By Thelma Ledford
Does it bother anyone out there when they hear advertising? Do you really believe what they tell us? Does anyone believe that EPA does a thorough job of protecting the consumer and the environment? The law that EPA must take into consideration when it is regulating chemical use states: “that EPA must balance the economic benefits to growers against the health of the American public before making a decision.” This talk’s money to me! Not human health! In the fall of l989, workers began ripping out and replacing 27,000 square yards of carpet at its Waterside Mall, the Washington D.C., headquarters of the EPA, the agency which is entrusted with the protection of your environment. How much did this cost the taxpayers? One employee will tell you what it cost her. She was healthy before the carpet was laid. Now the slightest exposure is disabling. The facts are documented in Lynn Lawson’s book “Staying Well in a Toxic World” in the chapter “In and Under the Rug” …if you are brave enough to read it. It was a part of my school work, and I wept for the children of generations to come. The most endangered species is “us”—The People! I have counseled three people who no doubt had chemical poison. After they read my articles in “Health Beat” they realized that the cause of their problem was chemical poisoning. My cousin works for an agriculture department of a University in another state and he cut down all his fruit trees when he saw his fellow workers dying of cancer. The dangers are coming from every direction these days. The chemical companies have convinced a lot of people that we cannot farm without chemicals. That’s not true argues Iowa farmer Tom Furlong. Progressive Iowa was in l993 the only state to tax pesticides, and then pay farmers to find better alternatives, like crop rotation; these farmers find that crop yields increase If American farmers stopped using half the chemical pesticides they now spray on crops, it would cause only a slight rise in food prices and bestow major benefits, according to the l991 Cornell University study. Biochemist-turn-farmer, John B. Clark, has farmed his 1800 acres in SW Michigan without pesticides since l978 and without the soluble chemical fertilizers since l985. The results on his farm and all over the world, Clark says, are almost always the same: “Yields get better as organic practices are continued, and pest problems virtually disappear.” By-the-way, pesticides also destroys the good insects, thus increasing the number of destructive insects. In fact, we are breeding tougher, hardier insects which are resistance to chemicals. Pharmaceutical drugs are doing the same thing—hardier viruses. These products, and many others, are made from petroleum. With petroleum as scarce and expensive as they say, maybe they should not put it on our vegetables, in our drugs, vitamins, perfumes, cosmetics, and in our carpets, etc. Did you know that most cleaning products are made from petroleum? I found this out years ago and wondered how oil could clean my shower!!! Does this explain the oily build up on the shower walls? Sure does! It does not come from the oil on our skin, but from the “soaps” you use. I changed products, and have little trouble with showers. This is not to cause you to give up, but to make a difference. They can’t sell the stuff, if we don’t buy it! At least, clean up your own environment, you can do that much! This is what I have done. And, boost your immune system and drink plenty of water. What do you, the readers, think? We cannot change the manufacture of the chemicals, but we do not have to support them by buying them. Many people have difficulty walking by the cleaning products in the stores. It is the most dangerous shopping area. What are you going to do about it? There are plenty safe ones! All my personal products, cosmetics, skin care, toothpaste, and hair product, and cleaners are all safe to use.
— What do you think? Send Letters to the Editor to [email protected].
