“…Many environmental problems that now profoundly affect
human health are a result of solutions to other problems. Lead poisoning
in children, for instance, is a result of the formulation of useful products
like paint and gasoline, solving some problems while creating another, quite
serious in its impact on children.
“…[P]ublic health accomplishments stand out to me because my
own child died as a result of it. Mosquito spraying was initiated first
to address polio in 1952, and then continued to prevent other infectious
disease, like various kinds of encephalitis. Unfortunately, by 1995-2000,
very little publicity was given to this spraying, with very little oversight of
what Clarke Environmental was spraying in the Chicago area.
“In our suburb, they were spraying chlorpyrifos, an acutely
toxic organophosphate that is among pesticides linked to doubled rates of
leukemia in children (Zahm & Ward, 1998; Infante-Rivard & Weichenthal
2007). With no notification of spraying, the chemical came right in our
windows, making us all ill, though it was only after my daughter Katherine’s
last-chance bone marrow transplant that we pieced together the likely reasons
for her diagnosis and relapses. It may seem like a small result of a previous
public health effort, but it is not an unimportant one if it is your child who
dies…”
from Change in Public Health Strategies over Time by
Jean-Marie Kauth
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.