Living downstream essay Essay

The toxic hundred refers a history of regular(a)ts in how mankind has polluted the environment and even our own bodies. This was d star using harmful chemicals and toxins through a word form of military and industrial practices. Even now if we eat healthy, exercise and cognise the most innocent lives, you can come under attack from this nonvisual enemy, simply by existing on this planet.What caused this? Of the 200 organic chemicals cognise to cause breast cancer in animals 203 atomic number 18 manmade and 9 are natural. This stat shows us that we created a toxic environment. Wilhelm Hueper who we learned about in layer said The majority of valet de chambre cancers are traceable to environmental exposures and accordingly potentially preventable Why did we do this to ourselves? After severally cosmos War, numerous military plus industrial practices and technologies be know introduced a serial of new chemicals into our bodies and damaged the environment we call home.This le d to many diseases much(prenominal) as cancer or Itai itai by (ouch ouch sickness) the toxic atomic number 6 is a by-product of rapid industrialization due to war. Sandra Steingraber wrote the book living downstream about her experiences with cancer and chemicals. In it she details the wars in playing an vigorous role in the toxic century and in her words changed chemical science and physics forever. After each world war the need for each country trying to rapidly industrialize in order to model otherwise countries was so important that common sense was not present. Countries clear-cut to forgo safety checks in order to make sure their products were much effective. As a result, many chemicals such as chorine, DDT (used as an insect repellant in the war) and PCBs were released in social club for mercantile use. DDT in particular was linked to cancer and hurt wildlife in the areas it was released.Chorine was used in the war as a biologic weapon was very effective and fatal against enemies. After the war, chorine was released in cleaning products, medicines and agriculture. They used propaganda and the ignorance of the people in order to sell the products. It was a time where western society was obsessed with cleanliness, they would give up anything to present it in their homes. First it was health issue & economic industry, soon it became a desirable convenience & cultural norm.The cold war was created as a by-product of the two world wars. After World War 2, countries have found a new untested technology known as thermonuclear bombs. This led to the invention nuclear power where countries started generating power from nuclear sources. The problem of this is nuclear accidents. At least 6 of the biggest nuclear accidents have been recorded. Chalk river in Canada being one and the most recent one in Fukushima, Japan. Nuclear fallout results in cancerous carcinogens being released into the environment. The effect of which are not felt until years and years later. This is not allof the prejudicial effects, more importantly, a state of fear was created in society.An example was presumption in lecture about a town that was near a nuclear plant. When an explosion occurred in the plant, the people fled thousands of miles a manner. The mayor only suggest a a couple of(prenominal) people leave and just a few miles away. This shows you the state of mind, these people were in after hearing about other nuclear meltdowns. On the positive side, it shows that people understand the dangers of the toxic century and things the likes of this will not be endorsed by the people in the future. Sandra Steingrabber advised at the end of her book that we should use the precautionary wiz in our daily lives.That we should act to prevent and not the other way around. One can only imagine what would have happened if we testing chemicals to begin with using them commercially or simply not using them at all. One could argue that we gained so much as a society thanks to the inventions that came along because of these chemicals but can we truly weigh human lives against that? Only in learning about the toxic century like any other piece of history, can we prevent future situations corresponding to the one we are in.