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 he Sierra Club, doctors and cancer victims
released a report last month, "Cancer, Chemicals and You," indicating
that U.S. polluters legally dumped more than 175 million pounds of cancer-causing
chemicals into our air and water in 1996 alone more than a cup of cancer-causing
chemical for every man, woman, and child in America. The group called on
polluters to clean up cancer-causing pollution and lower cancer risk, especially
for children.
 "More than one in three people
will suffer from cancer at one point in their lives, and at least one in
five of us will die from some form of this disease. Cancer has become a
national epidemic, in part because of the toxic chemicals released into
our communities everyday," stated Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive
Director. "It's time that corporate polluters stop placing our communities
at risk. It's time they clean up their act to reduce the risk of cancer
that threatens our families."
The Sierra Club report named the
top 20 U.S. counties for cancer-causing chemical pollution to air and water.
The environmental group released the report and map to highlight the risk
of cancer pollution to all families a topic that will be the focus of the
upcoming movie, "A Civil Action," starring John Travolta. The
movie and best selling book show how cancer victims struggle for justice
in the court system against big polluters.
"Cancer is a major health problem
and the second leading cause of disease-related deaths, and cancer caused
by air pollution is the worst. People don't have a choice in the air they
breathe," said Dr. Peter Orris, of the Great Lakes Center for Occupational
Safety at the University of Illinois, Chicago. "This report shows that
we need a lot more attention to reducing cancer-causing chemicals released
into our communities."
Texas is the state most threatened
by cancer-causing pollutants, followed by Indiana, North Carolina, Illinois,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. "Clearly
the Great Lakes and Southeast states need to do more to protect citizens
from cancer-causing pollution," said Larry Freilich, Southeast Representative
for the Sierra Club and report coauthor.
In Mobile, Alabama, Margie Welch,
a Sierra Club volunteer has been working for years to reduce cancer-causing
pollution in her neighborhood. "Our community already believes that
cancer-causing chemicals are a public threat, and that cancer clusters are
related to pollution. We need studies to confirm these links, but need to
take immediate action to require polluters to reduce their cancer-causing
emissions to protect our families' health."
The good news is that some companies
are cleaning up, such as Parker Pen Company in Janesville, WI. It almost
eliminated their dumping of trichloroethylene (TCE), a cancer-causing solvent,
by replacing it with a much cleaner solvent: soap and water. TCE is the
same solvent that was shown to cause cancer in the Woburn, MA children in
"A Civil Action."
"This report shows that companies
can take cost-effective steps to clean up pollution and protect people from
cancer," concluded Brett Hulsey, Sierra Club Midwest Representative
and report coauthor. "There is no excuse for polluters to use our children
and families as cancer detectors."
To reduce your cancer risk, you can:
- Find out what polluters release in your neighborhood
and demand those polluters stop dumping cancer-causing and toxic pollution.
Check the Sierra Club website at www.sierraclub.org for more information.
- Reduce your own exposure to cigarette smoke and other
cancer causing pollution.
Ask polluting businesses to:
- Stop dumping cancer-causing chemicals into the air, water,
and ground in five years.
- Pay sick workers and cancer victims for their medical
bills, pain and suffering.
Ask government leaders to:
- Enforce pollution laws such as the Clean Air Act health
and urban air pollution standards, since 90 percent of the cancer-causing
pollution is air pollution.
- Do child and adult health studies near major cancer pollution
sources, such as highways, power plants, airports, and industries.
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