It’s not a story I like hearing, but one that is unfortunately not unusual to hear. A pediatric cancer cluster was confirmed in an area near where I live. The neighborhood is situated on lands that were once used for farming. The ground water is contaminated. People can’t afford to move yet many kids in the neighborhood are developing cancer. It breaks my heart. But it also solidifies a very important need to acknowledge the damaging effects of chemicals and pesticides on our children and us. When I hear someone say “Eh, we used that stuff for years and we’re fine.” my heart just sinks knowing that it’s this type of thinking that has gotten us to where we are now – living in a world polluted with toxic chemicals that are making people and our environment sick.

People are unaware of just how many chemicals and toxins are in our everyday lives. Aside from pesticides and air pollutants from factories, they are in almost everything we touch. From Bisphenol-A (BPA) in our canned food, phthalates in our skin care products that we wash our babies and ourselves with, to lead and antimony in kids toys. Toxins are all around us, sometimes lurking where you least expect them.

I do what I can for my own family by using safer products, eating organic when I can get it, and try to educate myself and the people who will listen. Despite this I still get resistance from people in my own family who think I’m just “nuts”. I think for a lot of people who don’t think the chemicals in our environment affect our health they won’t really get it until it happens to them. It’s important that toxic chemical reform happens now. We cannot afford to wait until every single person is on board.

Katherine Scoleri
Peach Tree City, Georgia