Toxins in the Food Chain

PERCEPTION
I’ll start with an old clichÃ?©. If you throw a frog in boiling water, it will jump out, but if you put it in cold water and slowly turn up the heat, the frog won’t realize its demise and it will die. This also called creeping normalcy which has been attributed to a basic fundamental flaw in human perception. Changes in the environment, which occur at or below a certain rate, will be ignored by most people.

By the early 1960’s the use of industrial pesticides were so heavily used that an avid bird watcher named Rachel Carson wrote a book called Silent Spring that was inspired by her notice of declining bird populations. Were it not for the seasonal changes, this decline may never have been recognized. During the Vietnam War, the public became aware of the Agent Orange defoliant, and together with Carson’s book, a movement was formed that finally culminated in the creation of Environmental Protection Agency in December, 1970. The period in between was tumultuous with debates, accusations and predictions. “U Thant of the United Nations gave the planet only ten years to avert environmental disaster; the following month, he blamed the bulk of planetary catastrophe on the United States.”.(Lewis 1985 para. 8)

The 1960’s and 1970’s was a period of environmental awakening. Asbestos was linked to lung diseases and its use was banned from textiles, particularly children’s pajamas and DDT was linked to the thinning of bird egg shells. A myriad of other environmental issues entered public awareness and gave birth to “Earth Day.” It also was the beginning of the Industrial Global Migration which emptied the steel mills of Indiana and Pennsylvania, and continues to this day, to close domestic manufacturing plants as high-paid American workers who work in clean, safe environments are shed and replaced with low wage workers in developing countries where there is no safety or environmental regulation.

The American public perception of the EPA’s power to roll over industry and clean up the environment was a magnificent achievement. Pollution became out of sight, and therefore out of mind. The trade-off was the loss of jobs which to some people was a far bigger threat than pollution. The employment issue continues to overshadow the environment and the balance of politics shifted in the 1980’s towards conservative industrial deregulation in the United States.

MERCURY
One heavy metal pollutant that cannot dissipate is Mercury (Atomic symbol Hg). “Within the United States alone, manufacturers use 500 – 600 metric tons of mercury annually as part of their manufacturing processes or to create products that rely on mercury’s diverse properties.” (Epa.gov March 2006, para 1)

Mercury is used in everything from gold refining, military munitions, paint, pesticides, electronics and electric thermostats, municipal waste incineration, wastewater treatment, petroleum refining, and residential boilers and wood burning stoves. (see table at http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/bnsdocs/mercsrce/images/table2b.gif). “Using emissions factors to estimate mercury releases, preliminary analysis indicates that, in the United States, anthropogenic sources emit 263 tons of mercury annually to the atmosphere.” (Epa.gov March 2006, part II, para 3)

Mercury, after it falls on bodies of water, converts to methylmercury through microbial activity. It then accumulates in fish and becomes part of the carnivorous food web which includes eagles, otters, and predators such as large cats and bears. (Epa.gov, July 11, 2006. para 2)

ARSENIC
Arsenic is another compound that is part of our every day lives. Until recently, we used it as an insecticide and preservative for the lumber used in our back yard decks and exterior porches. Some rocks have naturally high levels of arsenic. It is also produced as a byproduct of copper smelting (Seattle & King County Public Health May 12, 2006) .

Arsenic is not easily absorbed through the skin, but unlike mercury which has difficulty being absorbed in your intestines, arsenic will easily absorb through the membranes of your lungs or digestive system. Arsenic is a known cancer causing agent, and a neurotoxin that will give you a tingling sensation in your hands and feet, and if consumed in high enough quantities, will cause nausea, diarrhea, low blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythm, and seizures. Most of the toxin will leave your body through the urine in several days, but some will remain for months. (Cdc.gov May 22, 2006, para 5)

In 1984, a massive chemical spill at a Union Carbide plant in Bophol, India caused a horrific loss of life, but there are only two remaining references to that disaster on the Internet. One is an article with only a vague reference to Bophol about stock prices from the Yale School of management.

“For instance, a major disaster such as the Bophol chemical spill immediately drove down the Union Carbide stock price. In fact, prices react within a matter of minutes to such news, and the reaction is over within the day! In empirical “event studies” which focus on corporate news releases, there is little evidence that you can make money by investing on yesterday’s news.” (Goetzmann, William,) .

Another is a Policy Analysis from the Cato Institute about Terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. “âÂ?¦But a good example of the potential lethality of a chemical attack exists: the accidental release of a very toxic industrial chemical in Bophol, India, in 1984 illustrates the grave consequences for an unprepared, unprotected, and exposed population.” (Taylor, Eric R. Nov., 2000)

Both articles are the only clues left on the entire Internet as to the conditions resulting from the chemical disaster 22 years ago. This might be considered a relatively accurate assessment of the public’s attitude concerning issues that occur on the other side of the planet, which is now embroiled in an environmental situation worse than the United States of the 1960’s and 1970’s. “An environmental health disaster is unfolding in West Bengal and Bangladesh. Tens of millions of persons in many districts are drinking ground water with arsenic concentrations far above acceptable levels.” (The Arsenic Crisis, Jan. 7, 1998)

THE EFFECTS OF HEAVY METALS ON PLANTS
The rate of absorption by plants of Arsenic varies depending on the soil type. In 1998, a thousand samples of food crops were examined by Department of Soil, Water and Environment of Dhaka University and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) to determine the level of arsenic in the plants.

“Some types of soil have a capacity for very strong bonding while others do not. So, arsenic released from soil to the plants is quite different. “We have detected significant amount of arsenic transferred from groundwater to crops, says Dr Ravi Naidu, although many crops are still safe. The researchers also studied samples of cooked food collected from the affected areasâÂ?¦”(Mortoza, Sylvia, 1998)

arsenic was not found in cooked lentil, brinjal and egg [�] However, the study showed that potato, bitter gourd, brinjal, snake gourd (chichinga), bitter gourd, Kakrol, ladies finger, palwal, large leafy spinach, pumpkin, sweet potato, turmeric, ginger and green chili are safe as presence of arsenic in them are insignificant and does not pose a threat.( Mortoza 1998)

THE ADAPTATION OF PLANTS TO CONTAMINATION
Pollution stress induces various adaptive conditions in some species of plants and trees. Varanassi, India was the subject of a pollution study involving the distribution and inspection of a spiny, berry producing shrub Carissa carandas, and two types of legume bearing trees, Delonix regia and Cassia fistula. The plants were grown in pots of nearly identically composed soil over a period of two years, and then compared with a control sample grown in a neutral environment. The height and trunk diameter was reduced in all three species, and particularly for the shrub, the size of the leaves was reduced, but the number of leaves increased. “Cell elongation is more sensitive to stress that photosynthesis and cell division [âÂ?¦] Consequently, leaf elongation may cease when stress is imposed, carbohydrate reserve accumulates and new leaves continue to be initiated as observed in C. carandas. [âÂ?¦]” (Agrawal, Pandey, J. Jan., 1994, p 58)

CONCLUSION
There are some species of plants that appear to adapt readily to increasing levels of toxins in the environment while others are either slow to change or don’t change and die. Many that can adapt and survive in one generation or at least long enough to mutate for survival are flowering plants like alyssum, Thlaspi, and Calochortus. Atmospheric toxins remain in the top layers of soil out of the reach of many deep root systems. Other plants may simply proliferate roots around contamination. A process called phenotypic plasticity allows the plant, in some cases, to develop a tolerance until it can create genetically altered offspring better suited for the polluted environment. (Dickenson, N. M.; Turner, A.P.; Lepp, N.W. (1991))

Here we find that contamination does not necessarily cause plants to disappear. Regarding plants one must have an eye keener than Rachel Carson who raised an alarm because she saw the threat of a potential Silent Spring, entirely devoid of birds. Plants are silent and their adaptation is slow. They can absorb contaminants and sometimes not show any immediate signs of stress. There really can be no standard by which we can look directly at an environment to see if plants are showing signs of contamination unless we know what species were there before. Perhaps a plant can be engineered and used much like canaries were once used in coal mines.

India stands out as an example of rampant unregulated industrialization. It paints a clear example of the “incentive for self-regulation” proclaimed by its proponents.