"The health statistics are staggering. They define a society with serious health problems, many of which are rising quickly. According to the 'authorities,' the causes are 'unknown.' For how many of these illnesses is 'unknown' a code word for corporate sources of pollution?"  - Stephen Lester                                                    

The Toxics Right to Know initiative campaign aims at making sure the various toxic substances being released by industry in Eugene will not be unknown, but available to citizens, enabling them to make more informed decisions about how to protect themselves from potential health problems. The Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste has been working on the issue of how industrial toxics affect our health since Love Canal, pointing out that the uproar over U.S. health care should first ask why there is a greater need for health care, why rates for a whole series of illnesses and conditions have been increasing.

The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) report that one in three Americans will develop cancer; one in four will die as a result. Public health agencies call these rates "normal." Cancer is not a "normal" disease, nor is it "normal" for one disease to claim 25% of the population.

Besides tobacco use, sunlight exposure, and fat consumption, a major cause of cancer is exposures to toxics. An estimated 50,000 -- 60,000 chemicals are in common use, 600 new ones added yearly; nearly 3 billion pounds were released into the environment in 1993 alone. Yet a National Academy of Sciences study found that public health hazards can be evaluated for only 2% of them.

In the 1960s the overall U. S. cancer rate was one in six; today it is one in three. Between 1979-1991, NCI reported a 19% increase in cancer in men, 12% in women, 13% in boys, 10% in girls. The increase is not due to better diagnostic methods or increased longevity.

In men, prostate cancer has increased 66%; testicular cancer, 34%; non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, 60%; melanoma, 67%; liver cancer, 33%.

In women, breast cancer is up 30%; lung cancer, 65%; melanoma, 42%; non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, 35%; kidney cancer, 39%; liver cancer, 25%. The chances of getting breast cancer have gone from one in twenty to one in eight in the last 50 years. In 1994, 183,000 new breast cancers were diagnosed; 46,000 died.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in children. Brain cancer has increased 24% in boys, 19% in girls; leukemia rose 10% in boys, 21% in girls; bone cancer increased 40% in boys, 33% in girls.

Environmental exposures are the best explanation of these increases, exposure to dioxin, dioxin-like substances, PCBs and endocrine-disrupting chlorinated pesticides in particular.

A quarter million U.S. babies are born with birth defects annually, according to a General Accounting Office study -- the single largest cause of infant mortality. A growing number also have learning disabilities.

The Birth Defects Monitoring Program found over 30 types of birth defects increased steadily between 1980-87, heart defects, genito-urinary, musculoskeletal and eye defects, in particular. The incidence of undescended testes and hypospadias -- opening of the urethra on the underside of the penis -- has doubled.

High levels of dioxin have been found in the breast milk of nursing mothers because dioxin concentrates in fatty tissues. A 1993 N. Y. Dept. of Health study found that pregnant women living within one mile of toxic waste sites had a 12% greater chance of having a child with a birth defect.

A National Institute of Health study reports a 66% increase in asthma cases since 1980. A National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey reported an increase of 58% since 1971, particularly in childhood asthma. More children suffer from asthma than from any other chronic disease -- an estimated 5.6% (3.7 million) under the age of 18. The Allergy and Asthma Network reports and estimated 40-50 million Americans -- one in five -- suffer from allergies.

[Sources: The rising rates of health problems - Is there a toxic connection? Stephen Lester, Everyone's Backyard, Spring, 1996, 24-27. Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes (CCHW), POB 6806, Falls Church, VA 22040, $25/yr. Lois Marie Gibbs, Dying from dioxin, $20 from CCHW.]