Environmental Health Concerns: A Challenge for Each of Us

How can we connect with garden clubs across our fifty states and carry the message of health as it relates to the environment?  We can begin to reconcile behaviors of high technology versus allegiance to the self; understand social and cultural conditions that influence the life of an individual and community.

Do you know about the “dead zone” at the mouth of the Mississippi created by runoff of chemicals, fertilizers and silt from urban lawns, streets and agriculture land?

Do you know what a waste management system is?  A flush system and lagoon? Are you concerned having runoff from fields and cattle pens into creeks and eventually into rivers?

Did you read about Auburn University research in growing genetically modified catfish laced with DNA from salmon, carp and zebrafish?  The greatest fear is that the catfish will escape and wipe out other fish species.  Plants and animals could move into the wild and breed disruptive traits into local species similar to the way the African “killer bees” escaped a Brazilian research facility in 1957.

Are you aware that invasive species threaten native plants and animals?  World travel and trade bring plants and animals from all parts of the globe.  Most are harmless but some become invasive and cause damage to the environment, economy, and human health; Zebra Mussels, Asian Longhorn Beetles, Purple Loosestrife and other invaders clog waterways, kill shade trees, and drive out native vegetation.

It is hard to believe that SLUDGE, a solid matter produced by a water and sewage treatment process, now banned from being dumped into oceans, is used as cheap fertilizer for farmlands and feed for cattle.

The EPA has concluded that CHORPYRIFOS, sold under the trade names DURSHAN and LORSBAN, can o longer be safely used where children are exposed to residue.  This chemical, most heavily used on corn and other crops, has also been used for years, indoors and out, to kill termites, roaches, ants and fleas.  Millions of pounds are applied annually.

A GLOBAL DISASTER: The greatest environmental catastrophe since Chernobyl.  The epic poisoning of Europe’s rivers: a cyanide spill at a Romanian mine spread through major rivers in 2000, eradicating all life in the Tisza River for 250 miles and moving through the Danube, Europe’s longest river.  Drinking water for 2,000,000 people contaminated; 650 tons of dead fish; the river’s entire food chain destroyed.

A serious health threat is the indiscriminate and non-essential use of antibiotics in agriculture, which dangerously increases the possibility that these antibiotics will be ineffective when needed to treat people.  Overuse of antibiotics in agriculture has led to serious antibiotic-resistance problems in foods.  About eighty percent of antibiotics used in agriculture are added to poultry, hogs and cattle feed – not to treat sick animals but to promote growth and prevent disease.  More than ninety percent of strains of staphyloccous aureus bacteria, a common cause of hospital Staph infections, are now resistant to Penicillin.

We already eat modified corn, potatoes and other crops.  Soon to come are disease-resistant shrimp, meatier chickens and fat-growing salmon.  New crops include rice mixed with daffodil DNA that includes more nutrients.  CAN WE DISCUSS HEALTH ISSUES?

This article is intended to focus on the need for immediate actions; a containment and curtailment of environmental abuses.  Choices begin with a simplistic approach – a personal discipline with serious commitment.  Wellness belongs to each of us.

Garden clubs are urged to become active participants in this important education agenda of Environmental Health Concerns.

About the Author

Betty J. Bell is the past National Garden Clubs, Inc. Environmental Health Concerns Chairman.  The NGC is recognized as the largest volunteer gardening organization in the world. Since 1929, they have provided garden club members with educational opportunities in all aspects of gardening and floral design.  NGC aids in the protection and conservation of natural resources, promotes civic beautification and encourages the improvement of roadsides and parks.  This article was reprinted from "The National Gardener" Find out more at www.gardenclub.org