Living With Toxins - Real Stories
Washington Toxics Coalition author and intern Kari Mosden is a graduate student in the Environment & Community Program at Antioch University. She has been travelling around the state this summer to talk to folks about their experiences with toxic pollution and chemicals. The Stories Project, sponsored by the Washington Toxics Coalition, is aimed at putting names and faces on the pollution problems facing Washington State by telling the stories of people who have suffered health impacts from toxic chemicals and pesticides, and highlighting successful and innovative alternatives to chemical use and toxic pollution. Washington Toxics Coalition promotes alternatives, advocates policies, empowers communities, and educates people to create a healthy environment through the elimination of toxic chemical use. Go to www.watoxics.org to learn more.
Dirt-y Secrets
What happened between a copper smelter, consistent northerly winds, and an island just north of Tacoma, Washington, is now another unfortunate chapter of toxic pollution in Pacific Northwest history. What's being done about it on Vashon Island, on the other hand, is promising and important work.
Vashon Island is an idyllic and nearly rural place to live, a popular get-away on the weekend, and a bedroom community for Seattle commuters. It takes just a short ferry ride from Seattle to get there, and once you arrive, the tranquility of the place is immediately apparent - the closest thing to a stoplight is a wait at the ferry dock. However, Vashon has a secret, something that is literally right under its resident's toes: elevated levels of the toxic heavy metals arsenic, lead, and cadmium. Arsenic can cause death at high levels. Lead can damage the nervous systems, kidneys, and reproductive system. Cadmium damages the lungs, can cause kidney disease, and may irritate the digestive tract. Depending on where kids play or what types of vegetables are planted in the garden, those living on Vashon are at greater risk for toxic exposure.
The Heavy Metals Remediation Committee (HMRC) puts on informational symposiums, such as Get the Scoop on Our Dirt, and You Can Grow Cleaner Dirt, and serves as a resource for residents of the island. May Gerstle, the chair of the committee, heads up the effort to educate the residents. "We have done quite a bit of work to uncover the impacts of these heavy metals in the soil," May tells me, explaining that their focus is now on the human health impacts of the toxic substances. "Part of helping those who've been affected is in educating them about the effects." Having cleaned up playgrounds and educated gardeners and other island residents, their latest project is a Handbook for Healthcare Practitioners. "Healthcare practitioners don't always know what the symptoms of lead, arsenic, or cadmium poisoning look like, because they are not usually trained for that." The HMRC hopes this handbook will help close that gap.
We often don't think much about the harm of tracking dirt into the house, what our vegetable gardens may take out of the soil aside from water, or where our animals have been. However, it is seemingly harmless activities such as these that can expose residents of Vashon Island, and elsewhere, to toxic chemicals. Safe practices, such as frequent hand washing, taking shoes off in the house, and washing all vegetables and fruits before eating them, can go a long way towards reducing one's exposure. As with most toxic issues, there is too much that we don't know, and, as the HMRC has pointed out, the best course of action is education and caution.
Look for more "Real Stories" about living with toxins in next month's edition of The Earth Page (October 2003).