October 23, 2005
My Journey with Cancer

We’re unbelievably toxic, even before our birth

We live in a beautiful but dangerous world. The danger is not from the things we see, but from what we do not see. There are unseen enemies lurking in the dark recesses of the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. We are toxic. Believe it or not. Studies show that even babies have high chemical exposure even before they were born.

Farmers use pesticides to make their products picture perfect and unblemished. Pesticides could also increase crop production. But it has harmful effects to humans. One of these harmful chemicals is Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane or widely known as DDT which has been banned in the United States in 1972, yet some of its residues are still found in some tissue samples because its chemicals takes many decades to breakdown, therefore they are still being eaten by humans. DDT was found to cause cancer and yet it is still being used in some other countries and maybe in our own. The United Nations have drafted a treaty to ban the use of DDT worldwide which was finalized in the year 2000, yet there are still those who use them illegally.
These pesticides can travel thousands of kilometers through air and water. Take a look at this food chain. When these are sprayed on plants, the animals eat them, and finally we eat the meat of animals. When they are sprayed on agricultural lands, they are washed by the rains which eventually reach our rivers and the seas. If the pesticide level is high enough, it can kill the fishes but some survive with a lesser dose, and then find their way into humans as we eat them. Some of these chemicals are stored in our bodies’ fatty tissues. This build up is called bioaccumulation. Short term exposure to high level of chemicals can harm our body tissues, or may cause death, while prolonged exposure to lower levels of pesticides can cause cancer. Other harmful pesticides are birth defects and deformities.
Someone said when asked if his vegetables are sprayed, “Oh no, I don’t spray my ampalaya (bitter ground) with pesticides, I just dip them inside the can with pesticides to really make sure the worms won’t eat them.”
Yet a pesticide is only one of these unseen killers. In 1999 study funded by the world health organization, revealed that respiratory disease is the leading cause of death of children in developing countries due to air pollution. Outdated technologies, emissions from vehicles which are more than 10 years old can be serious health hazards. Lead from gasoline can retard children’s growth and cause brain damage.
You don’t smoke? Watch this. The survey also said that breathing the air in the worst air polluted city is like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.
Everyday, as I go out and walk in the busy city streets, I tend to watch myself not to breathe too much air. Right in front of our noses, lead is pumped so hard, clogging our already clogged lungs.
How valuable is life? We watch people dying from cancer. Protecting our environment means protecting our children. We have laws to protect our environment yet we don’t implement them. Or do we really need laws to protect our only home? Is it not our nature to build our homes and make it a better place to live? Our home does not end where our backyard ends. If we destroy our ecosystem, we destroy the world, and we destroy our home, ourselves. Some sick people are only innocent victims who are caught in the crossfire of our own greed and negligence, or shall we say ignorance? But some of us have the nerve to blame God.
Do we have a choice? So what should we eat? Fruits and vegetables still top the list, but to lessen the effect of chemicals they should be washed or soak with water. Growing our own vegetables could help, but what about other foods? Some people look for organic products, which is a healthier choice.
The darkest orange and greenest colors among fruits and vegetables can prevent lung cancers and other cancers. James Duke, Ph.D., U.S. Department of Agriculture said that “Smokers should switch from cancer sticks to carrot sticks and soy beans.”
Everyone is clamoring for change. But who will change? Our president? The government? Our leaders? How about us? We could start within ourselves. Let us check our cars, our motorcycles, how much toxic do we contribute everyday?
In the beginning, God gave us a green, clean, and healthy world. We were meant to take care of our one and only planet. He made an amazing world not to be trampled upon but to be cared for. Genesis 1:31 says “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good…”