Question Use Of Chemicals
Last summer our 9-year-old son a healthy boy who loves backpacking fell ill with what seemed to be a typical childhood infection, a swollen lymph gland. Agonizing weeks later, after he wasted away to a skeleton of his former, vital self, unable to walk, he was diagnosed with cancer: non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Doctors said it was probably caused by bad luck, genetics and toxic substances in the environment. Cancer has been rare in our family, and at first we saw his illness as bad luck. As his condition improved, we began to read and were sickened to discover that non-Hodgkins lymphoma is repeatedly correlated with common pesticides.
National Cancer Institute studies show excessive rates of this cancer among farmers who use pesticides. The connection between pesticides and non-Hodgkins lymphoma (and some other cancers) is clear.
Chemical companies have exploited the difficulty of unequivocally proving the dangers. Such short-term effects as nausea, headaches, rashes, dizziness, reproductive problems, weight loss and hemorrhaging can be passed off to other causes.
The long-term effects of cancer and birth defects are equally difficult to prove. In adults cancer can take 20 years to appear. But for children, whose immune systems and detoxification organs are not as fully developed, the latency period can be much shorter.
My son’s symptoms first appeared in June 1995, several weeks into the spraying season. Some people will call this coincidence, but how can I, a mother cherishing her child as the essence of life, pass his grave illness and terrible suffering off to coincidence?
As adults who have an ethical responsibility to future generations, we need to question the common sense of assuming a chemical is safe until proven harmful.
As consumers we need to support farmers who shift to sustainable agricultural practices, gradually weaning themselves and their crops from chemical dependency.
We need to question the routine spraying of chemicals on lawns, roadsides and parks where our children play. I would rather live with more weeds than see people suffer the consequences of chemical use.
MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a Your Turn column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write Your Turn, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615.