RIDING THE POP’S

“Industrialized society”, 40 years ago, this expression symbolized a new beginning, a newly found freedom from slavery of physical labor; industrial building had a silver lining. Today the same expression “Industrialized society” brings to mind other images; pollution, contamination, toxic world; and industrial buildings have no more a silver lining but are tarnished by dark smog. Population increase, rapid technological and chemical innovations have led to the contamination of our planet. Even Antarctica, with no permanent settling, suffers the repercussions. DDT’s, PCB’s (Poly Chlorinated Bi Phenyls) and elevated levels of metals have been found in certain species of Antarctica.

Over the past years, we have all been unwitting participants in a vast, uncontrolled chemical revolution. This revolution has indeed contributed greatly to human well being. Chemicals have raised farming yield by killing crop pests and have made possible an endless array of useful products. But once released, some chemicals cause toxic reactions. And one class of such chemicals in particular is Persistent Organic Pollutants. In short, they are known as POP’s.

Most of the POP’s are really nasty and we usually speak about three different groups. Industrial chemical products like PCB’s, combustions and by products like dioxins, and pesticides like DDT. Of course, there are hundreds of such compounds, but the compounds in focus are the “Dirty Dozen”-12, really nasty POP’s. Nine of the worst POP’s are pesticides: Aldrin, Chlorodane, DDT (famous for decimating bald eagles, ospreys and other predatory birds, and for contaminating the milk of nursing mothers), dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex and toxaphene.

They are found to be highly toxic and lasting for years or decades. The process of transport of POP’s known as Grasshopper Effect”, these chemicals jump around the globe, evaporating in warm places, riding the wind and particles of dust, settling to earth in cool spots, and then vaporizing and moving on again. One of the problems is that they are lipophilic, which means that they accumulate in the fatty tissue of living animals and human beings. When they enter the body, they don’t leave it, they are stored in the fat.

The potential effects on health are impressive: cancers, damage to the reproductive system, developmental effects, disrupted endocrine and immune systems, neurobehavioral impact. In today’s world, everyone has POP’s in his or her body. People who eat fat are even worse off. Many scientists believe that the toxic agents in the environment have reduced the average sperm count in men by 42% in the past 50 year. It has been claimed that in certain places, boys have been born without or with distorted sexual organs and with limited or no reproductive capacity.

These significant pernicious effects of POP’s on health and environment have raised serious concerns among the nations and finally there is an attempt from some, to reduce and eliminate the use of POP’s.

Countries which no longer use these chemicals see that level of, for instance DDT in their environment are no longer decreasing, although this substance was banned many years ago. There are two reasons for this, first the wind blows such POP’s over from other areas where they are still in use. Second, they have been accumulating in sediments and they are only now starting to move out into water and into fish.

The count down has begun and there is a need for a conscious effort to be made to stop the production of such dangerous substances, which are purely anthropogenic in nature, before more damage can be done.