streams and rivers and lakes. However, a quarter of what gets into the ground is carried by prevailing winds to the four corners of the earth. For several decades, atmospheric transport moved toxaphene from the cotton fields of the American South to the water and fish of the Great Lakes. Scientists found toxaphene in the atmosphere above the western North Atlantic at a level ten times higher than any other pesticide.
In soil, toxaphene can linger for as long as ten years. In lakes, it has the potential to remain biologically active (that is, deadly) from two years to two centuries. Estimates are that toxaphene will radiate disease and death in Lake Michigan for 104 years and in Lake Superior for 185 years. This is particularly troubling given the web of life it contaminates: fish absorb toxaphene, bigger fish eat smaller fish, and humans and wild animals (such as eagles and bears) eat the bigger fish. 8
Indeed, water animals are especially vulnerable to toxaphene poisoning because it bioaccumulates in their tissues at staggering rates. Yearling brook trout, for instance, absorb toxaphene at 4,000 to 16,000 times the water concentration, rainbow trout at 10,000 to 20,000 times, and brook trout fry at 15,000 to 20,000 times. In channel catfish, toxaphene biomagnifies at a factor of 2,000 to 50,000, and fathead minnows collect toxaphene at 3,700 to 69,000 times the water concentration. Oysters absorb into their flesh 146 parts per million of toxaphene from water with only 0.05 parts per million of toxaphene—in just ten days, which is to say, oysters collect toxaphene at nearly 3,000 times the amount of toxaphene found in the water.
Tragically, fish absorption seems to be the only way to “dispose” of toxaphene, which, obviously, is no way at all. In other words, once toxaphene gets into drinking water, there is practically no way to get it out.
Given the Reagan administration’s utter disinterest in industrial regulation, David Pimentel knew he was talking to a blank wall when he told EPA they ought to ban toxaphene. The official said nothing, and our conversation with Pimentel came to an end.
And our toxaphene poisoning continued.
By 1982, close to 7 billion pounds of this poison had been used all over the United States. In 1974 and 1975 alone, more than 200 million pounds of toxaphene reached the land. In 1982, some two hundred merchants sold 200 million pounds of toxaphene through two hundred different products. About 80 percent went to the cotton farmers of the South; some of the remaining poison became a “dip” for millions of cattle. What was left became part of chemical arsenal used on about three hundred crops. This means that toxaphene was contaminating a lot of food, especially fish and meat. 9
Because toxaphene produces thyroid cancer in rats, is widely distributed in the environment, bioaccumulates as it moves through the food chain, and has “specific adverse effects on fish,” toxaphene should be restricted “more stringently” even than DDT, Endrin, Dieldrin, etc.,” wrote John Doull, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Kansas Medical School and a former member of the EPA’s Science Advisory Panel. 10
In other words, Doull said in early 1982, the EPA should ban toxaphene, and soon.
Even with Reagan in power, the slow and insidious toxaphene fallout was simply too much even for the timid scientists of the EPA, who in early 1982 decided to disclose what they knew about toxaphene: that the stuff was in the water, food, soil, and air of the entire country, and that the fresh fish and shellfish of entire regions were so contaminated they were unfit for people to eat.
EPA scientists were also sick of the word games being played by BFC Chemicals, the company in charge of persuading the EPA to adopt ludicrous “options” for regulating toxaphene (including canceling toxaphene use on rice and cranberries, two crops on which toxaphene was virtually never used).
In soil, toxaphene can linger for as long as ten years. In lakes, it has the potential to remain biologically active (that is, deadly) from two years to two centuries. Estimates are that toxaphene will radiate disease and death in Lake Michigan for 104 years and in Lake Superior for 185 years. This is particularly troubling given the web of life it contaminates: fish absorb toxaphene, bigger fish eat smaller fish, and humans and wild animals (such as eagles and bears) eat the bigger fish. 8
Indeed, water animals are especially vulnerable to toxaphene poisoning because it bioaccumulates in their tissues at staggering rates. Yearling brook trout, for instance, absorb toxaphene at 4,000 to 16,000 times the water concentration, rainbow trout at 10,000 to 20,000 times, and brook trout fry at 15,000 to 20,000 times. In channel catfish, toxaphene biomagnifies at a factor of 2,000 to 50,000, and fathead minnows collect toxaphene at 3,700 to 69,000 times the water concentration. Oysters absorb into their flesh 146 parts per million of toxaphene from water with only 0.05 parts per million of toxaphene—in just ten days, which is to say, oysters collect toxaphene at nearly 3,000 times the amount of toxaphene found in the water.
Tragically, fish absorption seems to be the only way to “dispose” of toxaphene, which, obviously, is no way at all. In other words, once toxaphene gets into drinking water, there is practically no way to get it out.
Given the Reagan administration’s utter disinterest in industrial regulation, David Pimentel knew he was talking to a blank wall when he told EPA they ought to ban toxaphene. The official said nothing, and our conversation with Pimentel came to an end.
And our toxaphene poisoning continued.
By 1982, close to 7 billion pounds of this poison had been used all over the United States. In 1974 and 1975 alone, more than 200 million pounds of toxaphene reached the land. In 1982, some two hundred merchants sold 200 million pounds of toxaphene through two hundred different products. About 80 percent went to the cotton farmers of the South; some of the remaining poison became a “dip” for millions of cattle. What was left became part of chemical arsenal used on about three hundred crops. This means that toxaphene was contaminating a lot of food, especially fish and meat. 9
Because toxaphene produces thyroid cancer in rats, is widely distributed in the environment, bioaccumulates as it moves through the food chain, and has “specific adverse effects on fish,” toxaphene should be restricted “more stringently” even than DDT, Endrin, Dieldrin, etc.,” wrote John Doull, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Kansas Medical School and a former member of the EPA’s Science Advisory Panel. 10
In other words, Doull said in early 1982, the EPA should ban toxaphene, and soon.
Even with Reagan in power, the slow and insidious toxaphene fallout was simply too much even for the timid scientists of the EPA, who in early 1982 decided to disclose what they knew about toxaphene: that the stuff was in the water, food, soil, and air of the entire country, and that the fresh fish and shellfish of entire regions were so contaminated they were unfit for people to eat.
EPA scientists were also sick of the word games being played by BFC Chemicals, the company in charge of persuading the EPA to adopt ludicrous “options” for regulating toxaphene (including canceling toxaphene use on rice and cranberries, two crops on which toxaphene was virtually never used).
Similar Books
