Chemicals: Our champions, our killers

[Guest guest]

Chemicals: Our champions, our killers

An environmental lawyer who fought toxic chemicals all his life has

to depend on them in a fight for his life.

Los Angeles Times - CA,USA

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-

meyerhoff28-2008dec28,0,1958125.story

By Al Meyerhoff

December 28, 2008

Ihave leukemia. Those must be among the most frightening words in

the English language. My particular form of the disease, called

acute myeloid leukemia, was diagnosed a few weeks ago. It was a

shock but not a complete surprise. About a year ago, I was found to

have a rare blood disorder called myelodysplastic syndrome, which

attacks red blood cells, causing anemia. My form of that disorder

had only about a 5% chance of morphing into AML. It beat the odds.

Leukemia was once a death sentence. No more. Through a combination

of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, it now is actually

curable. Sometimes.

It's a surreal experience, one day having dinner with friends, the

next in a hospital bed for Thanksgiving, hoping to stay among the

living. But that's where I am writing this, while having some of the

most toxic chemicals known to man pumped into my bloodstream.

Voluntarily.

There is some irony to this. You see, I am an environmental lawyer,

and I have spent much of the last 25 years doing battle with the

chemical companies, including seeking to ban (sometimes

successfully) various toxic chemicals, some strikingly similar to

those I am now ingesting. Timing is everything.

There is no organic chemotherapy. In fact, I think of these

chemicals as my soldiers in a war going on in my blood. A war on

cancer, if you will. The old industry slogan was right: Without

chemicals, life itself would be impossible.

I also think of myself as a zucchini in my garden, being attacked by

fungus. That's because fungus, like leukemia, works at the cellular

level. It eats away at a plant's cells, eventually killing it.

Fungicides, such as the ethylene bisdithiocarbamates (or EBDCs,

which I tried unsuccessfully to get banned as potent carcinogens),

attack the fungus and save the plant. Sometimes. But the fungi fight

back and become resistant to the chemical. So do cancer cells.

Chemicals. They are everywhere. They have enormous benefits (see

above). Those benefits come with enormous risks. Those of us who

have complained about the latter are often referred to by the

industry as " chemophobes. "

Carson, when she wrote " Silent Spring, " was probably the

first chemophobe, and the industry launched a massive and eventually

unsuccessful campaign to defame her. They are back, by the way,

attacking again some 50 years after her premature death from breast

cancer. That's one reason why it is still hard for me to think of

them as my champions.

Since World War II, we have experienced a petrochemical revolution

in the United States and around the world. Chemical use has

exploded, and we are exposed to numerous substances every day -- in

the drugs we take, the toothpaste we use, in the places we work, the

toys we buy our kids, the food we eat, the water we drink and the

air we breath. Benzene, one such substance -- a known human

carcinogen and air pollutant in Los Angeles -- causes leukemia. It

makes you wonder.

Some chemicals, like benzene, have been discovered over time to be

carcinogenic, but contrary to popular belief, except for

pharmaceuticals and to some degree pesticides, the vast majority of

the approximately 50,000 commercial and industrial chemicals

currently being used are not subject to any pre-market approval or

testing for long-term health effects. No one is checking first to

see whether they cause cancer, birth defects or genetic mutations

that might lead to cancer in future generations. They are simply out

there by the billions of pounds (last year, 4 billion pounds of

pesticides were added to our environment, some but not all tested

for health and environmental effects).

This is what is charitably called the " data gap " -- a paucity of

information about the toxicity of these products and the effects of

our exposure to them. Without such knowledge, all efforts to

effectively regulate them are doomed to fail.

These " gaps " are not a secret. They were supposed to be filled more

than 30 years ago when Congress passed a woefully inadequate law

called the Toxic Substances Control Act. Guess what? It didn't

control the toxic substances.

A high priority for the Obama administration should be a fundamental

rewrite of the Toxic Substances Control Act -- perhaps along the

lines of the European REACH pact that the U.S. has opposed. The

REACH pact mandates testing of the suspected worst actors among

chemicals and then phasing them out -- without the full-blown trials

the substances control act now requires in the United States.

All in all, it's hard for me to feel warm and cuddly about the

chemical companies that have resisted reform for decades. And yet

here I sit (or lie), counting on them to save me from leukemia.

Al Meyerhoff died Dec. 21, at age 61, of complications from

leukemia. He was a prominent Los Angeles environmental and labor

lawyer, and a former director of the public health program of the

Natural Resources Defense Council. He was also a frequent

contributor to The Times' Op-Ed page.

[Guest guest]

What a shame.

What has me puzzled is why didn't he try the alternatives to chemotherapy that

have had proven successful, contingent upon when the cancer was first diagnosed?

Things like graviola which was the subject of a major NIH study as to it's

effectiveness.?

His unwarranted demise should be the future of all those who sell, promote and

endorse these toxins into our homes, lives, bodies and environment.?

The government is starting to look into REACH. As someone I know is on the

transition team and the environmental impact upon helath was of extreme interest

to them.? So, we shall see if it get implemented, as I was requested to provide

a letter addressing issues that was to be forwarded to various people in the new

administration.

'nuff said!

Angel

[] Chemicals: Our champions, our killers

Chemicals: Our champions, our killers

An environmental lawyer who fought toxic chemicals all his life has

to depend on them in a fight for his life.

Los Angeles Times - CA,USA

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-

meyerhoff28-2008dec28,0,1958125.story

By Al Meyerhoff

December 28, 2008

Ihave leukemia. Those must be among the most frightening words in

the English language. My particular form of the disease, called

acute myeloid leukemia, was diagnosed a few weeks ago. It was a

shock but not a complete surprise. About a year ago, I was found to

have a rare blood disorder called myelodysplastic syndrome, which

attacks red blood cells, causing anemia. My form of that disorder

had only about a 5% chance of morphing into AML. It beat the odds.

Leukemia was once a death sentence. No more. Through a combination

of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, it now is actually

curable. Sometimes.

It's a surreal experience, one day having dinner with friends, the

next in a hospital bed for Thanksgiving, hoping to stay among the

living. But that's where I am writing this, while having some of the

most toxic chemicals known to man pumped into my bloodstream.

Voluntarily.

There is some irony to this. You see, I am an environmental lawyer,

and I have spent much of the last 25 years doing battle with the

chemical companies, including seeking to ban (sometimes

successfully) various toxic chemicals, some strikingly similar to

those I am now ingesting. Timing is everything.

There is no organic chemotherapy. In fact, I think of these

chemicals as my soldiers in a war going on in my blood. A war on

cancer, if you will. The old industry slogan was right: Without

chemicals, life itself would be impossible.

I also think of myself as a zucchini in my garden, being attacked by

fungus. That's because fungus, like leukemia, works at the cellular

level. It eats away at a plant's cells, eventually killing it.

Fungicides, such as the ethylene bisdithiocarbamates (or EBDCs,

which I tried unsuccessfully to get banned as potent carcinogens),

attack the fungus and save the plant. Sometimes. But the fungi fight

back and become resistant to the chemical. So do cancer cells.

Chemicals. They are everywhere. They have enormous benefits (see

above). Those benefits come with enormous risks. Those of us who

have complained about the latter are often referred to by the

industry as " chemophobes. "

Carson, when she wrote " Silent Spring, " was probably the

first chemophobe, and the industry launched a massive and eventually

unsuccessful campaign to defame her. They are back, by the way,

attacking again some 50 years after her premature death from breast

cancer. That's one reason why it is still hard for me to think of

them as my champions.

Since World War II, we have experienced a petrochemical revolution

in the United States and around the world. Chemical use has

exploded, and we are exposed to numerous substances every day -- in

the drugs we take, the toothpaste we use, in the places we work, the

toys we buy our kids, the food we eat, the water we drink and the

air we breath. Benzene, one such substance -- a known human

carcinogen and air pollutant in Los Angeles -- causes leukemia. It

makes you wonder.

Some chemicals, like benzene, have been discovered over time to be

carcinogenic, but contrary to popular belief, except for

pharmaceuticals and to some degree pesticides, the vast majority of

the approximately 50,000 commercial and industrial chemicals

currently being used are not subject to any pre-market approval or

testing for long-term health effects. No one is checking first to

see whether they cause cancer, birth defects or genetic mutations

that might lead to cancer in future generations. They are simply out

there by the billions of pounds (last year, 4 billion pounds of

pesticides were added to our environment, some but not all tested

for health and environmental effects).

This is what is charitably called the " data gap " -- a paucity of

information about the toxicity of these products and the effects of

our exposure to them. Without such knowledge, all efforts to

effectively regulate them are doomed to fail.

These " gaps " are not a secret. They were supposed to be filled more

than 30 years ago when Congress passed a woefully inadequate law

called the Toxic Substances Control Act. Guess what? It didn't

control the toxic substances.

A high priority for the Obama administration should be a fundamental

rewrite of the Toxic Substances Control Act -- perhaps along the

lines of the European REACH pact that the U.S. has opposed. The

REACH pact mandates testing of the suspected worst actors among

chemicals and then phasing them out -- without the full-blown trials

the substances control act now requires in the United States.

All in all, it's hard for me to feel warm and cuddly about the

chemical companies that have resisted reform for decades. And yet

here I sit (or lie), counting on them to save me from leukemia.

Al Meyerhoff died Dec. 21, at age 61, of complications from

leukemia. He was a prominent Los Angeles environmental and labor

lawyer, and a former director of the public health program of the

Natural Resources Defense Council. He was also a frequent

contributor to The Times' Op-Ed page.