David (04/18/83)
As a resident of New Brunswick, N.J., I have often heard people toss
around a very frightening statistic about the city and the surrounding
Middlesex County area - we live in the heart of America's "Cancer Belt,"
and have the highest cancer incidence rate per capita in the nation.
Here's another recent statistic: one out of every three Americans living
now will eventually die of cancer. Whether these horrifying statistics
are precisely accurate or not, they set off in me some very fearful think-
ing: Cancer, that man-made disease which causes the cells of our bodies to
turn against us, to mutate and multiply uncontrollably until, late or soon,
our organs can no longer carry out their natural functions...
But rather than play the role of the helpless hysteric, and contin-
ue dwelling on the horrible reality of the disease, I'd like to look towards
what might be done to begin changing the statistics. I'm not talking about
simply putting more resources into finding a cure for cancer. That's like
trying to build a boat while floodwaters are already raging through a city.
the boat might save a few lives, if it can be completed in time; but mean-
while the majority of citizens will still drown. What is really needed is to
close the floodgates and stop the flow of water through the dam above the
city.
More specifically, I'm talking about using the government structures
we already have, to halt the outpouring of known and suspected carcinogens
into our environment. As a start, we can stop the disposal of toxic wastes
in landfills, where they wil inevitably reach into our drinking water and
poison us. We must meanwhile encourage research into new methods of deto-
xifying chemical wastes and/or recycling them. Environmental and hazard-
ous waste laws must be strengthened. But above all, existing laws must be
enforced. And that means, to a large extent, and empowered, aggressive En-
vironmental Protection Agency.
Thank God that Anne McGill Burford and most of her corporate-serving
cronies have left or been fired from the EPA. It is up to Congress and the
public to continue exerting pressure on the EPA to begin protecting the
public again, instead of the chemical industry, which apparently has no
qualms about poisoning the population, as long as their balance sheets con-
tinue to show profits.
This brings me to a final point. Who is responsible for the fact
that when we turn on our kitchen faucets, we have to wonder about the amount
of poison we are about to ingest? To some extent we all are. We have a Pres-
ident who puts industrial growth before the health of the people who would
benefit from that growth. We have laws in the Congress which currently
favor landfills as the simplest solution to toxic waste disposal. We have
ourselves, the citizens, who don't scream loudly enough that we don't want
to be, that we won't be poisoned.
But what about the people who are actually doing the poisoning?
Why is it that the officials of the chemical corporations - the
managers and directors, who if they know their
business should know better than anyone the dangerous
physical properties of toxic wastes - why are they allowed to hide behind the
amorphous front of the Corporation, while they continue to poison America?
What we need to do is to hold the **individuals** responsible, who make the
decisions to dispose of toxic wastes illegally. Fine the corporations, yes
and heavily. But also convict the responsible individuals of criminal mis-
conduct (if not manslaughter) and get them out of positions where they
can affect the public health.
David Sehr