The Poisoning of America

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Not only is the pace quickening, there is also a basic difference in the quality of change that modern chemicals make in the air, earth and water. Petrochemists have assembled the molecules contained in coal, oil and gas in new ways, producing compounds that do not exist in a natural state. These compounds are essential to such products as Pharmaceuticals, plastics,, insulation, textiles and food additives. But unlike many natural chemicals, most petrochemicals do not decay rapidly under the assault of such natural forces as bacteria, sun, wind and water. That puny plastic bottle once full of household bleach may well outlast the mighty pyramids.

So far as is now known, bleach bottles pose no threat to health. But to an alarming degree, petrochemicals that are far less benign but just as durable have for years been discarded as casually as household garbage. Many bear mystifying names: trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, dichloroethylene, dibromochloromethane, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). These, and many more, are suspected of contributing to the rising incidence of cancer in the U.S. But experts in the field are quick to admit the difficulty of proving the harm caused by chemical wastes. Says Mount Sinai's Selikoff: "When it comes to chemicals and illness, it's hard to prove cause and effect, though we certainly have our suspicions."

The most sinister side of the chemical-waste threat may be the very uncertainty of its ultimate impact. Adding to the dilemma is the fact that past disposal practices have been so haphazard that no one knows just how much chemical garbage must be cleared up—or even where it is. The producers, the users and the ultimate disposers of the chemicals have not been required to keep records on what they did with waste material. Most companies stack it in barrels on back lots. Some pay haulers to cart it to reprocessing plants, high-temperature incinerators or landfills where thick clay linings prevent chemicals from leaching into the earth.

But all too many waste handlers have merely tossed the refuse into leaky burial pits, or carted it off to municipal dumps to mix with household garbage, or paid farmers small fees to let them hide 55-gal. drums on unused land, often by dark of night. Some haulers have pumped liquid wastes into tank trucks and driven down rural roads with the pet cocks open, releasing the chemicals into ditches. Some of the companies that paid middlemen or haulers to get rid of the refuse asked no questions about—and did not want to know—where the chemicals went.