Selection 32

Our Stolen Future

Theo, Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers

It talks about how years ago the toxicity of synthetic industrial chemicals were ignored because they are not thought to be commonly exposed to humans and a large exposure is needed to cause harm. In the 1980's Theo Colborn discovered serious and lethal physiological problems particularly involving the abnormal estrogenic activity. They identified the causing agents to be synthetic chemical compounds.

The article talks in more detail about how humans have been effecting animals around the globe through our use of chemicals in products and that we all have persistent synthetic chemicals stored in our body fat. Animals have been effected by these chemicals and have shown symptoms such as diseases, cancer, and deformities. Humans are beginning to show similar symptoms as the animals. Research has been done that is very controversial and some argue that animals, like mice, are not good predictors of humans during lab tests. Some testing has been done with the synthetic hormone drug diethylstilbestrol (DES) which showed a similar result in laboratory tests as well as in women who have taken the drug to prevent miscarriages. Testing is not always accurate and scientists have shown that sometimes higher doses test negative, resulting in a U shaped dose response curve. Even though not enough tests have been done to come to a complete conclusion it is estimated that humans are at risk. After meeting in July of 1991 with scientists and specialists from a wide range of disciplines they pieced together that the chemicals effecting the animals hormones are an increasing concern for the human population. This alerted everyone that in parts of the world humans are being exposed to dangerous chemicals that must be immediately controlled. What was most concerning is that humans could already be suffering damage from these chemicals for being exposed to them for so long without knowing. I think that this was a big shock to people and that if health officials would have taken an interest sooner it could have been avoided. Many scientists believe that some humans are already suffering especially people sensitive to chemicals. The exposure is hard to document because it is a broad impact across a large population, we do not know exactly were the contamination takes place but it can be in drinking water or even organic foods, it has effects that you cannot notice until it's too late, and the damage caused can be invisible. Because animals experience the symptoms quicker than humans we can try to predict the sources of pollution and the symptoms by studying them. We share our environment with other biological beings and what effects one of us will effect the other. We must learn from our mistakes in the past to make a better future. Since this article was published action has been taken to protect future generations by screening pesticides and developing procedures for detecting contaminants in drinking water. Unless we continue to monitor what we do chemicals like these will effect our hormone levels, fertility, and eventually our future populations.