THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 64, March 8, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
TOXINS MOVE UP ON THE WORRY LIST
By Dennis T. Avery
PROMOTING FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR RESEARCHERS, CLINICIANS, & OTHER MEMBERS OF PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES:
LEARNED SOCIETIES ASKING THE U.S. NATIONAL GOVERNMENT TO EXPAND ITS SUPPORT FOR TESTING BEYOND
TOXICOLOGY, INTO SUCH UNPROVEN DANGERS AS TRACE LEVELS OF BODILY TOXINS & POTENTIAL ENDOCRINE DISRUPTION
-- MEDIA-DRIVEN SCARE CAMPAIGNS, THE U.S. CONGRESS, & THE TAXPAYERS' MONEY -- THE WISDOM OF DR. GRAHAM
COLDITZ -- WHAT CAUSES MOST CASES OF CANCER IN THE WESTERN WORLD -- THE DAMAGE THAT IS DONE BY FOCUSING
UPON CONTAMINANTS & POLLUTION & CHASING NEW, UNKNOWN CANCER CAUSES
FULL STORY:
Forty thousand researchers and clinicians have just written to the journal Science —through their professional
societies — asking for broader and quicker testing of “new chemicals in our environment.” Eight societies, including
the geneticists, endocrinologists, developmental biologists, and others say that 12,000 new substances are being
registered with the America Chemical Society every day. They admit that not many of these “new substances” will
ever make it into the environment.
Still, the societies are asking the U.S. national government to broaden testing beyond toxicology, into such unproven
dangers as trace levels of bodily toxins and potential endocrine disruption. This would, of course, employ far more of
the learned societies’ members.
Do these professional societies think they have learned a lesson from the climate modelers? To whit: if you want more
of your members profitably employed, get the Feds to give them lots of nice, salaried government jobs with hefty
retirements — to solve some newly concocted media-driven scare The public is always looking for another scare to
tickle their fear genes, and the U.S. Congress will happily fund such projects, with your money.
Climatologists are now the third-best-paid profession in the world, with many billions of dollars flowing into their
research projects — since they elevated a net global warming of 0.2 degrees Celsius over the last 70 years into an
international emergency.
I recently got invited to a lecture on detoxifying my body, presented by a genuine “former professional tennis player.”
I managed to resist the invitation, but I did go on the Web to look at the detox alternatives out there
Some of them were outright shilling for organic farming:
"Most of the animals we eat are raised on factory farms.
Seek a butcher shop where organically farmed meat is sold.
It will be more expensive, perhaps that will help curb your
consumption.”
“Our crops of fruits and eatables are mass farmed . . . have
led to less nutrient rich food products. . . . Organically
farmed food will really boost your nutrient intake.”
“Our water supply is also filled with impurities such as lead,
rust and chlorine . . . purchase a Brand X water filter. . . . It
is critical to your health”. . .
Then there are the product-pushers: Toxin detox capsules; Detox blood purifier capsules with Goldenseal, a potent,
cleansing herbal combination; Liver Renew Capsules; and the Hot Seaweed Bath 3-packs (save 15 percent).
My favorite is the website of the ayurvedic healing system from India. “You need this ‘renewal’ periodically if you
feel ‘a general lack of zest for life’, feel ‘spaced out’; if you have ‘a general sense of malaise’.” Naturally, they
recommend cleansing your system under the care of an ayurvedic physician. Some of the advice they give is actually
pretty sound: Stick to lighter, easier-to-digest foods, and eat lots of cleansing fruits and vegetables. However, their
“detoxifying tea” is probably just tea.
I prefer to heed the wisdom of Dr Graham Colditz, a cancer epidemiologist from the Washington University School of
Medicine in St. Louis, on the occasion of another cancer scare report being delivered to President Obama last May:
“We already know what causes most cases of cancer, and
it’s not pollution or chemicals lurking in our water bottles.
It’s tobacco use and other unhealthy behaviors. . . . Maybe
up to 4 percent of cancer in the Western world is caused
by contaminants and pollution and yet we are chasing new,
unknown causes. . . . The damage is it distracts us, as a
society, from actually acting on the things that are already
in our grasp.”
He mentioned giving up smoking, eating a pound of fruits and vegetables per person per day (cutting cancer risk by
25 percent), drinking less alcohol, and eating less red meat.
Thanks to our secure and safe food and water supply and world-class access to modern medicine, we are living long
enough to get the diseases associated with old age. As baby boomers see 65 in the rear view mirror, they may
treasure the remaining years enough to take Dr. Colditz’s advice.
SOURCES:
1. “Cancer Report energizes activists, not policy”; Maggie Fox, Reuters, May 10 2010.
2. Patricia Hunt, “Physicians Call for ‘Swifter and Sounder’ Testing of Chemicals” Washington State University,
March 3, 2011
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Science, Ethics, & Human Health:
Human Health & Public Policy
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., is an environmental economist. He was
formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable Global
Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years. Readers may write to Avery at P.O. Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 2442; send
him email at cgfi@hughes.net; or visit us on the Web at www.cgfi.org.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity