Protecting our health & the marine environment from toxic pollution
BC's iconic killer whales are some of the most polluted marine mammals in the world. Photo: Joanne Huemoeller.
What is...Chemical Trespass?
When you ask most people chances are they have never heard of the term chemical trespass. Yet when you drink from a plastic water bottle, put on deodorant, wash your hair, brush your teeth, wipe the dust off your computer, drive your car or eat, chances are you have been chemically trespassed.
In North America there are over 85,000 chemicals in use, many of them found in common household products. The chemicals contained in these products include known carcinogens, reproductive toxins and endocrine disrupting chemicals, most of which are unlabeled and untested. The transfer of these toxins into your body without your knowledge or consent is called chemical trespass. Astoundingly, over 90% of chemicals used in North America have never been evaluated for their impact on human health and even fewer for their environmental impact. And although toxic chemicals such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), disodium EDTA and methyl paraben may sound foreign and unfamiliar, these common and highly toxic chemicals can be found in your mattress, shampoo and shaving cream.
The impact of chemical trespass on human health and the environment is pervasive and growing. Over the past 60 years, tens of thousands of synthetic chemicals have found their way into our water, air and food supply, and the results are sobering. But the proposed new regulations won't protect the public's interests. They've been written by the timber corporations (who, remember, want to lower their costs and increase their profits) and the government has not yet let the public see them. But we have learned that:
Chemical trespass can take many forms. Most people don't know that computers are a common source of PBDEs, a highly toxic chemical. Photo: WC files.
- In the 1930s, 1 in 10 Canadians could expect to develop cancer over their lifetime. Today, that number has risen to 1 in 2.4 Canadian men and 1 in 2.7 Canadian women. (1)
- Early puberty in girls and increased risk of breast cancer in women are increasingly being linked to xenoestrogens (chemicals that mimic female hormones). Phthalates in cosmetics and bisphenol-A (found in hard plastic water bottles) are among the suspects.
- In the last half-century sperm counts for men in industrialized countries have dropped by almost 50%, and in heavily industrialized Scotland a recent study showed men's sperm counts decreased by 27% (2) in just 12 years.
The impact on our environment is also far reaching. Worldwide, the decline of frog species has been linked to chemical contamination. Growth-promoting synthetic hormones that are used to fatten cattle can change the sexual characteristics of wild fish, as happened when chemicals leaked from a feedlot into Nebraska's Elkhorn River. The toxic chemical legacy of DDT and PCBs continues to poison BC's southern resident killer whales. (3)
To close the door on chemical trespass we need to be aware of the chemicals that we come into contact with in our home and at our workplace, in the air we breath, the water we drink and the food we eat.
We need to ensure mandatory labeling so people can make informed choices. We must demand proper research so dangerous substances, such as "persistent toxic chemicals" don't come onto the marketplace at all. We need strong laws to regulate chemicals and above all we need our federal government to honour the precautionary principle and put people's safety first. As a society we still have the opportunity to leave future generations a healthy planet with clean air and water.
Please join the Labour Environmental Alliance Society and the Wilderness Committee in our fight to protect your health and stop chemical trespass.
