(Six-minute read)
Humans emit more than 250 billion tonnes of chemical substances a year, in a toxic avalanche that is harming people and life everywhere on the planet.
We flush them down the loo, stick them in our washing machines, rub them on our skins, eat them, drink them, swallow them, breath them, inject them, spread them, label them, feed them to our animals/children.
Every moment of our lives we are exposed to thousands of these substances.
Poisoning of the planet through man-made chemical emissions is probably the largest human impact – and the one that is least understood or regulated, with over 2000 new chemicals are being released every year.
In fact, there is no avoiding them. We even have sardines in tins now described as Bio.
“The World Health Organisation estimates that 12 million people – one in 4 – die every year from diseases caused by ‘air water and soil pollution, chemical exposures, climate change, and ultraviolet radiation, all of which result from human activity.”
Examples of the toxic avalanche include:
- Manufactured chemicals – 30 million tonnes a year
- Plastic pollution of oceans – 8mt/yr
- Hazardous waste – 400 mt/yr
- Coal, oil, gas, etc – 15 gigatonnes (billion tonnes) a year
- Lost soil – 75 Gt/yr
- Metals and materials – 75 Gt/yr
- Mining and mineral wastes – 200 Gt/yr
- Water (mostly contaminated with the above wastes) – 9 trillion tonnes a year.
Largely ignored by governments and corporations is that chemicals act in combination, occur in mixtures, and undergo constant change.
A given chemical may not occur in toxic amounts in one place – but combined with thousands of other chemicals it may contribute a much larger risk to the health and safety of the whole population and the environment.
Despite attempts to regulate chemical use, only 21 out of 144,000 chemicals have so far been banned.
So where are we?
First, we need a new Human Right – a right not to be poisoned.
Without such a right, there will never again be a day in history when humans are free from man-made poisons.
Surviving the 21st Century describes will not just be what humanity as a whole must do, but what individuals can do to turn back the toxic tide.
We are now on the threshold of another Climate change conference in the midst of a global pandemic which you may rest assured that our CHEMICALS HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO AND WILL CONTINUE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE FINAL DEVISATION OF THE EOC SYSTEMS THAT WE ALL DEPEND ON.
Every day people are exposed to a cocktail of chemicals in food (Food Additives: Artificial Flavoring: High Fructose Corn Syrup: Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) Sodium Benzoate: Aspartame: Benzoic Acid: Potassium Bromate: Sodium Caseinate: BHA (Butylated Hydroxyanisole): Canthaxanthin: Nitrates/Nitrites: Maltodextrin: Olestra: Soy Lecithin: Coloring Additives: to name a few. ) that interacts with each other in ways that are far beyond our understanding.
The drumbeat of doom marks climate change which is stabilizing the Earth’s temperature with some arbitrary threshold is no longer enough.
Food production produces about a quarter of all climate change.
Chemicals such as pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones are used in plant and animal farming to boost production and ensure adequate food supply all having a tremendous effect on human health.
Surely it’s time to control them not just label them.
Research estimates that the United States consumes 453,6 billion kilograms of chemical additives each year.
I wanted to emphasize the point that whether a chemical is natural or man-made tells us nothing about its toxicity.
FDA or the EU is in charge of keeping our food safe, but it doesn’t have the tools or the authority to do its job and thousands of chemicals were approved by the FDA decades ago when we had far less understanding about their impacts on human health.
All human comments are appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked into the bin.
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