Man Made Pollution Giving Animals Cancer?
If you’re like me, just reading that headline made you upset/angry. This article in Newsweek talks about multiple instances where cancer rates have sky rocketed among animal populations and cites the contributing factors. But the chunk of it says that besides for habitat destruction, global warming, endangered species and your more general pollution, our nasty waste is giving animals cancer.
They aren’t talking about people who throw their bottled water in the lake. They are investigating the many nasty toxic carcinogens that we dump thoughtlessly into the environment everyday.
Here is a great example of what’s wrong and the good news. That it can be fixed:
The good news for animals suffering from pollution-induced cancer is that when contaminants are taken out of the environment, some species have shown marked drops in carcinogenesis. For example, catfish living in Ohio’s Black River had cancer rates ranging from 22 percent to 39 percent in the early 1980s. The disease killed virtually all fish before they reached five years of age. After a steel plant’s coking facility closed in 1983, PAH levels dropped significantly; cancer rates dropped 75 percent and the amount of fish living past five years has tripled.
I’d recommend reading the article. It’s going to make you sad. But it’s important to recognize all the ways in which we need to work to fix a broken system. A system in which the earth is our dumpster and animals are after thoughts.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
