The history of life on Earth
has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings.

To a large extent, the physical form and the habits of the Earth's vegetation and it's animals life have been molded by the environment.

Considering the whole span of earthly time, the opposite effect, in which life actually modifies it's surroundings, has been relatively slight.

Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species - mankind - acquired significant power to alter nature on the Earth.

It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now inhabits the Earth - eons of time in which that developing and evolving and diversifying life reached a state of adjustment and balance with its surroundings.

The most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of the air, earth and water with dangerous and lethally toxic materials.

As Albert Schweitzer has said, ‘Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.'

Given time - time not in years but in millennia - life adjusts and a balance has been reached.

For time is the essential ingredient,
but on this modern Earth there is no time.

- Rachel Carson, biologist and author, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

"The land itself is in mourning - its wilderness pastures are dried up. For they all do evil and abuse what power they have." - Jeremiah 23:10

"In the ideal market economy the price of a product as reflected by the demands of buyers and sellers in a free market would represent the best possible allocation of resources.

In reality, many economic exchanges create "spillover effects" or "externalities" which impose costs on people who are not parties to the transaction. The number and gravity of these "externalities" has risen remarkably in the second part of this century. They include not only localized externalities (for example, toxic substances from industrial manufacturing that leech into public water supplies) but also pervasive externalities (such as acid rain, ozone depletion, or CO2 buildup)." - Don Mayer

In a U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released in July 2005 148 toxic compounds were looked for in the blood and urine of 2,400 Americans age 6 or older.

Several toxic compounds, including pyrethroids and phthalates were found to be in nearly every American. Nearly 6% of the American women of child bearing age had sufficent quantities of mercury in their blood to impair mental development of the fetus.

"Environmentally induced cancers are the result of human failure. This failure is not only of a misguided war on cancer focusing on the result and not the cause but also the continued addiction by agriculture and other industries to toxic agents. It also reflects a failed regulatory scheme coupled with antiquated and ineffective toxic chemical control laws.

Nationally, our primary standard is the Toxic Substances Control Act, enacted in the 1970s. The act's main goal was to require comprehensive cancer tests for thousands of industrial chemicals in widespread use - a goal we have yet to achieve.

Recognizing these national failures, two decades ago in California we enacted Proposition 65, requiring first a list by the governor of chemicals known to cause cancer, and then a warning before exposure where they pose a significant risk. The California agency charged with this task has not used its independent authority to list a carcinogen in more than five years." - Al Meyerhoff

"It is worth noting what this contamination throughout America represents - a highly industrialized civilization bringing us material abundance. Is this what we are defending? The American way of life based on an unchecked free enterprise system? It seems fundamental that we examine the cost of this freedom and ask just how free we are if the materials and services provided cost us this much in compromised air, soil, water and health." - Craig Houx

The Environmental Protection Agency is failing to protect the public from tens of thousands of toxic compounds because it has not gathered data on the health risks of most industrial chemicals, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office which found that chemical companies had provided health data to the Environmental Protection Agency for about 15% of chemicals that had been introduced over the past 30 years.

The Environmental Protection Agency has sought information about health dangers for fewer than 200 the estimated 80,000 chemical compounds in commercial use. The Environmental Protection Agency currently regulates just over 1,600 chemicals.

The Environmental Protection Agency does not routinely assess existing chemicals, has limited information on their health and environmental risks, and has issued few regulations controlling such chemicals.

"There are more than 80,000 chemicals on the market in America, the vast majority of which lack even basic information on health effects and toxicity. We do know that at least 1,400 chemicals have known or probable links to cancer, birth defects, reproductive effects and other health problems such as learning disabilities. Although the incidence of these diseases has been increasing for decades, a whole host of other obstacles to healthy development have also been on the rise, including premature birth, low birth weight, early puberty and childhood obesity. Recent science indicates that these problems are related to chemical exposure." - Dan Jacobson

The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study concluded that the Environmental Protection Agency "lacks sufficient data to ensure" that the public is protected.see hidden knowledge

"We contaminated the environment sufficiently that there are measureable amounts of potentially toxic substances in humans - both children and adults. We have fouled our own nest."- Dr. Jerome A. Paulson, associate professor of pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

"I found it alarming to read a story premised on the idea that cultural shifts were the only cause of population change. Since 1960, we have introduced thousands of new chemicals into our environment and done many other things that are inimical to life and reproduction. It is disingenuous to look at just a few sociological causes and to ignore what we have done to the Earth." -Joe Shea, commented on the sperm count reduction of men in developed countries.

"There is an unbreakable link between human well-being and the health of the Earth"- Walter Reid, professor @ Stanford University

"European countries have taken a proactive stance in an attempt to cleanse their societies of the toxicological deluge of the last 50 years. The United States, unfortunately, has chosen to do the opposite by protecting chemical companies rather than humans from the thousands of untested compounds we encounter on a daily basis. The average American (fetus, child and adult) has over 87 known man-made toxins in his or her tissues, interacting in unknown ways in a myriad of combinations. Despite this fact, the federal government rejects the precautionary stance as expensive and unnecessary 'myth'. Like the other examples of federal government assault on sound science over the last six years, this risk based assessment is pure bunk." -Arthur Strauss MD

216 chemical compounds were found to cause breast cancer in animal testing. Over 200 are commonly found in urban air and consumer products.

food

Switching to organic foods provides children "dramatic and immediate" protection from pesticides that are widely used on a variety of crops, according to a study by a team of scientists some from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Concentrations of two organophosphate pesticides - malathion and chlorpyrifos - declined substantially in the bodies of elementary school-age children during a five-day period when organic foods were substituted for conventional foods. The findings suggest that children are are exposed to organophosphate chemicals mainly through 'conventional' food.

"Though the September 30, 2004 Institute of Medicine report on preventing childhood obesity should be praised for going beyond the food industry's self serving focus on personal and parental responsibility, it fails to mention a key component of the problem: how our food is grown, processed and sold. Real change must mean reorienting our agriculture and nutrition policies so that the healthiest foods - unprocessed whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats and nuts are also those that are most easily accessible and most affordable." - Josh Miner, food system analyst UC Cooperative Extension

"Despite having the cheapest food system in the world, Americans are arguably the most unhealthy, "starving" for real, nutritious food. Farm subsidies is at the heart of this phenomenon, which champions the interests of agribusiness." - Dorit Dowler-Guerrero

The House of Representatives passed the National Uniformity for Foods Act in March 2006, a measure that would kill or cancel significant parts of 200 food-safety laws in 50 states. This ill-advised bill, supported by millions of food-industry dollars, passed without a single hearing.

The purpose of this bill was to keep from consumers the useful pertinent information required to make food purchasing decisions.

Food companies forked over $5.2 million to the bill's 226 co-sponsors. The Californian members of Congress co-sponsoring the bill in the House received about $670,000 from food interests for this election cycle alone, and more than $1 million for 2004, according to public filings with the Federal Elections Commission. Some of the top money receivers are Representatives Richard Pombo (R-Tracy) , $250,208); Devin Nunes (R-Visalia), $558,152); and Dennis Cardoza (D-Atwater) $239,152.

The food companies do not want the consumer to know of any potential hazards in the food they sell. Now let me ask you a question which is more important to food companies? a) a consumer's health or b) the bottom line (in dollars).

National Uniformity for Foods Act has not become law. Knowledge of melamine being added to pet food products, hog feed, chicken feed, eggs, baby formula and processed milk products to increase apparent protein content is just the latest example of the lengths to which processed food producers will go to deceive consumers. (Animals and humans digesting melamine develop kidney stones! In China 50,000 children were sickened and at least four infants died after they consumed melamine-tainted baby milk formula in 2008.)

"Some people argue that the avalanche of warnings numb the public to real environmental hazards. Perhaps. But the "right to know" provisions in Proposition 65 and other laws give consumers real choices. If one brand of lettuce in the supermarket says it contains perchlorate, rocket fuel and developmental toxins and another does not, the market will work. And exposure to that chemical will be reduced, not just at the dinner table but also "upstream," for chemical workers in the plants and farm workers in the fields." -Al Meyerhoff , Carl Pope

In the summer of 2007 American processed food producers received approval from the United States Department of Agriculture to allow 38 non-organic ingredients in products bearing the "USDA Organic" seal. Now that non-organic products are allowed to be labeled organic with the "USDA Organic" seal the "USDA Organic" seal has become just another propaganda tool in the hands of unscrupulous processed food producers becoming just another example of lies masquerading as truth. The list of 38 non-organic ingredients allowed under the "USDA Organic" seal includes 19 food colorings; casings from processed animal intestines; hops grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides; frozen lemongrass,celery powder, dill weed oil, fish oil, rice starch, beet juice, whey protein concentrate and fructooligosaccharides - a sugar polymer that human bodies cannot digest.

In July 2007 the Food and Drug Administration announced plans to close 7 of it's 13 food testing laboratories. The Food and Drug Administration now inspects less than 1% of food imports and tests only a fraction of the food inspected.

"Having access to nutritious food should be a right, not a privilege. We need to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of our food choices and how those choices affect people, animals and the environment." - Lauren Ornelas

Please see fluoride - then you will understand why the federal government does not want Americans to know which harmful chemicals are in your food.

Low levels of pesticides combined with low levels of fungicides are known to cause Parkinson's disease, but chemical manufactures will never admit it.

fluoride

Since the days of World War II, when America prevailed by building the Earth's first atomic bomb, American public health leaders have maintained that low doses of fluoride are safe for people, and good for children's teeth.

Fluoride is a key chemical in atomic bomb production, according to World War II documents obtained by Joel Griffiths and Chris Bryson.

Massive quantities of fluoride - millions of tons - were essential for the manufacture of atomic bomb grade uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War.

One of the most toxic chemicals known, fluoride rapidly emerged as the leading chemical health hazard of the American atomic bomb program.

Much of the original proof that fluoride is safe for humans in low doses was generated by atomic bomb program scientists, who had been secretly ordered to provide "evidence useful in litigation" against defense contractors for fluoride injury to citizens.

The first lawsuits against the American atomic bomb program were not over radiation, but over fluoride damage.

Human studies were required. American atomic bomb program researchers played a leading role in the design and implementation of the most extensive American study of the health effects of fluoridating public drinking water - conducted in Newburgh, New York from 1945 to 1956.

In this classified 'top secret' operation code-named "Program F," they secretly gathered and analyzed blood and tissue samples from Newburgh citizens, with the cooperation of New York State Health Department personnel.

The original 'top secret' version - obtained by Joel Griffiths and Chris Bryson - of a 1948 study published by Program F scientists in the Journal of the American Dental Association shows that evidence of adverse health effects from fluoride was censored by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) - considered the most powerful of Cold War agencies - for reasons of national security.

The American atomic bomb program's fluoride safety studies were conducted at the University of Rochester, site of one of the most notorious human radiation experiments of the Cold War, in which unsuspecting hospital patients were injected with toxic doses of radioactive plutonium.

The fluoride studies were conducted with the same ethical mind-set, in which "national security" was paramount.

An April 29, 1944 Manhattan Project memo reports: "Clinical evidence suggests that uranium hexafluoride may have a rather marked central nervous system effect.... It seems most likely that the F [code for fluoride] component rather than the T [code for uranium] is the causative factor."

The memo - stamped "secret" - is addressed to the head of the Manhattan Project's Medical Section, Colonel Stafford Warren.

Colonel Stafford Warren is asked to approve a program of animal research on uranium hexafluoride effects: "Since work with these compounds is essential, it will be necessary to know in advance what mental effects may occur after exposure... This is important not only to protect a given individual, but also to prevent a confused workman from injuring others by improperly performing his duties."

"How could I be told by National Institutes of Health that fluoride has no central nervous system effects when these documents were sitting there all the time? That kind of warning, that fluoride workers might be a danger to the atomic bomb program by improperly performing their duties - I can't imagine that would be ignored - but that the results were buried because they might create a difficult legal and public relations problem for the government."- Dr. Phyllis Mullenix, former head of toxicology at Forsyth Dental Center in Boston.

In a subsequent secret Manhattan Project memo, a broader solution to the public relations problem was suggested by chief fluoride toxicologist Harold C. Hodge. He wrote to the Medical Section chief, Colonel Stafford Warren: "Would there be any use in making attempts to counteract the local fear of fluoride on the part of residents of Salem and Gloucester counties through lectures on fluoride toxicology and perhaps the usefulness of fluoride in tooth health?"

Such lectures were indeed given, not only to New Jersey citizens but to the rest of the nation throughout the Cold War.

The aluminum, steel and fertilizer industrys all produce hazardous toxic waste products called silicofluorides, which are much more toxic than lead, almost as toxic as arsenic, and contain some of both.

Today, toxic fluoride waste products can only be disposed of in expensive toxic waste dumps or by being dumped in your drinking water.

Prior to "fluoridation" industry spent a fortune disposing of fluoride toxic waste, and paying for damages to livestock and the environment.

"Alcoa's Vancouver, Washington plant was found guilty of dumping 1,000 to 7,000 pounds of fluoride poison each month into the Columbia River ... The fluoride contaminated the grass and forage and resulted in injury and death to cattle." - Seattle Times, Dec. 16, 1952.

At Vancouver, disposal of 1,000 to 7,000 pounds of fluoride per month was considered pollution. City officials dump as much or more fluoride into municipal water supplies (5,000 pounds a day in San Francisco). This is called a "health measure."

"The one utterly relentless force behind fluoridation is American 'big industry' and the motive is not profit as such, but fear. Fear of colossal damage suits, and fear that official intervention will begin to mushroom wherever fluoride devastates air, water, soil and all forms of life. Added to this is fear of forfeiting the legally permissible level for dumping fluoride toxic waste into water supplies which is presently in effect for the specific purpose of accommodating industry." - F. B. Exner, Medical Doctor, Fellow of the American College of Radiologists

On March 24, 2006 the National Academy of Sciences questioned the safety of fluoridated drinking water. Fluorides have the ability to lower IQ, cause bone fractures and cause dental fluorosis, a discoloration and weakening of tooth enamel. The National Academy of Sciences panel noted that dental fluorosis has been "strongly associated" with IQ deficits. The National Academy of Sciences is calling upon the Environmental Protection Agency to review and tighten is standards for fluoride in drinking water. According to the Environmental Working Group, fluoride levels in the tap water of 25 of the nation's 28 largest cities is enough to put 8% to 36% of bottle-fed infants up to 6 months of age over the recommended safe dose for daily fluoride intake. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences recommended a limit of 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per day for children under age 6 months - but this has not been adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Jon Roth, executive director of the California Dental Assn. Foundation, said: "The science is crystal clear. The unfortunate thing is there are still folks out there who do a good job of cherry-picking the scientific information. ... I don't know where the motivation comes from. I just don't get it." Roth needs to examine a 2006 report by the U.S. National Research Council, "Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA's Standards." It concluded that the maximum level of fluoride in drinking water of 4 milligrams per liter should be lowered. The report examines dental effects, musculoskeletal effects, bone fractures, reproductive and developmental effects, neurotoxicity, endocrine effects, carcinogenicity, as well as drinking water standards and other public health issues, and offers a detailed list of research needed to fill in the gaps in information about fluoride. Although the report does not take a stand against fluoridation of drinking water, it notes that it is dangerous for people with kidney problems. China, Japan and many European countries have rejected, banned or discontinued water fluoridation. This issue should be taken seriously." - Nancy Barth

shocking news about fluoride

the fluoride debate

endocrine disruptors

Scientists who compared frogs collected over the last 150 years have discovered a dramatic increase in hermaphrodites during the times when contamination from the pesticide DDT and other chlorinated compounds was widespread. Frogs with both male and female reproductive organs were rare in the 19th and early 20th centuries but more common during the 1950s, when the largest volumes of the chemicals were used.

The findings, reported in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, add to the growing evidence that an array of pesticides and industrial chemicals can alter the sex hormones of animals. The ability of certain chemicals, endocrine disruptors, to mimic or block estrogen and testosterone, which are key in sexual organ development and reproduction, is considered one of the most disturbing discovered in environmental science of the last decade.

Sperm counts of males in developed countries has dropped drastically in the last few years.

perfluorooctanoic acid, PFOA, C8

Pertluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, poses a "substantial risk of injury to human health or the environment," including a risk of birth defects according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

PFOA, invented in 1938, is an essential ingredient in the making of stick-resistant Teflon, which is used in cook-ware, clothing, bedding and an array of other household products.

PFOA is present in the blood of nearly all the 1,500 humans who have been tested in the United States, including young children. Perfluorooctanoic acid is transferred to fetuses in the womb. Animal tests have shown that high doses of the PFOA causes liver cancer, immune suppression and developmental disorders. PFOA exposure may increase cholesterol and triglyceride levels in people.

Toxicologists have reported that levels found in some children are as high as those found in chemical plant workers and approach those that caused developmental problems in rats.

Most of the research was conducted by scientists for 3M Company, which was the main manufacturer of PFOA until 2002, when it voluntarily stopped making it.

3M Company also removed its Scotchgard products from the market because they contained a related chemical.

DuPont is the only U.S. manufacturer of perfluorooctanoic acid. Seven other companies, 3M/Dynean Co., a unit of 3M, French company Arkema Inc., Japan's AGC Chemical/Asahi Glass, Switzerland's Ciba Specialty Chemicals Holding Inc., Japan's Daikin Industries Ltd, Switzerland's Clariant Corp. and Italy's Solvay Solexis use PFOA in other products such as textiles, automobile fuel systems, computer chips, telecommunications equipment, electronic wiring, fire fighting foams and certain paper. These 8 companies use 75% of the PFOA - China uses 25%. The Environmental Protection Agency has asked these eight firms to reduce their use of perfluorooctanoic acid by 95% by 2010 and to halt use by 2015.

DuPont internal memos indicated that DuPont was aware in March 1981 of a study conducted by 3M that showed PFOA was harmful to newborn rats, killing some and causing some to be born with eye and face defects.

In 1981 DuPont moved female employees out of PFOA areas at the plant and told them to consult doctors before getting pregnant. DuPont did not inform the Environmental Protection Agency. The Environmental Protection Agency said its investigation into the safety of the chemical might have come sooner if DuPont's evidence had been known in 1981.

PFOA persists in the environment indefinitly and has been found in the blood of polar bears.

DuPont proposed a settlement in 2004 with as many as 60,000 residents of Ohio and West Virginia of six area water districts with ground water contaminated with PFOA which the company has used to manufacture Teflon and other products since 1951.

In 2005 Minnesota residents claimed 3M discharged PFOA and PFOS, perfluorooctanoic sulfonate, in Washington County contaminating ground and well water.

On July 11, 2005 DuPont's former medical director revealed that more than 20 years ago the company became aware of birth defects in 2 of 8 children born to women who worked at one of their facilities manufacturing Teflon. Similar birth defects occur in the general public at a rate of 2 in every 1,000 births.

DuPont settled charges in 2005, made by the Environmental Protection Agency, that the company hid data for more than 20 years that PFOA posed substantial health risks to humans. DuPont paid a fine of $16.5 million for violating the Toxic Substances Control Act by suppressing health and safety data.

DuPont has sold or licensed over $40 billion in Teflon cookware over the past 40 years.

Perfluorooctanoic acid can leach into food from packaging. PFOA is still used to coat food packaging to keep oils from bleeding into the packaging. Some researchers contend that the chemical can leach into french fries from the small bags used typically by fast food chains. Perfluorooctanoic acid can also leach onto popcorn as the microwavable packaging is coated with a teflon-like material. Perfluorooctanoic acid is also used to coat pizza delivery boxes. When heated perfluorooctanoic acid can be released from the packaging.

methyl tert-butyl ether or MTBE

MTBE is manufactured by the chemical reaction of methanol and isobutylene. It was produced in very large quantities of more than 200,000 barrels per day in the United States in 1999. Methyl tert-butyl ether has been used in gasoline at low levels since 1979 to replace tetra-ethyl lead to increase its octane rating. Since 1992, MTBE has been used at higher concentrations in some gasoline to fulfill the oxygenate requirements set by Congress in Clean Air Act amendments.

On August 31, 2001, it was reported that a new study by an associate professor of chemistry at Purdue University concludes that MTBE is showing up in gasoline supplies in systems where the fuel additive is not required. The study examined 200 samples of gas taken from stations in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan and found that over 70% of the samples contained MTBE and 25% of the samples contained "significant amounts of MTBE. One ounce of MTBE can contaminate 1,000 tons of water.

On August 27, 2001, it was reported that according to data from California's Water Resources Control Board, 48 public water drinking systems, serving hundreds of thousands of residents have been contaminated with MTBE. This is in addition to tens of thousands of private wells throughout California and hundreds of thousands of private wells nationwide.

In August, 2001, Shell, Chevron, Texaco, Equilon Enterprises and Unocal companies have settled a lawsuit filed by an environmental group which requires the oil companies to remediate MTBE contaminated ground water at a minimum of 700 sites in California.

On August 10, 2001Exxon agreed to pay $12 million in partial reimbursement of what South Lake Tahoe Public Utility has paid to remediate MTBE from ground water which had to close 12 of its 34 drinking water wells.

In 2003, ChevronTexaco paid $9.1 million to settle a lawsuit arising from MTBE ground water contamination in Cambria, California.

In February, 2004 a California Superior Court judge approved a settlement agreement between a dozen firms and the City of Santa Monica, California over ground water contaminated with the gasoline additive MTBE. Santa Monica closed 7 of 11 drinking water wells in its Charnock well field in 1996 after discovering MTBE contamination. The settlement, which is valued at $312 million, includes $100 million in cash payments plus "a potentially unlimited obligation to cleanup up the wells." Defendants included in this settlement are: ChevronTexaco, Chevron USA Inc., Chevron Products Co., ExxonMobil, Shell Oil Co., Shell Oil Products Co., Shell Pipeline Corp., Equilon Enterprises, Equilon Pipeline Co., Texaco Refining and Marketing Inc. Thrifty Oil Co., and Best California Gas. This is believed to be the largest settlement to date for MTBE contamination.

By November 1, 2004 New York State had identified over 13,000 sites with ground water contaminated by the gasoline additive MTBE. New York had allowed gasoline sold in the state to include 12 to 15 percent MTBE, some of the highest mixtures in the nation. MTBE contamination has been discovered in ground water in 28 states and estimates of the costs to cleanup the contamination range from $30 billion to $100 billion. The estimated costs to filter some 130 municipal drinking water wells in Plainview Long Island (New York) ranges from $390 million to $1 billion. New York has removed some 6,000 leaking under ground storage tanks.

By January, 2005 oil companies agreed to pay nearly a half billion dollars to settle lawsuits filed on behalf of municipalities over MTBE contaminated ground water.

In February 4, 2005 ChevronTexaco agreed to settle a lawsuit by paying $850,000 for ground water contaminated with MTBE. The suit was filed by the Los Osos Community Services District after MTBE from a former gas station contaminated ground water and at least one drinking water well.

In February, 2005 the Environmental Protection Agency announced another settlement with a dozen oil companies over MTBE contaminated ground water beneath Santa Monica, California. The settling companies, which will pay $1.5 million to end the suit, include Shell Oil Co.; Shell Oil Products Co.; Equilon Enterprises; Shell Pipeline Co.; TRM Co.; ChevronTexaco.; Chevron USA Inc.; Exxon Mobil Corp.; Mobil Oil Corp.; Thrifty Oil Co.; and Best California Gas. The companies have already extracted nearly 350 million gallons of contaminated ground water.

In March, 2005 estimates of cleanup costs necessary to remediate MTBE contaminated ground water nationwide run between $29 billion and $92 billion. Some 140 municipalities and water companies have filed lawsuits against petro industry defendants over ground water contaminated with the fuel additive MTBE. The lawyer representing the plaintiffs has already won over $400 million in settlements from petro industry defendants. Lyondell Chemical is the largest manufacturer of MTBE in the U.S.

In April, 2005 twelve oil companies, Premcor Refining Group, Conoco Inc., Tosco Corp., Shell Oil Co., Shell Oil Products Co., Phillips Petroleum Co., BP Products North America Inc., BP Amoco Chemical Co., Union Oil Co. of California, UNO-VEN Co., Citgo Petroleum Corp., and PDV Midwest Refining LLC, have agreed to pay $8 million to the Village of East Alton, Illinois to settle their liability for drinking water wells contaminated with MTBE. Two gas stations are believed to be the source of the contamination.

In July, 2005 twenty-one U.S. Senators have asked the Environmental Protection Agency to provide them with information contained in a draft report currently being reviewed by the agency that concludes that the gasoline additive MTBE should be labeled a likely human carcinogen. A provision which would have granted MTBE makers immunity from liability for cleanup costs related to ground water contaminated by MTBE was been stripped from the Energy bill. Tens of thousands of sites in America have been identified with ground water contaminated with MTBE, including ground water that serves as drinking water for tens of millions of Americans.

bisphenol A or BPA

The FDA's BPA draft assessment of 2008 says bisphenol A is safe, ignoring numerous independent and government-funded studies which show risk of harm including brain and prostate damage to developing infants, fetuses, and children, as well as increased risk of diabetes and heart disease. Instead, the FDA relied on two studies funded by an arm of the American Chemistry Council, a trade organization representing chemical manufacturers.

Bisphenol A was first investigated in the 1930s during the search for synthetic estrogens.

At that time, another synthetic compound, diethylstilbestrol, was determined to be more powerful than estrogen itself, so bisphenol A was not used as a synthetic estrogen.

Bisphenol A current uses are as a primary monomer in polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins.

Bisphenol A is also used as an antioxidant in plasticizers and as a polymerization inhibitor in PVC.

In test animals bisphenol A in concentrations lower than those set by the U.S. Environmental protection agency have caused permanent changes to the genital tract, changes in breast tissue that predispose cells to hormones and carcinogens, 30% increase in prostate weight, signs of early puberty, decline in testicular testosterone, breast cells predisposed to cancer, prostate cells more sensitive to hormones and cancer, insulin resistance, decreased maternal behavior, damage to eggs and chromosomes, hyperactivity and reversal of normal sex difference in brain structure.

"Small amounts of estrogenic chemicals, bisphenol A for example, can permanently disrupt cellular control systems and predispose the prostate to disease in adulthood," said Barry G. Timms, a professor of biomedical sciences at the University of South Dakota who specializes in prostate biology.

"Exposure before birth to bisphenol A and other estrogen mimics at low doses explains why we have this increase in incidences of both breast and prostate cancers," said Patricia Hunt, professor School of Molecular Biosciences at Washington State University.

"The failure to report the toxic effects of bisphenol A in plastics follows a familiar pattern in which the industry involved adamantly denies any harm despite overwhelming animal studies to the contrary. Many neurodegenerative diseases, from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder to brain tumors, are dramatically rising in the Western culture, especially in children. Those individuals who have a genetic susceptibility to a given toxic substance or combination of substances are at high risk for developing overt disease. Because many toxic substances are present in common foods, cleaners, clothes, personal items and other household products, consumers and especially parents would be well advised to become aware and avoid exposure." - Dennis Schumacher MD

"Reading the comments of Steve Hentges of the American Chemistry Council's polycarbonate/BPA group gave me a profound feeling of deja vu. Steve Hentges' denigration of scientific evidence of the probable health dangers of bisphenol A (BPA) echoed the comments, over years, of "scientists" from the tobacco industry denigrating scientific findings of tobacco's health risks. One suspects that all the evidence that is needed to prove the danger of BPA is in locked flies of the plastics industry." - Norman Decker MD

Bisphenol A is one of the reasons that sperm counts are so low in developed countries. 1 in 6 American males can now expect to have prostrate cancer. Bisphenol A is one of the reasons that breast cancer has increased in America.

phthalates

Toxicologists have known since the early 1990s that some pesticides and industrial compounds, including phthalates, can mimic estrogen or block testosterone, the female and male sex hormones that control reproductive development.

Scientists studying the effects of hormone mimicking chemicals on humans have reported in May 2005 that phthalates, used in plastics and beauty products and widely found in humans, alter the reproductive organs of baby boys.

In the first study of humans exposed in the womb to phthalates researchers examined the genitalia of male babies and toddlers, found a strong relationship between the chemicals and changes in the size and anatomy of the children's genitals.

Mothers with the highest levels of chemical in their urine late in their pregnancies had babies with a cluster of effects. The span between anus and penis, called anogenital distance, was comparatively short, and the infants had smaller penises and scrotums and more instances of incomplete descent of testicles. Phthalate levels associated with the genital changes were not unusually high for the general population.

Reproductive biologists say that a shorter anogenital distance is a female like effect in animals, a telltale sign of decreased male hormones, and that it is likely that the human effects are similar, because hormones function the same in animals and humans.

In the late 1990s that a review of sperm counts in developed nations showed a substantial decline since World War II, when many synthetic pesticides and industrial compounds were introduced into the environment. Previous studies of men have linked phthalates to low sperm quality. Nearly everyone in a 1999-2000 survey of 2,500 humans throughout America had phthalates in their urine.

Toys, baby bottle nipples, pacifiers, teething rings, vinyl bath toys, medical equipment, hairspray, deodorants, perfumes, vinyl products including upholstery, packaging, wall and floor covering, nail polishes and other beauty products sold in America contain phthalates which has been banned in the Europe and Japan.

Europe has banned 2 phthalates found in cosmetics and 6 phthalates found in toys. Japan, Mexico and Canada has also banned phthalates. America is one of a few industrialized countries in which phthalates are still used.

"America has become a dumping ground for chemical filled toys that are banned in much of the industrialized world." - Fiona Ma

trichloroethylene, or TCE

Senior Environmental Protection Agency scientists came to an alarming conclusion in 2001:

The solvent, trichloroethylene, or TCE, is as much as 40 times more likely to cause cancer than the Environmental Protection Agency had previously believed.

The preliminary report in 2001 laid the groundwork for tough new standards to limit public exposure to trichloroethylene.

The assessment set off a battle between the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Defense, which had more than a 1400 military properties nationwide polluted with trichloroethylene. After a prolonged challenge orchestrated by the Pentagon, the Environmental Protection Agency's trichloroethylene assessment was cast aside.

Millions of Americans have been and are being contaminated by trichloroethylene.

Huge swaths of California, Texas, New York and Florida lie over trichloroethylene plumes.

The San Fernando and San Gabriel (30 square miles) valley aquifers of the Los Angeles basin are largely contaminated with trichloroethylene and there is high ambient levels of trichloroethylene in the air. 243 wells have been shut down and in some cases water agencies use cleaner water to dilute trichloroethylene contaminated ground water.

Several remedial settlements have been reached over trichloroethylene contaminated ground water in San Bernardino, California - Lockheed Martin; Lisle, Illinois and DuPage County, Illinois - Lockformer Co.; Dayhoit, Kentucky -National Electric Coil/Cooper Industries; Warren, Rhode Island - Jones Apparel/Victoria Creations; Urbana, Ohio - Siemens Energy & Automation Inc. and Nikko Materials USA

Indoor air in homes near contaminated sites contain enough trichloroethylene to create an elevated cancer risk.

Trichloroethylene has been linked to liver, pancreatic and kidney cancers, birth defects and childhood leukemia.

"The evidence on trichloroethylene is overwhelming. We have 80 epidemiological studies and hundreds of toxicology studies. They are fairly consistent in finding cancer risks that cover a range of tumors." - Dr. Gina Solomon, an environmental medicine expert at UC San Francisco

polytetrafluoroethylene

PTFE was discovered serendipitously in 1938 by a DuPont chemist, Roy Plunkett, who found that a tank of gaseous tetrafluoroethylene (CF2=CF2) had polymerized to a white powder.

DuPont, which continues to manufacture polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin or Teflon, reached a $16.5 million settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency to settle allegations the company hid information about the dangers of a toxic chemical known as PFOA used in the manufacture of Teflon. DuPont covered up important information about PFOA's health effects and about the pollution of water supplies near the company's Washington Works plant for 20 years.

Scientific studies have found that Teflon (PTFE) is in the blood of almost all Americans. Teflon is used as an inert in pesticide formulations applied to growing crops or to raw agricultural commodities after harvest.

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) Tetrafluoroethylene and Teflon

Polytetrafluoroethylene

Polytetrafluoroethylene – PTFE

Teflon (PTFE: polytetrafluoroethylene) CAS No. 9002-84-0

pyrethroids

Pyrethroids, synthetic versions of natural compounds found in flowers, are used extensively in pesticides . Pyrethroids have been considered safer than DDT and chlordane because they do not seem to build up in the environment.

Pyrethroids are the second most common class of pesticide that results in poisoning. In high doses, pyrethroids are toxic to the nervous system. At low doses, they alter hormones. The pyrethroid compounds are used in large volumes in farm and household pesticides and are sprayed by public agencies to kill mosquitoes.

polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDE

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, PBDE's are used as flame retardants, are bioaccumulating in human bodies throughout America. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers are being spread by an array of store-bought foods as well as dust inside homes and offices, scientists have discovered.

Created by chemical companies to make hard plastic and polyurethane foam less flammable, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, are added to computers, televisions, furniture cushions, upholstery textiles, carpet backings, mattresses, cars, buses, aircraft and building construction materials.

High concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers were detected in a variety of fish, meat and fowl in America. In America human bodies carry 20 times more on average than in Europe. Americans are breathing much higher levels found in their household dust compared with European homes.

PBDEs escape as a gas from hard plastic and polyurethane foam - especially newer computers, furniture and other products - and then adhere to dust.

"There is more or less a continuous exposure, and there is absolutely no way to really control it. You have almost a 24-hour exposure, except for the time you are outside," said Aake Bergman, head of environmental chemistry at Stockholm University in Sweden and a leading authority on flame retardants.

The flame retardants have been detected in virtually every individual and animal tested, even newborns and fetuses, around the world, including Australia and the Arctic. Amounts in humans and wildlife are doubling in North America every four to six years, a pace unmatched for any contaminant in at least 50 years.

"We have two sources: Food is one and indoor air is another. We now know that the sources are inside our houses, inside our buildings," said Mehran Alaee of Canada's National Water Research Institute.

"PBDEs are found in almost all foods of animal origin; and some have very high levels of these chemicals," said a report by University of Texas environmental scientist Arnold Schecter.

Farm-raised fish contained 5 to 6 times more than wild fish. Other foods that contained high levels of PBDEs included pork sausage, duck and hot dogs. Beef had the lowest levels, followed by goose, pheasant, scallops, canned tuna and wild coho salmon. Chicken contained moderate amounts. PBDEs bind to fat so trimming excess fat, eating lean meats and avoiding large, predatory fish is advised - especially for pregnant and nursing women.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers bioaccumulate in body fat building up over one's lifetime.

"I am convinced we are building a huge, ticking time bomb in our environment today," said Aake Bergman, who has studied toxic contaminants since the 1970s.

Hyperthyroidism was rare in cats in America up until about 1980.

By 1980 in California hyperthyroidism rates began to skyrocket in indoor cats.

Indoor cats lounge on polybrominated diphenyl ether, flame retardant, treated furniture, grooming themselves by licking.

In September 2007 a group calling themselves Californians for Fire Safety launched a campaign to derail a legislative bill to ban toxic flame retardants. Californians for Fire Safety is comprised of Albemarle Corporation, Chemtura Corporation, and IC Limited - Industrial Products.

My uncle was a fire fighter and he believed in the use of flame retardants. He treated his children's pajamas and used flame retardants in his house on fabric. My uncle died at 45. His wife and his two children have had thyroid problems nearly all their lives. My cousin, Ralph, has been lethargic since childhood. He was fairly intelligent but he never had any get up and go. He only worked about total of 2 years, short lived jobs, out of his adult life. He once told an employer that it was to hard to get out of bed to go to work.

Flame retardants are poisoning us all.

perchlorate

The Environmental Protection Agency published a draft assessment which concluded that perchlorate is harmful to the human thyroid, particularly in infants, when concentration in drinking water exceed one part per billion (ppb).

In 2004 Food and Drug Administration found perchlorate contamination in nearly all of the milk and lettuce samples tested.

Perchlorate is a toxic component used in the manufacture of solid rocket fuel, highway safety flares, matches and fireworks.

The States of Maryland and Massachusetts have adopted a safety limit on perchlorate in drinking water of 1 ppb.

California has set a preliminary limit of 6 ppb for perchlorate in drinking water.

The Food and Drug Administration found perchlorate in 104 milk samples taken from milk bought in retail stores in Arizona, California, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington. The average concentration of perchlorate in the milk samples was 5.76 parts per billion (ppb). Thirty-eight percent of the samples had levels over 6 ppb. The Food and Drug Administration also found perchlorate in 128 samples of lettuce from Arizona, California, Florida, New Jersey, and Texas.

In February 2005 it was reported by Texas Tech University's Institute of Environmental and Human Health that perchlorate was found in virtually all samples of women's breast milk and its levels were found on average to be almost two times greater than in cow's milk. The highest levels found in breast milk, 92 parts per billion (ppb) and 51 ppb came from two New Jersey women. Samples exceeding 30 ppb were found in women from New Mexico, Missouri and Nebraska. The average for all samples was 10.5 ppb. The study found that a 9 pound baby drinking breast milk with 10.5 ppb of perchlorate would ingest more than double the amount of perchlorate deemed safe by a recent National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report.

The findings concern health experts because infants and fetuses are the most vulnerable to the thyroid-impairing effects of the chemical. Perchlorate blocks the nutrient iodide and inhibits thyroid hormones, which are necessary for brain development and cellular growth of a fetus or infant. A baby with impaired thyroid development may have neurological defects that result in lower IQ, mental retardation, loss of hearing and speech and motor skills deficits.

American women with low iodine levels exposed to a perchlorate concentration in the water of 4 parts per million, 11 million people in 26 states, have suppressed thyroid function which can lead to health problems in them and abnormal brain development in their offspring. 111,1 women tested had an average percholate level of 2.9 parts per million.

The new findings in 2006 suggest that the Environmental Protection Agency's suggested limit of percholate in drinking water, modified by the George W. Bush administration to 25 ppb, is 10 times higher than it should be. If the Environmental Protection Agency had set a standard lower than 5 ppb, as research suggested, the expected costs of cleanup to the U.S. Department of Defense and several of its major contractors was many billions of dollars.

Olin Corp. is the liable party for perchlorate contamination in hundreds of drinking water wells in Santa Clara County, California. The ten mile plume of contamination emanated from a former flare manufacturing plant Olin Corp. operated from 1955 to 1996. Tests of Santa Clara wells have found some 227 wells with perchlorate above the states safety limit of 6 parts per billion. Some wells had levels above 100 parts per billion.

In San Bernardino, California, Lockheed Martin agreed to clean up perchlorate contaminated ground water.

By September 2005 the Environmental Protection Agency has identified 395 sites throughout the country with ground water contaminated by perchlorate - over half of which are in California and Texas. Only 51 of these at that time where undergoing remediation.

mercury

Remember the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland? It was known at that time that anyone who worked with felt, felt hats in this case, for many years went crazy. Why? Mercury was used in the process of making felt!

AlliedSignal released mercury begining in 1917 into Onondaga Lake near Syracuse, New York. AlliedSignal is estimated to have dumped 165,000 pounds of mercury into the lake. Onondaga Lake is listed as a federal Superfund site. Other industrial pollutants dumped include benzene, toluene, PCBs, dioxins and furans. The state cleanup plan, which may take 17 years to complete, calls for the company to dredge and cap over 2,329 acres at a cost of $2.33 billion.

A volunteer study in 2006 linked mercury poisoning to consumption of fish.

"We saw a direct relationship between people's mercury levels and the amount of store bought fish, canned tuna fish or locally caught fish people consumed," said Steve Patch, co-director of the Environmental Quality Institute at University of North Carolina.

In 2004 my aunt, virtually a health nut through proper excercise and diet, was feeling poorly. She was found to have extremly high levels of mercury in her body. Her doctor prescribed a diet which avoided all fish to solve the problem.

Do you believe government mandated vaccines are safe?

Eli Lilly donated more than a half million dollars to congressional candidates in the 2001 election cycle. Eli Lilly was then exempted in the Homeland Security Act from liability for the mercury base thimerosal, a vaccine preservative that is 50% mercury by weight, which causes nerve damage in infants, sometimes resulting in autism.

Thimerosal is a preservative widely used in childhood vaccines since the 1930s.

"When the conspirators get ready to take over the United States they will use fluoridated water and vaccines to change people's attitudes and loyalties and make them docile, apathetic, unconcerned and groggy. According to their own writings and the means they have already confessedly employed, the conspirators have deliberately planned and developed methods to mentally deteriorate, morally debase, and completely enslave the masses. They will prepare vaccines containing drugs that will completely change people. These plans called for compulsoryvaccination with vaccines containing change agent drugs. They also plan on using disease germs, fluoridation and vaccinations to weaken the people and reduce the population." - Bertrand Russell, Impact of Science on Society

The DPT vaccine (diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine) with a Thermasol mercury base, has never been safe for all children. DNA differences in individuals cause different individuals to grow at different rates and to have different reactions.

When my first son got his first DPT shot he became sick and his behavior was modified. I refused to allow him to have other DPT injections as required by law (thus becoming a criminal) because of the way in which the vaccine affected him. His mother considered me an idiot for not towing the policy line and obeying the government decree.

In October, 2004 a study by researches at Columbia University found that mercury contained in the vaccine preservative Thimerosal can cause autism-like symptoms in a specific strain of mice. The study raises questions as to whether some people may be genetically vulnerable to the effects of Thimerosal.

In December, 2004, a professor of biochemistry and pediatrics at the University of Arkansas discovered that children with autism had lower levels of a mercury-detoxifying chemical, glutathoine, which helps rid the body of mercury and other heavy metals. The study raises concern that children with lower levels of glutathoine may be more prone to neurological damage when exposed to mercury in vaccines or other sources.

In March, 2005 researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center concluded that autism rates are higher in Texas counties with high levels of reported mercury emissions. The counties with facilities releasing high levels of mercury emissions had an average 17% increase in the rate of autism for every 1,000 pounds of mercury discharged.

In March 3, 2006 a new study by Dr. Mark Geier, published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, found a reduced incidence of autism using vaccines that did not contain the mercury-containing preservative Thimerosal.

In March, 2006 researchers at University of California Davis linked Thimerosal to immune system dysfunction in mice. Many autistic children have irregular immune systems. The study found that Thimerosal "dramatically" altered immune system cells and "even extremely small amounts of Thimerosal interfered significantly" with immune system cells after just a few minutes of exposure. Thimerosal is still found in some ear and nose drops, skin creams, cosmetics and adult diphtheria and tetanus vaccines. Children's flu vaccines can be found either with or without Thimerosal, although the Thimerosal containing version is far more prevalent.

"Another CDC-funded study uses spin tactics in its attempt to clear Thimerosal of any connection with neuro-developmental disorders. The apparent disregard of the many disconcerting fmdings in this study is misleading at best and fraudulent at worst. The most distressing thing is that the people we should be able to trust most are compromising the truth at the expense of the health and safety of our children." - Cathy Buckly 10/02/07

"The developing brain is very plastic, and language development is critical during the first nine to 10 months of age, and any insult to the developing brain may affect it. A multiple vaccine blast to the developing brain may be implicated. When it is given, however, may be more critical. Researchers need to focus on the timing of vaccinations." - Sally Cox

There was a tenfold increase in the rate of autism from 1985 to 2005.

In March of 2008 Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged that Hannah Poling received a series of vaccines when she was 19 months old that lead to her being diagnosed as autistic.

My son is now attending Cal Tech, has earned a Master's and is working on his Doctorate. I will always feel I made a wise decision in his case.

Prefer to have an autistic son or daughter,
follow the government mandated vaccination program!

For him to attend public school I was required to have him vaccinated and I did, four years later. Four years later his brain had matured and the Thimerosal mercury base of the DPT did not change his behavior as it had initially.

I thank God that I was paying attention.

If government mandated vaccines are safe then why did the government pass the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act?

And why do lawyers for the Justice Department insist that settlements for injuries remain unpublished and not added to the legal databases?

The justice department finally settled with Lori Barton whose son Dustin died of complications from a vaccination. Lori Barton testified before a congressional committee in 2001 about how she felt about the gag order' "To me, it was extortion."

Peter H. Meyers, a law professor at George Washington University stated that the Justice Department was " a stupendous success in protecting the vaccine industry."

Of course there is only one answer for this and that is that the government does not want the public to understand that there are risks involved with these vaccinations! And to think it is highly possible that no child would be effected if the time line had been changed as evidence mounted and they were just allowed to grow a year or two more before receiving the vaccine!

"Declining vaccination rates, if they exist, can be attributed to a conflicted government safety program, not parents. It is too early to determine whether autism rates were affected by the Thimerosal removal. Public health authorities aggressively marketed mercury-containing flu vaccines to pregnant women and children. An excessive vaccine schedule continues unabated even as evidence mounts that vaccines cause harm." - Robert J Krakow 08

"As the parent of a child who developed seizures following her initial vaccines at the age of 2 months, I refuse to defend my position not to vaccinate her or her younger brothers. I am not anti-vaccine but am suspicious of the industry, knowing that it is just that an industry. Some would say that we've replaced the hideous diseases of the past with new autoimmune disorders, and who is to say which is worse?" - Elizabeth Aquino 08

What about other vaccines? A study released in February 2005 concluded that increases in influenza vaccinations from 15% to 65% of the elderly population over 65 from 1968 to 2001 had no effect on elderly mortality rates which remained stable.

Defunct chemical maker HoltraChem is responsible for mercury contaminated soil at an Orrington, Maine site alongside the Penobscot River.

"Nationally, the average coal-fired power plant reported 84 pounds of mercury emissions in 2003. The average chlorine plant reported more than 1,074 pounds. Of the 100 power plants with the most mercury emissions, the average total air discharges was 484 pounds - less than half the average from a chlorine plant." - Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette used Environmental Protection Agency data and records to show that a chlorine-producing plant in Natrium is West Virginia's single-largest air polluter, emitting more than 1,200 pounds of mercury into the air every year.

pesticides

DDT was first synthesized in 1874 by Othmar Zeidler, but its insecticidal properties were not discovered until 1939, by the Swiss scientist Paul Hermann Müller, who was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his efforts.

DDT is a colourless crystalline substance which is practically insoluble in water but highly soluble in fats and most organic solvents.

DDT was banned in the 1970s because it followed the principle of biological magnification, killing higher level organisms like the birds by creating extra thin egg shells.

DDT is present in the Palos Verdes sediments, Los Angeles largely as a result of wastewater discharges from the former Montrose Chemical Corporation DDT manufacturing plant in Torrance, California, which operated from 1947 to 1983. Wastewater containing significant concentrations of DDT, over 1,700 tons of DDT, was discharged from the Montrose plant to local sewers. Fish caught off the coast of California from Ventura to Dana Point contain the highest known concentrations of DDT.

A pesticide spill which occurred in 1977 at Del Monte Fresh Produce Co. contaminated a local drinking water system on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The site was placed on the Superfund list in 1994 and is contaminated by the pesticides ethylene dibromide, dibromo-chloropropane, and trichloropropane.

In 1986 use of the herbicide Dinoseb was banned after tests concluded that it caused fertility problems and birth defects in lab animals. In April, 2001 DuPont ceased sales of Benlate, a fungicide. By that time Benlate had resulted in hundreds of lawsuits. As of March 2002, DuPont reportedly spent over $1.3 billion on litigation and damages primarily for property damage to crops, flowers and ornamental plants damaged by Benlate.

In August, 2001 it was reported that an analysis of 117 studies of the incidence of lymphoma in the U.S. concludes that people most often develop the cancer in areas with the highest pesticide and herbicide use. The pesticides most associated with lymphoma, according to the Lymphoma Foundation of America (LFA) are the herbicides 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) and triazines (which include atrazine, cyanazine and simazine). Phosphine compounds also had a high association with lymphoma. These include: 2,4,5-T, glyphosate, lindane, carbaryl, chlordane arsenates, diazinon, dichlorovos and malathion. According to the LFA, the studies also showed a link between lymphoma and exposure to solvents. 2,4-D first marketed in the U.S. in 1940s, is detected in the ground water in 5 states and in 2003 found in 63% of home dust samples.

In May 2003 the Delaware Supreme Court rules that statute of limitations doesn't begin in a toxic exposure case until discovery of a possible link between substance and injury. Children born with eye defects that were originally thought to be genetic were linked to prenatal exposure to the pesticide Benlate.

In March, 2004 it was determined that run-off of the pesticide ICON, active ingredient friponil, manufactured by Aventis CropScience killed many of some 1,500 crawfish farmer's crawfish.

In November, 2004 a study by researchers from Emory University and the University of Washington found an association between exposure to an organic pesticide and Parkinson's disease. The pesticide in the study was Rotenone. The scientists state that they "think this is an important proof of the concept that what we eat, drink, breath or are otherwise exposed to predisposes us to Parkinson's disease."

In February, 2005 a new study based upon results from Washington State's first year of mandatory testing of farm workers has found that one in five of those workers who either mix or spray pesticides and/or herbicides "experienced significant health affects." Of the 580 workers tested, 20.6% experienced at least a 205 drop in the enzyme cholinesterase. The enzyme is reportedly "vital to the body's nervous system." Some 4.4% of the workers experienced at least a 30% drop in the enzyme level. The study was prepared by three farm worker advocacy groups. Two of the more commonly used pesticides that affected the workers were azinphos methyl also called Guthion and chlorpyrifos which is sold under various names. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 80% of all the orchards in the Northwest U.S. are treated with both of these chemicals.

In February, 2005 West Virginia residents sought class action certification in a suit against Solutia Inc. alleging exposure to toxic chemicals which emanated from a facility that manufactured Agent Orange, which was a blend of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T and picloram.

Banned compound chemical pesticides - aldrin, benzene hexachloride, binapacryl, 2,3,4,5-bis (2-butylene) tetrahydro-2-furaldehyde, bromoxynil butyrate, cadmium compounds, calcium arsenate, captafol, carbon tetrachloride, chloranil, chlordane, chlordecone (kepone), chlordimeform, chlorobenzilate, chloromethoxypropylmercuric acetate, copper arsenate, 1,2-Dibromo-3-Chloropropane , dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, dinoseb and salts, Di(phenylmercury)dodecenylsuccinate, 2-methyl-4,6-dinitrophenol, 1,2- dibromoethane ethylene dibromide, ethylene dichloride, endrin, ethyl p-nitrophenyl thionobenzenephosphonate, ethyl hexyleneglycol, fluoroacetamide, hexachlorobenzene, lead arsenate, leptophos , mercury compounds(mercurous chloride and mercuric chloride), methamidophos, methyl parathion, mevinphos, mirex, monocrotophos, nitrofen, octamethylpyrophosphoramide, parathion (ethyl), pentachlorophenol, phenylmercury acetate, phenylmercuric oleate, phosphamidon, potassium 2,4,5-trichlorophenate (2,4,5-TCP), pyriminil, safrole, silvex, sodium arsenite, dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane, terpene polychlorinates, thallium sulfate, toxaphene (chlorinated camphene), 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), vinyl chloride

PCB or polychlorinated biphenyls

Under specific conditions polychlorinated biphenyls oxidize into dioxins and dibenzofurans. The commercial production of PCBs was taken over in 1929 by Monsanto from Swann Chemical Company. Monsanto, marketed PCBs under the trade name Aroclor from 1930 to 1977. PCB mixtures have been used for a variety of applications, including dielectric fluids for capacitors and transformers, heat transfer fluids, hydraulic fluids, lubricating and cutting oils, and as additives in pesticides, paints, carbonless copy paper, adhesives, sealants, plastics, reactive flame retardants, and as a fixative for microscopy. Polychlorinated biphenyls were also used in surgical implants. The most commonly observed health effects in people exposed to large amounts of PCBs are skin conditions such as chloracne and rashes, but these were known to be symptoms of systemic poisoning dating back to the 1920s. Through partial oxidation polychlorinated biphenyls create dioxins and furans.

Polychlorinated biphenyls alter estrogen levels in the body. In the womb, males can be feminized or the baby may be intersex, neither a male nor a female or both sets of reproductive organs may develop. Biological magnification of PCBs has also led to polar bears and whales that have both male and female sex organs and males that cannot reproduce. This effect is also known as endocrine disruption.

In August, 2001, federal and state regulators fined waste disposal and recycling firm Philip Services $1,000,000 for environmental violations at four Washington State locations. The facilities accept hazardous substances for disposal and/or recycling including PCBs, solvents, acids, cyanide and petroleum products. The company has already been deemed a responsible party for ground water contamination that has migrated from their Georgetown, Washington facility onto adjacent properties and has been fined in 1995 ($160,000) and 1998 ($25,000) for previous environmental violations.

In August, 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency endorsed the Clinton Administration's plan to remove PCB contaminated sediment from a 40 mile stretch of the Hudson River north of Albany. The cleanup is expected to cost General Electric, whose facilities dumped some 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the river up until 1977, about $460 million. General Electric has spent hundreds of millions fighting the Environmental Protection Agency's dredging plan.

By April 2003 Alabama jurors had awarded $6 million in property damages in the Anniston, Alabama PCB contamination class action to 21 plaintiffs. There are some 900 additional plaintiffs in the class seeking property damages and 3,500 seeking damages for illnesses allegedly caused by exposure to PCBs. Another class action has been filed by some 15,000 additional plaintiffs. Monsanto made PCBs at the Anniston facility from 1935 to 1971.

In October 2003 paper manufacturer Glatfelter agreed to pay $25 million towards the dredging of PCB contaminated sediment in Wisconsin's Fox River and Green Bay.

In August, 2004 Aluminum company Alcoa, Inc. agreed study remediation options for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) contamination in New York's Grasse River.

In November, 2004 residents filed a toxic tort lawsuit against National Electric Coil plant in Dayhoit, Kentucky caused their illnesses. Substances released allegedly included PCBs, dioxins, vinyl chloride, trichloroethylene and heavy metals. The plaintiff's also allege that the company misled residents regarding the health risks once the contamination was discovered. The facility was bought by Cooper Industries from National Electric Coil in 1985 and was closed in 1987.

By February, 2005 seven paper companies that dumped PCBs into the Fox River, Wisconsin over a 20 year period ending in the 1970s had paid $130 million for cleanup.

In October, 2005 General Electric agreed to spend $215M - $265M in 1st phase of PCB cleanup of the Hudson River, New York. Under the agreement, the company will pay $100 million to $150 million to clean up some 10% of the 2.65 million cubic yards of PCB contaminated sediment.

In January, 2006 capacitor manufacturer Schlumberger Technology Corp. has agreed to pay the federal government $20 million to settle its liability for natural resource damages to

The history of life on Earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings.