Work together to prevent toxins
“Everything we need to know is already within us, just waiting to be realized.” That’s a quote from cosmologist Stephen Hawking that makes me wonder why it is taking so long for all of us to respond with urgency to all the environmental facts we’ve known for decades, even a century.
When will we respond to the plastics and pharmaceutical industries with the same skepticism and distrust we had for the tobacco industry? And if you watch TV and see its ubiquitous ads for pharmaceuticals — where two-thirds of the advertisement warns against disastrous and even deadly side effects — is the cure really a better option than the disease?
As individuals and as a culture why aren’t we focusing on prevention rather than on too often ineffective cures? Rachel Carson, Vandana Shiva, Wangari Maathai, Jacques Cousteau, Bill McKibben, Jeremy Rifkin, Arundhati Roy and hundreds of others warned us against the use of formaldehyde, chromium 6, lead, mercury and benzene in our homes, our clothes, our food, our water and air, disrupting nature’s life cycle.
I vote for working together as a community toward preventing poisons from entering our communities and eliminating toxic materials whenever present. Banning local and regional and national use of poisons is the only real cure for cancer, leukemia and other diseases. Stop the potential for disaster and disease before it begins.
Micaela Amateau Amato, Boalsburg
This story was originally published April 26, 2017 at 9:31 PM with the headline "Work together to prevent toxins."