Different Generations ~ Different Perspectives

I have to give my parents and my in-laws a huge amount of credit: they have been incredibly patient and accommodating these past 8 months in listening to all of my diatribes about the various factors in our environment that cause cancer. Every day, they hear me rattled on about everything from pesticides in food, toxins in cosmetics, chemicals in plastic and -- my newest crusade -- toxic chemicals used in the production of fabrics and apparel. And, unfortunately (or fortunately, however you look at it) their proximity to me forces them to bear witness to my droning on and on about these issue until the issue finally gels in my head and I can write about it in a meaningful and accurate way in my blog.

I know that my parents and in-laws don't necessarily agree with everything that I have written. Or more accurately, I should say that they might agree, but just don't feel as strongly as I do about making changes. My mother-in-law and I have had a number of conversations about this in the past few days. She read my blog about plastics and then, ironically, saw an article in the Wall Street Journal later that day that reiterated much of what I wrote, but I don't know if she will change her habits or not. And, believe me, I totally get that!! Betsy and John are mid- to late-60's. They have been living their lives the same way for many, many years and, clearly, whatever they have been doing is working great for them. In fact, I will be thrilled to live a life that is as full and meaningful as theirs has been! And so I can completely understand why someone at their age is not as motivated to change.

I think that my situation is different, however, and Betsy readily agrees with me. There are two major factors that are motivating me to make changes for myself and my own family (aside from having had cancer!):

1) I have read soooo much that speaks to the fact that many of the toxins that exist in our environment today have come about during my lifetime.

Fact #1: According to many sources, our food supply has changed more in the past 40 years than it did in the 4000 years prior. The invention and introduction of genetically modified foods, preservatives, additives, and pesticides have all come about largely since the 1960's.
Fact #2: Prior to the 1950's, pesticides and insecticides were unheard of in cotton farming. Now, although cotton covers only 2.5 percent of the planet's arable land, 16 percent of global pesticides sales and 24 percent of global insecticide sales go into cotton production.
Fact #3: Today, cotton farmers worldwide spend a total of US$2 billion on agricultural pesticides every year. Of these chemical applications, at least US$819 million are toxic enough to be classified as 'hazardous' by the World Health Organization. Furthermore, these hazardous pesticides used during cotton production have been detected in apparel products, despite the many chemicals (such as bleach) that apparel manufacturers apply later in the production to "wash" out the pesticides.
Fact #5: Phthalates are the most commonly used plasticisers in the world and have been in use for about 50 years, primarily in combination with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to make products soft and flexible.

And I could go on and on....

The issues that my generation faces today are radically different than those of our parents' or our grandparents' generations. When they were all our age, they didn't have to wonder whether the beef that they were feeding their family had been fed cattle by-products (industrial cattle farms didn't exist then -- cattle were all grass-fed), or whether the plastic bottles that they used to feed their babies contained toxic chemicals (they used glass bottles), or whether the cotton sweater that they bought at Macy's contained traces of pesticides (pesticides weren't used yet).

I am not trying to downplay the issues that their generation DID face -- some of them were quite serious and created long-lasting effects. For example, DDT (a pesticide used for commercial and residential pest control) was hugely controversial in the 60's and was eventually banned in 1972 once it was confirmed to present "unacceptable harm to human health." And, drugs like DES were commonly prescribed to prevent miscarriage and pre-mature birth until a study published in 1971 identified DES as a cause of a rare vaginal cancer and breast cancer in girls and young women who had been exposed to DES before birth (in the womb). But I don't think that anyone can argue that the changes to consumer products that have come about in the past 40-50 years are staggering. And I am almost 40 -- this is my entire lifetime! The only world that my generation has ever known is very different from the world that our parents and grandparents grew up in.

2) The second, possibly more important reason, that I feel incredibly motivated to understand the issues and to make the appropriate changes is because I have young children.

I think about the fact that someone who is my father-in-law's age (he'll be 70 this December) was in their 20's or 30's by the time many of the issues I noted above came into effect. By the time you are that age, your body is pretty much done growing. By comparison, pound for pound, children breathe more air, drink more water and consume more food than adults. The higher rate of intake means that children receive relatively higher doses of whatever contaminants are present in the air, water or food. In addition, infants have a relatively greater surface area of skin than adults, thereby increasing their potential absorption of certain compounds. Not to mention the fact that children put everything in their mouth and spend a disproportionate amount of time playing on the ground, where contaminants naturally settle or are tracked in from the outdoors.

Equally important, childhood is characterized by rapid physical and mental growth. At the beginning of life, an infant's entire biological system is relatively immature to that of an adult. Children absorb, metabolize and excrete compounds -- toxic or otherwise -- very differently than adults. Accordingly, organs which are still developing are extremely vulnerable to injury. So toxins in consumer products such as plastic bath toys, cotton pajamas or non-organic produce may have little or no effect on someone who is 70- or 50- or even 30-years-old, but might have an enormous effect on a little body that is still growing like crazy.

So, as far as I am concerned, there is no right or wrong way to incorporate all of the information that I have shared into one's life. I just keep doing what feels appropriate to me as a mom and as a cancer survivor, while recognizing that my path will not be right for everyone. I will never judge anyone for the changes that they do or don't make based on what I write -- it's not my place to judge something that is clearly so personal. I'll just keep writing (and being "Earth Girl" which is my friend, Elizabeth's, new nickname for me) and you can all just take the bits and pieces that work for your own life and ignore the rest.