Is Pollution Making You Sick?

DOES Millie’s case, previously mentioned, mean that every time you feel irritable, depressed or have health problems environmental pollution is to blame? Not at all.

Our body’s marvelously designed immune system can fight off pollutants. (Psalm 139:14) Yet, because of genetic inheritance and our living habits, each of us will react differently. Increasing medical evidence has shown that even small amounts of chemical pollutants can affect the health of some people.

Chemical Sensitivities

“After treating over 20,000 patients over a period of 30 years for various allergic reactions, I think that the chemical problem is rapidly becoming​—if it is not already—​the number one offender,” Dr. Theron Randolph of Chicago, Illinois, told Awake! “The load exposure from the environment and our industrialized diet is greatly increasing. These chemical sensitivities don’t hit everybody immediately, but it hurts most those who are subjected to the chemicals with any degree of persistence.”

But should not the body’s immune system counteract these pollutants? Dr. Alan S. Levin, an immunologist of San Francisco, explained: “Chemical pollutants weaken the immune system by poisoning and thereby reducing certain ‘T cells’ [a type of white cell] in the blood which act as ‘brakes’ for the immune system. As a result, a person’s immune system becomes uncontrollable and overreacts. He can become overly sensitive and react to virtually all synthetic materials and petrochemicals.”

Medical journals tell of persons reacting to soft plastic food containers, fumes from oil or gas stoves, denture materials, synthetic fabrics and a host of other modern-day products. So the emotional and physical problems encountered by Millie can be caused by a reaction to substances in one’s environment.

“But really, individual susceptibility is the crux of the problem,” states Dr. Randolph. After nationwide research, Dr. Irving Selikoff, director of Environmental Sciences Laboratory at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, reached the same conclusion. In an interview with Awake!, he said: “Individual susceptibility is tremendously important. One out of five persons who work with asbestos will die of lung cancer. Why not the other four? I don’t know. But this is true in many, many things.”

So what you react to may be no problem for another. The state of your health, heredity, mental outlook and stresses are all factors. Such knowledge should help us develop fellow feeling when others struggle with health problems that we may not have. (1 Peter 3:8) But the effects of environmental pollutants go further than just an allergic reaction.

The Workplace

Asbestos, a mineral widely used in industry, became a 1982 front-page horror story. Evidence revealed that an estimated 10,000 persons exposed to asbestos dust on their jobs may die each year from now until the end of the century from asbestos-caused cancer and other related illnesses.

“It was shown more than 20 years ago what asbestos exposure would do to health,” said Dr. Irving Selikoff. “Industry perhaps felt that a little bit wouldn’t hurt. Well, we patiently gathered much information. Now we see the results. But it’s too late. For the 20 million among us who were exposed to the dust from 1940 to 1980, with inadequate precautions, the future is worrisome!” Many responsible industries have imposed stricter safety measures since one out of every 10 workers in the United States is now exposed (full time or part time) to cancer-causing substances.

Dr. Kent Anger of the Neurobehavioral Research Section of NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) told Awake! that over 30 workplace chemicals​—other than medical drugs—​can affect the nervous system. He stated: “Nearly 20 million workers are exposed to one or several of these. They can cause slight changes in the attention span, tremors or tingling in hands, short-term memory loss, general weakness, emotional instability, nervousness, irritability​—even paralysis and blindness. Of course, we have also seen these symptoms caused by other problems.”

Chemical pesticides are widely used. The World Health Organization considers pesticide poisoning of farm workers a major health problem in developing countries. It estimates that in these countries pesticides cause some 500,000 human poisonings each year​—one every minute! Of these, 5,000 are fatal. Both sterility and miscarriages have been linked with either the production or the use of these compounds. Of course, not all pesticides are equally harmful, but the effects of some may be known only after years of use.

Our Food, Water and Air

Much of the world’s food is lost each year to pests. One estimate says over 40 percent! Thus, in 1979 alone 6.4 billion pounds of pesticides were produced​—well over a pound for every person on earth!a Many of these chemicals​—some of which do not easily break down—​cling to our vegetables and fruits or enter the food chain where they are stored in the meat we eat. Pesticides banned in the United States because they cause birth defects and cancer in laboratory animals are still produced and sold to other countries, and the United States gets these back in many of its imported foods.

So virtually everyone on earth has in his body a small amount of these pollutants. Just how hazardous this is​—especially in the long term—​no one can say with certainty. However, some react with asthma attacks, skin rashes and headaches when eating pesticide-contaminated food.

While most drinking water is safe, experiences like that of Egg Harbor, New Jersey (U.S.), are increasing. In 1981 a leaking chemical waste dump had contaminated the nearby groundwater. The New Jersey groundwater is one of the numerous water systems held in suspension below the ground, and these systems provide drinking water for over half the country. Once such a water system is polluted there is usually no way to cleanse it.

“DON’T DRINK THE WATER. POISON. CHEMICALS.” This sign that hung in the kitchen of one Egg Harbor home was a painful reminder that throughout New Jersey and neighboring states hundreds of wells have been closed. Many residents blamed bronchial coughs, kidney ailments, nervous disorders and skin rashes on the toxic chemicals. Some of these symptoms cleared up when the sufferers temporarily left the area or switched to bottled water. With perhaps thousands of similar chemical dumps nationwide, Environmental Protection Agency ex-official Eckhardt Beck stated: “This will become the environmental horror story of the 80’s.”b

City air pollution is widely believed capable of causing or aggravating chronic heart and lung disease, especially among the elderly, infirm and newborn. However, to what extent is still debatable; better controls have helped in some cities. Yet air pollution adds stress. One study revealed that among the middle-class population of a large city in the United States, in high pollution areas there were 80 percent more deaths from heart disease due to high blood pressure than there were in low pollution areas.

Lead​—The Subtle Poison

Dr. Herbert Needleman analyzed the lead levels of baby teeth of 2,146 normal schoolchildren aged five to six. He then had each child’s behavior rated by the teacher. The results: more lead​—worse behavior! Similar findings were made in Canada, Germany and England. There is growing alarm.

Lead can be eaten in the form of old paint chips or dust, breathed from the exhaust fumes of leaded gasoline and can make its way into our food. “Half the lead in the American diet probably originates from lead-soldered cans, since these containers contaminate their contents about tenfold and canned foods comprise about 20 percent of the diet,” concluded two California research scientists.

Adults will absorb 10 percent of the lead they eat; children absorb up to 50 percent. They also more readily absorb what they breathe. Their developing nervous system is especially vulnerable. Though the symptoms of low-level lead poisoning in children include clumsiness, stomach aches, refusal to play, irritability, fatigue and loss of appetite, these are often ignored by parents and the condition can worsen.

Your Life-Style

The effects of pollution are often greatly intensified by an unwise life-style. “Persons who work with asbestos have a seven or eight times greater risk of dying from lung cancer than the normal population. However, if they smoke,” revealed Dr. Selikoff, “they have a risk that is 92 times greater.” Smoking is one of the reasons that indoor pollution in many places is worse than pollution outside and often is a greater health hazard.

Your eating habits are also a factor. Drs. Lonsdale and Shamberger of the United States reported treating a number of unusually irritable young people who showed disturbing personality changes. A steady diet of “junk foods” had created a vitamin B₁ (thiamine) deficiency. Supplements of thiamine and a change in diet cleared up their symptoms.

Thus, many factors are involved in answering the questions: Is pollution making you sick? What can you do about it?

[Footnotes]

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Your workplace can be a source of pollution

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The lead pollution from all these sources can affect your child’s health

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Your life-style can make pollution worse