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作者：傑奇•艾倫•朱利安諾 博士
每年因農藥中毒死亡的人數多到令人無法想像，且大部分的數據統計都低估了實際情況。那些依季節出現在農場上的移民工人則是最大的受害者，他們因為無法負擔醫療費用，且更害怕被移民局官員強制驅逐出境，所以他們的死亡和孕婦流產的案例很少出現在死亡報告中。他們也許根本沒有機會到醫院就診，或是去找醫生看病。
美國的工商業數十年來都參與了這場化學「戰事」。根據職業安全衛生管理局（OSHA）統計，在3,500處的工作場域中，有超過3,200萬名員工是長期暴露在有害物質當中。然而，在過去30年裡，該局所發佈的「未適當處理有害毒物」的雇主名單，僅有170個。
例如苯、二硫化碳、二氯甲烷和酮是美國年產4,900萬噸溶劑中的部份種類，而有980萬名工人每天都暴露其中。這些溶劑出現在指甲油、油漆、塑膠製品、塑膠水泥、家具和其他千百樣的產品中，透過皮膚接觸或攝取有溶劑殘留物的食物的方式進入人體。
每年有數以千計的人因為暴露在這些物質充斥的環境當中而生病，甚至死亡。
我們每天持續受到由工業界贊助的化學武器攻擊：
1.肺組織的傷疤與肺組織內襯的癌症
2.藥物工人和醃製物品工人以及農夫們的賀爾蒙，導致他們和家庭很多健康上的問題。
3.鎔鉛工廠工人體內的鉛，電池或是在射程範圍內工作的工人的放射線，都可能傷害他們的腦細胞、神經系統和腎臟。
4.來自電鍍工廠的鎘、油漆的染料以及焊接劑，與造成肺癌和前列腺癌有關，即使只是暴露於少量的環境中都會形成傷害。
5.多氯聯苯和其他的含氯的碳氫化合物，跟著消防隊員、塑膠工人以及和電工廠工作的工人回家，這些都是會導致癌症的物質。
6.來自農夫、園丁或是公園環境維護者的殺蟲劑很容易被攜帶回家，並引起致命的疾病。
很多的除蟲劑屬於致命性類別，都是在第二次世界大戰時使用的神經性毒氣。請仔細想一想，那些在戰爭時期用來快速消滅敵人的化學物質，如今卻被政府核准在我們的草坪和家裡使用，並在孩子的生活周遭到處被噴灑。毒物恐怖主義現在正盛行呢！
有機殺蟲劑屬的神經性毒氣最早出現在德國於第二次世界大戰前；葛哈德•沙特在1930年到1940年間所合成了泰奔（TABUN）、沙林（Sarin）和梭門（SOMAN）。
目前在市面上仍可買到的沙林，人體皮膚只需接觸到1,700毫克即可致死，甚至不需要被吃進人體。
「沙林」在1995年3月20日受到全世界的矚目，當時一個日本的恐怖份子Aum Shinrikyo在五個駛向Kasumigasek的地下鐵站裡放置沙林。這是個有很多東京政府機關工作的人員時常進出的地鐵站；那次毒氣事件造成有12位通勤者死亡以及5千多人受傷。
在過去50年裡，有超過10萬種的人造化學物質被釋入自然環境中，每年有超過1,000種新的化學物質被製造出來。不論你住在哪裡，可能都有超過250種的工業用的化學物存在你的身體裡，而你祖父母當年在你這個歲數時，他們的身體裡並沒有這些化學物質。
永遠禁用農藥噴灑機不僅可以降低恐怖份子的威脅，還有那每日威脅著美國人民的生命和地球生態系的毒物恐怖主義。追求「美國夢」會有許多不同的後果，而這是一條用許多無辜孩童、女人和男人的鮮血所舖成的；從工業進步的角度來看，這卻是被接受的。
我悲憐那些在紐約、華盛頓特區和賓州的悲劇中的受害者和他們的家人。但更令人難過的是，這次悲劇的死傷人數和因毒物使用每年所造成的全球傷亡人數比較起來，竟顯得渺小了。把我們的悲憤延伸至因為國家經濟至上理論所導致數以千百計無辜死傷的人民吧！
我們不用等待機會向化學恐怖主義宣戰-它已經在你我身邊！
參考資料：
1.受殺蟲劑毒害的悲劇故事： http://www.getipm.com/our-loved-
ones/memorium.htm
2.了解殺蟲劑的毒性以及其他的替代方案：
http://www.safe2use.com/
3.從殺蟲劑運動中找尋殺蟲劑的濫用： http://www.panna.org
4.殺蟲劑如何形成毒害的詳細內容請參見 Soil Association
5.參觀國家反對殺蟲劑濫用聯盟： http://www.beyondpesticides.org/
6.瑞秋•卡森協會出版的殺蟲劑導覽手冊： http://members.aol.com/rccoun
cil/ourpage/samples.htm
7.「環境保護團體」的相關報導： http://www.ewg.org/pesticides/
8.「荒野之聲」 Voices in the Wilderness以及「公民關懷伊拉克人民」組織
http://www.endiraqsanctions.org，提供有關伊拉克受禁運制裁的事實。
9.找出你選區的國會代表名單並寫信告訴他，你想要結束這場因為追求美國夢所引起的無意義之死亡遊戲。如果你知道你的郵遞區號，你可以在下列網址找到你的國會代表：
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
ziptoit.html
傑奇•艾倫•朱利安諾博士是一位西雅圖的作家兼教師。他在觀察到一個現象，有無數的支援湧向911悲劇受難者，同時每年有數以百萬計的小孩和大人死亡而不為人所知。將你的想法、建議、願景郵寄給他：jackie@healingourworld.com、 並參觀他的個人網站
http://www.healingourworld.com
【文章連載】
■生化武器就在你身邊 (上) (下)
全文與圖片詳見：http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/sep2001/
2001L-09-30g.html
版權歸屬Environment News Service(ENS)，環境信託基金會 (許嘉玲 譯，吳海音、蔡麗伶 審校)
中英對照全文：http://e-info.org.tw/issue/environ/2001/
environ01122501.htm |
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By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
The number of deaths each year from pesticide poisoning is staggering and grossly underestimated. Migrant farm workers suffer the most and their deaths and birth defects rarely show up on the lists of the dead, since they can't afford health care and fear reprisal by immigration authorities. They may never make it in to a hospital or to a doctor.
Business and industry have been waging chemical warfare on U.S. citizens for decades. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) estimates that more than 32 million workers are exposed to harmful substances from more than 3.5 million workplaces. Yet over the last 30 years, OSHA has issued only 170 citations to employers for not having proper procedures to protect against toxic substances leaving the workplace.
Solvents such as benzene, carbon disulfide, methylene chloride, and ketone are a few of the 49 million tons of solvents that are produced annually in the United States, and 9.8 million workers are exposed to them daily. They are in nail polish, paint, plastics, rubber cement, furniture and thousands of other products. They are absorbed through the skin or ingested.
Thousands of people are sickened and many die from these exposures annually.
We are under constant assault from industry sponsored chemical warfare every day:
·lung tissue scarring and cancer of the lining of the lung.
·Hormones from pharmaceutical workers, embalmers and farm workers cause many health problems for them and their families.
·Lead from employees who work in the lead smelting industries, fix batteries or radiators or who work at a shooting range can harm the brain, nervous system and kidneys.
·Cadmium from electroplating plants, paint pigments and solder is linked to lung and prostate cancer and even low level exposure can be harmful.
·PCBs and other chlorinated hydrocarbons come home with firefighters, plastics workers or those who work with electrical transformers and can cause cancer.
·Pesticides from farm workers, gardeners or park maintenance workers can easily be transported into the home and can cause many fatal illnesses.
Many pesticides are part of a deadly family of pesticides that came from chemicals that were developed as nerve gases during World War II. Please take that in for a moment. Chemicals that were specifically designed to kill all life forms quickly during wartime were approved by our government for use on our lawns, in our homes, and around our children. Toxic terrorism is taking place right now.
This family of organophosphate pesticides - nerve gases - were first synthesized in Germany before and during World War II. Tabun, Sarin, and Soman were made by Gerhard Schrader in the 1930s and '40s.
Sarin, still available today, is lethal to an adult human if only 1,700 mg gets on his or her skin. It doesn't even have to be taken internally to kill.
Sarin gained worldwide attention when on March 20, 1995, the Aum Shinrikyo, a terrorist group in Japan, placed Sarin on five subway trains traveling toward Kasumigaseki station. This subway stop is a common one for those working in Tokyo government offices. Twelve commuters died and over 5,000 were injured.
More than 100,000 human-made chemicals have been introduced into the environment in the past 50 years. More than 1,000 new chemicals are developed each year. Wherever you live, there are probably more than 250 synthetic industrial chemicals in your body that were not present in the bodies of your grandparents when they were your age.
A permanent ban on crop dusters would not only lessen a terrorist threat, but would lessen the daily toxic terrorism that is perpetrated on American lives and ecosystems - and all the Earth - every day. Pursuing the American Dream has many consequences. It is a trail covered with the blood of innocent children, women and men, considered by industry to be acceptable consequences of
progress.
The losses in New York, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania are tragic, and my heart goes out to the victims and their families. But sadly, their numbers pale in comparison to the yearly death toll from existing toxic practices in the United States and around the world. Let's extend our outrage to the other many hundreds of thousands of senseless deaths around our nation and the world that occur because of our business-at-all-costs model for economic growth.
We don't have to wait to demand action on chemical terrorism - it's here today.
RESOURCES
1. Read the tragic stories of those who have been poisoned by pesticides at:
http://www.getipm.com/our-loved-
ones/memorium.htm
2. Find out about pesticide poisoning and learn of alternatives at:
http://www.safe2use.com/
3. Track pesticide abuse from the Pesticide Action Network at:
http://www.panna.org
4. See details of pesticide poisoning from the Soil Association
5. Visit the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides at:
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/
6. The Rachel Carson Council's Guide to Pesticides can be found online at:
http://members.aol.com/rccouncil/
ourpage/samples.htm
7. Read the Environmental Working Group reports at: http://www.ewg.org/pesticides/
8. Read about the facts of the sanctions against Iraq from Voices in the Wilderness and from Citizens Concerned for the People of Iraq at:
http://www.endiraqsanctions.org
9. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Tell them that you want an end to ALL the senseless deaths that take place every year that are considered a consequence of progress and the pursuit of the American Dream. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at:
http://www.visi.com/juan/
congress/ziptoit.html
{Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He can be found watching at all the outpouring of support for the tragic deaths on September 11 while millions of children and adults die each year, unnoticed. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at:
jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his website at:
http://www.healingourworld.com}
http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/sep2001/
2001L-09-30g.html |
