitted to Dr. Catherine Bray
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts – Integrated Studies
Athabasca, Alberta
January 2012
Abstract
This integrated project on Environmental Illness and Social Justice was motivated by my own frustration
with a decade of disability from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and two subsequent diagnoses of cancer.
A personal viewpoint is valuable in assessing a realm of contested medicine, with biomedical knowledge
about environmental diseases outside the expertise of many practitioners, leaving those affected by the
conditions with little medical and social support. The problem is examined through a search of literature
on various occurrences of environmental illness, including the work of popular epidemiologists, and the
conflict between permitted levels of toxic exposures versus safe amounts of toxins in our air, water, and
soil. The approach through reading multiple sources involves a compilation of information generated by
many groups tackling the evidence of harm to health from environmental pollutants. The chosen
examples follow the path of activists utilizing popular epidemiology to determine numbers of affected
people in a specific area, complexity of symptoms, and possible sources of contamination. Information
was presented to local and regional authorities, with a goal of determining the mechanism of
environmental toxicity. Inequities of racial and socioeconomic status are noted, as well as the
dominance of corporate leaders in setting their own standards of toxic trespass without proof of safety
for the population. There is a theme of cautious optimism and improvement in discovering sources of
environmental pollution, and awareness of increasing power of grassroots activists versus industrial
giants who were previously thought to be all‐powerful. Organizing techniques were shared, and
electronic media now permit rapid accession and sharing of knowledge. The conclusion here is a sense
of more social justice for affected persons, while at the same time, future damages may be prevented by
instating stringent safety regulations and enforcing environmental laws.
Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1
Environmental Waste Zones ......................................................................................................................... 3
Authorities and Environmental Illness .......................................................................................................... 9
Indigenous Peoples ..................................................................................................................................... 14
Hazardous Waste in Communities .............................................................................................................. 16
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 35
Works Cited ................................................................................................................................................. 38
1
Introduction
There has been a marked proliferation in chemicals in daily use in industry, agriculture,
workplaces, and homes during the last half century, with global spread via air, soil, and water
(Carson 2002; Steingraber 1998). This burgeoning array of chemicals creates a burden of
toxicity, with a risk of complex environmental diseases that are unfamiliar to traditional medical
practitioners (Kroll‐Smith and Floyd 1997; Nakazawa 2008). Accurate diagnosis can be
problematic, and treatments or cures may be non‐existent, especially when synergistic effects
of multiple chemicals in unknown combinations and identities of discrete chemicals are hard to
detect (Steingraber 1998; Davis 2002, 2007). People affected by environmental illnesses
deserve social justice, and it is vital to ensure accountability of contributing industries and
agencies to achieve optimal health of citizens and reparation for illness and injury (McCormick
2009; Rossol 2011). Ordinary citizens have cooperated to organize themselves and gather
resources to counter environmental degradation, showing the power that determined people
can muster in pursuing specific knowledge and challenging the hegemony of governments and
industry (Brown and Mikkelsen 1990; Gibbs 1998; Barlow and May 2000). Racism and social
justice are related issues when disproportionate numbers of minority group and lower
socioeconomic citizens are affected by noxious chemicals (Fletcher 2003; Murphy 2006).
Examples of challenges for environmental safety and the quest for social justice can be seen in
many areas in North America, including Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York, Woburn,
2
Massachusetts, Libby, Montana, and Sydney, Nova Scotia, with grassroots activism contributing
to attaining recognition of health problems (Levine 1982; Brown and Mikkelsen 1990; Gibbs
1998; Barlow and May 2000; Bowker 2003; Fletcher 2003; Schneider and McCumber 2004;).
Pollution is also present in built places, as well as the air, water, and soil (Rapp 1996a, 1996b;
Steingraber 1998). Chemical trespasses against people and the environment are committed by
industries that value profits over public health and safety (Barlow and May 2000; Bowker 2003).
A search of literature documenting specific instances of environmental hazards, examination of
links between governments and industry, and tracking the development of social movements in
health and justice may provide some answers to the myriad problems of environmental illness
(Brown and Mikkelsen 1990; Gibbs 1998).
Rachel Carson’s seminal book, Silent Spring, was published in 1962, with immediate reaction
from the chemical industries who were supported by the US Department of Agriculture, and
attempts to prevent publication failed, with the public learning about the effect of chemicals on
the environment (Gilding 2011: 11‐12). Science and technology were revealed as subservient to
profit‐hungry corporations who operated with government approval (Carson 2002: xv). Anti‐
Carson campaigns were full of lies and anti‐feminist propaganda, but a government
examination of Carson’s writing verified her information, leading to the 1970 formation of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Carson 2002: xvii; Gilding 2011: 12‐13). Carson
emphasized the need for a detailed medical history about chemical exposures over a lifetime,
and acknowledgement of the multitude of chemical contaminants (2002: 227‐228, 237). Even
3
minimal exposure may be hazardous, giving cumulative effects, and chemical detoxification
may be impossible (Ibid: 7, 237). Noxious compounds enter the food chain, concentrating in
increasing amounts over time (Ibid: 15‐16, 52). Scientist Edward O. Wilson noted that Carson’s
work bought science to the general public in an understandable format, with a remarkable
influence on environmentalism (Ibid: 357, 361).
Environmental Waste Zones
Love Canal, in Niagara Falls, New York was the setting for environmental contamination in 1978
that exemplified Carson’s concerns about toxic chemical accumulation (Gibbs 1998). The
community came together showing the power that people can exert in looking for answers
about local health problems (Ibid: 1). United citizens learned to take on wealthy corporations
accused of contamination as well as governments, and changed the environmental movement
from one led by educated professionals into a congregation of average people, challenging the
accused wrongdoers and seeking environmental justice (Ibid). Local people educated
themselves about waste disposal laws and determined the elements of “good science” (Levine
1982: 188‐189). These are important facets of popular epidemiology, with “public participation
in the pursuit of scientific knowledge, advocacy for health care, and public policy” (Brown 2000:
365). This method contrasts with professionals’ focus on disease processes, and includes lay
accounts of illness (Ibid: 364). The Love Canal residents organized themselves and acquired
communication skills and orderly documentation techniques (Levine 1982: 189). Many
hazardous waste sites had been developed in areas where people were considered powerless
because of race and socioeconomic status (Gibbs 1998: 1‐3). Residents of contaminated areas
4
are often the first to observe effects of toxic chemicals in their locale, but corporations and
governments often place the burden of proof of harm on affected persons instead of
determining safe exposure standards or addressing the problem (Ibid: 4). Activists exposed the
fact that government officials were not always acting in “citizens’ best interests” (Ibid: 14).
Communication through “bureaucratese and scientific jargon” generated distrust of officials
(Ibid: 14‐15). Residents near a local waste site had a variety of health problems, including
miscarriages, low birth weight babies, and a myriad of unexplained diseases, echoing the
experience in other contaminated areas (Ibid: 10‐11, 19, 21‐23). Government bureaus refused
to investigate the health problems (Ibid: 24). Local activists conducted household surveys and
acquired information about suspicious chemical evidence (Ibid: 30‐32). Contamination
pathways followed drainage patterns in the area, correlating to health problems in residents
along these routes (Ibid: 89).
The Love Canal contamination had been noted at least two years before the citizens raised their
concerns, but no action was taken (Gibbs 1998: 47). Some residents attempted to clear wastes
from their homes with sump systems, but were accused of “pumping poison into the [Niagara]
river” and threatening tourism (Ibid: 62, 172). Local information was dismissed inconsequential
because it had been gathered by “housewives”, while the state health department had
corporate ties to the offending company and was concerned about losing funding for research
facilities and staff, with interdependence of licensing, grants and contracts in the intermeshed
financial system (Ibid: 113; Levine 1982: 167, 218; Fletcher 2003: 50‐51). The Love Canal
5
homeowners’ records were superior to government’s standards and methodology, and there
was a lack of disclosure of official voting procedures and decisions (Levine 1982: 167). There
was little scientific evidence to back up government pronouncements, poor data interpretation
and response to citizens’ questions, as well as a lack of provision of examined documents (Ibid).
Only scientists with government ties were allowed a voice, despite an expectation of “scientific
norms of independent effort, mutual criticism, and healthy concern” (Ibid: 168). No studies
were cited in backing government conclusions, and the work of qualified scientists who
supported residents was denigrated (Ibid: 165). The collusion of industry, science, and
government eroded trust, especially in light of potential future toxic waste problems in the
multitude of waste disposal sites in the region (Ibid: 218).
Woburn, Massachusetts is a suburb of Boston where a several local children were affected by
leukemia, as well as adults with leukemia and renal cancers (Brown and Mikkelsen 1990: xix).
The residents organized grassroots investigation committees to find the full scope of the
problem (Ibid). During the course of their quest, the citizens discovered links to corporate
pollution and became aware of corporate and government malfeasance in environmental
damage (Ibid: xix‐xx). The local people applied dedicated effort into looking for “disease
patterns and causes” and attempted to link with “government agencies and professionals to
ameliorate the situation” (Ibid: 2). The example of community action at Love Canal helped the
Woburn residents challenge long‐term industrial toxicity (Ibid: 7). Some of the sites had had
many successive occupants, each contributing pollutants or carcinogens (Ibid: 7‐8, 17).
6
Contaminants were found in local wells serving affected residents (Ibid; Gibbs 1998: 4). One
corporation had many sources of toxic wastes, as well as a history flouting environmental
protection for workers (Brown and Mikkelsen 1990: 10). EPA information about toxic chemicals
was not shared with local officials or the general public (Ibid: 11). Woburn citizens conducted
local surveys to determine where leukemia victims lived, and mapped the locations, with
hydrogeologists linking underground waterways flowing to specific wells, with contamination
originating from two industries (Brown and Mikkelsen 1990: 17). The corporations denied
dumping toxic products, despite testimonies from workers and executive witnesses (Ibid: 28‐
29).
Libby, Montana is the site of occupation‐related illness following decades of mining of asbestos,
but the havoc is spread across many parts of North America in thousands of asbestos‐laden
products (Bowker 2003; Schneider and McComber 2004). The latency period for asbestos‐
related illness could result in new cases being discovered even 50 years after banning the
substance (Bowker 2003: xii). Tremolite is the lethal component in asbestos from this site, with
Libby residents having more than six decades of occupational and neighbourhood exposures
(Ibid: 4‐8, 26, 30, 63, 68). New facility owners continued the profitable operations through links
in politics and industry, including the corporate head’s influence on the federal government
regulatory body, and corporate lobbyists obscured the death toll from asbestos (Ibid: 9‐11, 17‐
18, 21‐22, 81). Environmental racism is seen in the exploitation of immigrant workers who fear
of job losses if they complain about job conditions, and the length of time between initial
7
exposure and onset of disease allows companies to shirk responsibility for harm from
occupational diseases (Ibid: 20‐21, 33). Inexperienced medical practitioners can mistake
radiological evidence of asbestos‐related disease for lung cancer found in smokers (Freund and
McGuire 1999: 67). Company doctors are not always good advocates for workers’ occupational
health and safety, and death certificates may not carry true mortality information (Ibid: 67‐68).
Companies funded their own research and failed to disclose adverse health changes (Bowker
2003: 50‐53). Evidence of damage to workers’ health was concealed, and few effective
protective measures were implemented and enforced (Ibid: 28, 32). Private industry was hailed
as a bastion of democracy in post‐World War II paranoia about communism, as allied industries
promoted freedom from government regulation, and fostered the cover‐up of adverse health
effects from asbestos exposure (Ibid: 88, 94‐96), Concealment of the presence of asbestos in
workplaces meant decreased liability for any health problems of workers (Ibid: 102‐120).
The magnitude of health problems in Libby was finally revealed, with protracted litigation
against the owner, but little compensation for those had died prematurely (Bowker 2003: 133‐
142). Injustices included lack of warning workers about hazards, concealment of medical
problems in workers, and failure to caution consumers about contaminated products (Ibid: 136,
163‐166, 168). Some workers who died from asbestos‐related disease were described as
inherently weak, deflecting responsibility back to the individuals instead of the dangerous
workplace (Davis 2007: 300‐302). Occupational health inspectors failed to protect workers
through collusion with the corporations, and court settlements did not cover victims’ medical
8
expenses or lost wages (Bowker 2003: 173, 181‐195). One corporation committed malfeasance
in concealing the dangers of asbestos, as well as shifting assets to other subsidiaries and
declaration of bankruptcy of the Libby facility (Bowker: 260‐268). Government handouts to the
asbestos industry skew the value of corporate assets, while evasion of financial obligations
transfers the costs of cleanup and care onto individuals and the taxpayers (Ibid: 254‐268). The
people of Libby have an ongoing battle for a safe community, with little justice from industry
and governments.
Sydney, Nova Scotia has had a century of industrial activity in steel and coke manufacture
(Barlow and May 2000). Government involvement through corporate grants or outright
ownership presented a conflict of interest as workers and local residents received little
protection from accumulated toxic wastes (Ibid: 7‐8, 17‐19, 69). Preventive measures were
considered too costly, and occupational health records did not track the cancer rates among
workers or illnesses of the nearby residents (Ibid: 1, 25, 39). Community action prompted
testing of the hazardous waste, and the Tar Ponds that had formed over years of dumping were
noted as “35 times worse than…Love Canal” (Ibid: 2). Successive corporate owners restricted
information about air quality for years, denying any knowledge of pollution problems (Ibid: 72‐
73). Repeated health studies in the area showed “significantly elevated mortality”, but blame
was laid on residents’ behaviours (Ibid: 97). Health questionnaires ignored individuals’ exposure
to environmental chemicals, and focused on lifestyle habits, with ignoring proximity to
industries or length of exposure (Ibid: 98). Children were affected by asthma and ear infections
9
as well as urinary tract deformities similar to others living near toxic sites (Ibid: 119‐120).
Activists compiled health information about their neighbours, mapping disease incidences and
finding multiple diagnoses such as cancer, asthma, and cardiovascular diseases (Ibid: 127).
Government officials denied responsibility for allowing housing in the toxic area, and repeating
the theme of blaming the victims for their own fate (Ibid: 129‐130, 144‐150). Local doctors
refused to test residents for environmental contaminants (Ibid: 172). Corporate profits were
more important than residents’ health, and ongoing infusions of government support bolstered
inefficient industries (Ibid: 180). Pressure from the local community has not led to full scale
relocation of all the residents or closure of the school in the polluted area, so the effectiveness
of grassroots community protests has been blunted by political interference at municipal,
provincial, and federal levels. Current activism includes web camera surveillance of remediation
efforts and ongoing liaison committees (http//:capebretonpost.com/News/Local/2011‐10‐
24/article‐2785293/Work‐on‐north‐pond).
Authorities and Environmental Illness
There are multiple instances of a lack of trust of in authorities by those affected by
environmental illnesses, whether medical experts, researchers, corporate leaders, or
governments. Many doctors have no occupational or environmental health background to
assess these conditions (Pellow and Park 2002: 129). A political economy of health is seen in
corporations that fund medical research, with strict guidelines about appropriate topics, and
emphasis on profits instead of a healthy environment (Ibid: 129‐130). This practice supersedes
the normal research path of investigation, peer review, and publication in scientific journals,
10
and replaces knowledge production and sharing with emphasis on to corporate finances (Davis
2010: 54‐55). Value‐free science is corrupted when research projects that might show harmful
effects to consumers are not replicated exactly, producing results that cast doubt on the
original findings (Ibid: 230). The premise of genetic disposition to particular diseases, including
cancer, which may be supported by company‐funded research, can present a distorted picture
of the effect of environmental toxins (Pellow and Park 2002: 130). Medical systems that control
access to doctors and prevent unbiased research or refuse to reveal the truth about diseases to
patients represent a conflict of interest (Ibid: 130‐131). Inexperienced doctors may not suspect
environmental toxins in specific workplaces, risking misdiagnosis and mistreatment of illnesses
(Ibid: 133). The absence of a definitive cause of illness can delay treatment and make workers’
compensation claims difficult (Ibid).
Racism and high numbers of women in toxic work settings are noted in environmental illness in
the global high‐tech work setting, and immigrant workers are vulnerable to marginalization
(Pellow and Park 2002: 7). Toxic waste dumps in neighbourhoods of those disadvantaged by
race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic factors can lead to exposure to noxious substances at home
as well as at work (Ibid). Silicon Valley in California is a setting for industries with a high
proportion of Asian and Latino immigrants, including many women, and respiratory and
reproductive systems disorders and cancers are common in a corporate realm that is glorified
as “clean industry” and renowned profitability (Ibid: 9‐10).
11
Chemical contaminants are omnipresent in modern lives, but it is difficult to determine safety.
There is uncertainty in determining products in Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), which may
not reveal “trade secrets” or information about specific systemic problems, long‐term exposure
effects, or risks to children (Thompson 2004: 31; Rossol 2011: 43, 78). Vague statements about
lack of investigation or data do not guarantee safety (Rossol 2011: 78). Denial of known
carcinogenicity is useless if regulatory bodies have never evaluated specific chemicals, and
labels should clarify the lack of data, rather than implying product safety (Ibid: 53, 78). It is
difficult to have faith in regulatory safety standards when bodies such as the US Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) do not cover all work sites or include the availability
of MSDS information (Ibid: 43‐44, 120‐123). Fewer than only 900 chemicals have been tested
for carcinogenicity in the US, compared to “140,000 registered for use in the European Union”
(Ibid: 125‐126). It is difficult to determine chemical safety when Threshold Limit Values (TLVs)
may have been set at a dangerous level for the general population, with children being
disproportionately affected per unit of weight compared to adults (Ibid: 156‐157; Steingraber
1998: 39). Pockets of concentrated industrial wastes also expose residents to a multiple of
noxious pollutants throughout their lives, and human rights are transgressed with concealment
of information about such dangers (Steingraber 1998: 265‐266). Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)
data may not correlate with warnings to local residents and environmental safety activists
need to pursue connections between TRIs and disease registries to clarify possible links
between contaminants and cancer clusters (Ibid: 266, 280). Tracing exposure incidents is
difficult when industrial records are inaccurate, especially when the US has little information on
the carcinogenicity of many chemicals (Ibid: 281).
12
There is a soft link of accountability for harm from industrial pollution, with many instances of
corporate denials of connection of products and practices to disease, erroneous information
and medical tests factors in industry untruths (Rossol 2011: 3). Various industries have had
professional staff suppress public release of findings (Ibid). Some industrial hygienists gave false
information about chemical toxicity instead of setting safe exposure and safety standards (Ibid:
4). Workers with occupational illnesses could not sue their employers for disability, and
compensation payments might be insufficient for a healthy standard of living (Ibid: 4‐5). A
narrow focus of research into occupational diseases instead of a broader search for possible
effects of environmental influences is detrimental to those who contract a non‐studied disease
(Ibid: 16). Toxicology certification underwritten by manufacturers can give false assurances of
safety in producing and using materials (Ibid: 17). It is also very difficult to find the effects of
chemicals used in combination with other materials over time and exposure intensity, and with
each permutation of compounds (Ibid: 21). The collapse of the World Trade Center in New York
on September 11, 2001 exemplified the complexity of interaction of products, when multiple
materials interacted in a burning mass of toxic rubble (Ibid: 21). Manufacturers can evade
regulation by substituting untested ingredients for carcinogenic components, with no
guarantee of safety of the new formulation immediately or over prolonged use (Ibid: 42).
Asbestos has been recognized as a hazardous agent, but it is difficult to imagine modeling
compounds and crayons endangering teachers and students (Schneider and McCumber 2004:
242‐243; Rossol 2011: 31‐32, 37). Many manufacturers were pre‐warned of safety inspections,
and even chose specific sampling areas (Schneider and McCumber 2004: 251; Rossol 2011: 37).
13
A lack of enforcement and doubtful exposure standards in asbestos‐related industries means
that warning labels provide little protection for consumers (Rossol 2011: 40).
There is a difference between the European Union’s use of the Precautionary Principle of proof
of lack of harm, versus the US mantra of “innocent until proven guilty” (Rossol 2011: 167‐168;
Nakazawa 2008: 256; Steingraber 1998: 270). This thinking is also pertinent to the safety of cell
phones, with rigid research needed to ensure safety in the use of this technology used regularly
by millions of people, and proactive regulatory action (Davis 2010: 242‐248). The numbers of
chemicals entering the marketplace and environment surpass the research on human and
animal health, and older chemicals may be grandfathered in (Nakazawa 2008: 255‐256; Rossol
2011: 168). Industries can test their own products and set advantageous regulations, exerting
considerable clout over cash‐strapped health and government agencies (Rossol 2011: 174‐175).
Court challenges are expensive for individuals, and confidentiality clauses in successful cases
mean that the information may be kept secret (Ibid: 180‐181). Trade and standards agreements
may overlook environmental health risks and thrust costs of safety certification on
governments instead of manufacturers (Barlow and Clarke 2001: 80, 138). This is contradictory
to the Precautionary Principle and undermines environmental standards (Ibid: 117‐118).
Industries that flout soft environmental regulations must be challenged (Rossol 2011: 182‐184).
Right to know legislation deflects responsibility for testing on to the industries rather than
government and consumer groups, and daily fines for transgressions of standards hit profits
14
(Ibid: 186‐188). Further safety may be available with the enforcement of strict testing standards
in certified, impartial labs instead of industry‐paid criteria set by vested interests (Ibid: 195).
Sandra Steingraber has addressed many issues in environmental degradation in her concept of
“living downstream” from toxic emissions (1998). Rachel Carson’s concern about whether
science or industry deserves authority remains pertinent with close links between these players
yielding an illusion of safety, in spite of government‐condoned self‐interest (Ibid: 17). Heavy
industries may produce quantities of toxic waste, and the effect is magnified in areas where
multiple sites congregate in close proximity (Ibid: 58‐63). Exposure histories are hard to trace in
such areas, including length of time and amount of exposure, and the interaction of multiple
contributors (Ibid: 71‐77). Cancer registries are essential to seek links between environmental
toxins and cancer deaths, including work and residential histories (Ibid: 63‐64). Occupational
cancers can affect chemotherapy nurses, and there are higher than expected deaths from new
cancers in adults who survived childhood leukemia (Millar 1995: 254; Steingraber 1998: 64‐65).
There are strong factors against successful activism, including corporate and government links,
ties of testing facilities with industry and academia, and the financial disadvantage of the
general public versus large corporations (Steingraber 1998: 86‐89).
Indigenous Peoples
The Dine (or Navajo) of the southwestern US share a history of exposure to uranium with their
Athapascan kin, the Sahtu Dene of Great Bear Lake, with “accidents, illness, including various
15
cancers” (Hallett 2011: 47, 165). The Sahtu Dene have had little success in looking for
remediation of their traditional territory after contamination from mining (http://www.wise‐
uranium.org/uippra.html). Their homeland includes the site of Port Radium, where radium and
uranium were produced by a Canadian crown corporation, with many local workers contracting
cancer, while their families’ local food and water supply is affected (Ibid). There has been little
government action in assisting the survivors, cleaning up contamination, or even
acknowledgement of responsibility of government for the community’s social disruption (Ibid).
The radiation exposure from uranium ore exemplifies of environmental racism (Barlow and
May 2000: 183). Court rulings affirming the Canadian government’s role in “protecting public
health and the environment from poisonous substances” have not generated remedial action,
and industry lobbyists continue to resist environmental protection standards, with threats of
closures if emission standards are enacted (Ibid: 193‐194). The Mi’kmaq near Sydney have had
their local food supply contaminated by pollution, as have the First Nation residents of Walpole
Island, near Sarnia, Ontario (Ibid: 41; Fletcher 2003: 164). The people of Grassy Narrows First
Nation in Northwest Ontario were severely affected by Minamata disease when mercury
contamination from an upstream paper mill entered the food chain (Shkilnyk 1985: 173‐174).
Subsistence fishing had provided a major part of protein for the local people, with few
alternatives for a safer affordable diet (Ibid: 157‐158). Minamata disease carries a large physical
and psychological toll in a society already affected by poverty and alcoholism, and the entire
community carries a heavier than usual burden of care (Ibid: 183‐185). The people of Grassy
Narrows continue to search for environmental justice, while provincial and federal
governments do little to ameliorate the damages, and the polluting corporation has evaded
16
accountability (Ibid: 190‐191, 206‐211). There has been a recent victory in Grassy Narrows in
the denial of clear‐cut logging and mining projects that would disrupt the Anishinabe lifeways in
a community that has already been devastated by a “legacy of residential schools, hydro
damming, relocation, and mercury poisoning”, so there is some success in the quest for social
justice and a safe environment (http://freegrassy.org/2011/08/01/grassy‐trappers‐win‐major‐
legal‐victory).
Hazardous Waste in Communities
The evidence of contamination of air, water, and land by hazardous waste is seen in other
communities such as Cancer Alley on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New
Orleans, Louisiana, with pollution of air and water from multiple industries (Johansen 2003:
107, 117). One proposed plant was noted to have the potential of emitting large quantities of
toxic chemicals in the air and water supply upstream of New Orleans (Johansen 2003: 119).
African‐American communities in the southeast US are disproportionately affected by
commercial waste landfills (Ibid: 107; Fletcher 2003: 70). The question of justice is important
when one considers that race is often a major factor in establishing waste facilities or cleaning
up these sites or punishing polluters (Johansen 2003: 108). Predominantly white communities
often see that “faster action, better results, and stiffer penalties than communities [of] blacks,
Latinos, and other minorities” (Ibid; Fletcher 2003: 74). Communities may be pressured to
accept polluting industries with empty promises of jobs, and tax breaks benefit corporations
rather than the local people (Johansen 2003: 120‐121). The question of distributive justice
evokes moral issues, and the entire social welfare system of housing, education, health care
17
and an equitable share of a “society’s benefits”, as well as “equality of opportunity” must be
considered (Fletcher 2003: 77, 79). Times Beach, Missouri is a southern US community that was
contaminated by dioxin‐laden waste mixed with oil and sprayed on the roads (Johansen 2003:
33). The community was obliterated in the reclamation process, but the dioxins may cause
other toxic areas (Ibid). Pollution costs are often shifted onto various levels of governments and
nearby communities, while corporations garner profits with little accountability for harm
(Fletcher 2003: 91‐92). This is a burden on the lower socioeconomic classes who find that
government assistance programs are eroded by budget cuts (Ibid: 77). The process of handling
hazardous waste seems to be an exercise in offloading toxic burdens distant from the
originating sites (Ibid: 108‐113). Childhood cancers are becoming more common in agricultural
communities, and the air quality in inner cities generates high levels of asthma in poor
neighbourhoods, combining the risks of pollution and poverty (Freund and McGuire 1999: 64).
Past practices of transporting of wastes to rural communities are less of a solution than in
earlier times as environmental awareness has developed, and the level of trust in government
officials as wise environmental stewards has diminished (Fletcher 2003: 140‐158).
Many people have acted to produce of social justice for those affected by environmental
concerns over the past half century. The public holds many corporations to a new level of
ethical responsibility with consequences of environmental trespass, and electronic media
provide platforms for strategies to target commercial brands (Gilding 2011: 22‐27). This is in
contrast to the 1984 exposure to toxic gases in Bhopal, India, when untold thousands of local
18
people died immediately or subsequently from the exposure, with little corporate responsibility
for the environmental disaster (Ibid: 19). Proof of the harmful effects of various products and
dispersal of industrial wastes can be difficult to determine, and there are entire industries that
seek to cast doubt upon research into various problems (Ibid: 147). The tobacco industry
transferred skills in casting doubt about the damage from their products to other
environmental issues (Ibid). Tactics of demanding absolute proof of harm, rather than the
precautionary principle that hinges upon proof of safety can delay of implementation of
stringent safety standards (Ibid).
The modern built environment is a vital part in the health concerns. Office workers may be
exposed to a wide array of chemicals in their surroundings, with toxic materials in construction
and furnishings, and emissions from office machines’ material and operation (Murphy 2006: 66‐
67). Workers are concerned about noxious exposures at work, but there is little research on
multiple chemicals acting in synergy across even at low exposure levels (Ibid: 67, 69). Industrial
hygienists who are accustomed to measuring emissions at large factories may have difficulty
setting standards for office venues (Ibid: 70‐71). The term “sick building syndrome” is applied
when workers experience a variety of symptoms that lack a specific and measurable cause
(Ibid: 78‐79). These buildings might be better analyzed if all the component materials were
studied (Ibid: 81; Craven 2003: 8). Many building products emit noxious fumes for years after
installation (Craven 2003: 54). Sample testing of indoor air quality in homes revealed the
frequent presence of pesticides, but there are few data on the product ingredients studied by
19
EPA (Kroll‐Smith, Brown, and Gunter 2000: 2). EPA research found “over nine hundred volatile
organic compounds in ordinary indoor environments, including offices and homes” (Ibid). The
tobacco industry funded research on sick buildings in an attempt to deflect responsibility from
claims of secondhand tobacco smoke as a health hazard (Murphy 2006: 145‐147). Flooring
materials contain a myriad of chemicals, giving the signature “new carpet smell” as components
outgas over time, echoing the smell of new vehicles (Ibid: 81). People add their perfumed
grooming products to the array of chemicals from the building and office equipment (Ibid: 81‐
82 131). This mélange of chemicals can be absorbed into the body, with variable effects on
people according to their own level of sensitivity and history of exposures (Ibid: 82). TLVs for
exposure to chemicals are often set by industrial hygienists with input from “chemical and
manufacturing company representatives rather than by published or peer‐reviewed research”
(Ibid: 90). Children are exposed to environmental chemicals, but there is little research on the
consequent effects (Nakazawa 2008: 65‐71). Documentation of a past history of linking
occupational exposure to specific diseases, with the aid of specific measuring tools, led to
acceptance of physiological proof of health changes (Murphy 2006: 91). In contrast to this, lack
of acceptable proof of harm can evoke pronouncements of psychological problems, especially
in female workers (Ibid: 92‐93). Popular epidemiology tools such as social surveys can track
workers’ experiences and concerns (Ibid: 95‐96). People affected by chemical exposures at
work might also have their health damaged by emissions at home (Freund and McGuire 1999:
70; Davis 2002: 103; Murphy 2006: 101). The cumulative effects of pollutants, even at low
levels, can give “years of non‐killing exposure” that never shows up in health statistics (Davis
2002: 103). Donora, Pennsylvania had many residents were killed by lethal industrial toxins
20
trapped by an air inversion, survivors may show elevated rates of cardiac and respiratory
illness, and unexplained cancers that cause premature deaths long after the original assault and
death toll (Ibid: 56, 103).
One of the effects of exposure to the plethora of chemicals in the modern world is a condition
called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), with affected persons reacting to minimal levels of
chemicals below the threshold tolerated by most of the general population (Kroll‐Smith and
Floyd 1997: 43; Natelson 1998: 40; Murphy 2006: 151‐158). Chemically sensitized individuals
may be susceptible to “spreading phenomenon”, and demonstrate very low tolerance of other
chemicals that seem unrelated to the original trigger substance (Millar 1995: 173). Traditional
biomedical practitioners have little or no training in the syndrome, and affected persons enter
the realm of contested illness when accepted testing procedures fail to find a cause for health
problems (Kroll‐Smith and Floyd 1997: 43; Brown and Zavestoski 2005: 7; Murphy 2006: 151,
158‐159). This situation reflects the hegemony biomedicine in many western countries
(Radetsky 1997: 194). Many of the MCS patients are women, with questions of whether
women’s workplaces are less healthy than men’s, as well as the added risk of being labeled as
psychological complainers (Murphy 2006: 159). Chemically sensitive people should document
their trigger substances and create their own safe environment (Ibid). Public awareness about
the vulnerability of chemically‐sensitive people is vital, and it is imperative to change the ways
of thinking of the medical community, insurance providers and legislators about the potential
21
harm of purportedly innocuous substances in our everyday world (Kroll‐Smith and Floyd 1997:
47).
Cleaning products can generate sensitivity reactions in vulnerable people in home and work
surroundings, and grooming aids and air fresheners add perfumed compounds to the ambient
air (Craven 2003: 24‐25, 54; Murphy 2006: 159, 164). Environmental safety in one’s milieu can
be expensive, particularly for those who are cannot maintain their previous level of work,
risking loss of income and health benefits at crucial times (Murphy 2006: 164‐165). Many
workers at the EPA’s offices in Washington demonstrated sick building syndrome after the
space was renovated, but standard testing did not determine harmful levels of noxious
substances (Ibid: 113, 123‐124). Analysis of carpet samples failed to produce evidence of
dangerous chemical emissions, and in subsequent years, the carpet industry has initiated its
own safety standards (Rapp 1996a: 267, 271; Thompson 2004: 30). Carpet fibers, underlay, and
adhesives may all contribute toxic products into the air, as well as acting as a sink for other
pollutants (Rapp 1996a: 269‐270; Thompson 2004: 108). Poor ventilation systems are an
additional problem in unhealthy buildings (Freund and McGuire 1999: 70). The EPA office
pollution exemplifies racial injustice with its high proportion of minority staff (Murphy 2006:
118‐119).
Sick building syndrome is not restricted to commercial facilities, as homes and schools may also
be contaminated, with a vast array of modern building products, cleaning products, and poor
22
air systems. In the US, there are government regulations about safe environmental standards in
buildings, but that does not guarantee occupant safety (Rapp 1996a: 595‐597). Children in
schools may be exposed to pollutants in carpeting, industrial‐strength cleaners, art supplies,
and pesticide use in closed areas (Ibid: 188‐190, 242‐243). Masking noxious odours with added
perfumes just adds another layer of pollutants rather than solving the problem (Rapp 1996a:
159; May 2001: 273). Some schools are so burdened with contaminants that they may be
considered to be sick, and the problems may have been present for years (Rapp 1996a: 277,
296). Environmental illnesses are difficult to detect, but Dr. Rapp has documented evidence of
changes through EEGs, MRIs, and SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computerized Tomography)
scans, with patients reacting after being exposed to their trigger chemicals (1996a: 362‐363).
Indoor air quality may be worse than outdoor levels, including bioaerosols in various
concentrations, with EPA findings that “15% of the [US] population suffered from chemical
sensitivities” in 1986, and the effect is likely to escalate with burgeoning chemical use, affecting
individuals relative to their own sensitivity levels (Baker‐Laporte et al 2001: xviii; May 2001: 1‐4,
36‐39). Attached garages can add a dangerous mixture of exhaust fumes and vapours from
stored petrochemical products (May 2001: 86‐87). Electromagnetic exposures can cause health
problems in some people, producing cellular level disturbance, and there may be a synergistic
interactions can produce problems greater than experienced with single exposures (Rousseau
and Wasley 1999: 19; Baker‐Laporte et al 2001: 14; Thompson 2004: 184). The exposure effects
are hard to clarify, but research is vital in a modern world where office technology is used at
23
home as well as at work (Rousseau and Wasley 1999: 24, 254‐255; Thompson 2004: 184‐187).
Cell phones are omnipresent, and portable computer devices extend the possibility of health
effects (Thompson 2004: 183‐187; Davis 2010). Evidence of sensitivity to many of these
influences should serve as a warning to those who have not yet been affected, and engender
caution such as those practiced by the “canaries in the coal mine” (Rousseau and Wasley 1999:
31). Health problems may be subclinical, with many people experiencing life below optimal
levels without realizing the stress of the burden of chronic exposure to environmental
pollutants (Ibid).
Elements of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and Sick Building Syndrome have combined to impact
this writer’s life greatly. A history of reaction to perfumed products and second hand tobacco
smoke escalated into asthma with one single exposure to heavy smokers. The principle of the
overflowing barrel of noxious products was compounded with a workplace episode of solvent
use, and resulted in a permanent disability (Rapp 1996b: 62). Precursors to the health problems
included working in two hospitals that had poor ventilation and second hand smoke on the
premises, plus exposure to petro‐chemicals in cleaning products. The quest for wellness and
financial stability took several years, with ongoing medical assessments, and repeated
applications for disability coverage. Despite eventual approval of a government disability
pension to supplement workplace insurance, my income diminished steadily, since rates are
fixed at the date of disability, regardless of rising costs of living. The invisible penalties include
loss of personal independence and mobility, disruption of a satisfactory career, and social
24
isolation. There is an irony in treatment with asthma medication and adjuvant chemotherapy
for subsequent cancers using pharmaceuticals from a corporation that also produces industrial
chemicals through its parent company (Sulik 2011: 19, 204).
Many of the health problems connected to environmental illness fall into the realm of
“contested illnesses”, being poorly recognized as legitimate concern by traditional biomedicine
(Brown 2007: xiv‐xvi). A disease known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) or Chronic Fatigue
Dysfunction Syndrome (CFDS or CFS) is described by Susan Wendell, including her personal
experience (1996: 2‐3). People with this condition can have fluctuating symptoms, and variable
levels of fatigue, physical function, and mental energy (Ibid: 3). Problems with contested
illnesses include the question of disability, compromised wage‐earning ability and venues for
income replacement, costs of treatment and medical equipment to optimize function, and even
basic costs of living (Ibid: 11). A formal designation of disability implies inherent standards for
people and their social roles, and transgressing the stereotype of disability can affect support
for those with conditions are outside the accepted schedule of illness (Ibid: 12). The boundaries
of health care are delineated by the cognitive and social of Western medicine, with doctors,
researchers and other professionals influencing support organizations, and placing the onus for
proof of disability upon those who may have severely restricted energy (Ibid: 117). Biomedical
research and practice receive state funding, but there are signs of a waning of the dominance
and a rise of other ways of thinking about health (Hess 2005: 18). Standard practitioners may
ignore the experience of those with contested illnesses, and methodology of patient histories is
25
fraught with value‐laden language, including noting patients’ symptoms as “complaints”
(Wendell 1996: 122‐123). Signs and symptoms that can not be tested objectively may be
discounted, and engender pronouncements of psychogenic problems (Ibid: 123‐124, 127).
Denial of the validity of disease can mean that persons are held responsible for their own
health problems (Ibid: 128‐129). This is seen in the advice from many cancer societies on citing
disease incidence from lifestyle choices as risks for illness, with little mention of occupational or
environmental exposures (Steingraber 1998: 261‐262). Similar problems are also noted by an
author who is affected by dyslexia, noting that a person’s experience is given little validity, and
medical authorities have difficulty categorizing and making sense of the condition (Titchkowsky
2003: 37, 39). The stigmatization of dyslexic people represents the social view of deviance from
normality , and the perception that people could relieve the problem with diligence echoes the
reality of people with contested illnesses (Ibid: 36, 141, 152).
Health social movements have gained a degree of power in countering the discrepancy
between accepted concepts of illness and the experience of patients (Hess 2005: 18). There is
little recognition of the fact that some people are sick due to disease caused by medical
treatments, as well as the fact that medicine has had close ties with profit‐making industries
that could influence health care decisions (Ibid). The growth of complementary and alternative
medicine (CAM) is countered by authorities who may consider the knowledge faulty (Ibid: 19).
The system of payment for pharmaceuticals is well entrenched, but there is little
acknowledgement that provision of nutritious food, healthy accommodation, and adequate
26
income helps to ensure wellbeing (Ibid: 22‐23). The legitimacy of CAM knowledge might be
bolstered if there was also funding for research to verify hypotheses, but scientists risk their
careers if they contradict the orthodoxy of funding agencies (Ibid: 24‐25). The growth of health
movements may be of value in widening the scope of research, and particularly in the example
of “embodied health movements”, which utilize individuals’ collective “understanding and
experience of illness” (Brown and Zavestoski 2005: 3). Challenges to the political economy of
health research and care necessitate looking at the links between “medical authority...alliances
[of] corporate actors, scientists, citizen activists” to allow new ways of looking at health
questions (Ibid: 4). Activists are in a position to expose “conflict of interest in medical research
and corporate influence in universities”, and the injustices of “existing class, race and gender
inequalities”, as well as “income distribution, geography, and other environmental factors” can
no longer be concealed in the rising challenge of traditional medicine’s dominance (Ibid: 5‐6).
The political and economic reality of the contested illnesses have resulted to changes in “public
health [and] housing policies…litigation initiatives”, despite the ongoing denial of the existence
of such conditions by many medical practitioners (Kroll‐Smith and Floyd 1997: 146, 172).
A frustrating lack of diagnosis and treatment of mystery diseases has affected military
personnel, including veterans of the 1990s Gulf War in southwest Asia (Radetsky 1997: 198;
Brown 2007: 145). Some of the affected people were veterans of the Vietnam War, with prior
exposure to chemicals predisposing them to harm from other noxious assaults (Radetsky 1997:
205). Many Gulf War veterans were subject to varied symptoms following their deployment
27
(Ibid: 199; Natelson 1998: 41). A common presentation of “chemically reactive” persons is seen
in some people with Gulf War Syndrome, CFS or MCS (Kroll‐Smith and Floyd 1997: 170‐172;
Brown 2007: 145). There are questions about the precautions medications to combat biological
and chemical attack were administered to personnel, with few warnings about possible
problems, little research on the effect the drugs on women, or the possibility of interaction
with other drugs or chemicals (Radetsky 1997: 199, 203‐204). Medical staff with no knowledge
about the manifestations of environmental illness brought diagnoses of “malingering” or
“emotional problems” until the sheer numbers of affected persons prompted the US Veterans
Affairs to advocate for research (Natelson 1998: 41). The health social movement in support of
those with Gulf War Syndrome has not attained the strength of other activists such as the
breast cancer movement, and little research funding has not been allotted to seek solutions to
the problems (Brown 2007: 193). The numbers of service personnel who have subsequently
been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan may also present with previously unrecognized diseases,
whether shortly after the overseas term or much later in life.
Breast cancer research has burgeoned over the last several decades, with many public
campaigns to raise funds to combat this cancer. This is a prime example of the “political
economy of disease—[with]…a vast powerful group of corporations protected by weak
governmental practices that have shaped what we are exposed to everyday” (McCormick 2009:
3). This economy helps determine knowledge production, and the emphasis has been on
“treatment, detection, and cure”, rather than prevention of the disease (Ibid). There is a
28
discrepancy in accountability when one considers that many of the same industries that
produce toxic chemicals also raise funds for breast cancer research and develop
pharmaceuticals to combat the disease (Brown 2007: 86; McCormick 2009: 3‐4; Sulik 2011: 19,
204). Some of the corporations also contribute to cancer agencies, and wield considerable
influence on the decisions about cancer detection devices (McCormick 2009: 30‐31, 36; Sulik
2011: 189). In other instances, governments pay for research and private corporations later
purchase production patents for profitable drugs (McCormick 2009: 5, 30‐31; Sulik 2011: 197‐
199). There is little confrontation of polluting industries or demands for toxic waste cleanup,
deflecting corporate responsibility for environmental protection (McCormick 2009: 31, 38). The
breast cancer movement may receive a small contribution from products advertising campaign
support, with manufacturers giving an aura of being philanthropic, although some of the
products may be harmful to health and the environment (Brown 2007: 82; McCormick 2009:
40‐41). Fundraising campaigns can also have administrative costs that are much greater than
allotments for research (Ibid: 85).
Breast cancer is not restricted to a narrow homogeneous band of “urban, middle class white
women” as depicted in some of the popular press articles, but can differ across cultures,
geographic location and time, with changes in the last few decades as health movements have
grown (Klawiter 2005: 161) Patients may come from a variety of socioeconomic locations, with
varying positions of “age, race, class, culture, ethnicity, sexual identity, religion and political
convictions” and they may be looking for a realm of options outside orthodox medicine (Ibid:
29
266). Treatment options may also be limited by work and family obligations (Ibid: 172‐177).
Health movements have opened discussion about treatments, social attitudes about post‐
mastectomy reconstruction or prostheses, and a general change in the epistemology about
having cancer, countering the pre‐1970s biomedical monopoly of choices and stigmatization
about having the disease (Klawiter 2005: 166‐174, 179; Sulik 2011: 262). Social movements can
also alter ideas about breast cancer in advocacy for prevention, examination of possible links to
environmental toxins, and emphasis that cancer detection programs do nothing to prevent
disease (Klawiter 2005: 179).
The growth of chemicals in everyday life has corresponded with increases in incidence of breast
cancer, but the persistent theme of blaming victims for lifestyle choices instead of corporations
that pollute the world replicate other instances of environmental disease (McCormick 2009: 61‐
62, 87; Epstein 2005: 82). Local activists in Long Island, New York recorded noxious waste sites
and industrial toxin releases relative to residences of breast cancer victims (McCormick 2009:
87, 94). Intricate links between “pharmaceutical, cancer drug, telecommunications, and
entertainment industries” are an integral part of the organization of the American Cancer
Society (ACS) (Epstein 2005: 79; Sulik 2011: 197‐199). The ACS partners with corporations that
may be the source of the pollutants instead of seeking to decrease exposures to environmental
toxins, and the cost of combating resulting disease is offloaded to affected people (Epstein
2005: 6; Sulik 2011: 21, 60). Corporations resist legislation for safe levels of exposure, and the
governments do little to enforce ineffective regulations (Epstein 2005: 6). The ACS is closely tied
30
to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the US, and controls funding for research (Ibid: 87,
287). The ACS board includes professionals who gain through providing treatment rather than
prevention or cure (Ibid: 287). Pharmaceutical companies reap greater profits from long‐term
administration of cancer drugs than would be realized with a short‐term effective cure (Epstein
2005: 287; Sulik 2011: 61). The cross‐linked organizational structure operates as a “cancer
industry”, with more benefits to the principal players rather than the general population
(Brown 2007: 81; Sulik 2011: 189).
Health problems in the new chemical order of post‐World War II society may be the result of
the combined effects of emissions from vehicles, factory wastes, and modern construction
materials (Millar 1995: 264, 267‐268; Nakazawa 2008: 39). There are increasing numbers of
diseases of unknown etiology, and a growing concept of carcinogenicity of our environment as
a factor in auto‐immune diseases (Nakazawa 2008: 39‐40). Multiple cumulative exposures to
chemicals over time are now recognized as a facet of illness (Ibid: 45). Chemicals may be
absorbed by through the skin, breathing, and eating, with measurement of fat‐soluble
persistent chemicals providing a definitive standard of cumulative exposure (Steingraber 1998:
236). The body burden can be explained by a picture of a barrel filling with chemical substances
over time, eventually reaching the point where the body can no longer tolerate the total load
(Radetsky 1997: 110; Nakazawa 2008: 72). Newborns may have contamination of their cord
blood, revealing the toxicity of common household chemicals, and dioxins are found in a
multitude of chemical compounds, and threatening immune systems (Nakazawa 2008: 52).
31
Industrial solvents can enter the food chain via contamination of water, producing cumulative
effects, and unknown toxicity in combination with other chemicals (Ibid: 60‐61). Buffalo, New
York was the site of a toxic waste dump linked to a cluster of people with lupus (Ibid: 111‐114).
Bureaucratic denials and lack of action by corporate polluters repeated the history of Love
Canal, in nearby Niagara Falls, generating investigative action (Ibid). Clusters of people with
multiple sclerosis were noted in other areas near heavy metal industries or imported
contaminated waste (Ibid: 117‐118). The link of auto‐immune disease clusters with toxic wastes
in lower socioeconomic districts continues, and corporate payouts for harm are miniscule when
divided among a large group and their lawyers (Ibid: 118).
Maps of toxic sites may be researched on the internet, and more studies of environmental
chemicals are necessary, especially in light of rising rate of allergies and asthma in children,
since their immune systems are unable to determine safe and unsafe stimuli (Nakazawa 2008:
158). Environmental illness treatment costs are hard to calculate, especially when health care
costs may be thrust upon individuals and their families—particularly where government health
care schemes are restricted and pre‐existing conditions preclude coverage (McCormick 2009:
144‐145). Polluting corporations evade the cost of treating environmental disease, but when
children are affected from their earliest years, the socioeconomic price in terms of diminished
health as well as loss of potential income is immeasurable (Ibid). The children are
disproportionately affected because their systems absorb more toxins per unit of size than
adults, and the children are closer to ground level pollutants (Needleman and Landrigan 1994:
32
3‐6). Children are less able to clear pollutants from their bodies, with a higher intake of toxins
per unit of body size, and immature cleansing capacity in the kidneys and liver (Craven 2003:
83).
There is a certain irony in the “Look Good, Feel Better” program that is available to breast
cancer patients under the sponsorship of the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association,
which is a trade association, not a charitable group (Epstein and Fitzgerald 2009: 1). These
products are protected from regulation by food and drug administrations by “trade secrets”,
raising questions about harmful chemicals as carcinogens (Ibid: 2‐5). These industries also
donate large sums to the ACS, as do many other manufacturers of toxic products (Ibid: 3). There
are few research findings on the “‘body burden’ of synthetic chemicals”, or the cumulative
effect of with prolonged exposures to multiple cosmetics absorbed through the skin (Ibid: 5‐7,
24, 93; Nakazawa 2008: 259). The products can affect internal systems, bypassing detoxification
of contaminants by liver enzymes (Epstein and Fitzgerald 2008: 24). The food and drug
administration pays little attention to cosmetic products unless a particular item has caused
documented harm (Ibid: 20).
There has been a common thread of production of science to counter claims of harm
throughout this paper. The tobacco industry hired physicists to dispute issues such as the
dangers of second‐hand smoke (Oreskes and Conway 2010: 5‐6). Information is presented with
an aura of validity, with media networks and government agencies accepting the ideas, despite
33
the fact that the promoters may never have done research on the subjects, or even be qualified
in that realm (Ibid: 6‐8). Many industries pay scientists higher salaries than many academic and
health research institutions can offer (Ibid: 10‐11). The tobacco industry crafted a careful
campaign of doubt about reports of harm from smoking, despite decades of evidence of health
hazards (Ibid: 33). The public believes that science is based on evidence weighed by experts, but
the pronouncements of scientists lacking specific expertise can not be equated with targeted
health research (Ibid: 269‐271). Writing “book reviews, editorials, and letters to editors” in the
adopted field of presumed proficiency is not equivalent to publication of articles in “peer‐
reviewed journals” that demonstrate scientific truth (Ibid: 270). Paid promoters lend an air of
authority, and it essential to examine the true history of credentials, research, sphere of
influence, and funding sources before accepting pronouncements as truth (Ibid: 272).
Cancer rates are rising rapidly in many parts of the world, but there is little acknowledgement
of the effects of environmental toxins in disease incidence, with cancer societies advising
people to address faulty lifestyle issues (Epstein and Fitzgerald 2008: 45). A conflict of interest
is shown in the example of Richard Doll, a British researcher who blamed victims for their
illness, while at the same time acting as a paid consultant to asbestos and petrochemical
industries (Epstein 2005: 179; Epstein and Fitzgerald 2008: 47). Corporate research results
might not be released to the public or any regulatory agencies (Davis 2007: 306; Epstein and
Fitzgerald 2009: 54‐55). Perfume ingredients may include “hormone disrupters, allergens,
asthma triggers, and chemicals linked to headaches, infertility, and cancer” under the cover of
34
“trade secret ‘fragrance’’’ (Humes 2011: 6‐7). The cosmetic and fragrance industry can be
exempt from labeling requirements, and designation of products for “professional use only”
absolves manufacturers from the consequences of application by uninformed users (Epstein
and Fitzgerald 2009: 60‐62; Humes 2011: 6). Beauty and nail salon workers may have
considerable exposure to noxious products, including skin and respiratory damage, and the
employees may not be informed of the health risks (Epstein and Fitzgerald 2009: 106‐109).
There is also an element of racism, as many employees are young immigrant women working
long shifts (Ibid: 107‐109). Safe ventilation systems are costly, and protective masks would
frighten the clients (Ibid: 110‐111).
Western societies are subjected to a daily barrage of chemicals in various air fresheners or
sprays for furniture or clothing, and products are wafted throughout buildings via air currents,
leaving surface residues (May 2001: 46, 86‐87). The chemical ingredients might be toxic,
especially for babies and children playing near floor level. Industry lobbyists work to maintain
the secrecy of product ingredients, impeding pressure to disclose hazardous components, and
companies may feign ignorance of risks (Epstein and Fitzgerald 2009: 63‐64; Humes 2011: 6).
The chemical industry is tainted by links to education and research institutions whereby
“chemistry accreditation requirements a universities are set by major chemical,
pharmaceutical, and product manufacturers, not the schools themselves” (Epstein and
Fitzgerald 2009: 191). Activists’ efforts to eliminate environmental toxins may be reinforced by
Wal‐Mart’s interest in a green planet (Humes 2011). Efforts to reduce waste and pollution
35
include reducing packaging and accepting products such as laundry detergent only in a
concentrated form to decrease use of environmental resources in manufacture and
transportation (Ibid: 147‐148). Wal‐Mart purchases computer products that meet European
Union criteria for low toxicity, with subsequent cost reductions because of manufacturing
efficiency (Ibid: 55, 142, 231). Carpet factories can switch to more environmentally friendly
backings instead of the former toxic products that emitted chemicals in the home and could not
be recycled by consumers (Ibid: 187). The term “greenwashing” describes goods as more
environmentally friendly than is true, since many claims have been false and companies have
paid for invalid certification (Ibid: 200). Calling a product “natural” is not synonymous with
safety, since the components may be identical to synthetic toxins (Ibid: 201). Failure to put
warning labels on products was easier in the past when there were no strict government
requirements, and corporations were complacent about changing their processes unless
pressured to do so (Ibid: 117). The compounded effect of Wal‐Mart’s initiatives results in a
reinforcement of the efforts of many grassroots groups, and there is a huge economic clout
when non‐compliant suppliers might be barred from one of the world’s largest retailers (Ibid).
The health benefits of moving to non‐toxic products will contribute to a decrease in the body
burden of chemicals, and save healthcare costs as well as improving general well‐being,
providing a measure of safety to many people (Ibid: 117, 122).
Conclusion
The grassroots activism of people in areas such as Love Canal and Woburn utilized principles of
popular epidemiology as concerned people paid attention to local changes in their
36
environment, dumping of hazardous wastes in their area, and evidence of disease in their
families and neighbours (Gibbs 1998: 198; Murphy 2006: 103). Effective opposition to
dangerous corporate practices came through refining the groups’ strategies, and the
empowerment techniques reach an ever‐widening audience through the efforts of advocates
such as Lois Gibbs at the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice, teaching people how to
launch effective campaigns in cases of toxic trespass (Fletcher 2003: 11; Murphy 2006: 103‐
107). Injustice is present when neighbourhoods of minority groups or lower socioeconomic
strata are disproportionately targeted for polluting industries or hazardous waste disposal sites
(Fletcher 2003: 12‐13; Murphy 2006: 105‐107). The issues of today, in the early twenty‐first
century, are addressed with confident preparation by grassroots groups, information on
Internet sites, and rapid coordination of activists through electronic media. Women are an
integral part in looking for action in tracing environmental toxins and health, with considerable
work accumulating information and pressing for changes at the same time as families are
dealing with health issues, but success might be measured in the effect on raising the level of
consciousness about toxic waste, pressure towards mitigation of hazardous effects, and the
exposure of the complicity between governments and corporations in fostering company
profits ahead of the health of the environment (Brown and Mikkelsen 1990; Gibbs 1998;
Steingraber 1998). The activists in Woburn managed to produce a valuable “amount of
scientific knowledge”, despite skeptics’ suspicions about popular epidemiology (Brown 2000:
378). Some of the communities examined in this literature review have had success in their
quest for environmental justice, while others are still pressing to have their concerns
addressed, but the population at large is much more aware of the issues since Carson’ Silent
37
Spring was published in 1962, and Love Canal came to national attention in 1978. This increased
awareness has led to burgeoning amounts of information, and a search for pertinent topics will
yield a myriad of articles on the subject matter (Kroll‐Smith, Brown, and Gunter 2000: 3).
Writers who expose the injustices of environmental pollution can spread their message rapidly
through modern communication technology, and the entrenched concealment of harm to
health and the world around us and demands for scientific proof of harm are no longer
acceptable to world citizens (Davis 2007: 302). Organizations can also pursue “issues such as
ecosystem health, individual health, and environmental justice in communities” at far greater
efficacy than was seen in the past (www.cumulativeimpacts.org). Moral responsibility may
supersede the quest for profits when accountability is expected in the interests of health and
social justice.
38
Works Cited
Baker‐Laporte, Paula, Erica Elliot, and John Banta. Prescriptions for a Healthy House: A
Practical Guide for Architects, Builders & Homeowners. Second edition. Gabriola
Island, BC: New Society, 2001. Personal library.
Barlow, Maude, and Elizabeth May. Frederick Street: Life and Death on Canada’s Love Canal.
Toronto: Phyllis Bruce/HarperCollins, 2000. Grande Prairie Public Library.
Barlow, Maude, and Tony Clarke. Global Showdown: How the New Activists Are Fighting
Global Corporate Rule. Toronto: Stoddart, 2001. Strathcona County Library.
Bowker, Michael. Fatal Deception: The Terrifying True Story of How Asbestos is Killing
America. New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 2003. Strathcona County Library.
Brown, Phil, and Edwin J Mikkelsen. No Safe Place: Toxic Waste, Leukemia, and Community
Action. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California, 1990. Athabasca University Library.
39
Brown, Phil. “Popular Epidemiology and Toxic Waste Contamination: Lay and Professional
Ways of Knowing”. In Kroll‐Smith, Brown, and Gunter 2000: 364‐383.
Brown, Phil. Toxic Exposures: Contested Illnesses and the Environmental Health Movement.
New York: Columbia Univ., 2007. Personal library.
Brown, Phil, and Stephen Zavestoski. “Social Movements in Health: An Introduction”. In
Brown and Zavestoski 2005: 1‐16.
Brown, Phil, and Stephen Zavestoski, editors. Social Movements in Health. Malden, MA and
Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2005. Personal library.
Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring: 40th Anniversary Edition. Boston, New York: Mariner/Houghton
Mifflin, 2002. Strathcona County library.
Craven, Jackie. The Healthy Home. Gloucester, MA: Quarry/Rockport, 2003. Strathcona County
40
Library.
Davis, Devra. When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the
Battle Against Pollution. New York: Basic/Perseus, 2002. Personal Library.
Davis, Devra. The Secret History of the War on Cancer. New York: Basic/Perseus, 2007.
Personal library.
Davis, Devra. Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done
to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family. New York: Dutton, 2010. Strathcona County
Library.
Epstein, Samuel S. Cancer‐Gate: How to Win the Losing Cancer War. Amityville, NY: Baywood,
2005. Fort Saskatchewan Library.
Epstein, Samuel S., with Randall Fitzgerald. Toxic Beauty. Dallas, TX: Benbella, 2009.
Strathcona County Library.
41
Fletcher, Thomas H. From Love Canal to Environmental Justice: The Politics of
Hazardous Waste on the Canada‐U.S. Border. Peterborough, ON: Broadview,
2003. Edmonton Public Library.
Freund, Peter E. S., and Meredith B. McGuire. Health, Illness, and the Social Body: A
Critical Sociology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999. Personal library.
Gibbs, Lois Marie. Love Canal: The Story Continues. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society, 1998.
Edmonton Public Library.
Gilding, Paul. The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On the End of Shopping
and the Birth of a New World. New York: Bloomsbury, 2011. Strathcona County Library.
Hallett, Steve, with John Wright. Life Without Oil: Why We Must Shift to a New Energy
Future. Amherst, NJ: Prometheus, 2011. Strathcona County Library.
42
Hess, David J. “Medical Modernisation, Scientific Research Fields and the Epistemic Politics of
Health”. In Brown and Zavestoski 2005: 17‐30.
Humes, Edward. Force of Nature: The Unlikely Story of Wal‐Mart’s Green Revolution. New
York: HarperCollins, 2011. Strathcona County Library.
Johansen, Bruce E. The Dirty Dozen: Toxic Chemicals and the Earth’s Future. Westport, CT and
London: Praeger, 2003. Strathcona County Library.
Klawiter, Maren. “Breast Cancer in Two Regimes: The Impact of Social Movements on
Illness Experience”. In Brown and Zavestoski 2005: 161‐189.
Kroll‐Smith, Steve, and H. Hugh Floyd. Bodies in Protest: Environmental Illness and the
Struggle Over Medical Knowledge. New York and London: New York Univ., 1997.
Personal library.
Kroll‐Smith, Steve, Phil Brown, and Valerie J. Gunter, editors. Illness and the Environment: A
43
Reader in Contested Medicine. New York and London: New York Univ., 2000. Personal
library.
Kroll‐Smith, Steve, Phil Brown, and Valerie J. Gunter. “Introduction: Environments and
Diseases in a Postnatural World”. In Kroll‐Smith, Brown, and Gunter 2000: 1‐6.
Levine, Adeline Gordon. Love Canal: Science, Politics, and People. Lexington, MA and Toronto:
Lexington Books/ D. C. Heath, 1982. Calgary Public Library.
May, Jeffery C. My House is Killing Me: The Home Guide for Families with Allergies and
Asthma. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins Univ., 2001. Strathcona County Library.
McCormick, Sabrina. No Family History: The Environmental Links to Breast Cancer.
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. Strathcona County Library.
Millar, Myrna, and Heather Millar. The Toxic Labyrinth: A Family’s Successful Battle Against
Environmental Illness . Vancouver: MCO Professional Services, 1995. Personal library.
44
Murphy, Michelle. Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty: Environmental
Politics, Technoscience, and Women Workers. Durham and London: Duke Univ., 2006.
Personal library.
Nakazawa, Donna Jackson. The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World Out of
Balance—And the Cutting‐Edge Science that Promises Help. New York:
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 2008. Strathcona County Library.
Natelson, Benjamin H. Facing and Fighting Fatigue: A Practical Approach. New Haven, CT and
London: Yale Univ., 1995. Strathcona County Library.
Needleman, Herbert L., and Philip J. Landrigan. Raising Children Toxic Free: How to Keep Your
Child Safe from Lead, Asbestos, Pesticides, and Other Environmental Hazards. New York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994. Personal library.
Oreskes, Naomi, and Erik M. Conway. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists
45
Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. New York:
Bloomsbury, 2010. Strathcona County Library.
Pellow, David Naguib, and Lisa Sun‐Hee Park. The Silicon Valley of Dreams: Environmental
Justice, Immigrant Workers, and the High‐Tech Global Economy. New York and London:
New York Univ., 2002. Personal library.
Radetsky, Peter. Allergic to the Twentieth Century: The Explosion in Environmental Allergies—
From Sick Buildings to Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Boston: Little, Brown, 1997.
Strathcona County Library.
Rapp, Doris J. Is This Your Child’s World? How You Can Fix the Schools and Homes That Are
Making Your Children Sick. New York: Bantam, 1996. Note as 1996a. Personal library.
Rapp, Doris J. Is This Your Child? Discovering and Treating Unrecognized Allergies in
Children and Adults. New York: Harper, 1996. Note as 1996b. Strathcona County
Library.
46
Rossol, Monona. Pick Your Poison: How Our Mad Dash to Chemical Utopia Is Making Lab
Rats of Us All. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2011. Strathcona County Library.
Rousseau, David, and James Wasley. Healthy by Design: Building and Remodeling Solutions for
Creating Healthy Homes. Second edition. Point Roberts, WA and Vancouver, BC:
Hartley & Marks, 1999. Personal library.
Schneider, Andrew, and David McCumber. An Air That Kills: How the Asbestos Poisoning of
Libby, Montana, Uncovered a National Scandal. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2004.
Strathcona County Library.
Shkilnyk, Anastasia M. A Poison Stronger Than Love: The Destruction of an Ojibwa Community.
New Haven and London: Yale Univ., 1985. Personal library.
Steingraber, Sandra. Living Downstream. New York: Vintage/Random House, 1998. Rimbey
Municipal Library.
47
Sulik, Gayle A. Pink Ribbon Blues: How Breast Cancer Culture Undermines Women’s Health.
Oxford, New York: Oxford Univ., 2011. Strathcona County Library.
Thompson, Athena. Homes That Heal. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society, 2004. Personal library.
Titchkosky, Tanya. Disability, Self, and Society. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto, 2003. Personal
library.
Wendell, Susan. The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability.
New York and London: Routledge, 1996. Personal library.
http://www.wise‐uranium.org/uippra.html. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
http://freegrassy.org/2011/08/01/grassy‐trappers‐win‐major‐legal‐victory Retrieved August
21, 2011.
http://www.capebretonpost.com/News/Local/2011‐10‐24/article‐2785293/Work‐on‐north‐
48
pond. Retrieved October 25, 2011.
http://www.cumulativeimpacts.org. Retrieved December 3, 2011.