"Another reason for scientific uncertainty is the widespread introduction of suspected chemical carcinogens into the human environment is itself a kind of uncontrolled experiment. There remains no unexposed control population to whom the cancer rates of exposed people can be compared. Moreover, the exposures themselves are uncontrolled and multiple. Each of us is exposed repeatedly to minute amounts of many different carcinogens and to any one carcinogen through many different routes."(29)

"In general, less than 0.1 percent of pesticides applied for pest contol actually reach their target pests, leaving 99.9 percent to move into the general environment. Some runs into water, some binds to soil, and some rises into the air." (179)

Now, 23 years later, Superfund fees have run out - the polluters have received a pass on the fees saving themselves about 4 million dollars a day - and the US taxpayers, who are already struggling during these difficult economic times, are being told that their hard earned tax dollars will pay to clean up corporate polluters' messes.

It is unfair and irresponsible to make the U.S. taxpayers pay - while corporations - save millions of dollars a day in fees. It is unfair - and morally wrong—to slow down cleanups in contaminated communities like my former neighborhood because of the lack of money. There are no adequate words to express the fear, and the torment a family feels when they understand a serious health threat exists from chemical pollution and there is no escape. The American Dream that they worked so hard to achieve melts away, leaving devastation and anguish in its place.

Reinstating Superfund's polluter pays fees must happen - and would fairly shift the tax burden of paying to clean up sites from taxpayers back to the polluters.

Polluters Must Pay

Fighting Environmental Racism

• Center for Health, Environment, and Justice
  
  
• Defining Environmental Racism
  
  
• What is Environmental Justice?
  

Living with Cancer Clusters

• About Cancer Clusters
  
  
• Cancer Deaths in the US: 2008
  
  
• All Cancer Rates by State: Maps (in-class)
  
  
• Mortality Rates by States for
  types of Cancer
  
  
• Cancer Mortality Rates by States
  

Exporting Toxic Waste

• The Basel Convention: Prohibiting the
  Exportation of Toxic Waste
  
  
• Hazardous Waste Trafficking
  
  
  "Toxic chemicals can enter the food chain and our water supply at any number of points. Some go directly onto our food. In the US alone 2.6 billion pounds of pesticides are used every year. Others leach into the soil and ground water or go directly into our lakes and rivers. In North America, 140,000 toxic waste dumps have so far been identified - many of them leak dangerous chemicals into the surrounding environment. And industry continues to spew tons of toxic chemicals into the air. The effects are truly global. High levels of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) occur in sea animals that are part of the diet of Inuit hunters in the high Arctic. Dr Kenneth Rahn of the University of Rhode Island found radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster took only II days to reach the US east coast. " from Breaking the Grip of Cancer

"In its spring 1998 report, the Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education analyzed U.S. Customs shipping records and found that reported U.S. exports of restricted and severely restricted pesticides rose 33 percent from 1992 to 1996; of those, six pesticides considered "extremely hazardous" by the World Health Organization skyrocketed more than 800 percent. Reported exports of pesticides banned in the U.S. remained steady, averaging around 6 million pounds a year. " from Pesticide Dumping Continues

"The World Health Organization has recently estimated that Third World agricultural workers experience 25 million cases of acute occupational pesticide poisoning each year. Tens of thousands die from workplace exposures, with many more undoubtedly suffering from pesticide-induced or -- related diseases. Pesticide run-off into groundwater supplies, wetlands, rivers and streams is a major environmental problem in many Third World countries. Pesticide use, associated largely with agricultural goods produced for export, such as bananas and cotton, has poisoned bodies of water in countries ranging from Costa Rica to Tanzania to Malaysia. While overuse of a wide range of pesticides is responsible for this damage, many of the most toxic effects are caused by pesticides banned or restricted in industrialized countries." from Deadly Exports: Ten Years After

Let's look at another example of this. In 1955, the state of California created a toxic waste dumping site for industries throughout the state at the Stringfellow Acid Pits. Between 1955 and 1978, thousands and thousands of gallons of toxic waste were dumped into this large storage pit. In fact, so much waste was dumped during these years that during heavy rains the waste ponds would flood and run over their banks. Faced with a dangerous toxic flood of wastes streaming down nearby rivers, the operators of the Stringfellow Acid Pits released thousands of gallons of toxic waste to reduce the pressure on the pits, which were so full they were threatening to burst. But when the state of California and the Stringfellow Acid Pits released these toxic wastes into nearby streams, they did not tell the residents in the nearby community of Glen Avon. In 1978, as a result of particularly heavy rains, the Acid Pits released large amounts of toxic wastes into the nearby streams, and they again did not tell the local residents of the real dangers posed by these toxic chemicals. The people of Glen Avon became suspicious when their children's sneakers and jeans began to be eaten away by the toxic wastes and many residents experienced health problems.

As a result of protest and outrage, the state of California was forced to stop releasing toxic wastes into nearby streams and compensate the citizens whose health was damaged by exposure to these chemicals. But hundreds of people suffered negative health consequences as a result. In fact, according to Penny Newman, of the 21 staff people at the Glen Avon school in 1978, 17 have now died or have severe illness. And, of course, the people of Glen Avon do not know all the illness and suffering they were exposed to as a result of earlier releases of toxic chemicals from 1955 to 1978.

Another tragic example of this problem is the Bhopal disaster. In December 1984, a Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India, exploded, spreading a toxic cloud of dangerous chemicals over the city of Bhopal. Hundreds of thousands of people were exposed to these chemicals in this toxic cloud. But Union Carbide refused to tell the Indian health officials what were the chemicals that were released. They claimed that it would reveal trade secrets. As a result, health officials could not recommend treatments for those injured by these chemicals but they did not know what they were. But, in addition, the people injured could not easily sue Union Carbide for damages because they did not really know the nature of the chemicals they were exposed to. Finally, in 1989, as a result of political and corporate maneuvering, Union Carbide was forced to pay 470 million dollars to what it said were the 30,000 victims permanently injured and the 20,000 temporarily injured victims. But political activists and critics charged that there were in fact 400,000 victims.

It turns out that neither the government of India or Union Carbide did careful studies to determine who was injured by the Bhopal tragedy. The settlement amounted to between 6,000 and 20,000 dollars for each victim. This is, of course peanuts, and does in no way compensate the victims for their injuries.To this day, Union Carbide has not revealed what were the chemicals released at Bhopal. And the government of India is once again cooperating with Union Carbide and other foreign corporations because it desperately needs foreign investment and jobs. India agreed to look the other way as one of the World's most powerful corporations got away with killing and maiming tens of thousands of people. The corporation's profits are seen as more important than people's health or the environment.

Between 1978 and 1980, the people of the Love Canal neighborhood in New York state discovered that their homes were built over a toxic waste dump abandoned by Hooker Chemical. Led by Lois Gibbs, a local housewife and activist, the 900 families of Love Canal demanded that the government pay them for their homes and damages and help them move to new homes. The Love Canal scandal opened a floodgate of other dangerous toxic waste sites located dangerously close to other residential communities.

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter was presented with a list by the EPA of more than 10,000 other Love Canals in the United States. But Carter and the U.S. government did not release this list to the public, fearing that this information would bankrupt the chemical industry. Fearing that the public would force large chemical companies to compensate them for the damage their production and disposal of these chemicals cost, the U.S. government decided to protect the chemical industry. The government decided that continued corporate profits and production of dangerous, toxic chemicals was more important than the public's health. In 1980, under intense public pressure, the U.S. government created the Superfund program.

From 1980 to the present, under the Superfund program, the U.S. government and the American taxpayers have been paying to clean up the toxic chemical waste dumps created by fifty years of industry and government creation of use of toxic chemicals. Because of the still growing list of newly discovered dangerous sites and the high cost and technical difficulty of cleaning up these sites, the government had managed only to clean up a very few of the now thousands of toxic waste sites in the United States. See the EPA USA Region/State Superfund Site Map for a state by state list of federal government toxic waste sites. Each state has dozens and dozens of such sites.

If the government cannot successfully cleanup the thousands of toxic sites already in the United States, why is it allowing industry and government agencies to continue to manufacture and use these dangerous toxic chemicals, which they have demonstrated they still cannot properly and safely dispose of. While the government tries to clean up the past result of the use of these chemicals, industry and governments are creating even more dangerous toxic waste problems. The larger answer is that American government, industry, and even the American people are making a tacit decision to accept the risk of exposure to these dangerous chemicals in return for continued economic growth, profits, and high material living standards. Rather than economically damage industry by forcing them to protect the public from these dangerous chemicals, the United States is allowing industry to expose millions of Americans to toxic chemicals. And even when the government finally prevent companies from making and using certain dangerous chemicals, they simply take these factories and products overseas.

As a result, we all are living in a sea of dangerous toxic chemicals that we know cause cancer, birth defects, shorten our life spans, and pollute the environment. Here is a clear case where the decisions we make are directly responsible for the larger environmental and growing health crisis we face. It's as if we were sacrificing tens of thousands of people in order to continue to live the affluent lifestyles we now do. This is a strange and bizarre result of the larger assumptions our modern industrial culture makes about the rights of people and the environment. The right to protect property and profits is greater than the right to health and a clean and safe environment.