Published in the August 2002 issue of Atlanta, GA’s Oracle2000

Steve was stunned to learn that there might be mercury contamination in the Atlantic Ocean’s saltwater fish.

Steve was only 40 in the year 2000 the day a doctor told him that he was sick because his body had extremely high mercury levels. A normal range per person is 1.1 micrograms—Steve’s was 13 micrograms. His physician’s first question was, “How much fish do you eat?” He told the doctor he’d eaten King Mackerel caught off the Georgia coast about four times a week the past 10 years.
Steve was stunned to learn that there might be mercury contamination in the Atlantic Ocean’s saltwater fish. His doctor confided that the only other patient he’d seen with higher mercury levels was a man who ate a can of tuna fish every day for 20 years.
Georgia health officials have for many years warned against eating fish from 33 Georgia lakes and 40 rivers and creeks due to mercury contamination. Research released in March 2000 confirmed that King Mackerel has mercury contamination. The Georgia Sport Fish Regulations now recommends only eating King Mackerel once a week—but it was too late for Steve.
The single largest unregulated source of mercury contamination, about 33%, comes from the US Electrical Industry. The higher up the food chain a fish is the higher it’s mercury contents. Salmon, Tuna and King Mackerel are all fish that can contain a lot of mercury. The amount of mercury in fish can be a million times higher than that of the water. Mercury poisoning can cause severe neurological damage in humans. Especially sensitive subpopulations consist of pregnant women and fetuses, nursing mother and their infants, and children. The EPA web site concerning high levels of mercury found in salmon and tuna is http://www.epa.gov/children/food/polluted-fish.htm. They do specify that they are concerned about fish caught for sport of subsistence. The Audubon Seafood Lover’s Guide says most wild salmon are in severe trouble and that selling commercially caught wild Atlantic salmon is prohibited. All Atlantic salmon sold in the USA is farmed. Their web site is http://www.audubon.org/campaign/lo/seafood/atlanticsalmon.html.
The Georgia Electric Companies are also responsible for 81% of the sulfur
dioxide which is responsible for more than 1,600 premature deaths in Georgia each year; 42% carbon dioxide which causes a rise in global temperatures; 23% Nitrogen Oxides which is especially threatening to Georgia’s children and people with respiratory diseases, including asthma. Approximately 5,500 deaths annually in the US are attributed to asthma.
The danger we face in being exposed to industrial chemicals is not just disease and death, it’s the actual destruction of our ability to reproduce.
Carcinogens are poisons that kill cells or attack DNA, other man-made chemicals target hormones. These synthetic hormones mimic the effects of natural hormones, usually the female hormone estrogen, by altering the natural synthesis of hormones or altering hormone receptor levels. The effects most often appear in the offspring, not the exposed parent. Many mothers are unknowingly passing their chemical legacy on to their babies through their womb and through their breast milk.
The book Our Stolen Future by Theo Colborn and John Peterson Myers, two leading environmentalists and Dianne Dumanoski, an environmental journalist, list the compelling effects of chemical contamination revealed from wildlife studies, laboratory experiments and human data. Synthetic chemicals are now linked to reproductive problems: a low sperm count (the male sperm count has plummeted by 50% since 1940 worldwide), infertility, genital and urethra abnormalities, the feminization of males, the masculization of females and hormonally triggered human diseases such as breast and prostrate cancer. Other symptoms include neurological, mental and emotional developmental disorders in children and the abnormal functioning of the thyroid, endocrine and immune system.
Eighty thousand chemicals have been registered with the Environmental Protection Agency in the last 60 years. Twenty new chemicals enter the market a week. Few are properly tested. These chemicals include pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, industrial detergents, and household cleaners. They are found everywhere in our water, air, soil, and food. They may even lurk in unexpected places such as the nonylphenols and the alkylphenols found in plastics and personal care items.
Bill Moyers in his PBS documentary titled Trade Secrets allowed his blood to be tested for 150 different chemicals. Eighty-four were found in his blood. There is a 26% increase in brain cancer in children and testicular cancer in teenage boys has doubled. Infertility in young men, learning disabilities in children and breast cancer in woman is up. Could there be a connection? Are our children the laboratory mice in this vast chemical experiment?
The chemicals may be low in the environment but they resist breakdown and accumulate in the body fat of humans over time. Because of food contamination the concentrations are higher in the bodies of animals up the food chain and in humans. This chronic synthetic hormone exposure is unprecedented in our evolutionary experience. However, most research money for investigating the effects of environment contamination of health goes to cancer studies. Also, because industrial chemicals have become a major sector of the global economy, any evidence linking them to serious human and ecological health problems is met with opposition.
Moyers PBS program is based on documents from the chemical industry making it clear that they knew the dangers of PCB’s, benzene and other highly toxic products years before they told their own workers and the public.
California placed “The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act” (Proposition 65) on the ballet when they had enough signatures in 1986. Proposition 65 also known as “The Right To know” passed unanimously. If a chemical company is in violation of Proposition 65 they are fined $5,000 a day per person per company. No other state has passed “The Right To Know” law since 1986. Why?
The bottom line is that the chemical industries formed a Political Action Committee (PAC) in 1980 to help lobbyists gain access to members of Congress and to give money to candidates. Their multimillion-dollar donations to congressional election campaigns and their advertising efforts to counter an unfavorable image with the public have paid off. Today chemicals have more rights than people. Only five toxic chemicals have been banned in 25 years. The Government has made it difficult to get toxic chemicals off the market. A chemical is considered innocent until proven guilty—this means a person must become ill or die. The government requires the industry to self regulate—a clear conflict of interest. Since the chemical companies provide the funds and tests for toxic chemicals they can ask the scientists to produce the research that gives the results they want.
What can we do about it? Let your congressperson know that you want “The Right To Know” (Proposition 65) law passed throughout the country. Ask that tests for toxic chemicals be done independent of the Chemical Companies and that the EPA, Academia and chemical companies work together to clean up our environment. We need to request more efficient ways to get toxic chemicals off the market and continue to test the blood of Americans for toxic chemicals and their effects.

Niki Collins-Queen is the author of “Earth, the Forgotten Temple: A Spirit Quest in the Wilderness.”