Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Studies connect a host of suspect substances to many human illnesses,
from headaches to immune disorders to cancer. But the complexities of
human biochemistry and the vast number of chemicals everyone is
exposed to make proving cause and effect very diffi cult.
Hemenway's story is one of many similar ones encountered by the
Environmental Health Center in Dallas.
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The people chronicled by the
center are clearly more sensitive to the host of chemicals humans have
introduced into the environment than are most other people. They are
extreme examples of the effects these chemicals have on our bodies. The
effects on most people are much more subtle and usually take longer to
manifest themselves, and there is no way to eliminate them from the
environment. They are in almost everything produced by the world's
industries. They are part and parcel of our civilization. As Pogo, the
opossum in the comic strip, said in 1971, “We have met the enemy and
he is us.”
