Chemical Terrorism....The Terrorist Next Door

For three years, I have been offering this column to the readers of the Hometown Connection for the purpose of educating you to the fact that most products and services you purchase and use are making you ill and eventually will kill you, your family and pets and your neighbors.  I am not peddling Pseudo Science, as one local doctor so publicly and falsely accused me of doing.  I report the facts from well documented research, peer reviewed studies and government agencies just to name a few of my sources.

Time has a way of letting the “cat out of the bag”, and now the World Health Organization (WHO), after years of denying the facts and studies, finally admit that Environmental Pollution is killing people at a rate of 1 out of 4, each year, due to unhealthy homes and work places.  This means the harmful chemicals, substances, and pollutants you have been putting into our air, water, and soil, and, thus, into your bodies from the products you purchase and use, are contributing to “our” deaths.  Modern Day Suicide! Am I peddling Pseudo Science?  I think not!

While polluted work and home environments account for 23% of all annual deaths, they account for 26% of deaths in children under the age of 5-years-old. Environmental pollution and chemical toxins are especially attacking the elderly between the ages of 50 and 75.  “Strokes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and respiratory diseases can all easily be traced back to the health and safety of one’s living and working environment. If one is immersed in toxic substances on a daily basis, it should be no big surprise that that person will develop serious – and deadly – health problems as a result”, says the World Health Organization. 

I have mentioned, in my articles, some of the environmental and chemical pollution that have been proven to be deadly and they are pesticides, herbicides, wood smoke, asbestos, chemicals in and on your foods, chemicals in your household products and chemicals in your health care products.  Recently the “experts” just admitted that powders containing talc causes cancer, a fact that I have known for years. With this “finding”, the lawyers are now raking in the dough with multimillion dollar litigation lawsuits for everyone involved.

But the “new kid” on the block is Silica Sand.  Silica Sand has been known to be HIGHLY carcinogenic for years, yet still allowed to be used on the job and in your homes and yards. It is a fine powdery dust that easily becomes airborne.  It not only invisibly “hangs” in the air for several days to weeks, depending on weather conditions, but it also travels long distances (drifts), exposing innocent people to a carcinogenic cloud of dust they have no control over and cannot help but to breath in. 

Inhaling these fine particles of silica dust is extremely dangerous, as it is responsible for health issues ranging from headaches and sinus infections to lung cancer and a condition now referred to as silicosis, of which there is no cure.   Silicosis can develop within a few weeks to even decades after exposure. When people breathe in silica dust, they inhale tiny particles of the mineral silica. This silica dust can cause fluid buildup and scar tissue in the lungs that cuts down your ability to breathe and eventually will lead to tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, lung cancer and eventually death.  Inhaling silica dust has been proven to cause autoimmune disease such as scleroderma, lupus, arthritis and kidney disease, dental issues and the enlargement of the right ventricle of the heart.  Now that the government has announced the acceptance of what science has been proving since 1931, lawsuits are soon to follow for all concerned.

Silica Sand is used in construction, road paving, glass and pottery manufacturing, tile setting and as a filler for home patios, sidewalks and driveways.  It is recently reported that silica sand, or polymeric sand, is not recommended for residential use not only for the adverse health effects for the whole neighborhood, but it is not the best media for binding without cracking and for the elimination of weeds and ants.  It is used however, because it is easy and cheap for the contractor to work with. 

The dangers of Silica Sand are now right up there with asbestos, so it might be a good idea to ask your contractor if any of his materials being used on your property contain carcinogenic Silica Sand.  Like I have said many times, I really do not care what you do in your yard.  But please keep it there and out of mine.  Because I “choose” to live healthy chemical free…..