Dioxin, recycling and your life

May 19, 2008 · Posted in Health 

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I first heard about dioxins when I was reading up on cloth diapers. Do you know what they are?

I confess that despite my dance with hyperthyroidism for 5 years and gastritis, I’ve never taken a serious look at my health. After all, all of us come from good stock.

However, my father’s recent demise from cancer have opened my eyes. And I recall that my 4th auntie passed away from either womb/cervical cancer. One of my uncles is fighting his own battle with naso-pharyngeal cancer.

The numbers are rising. Just chat with the person beside you - I bet RM100 he/she knows someone who has cancer or died from it.

Just read my post about waiting for my father’s biopsy.

In just one morning, I’ve seen 7 people stricken with cancer or coming in for biopsies!

And this is just the outpatient surgical ward. I dare not imagine the general wards and the oncology wards - what more the cancer specialist hospitals? Even my favourite hospital is coming up with its own oncology unit.

When I went to KL for the required medical check-up for our China visa, we had to pass the oncology unit - several patients were sitting outside sunning themselves. I had a hunch they were cancer patients because they were all bone-thin and weary-looking.

Also, they had a haunted look in their eyes, which remind me of images I’ve seen of Holocaust survivors.

Dioxins are the suspected culprit for cancers -

However, did you know that dioxins are actually a part of a family of 219 different chemicals?

Dioxin exposure is a key factor in cancers and other reproductive health problems including endometriosis and fertility issues.

    Women, today, face a particularly high incidence of reproductive health problems.
    Birth defects in newborns can often be traced to the mother’s environment during pregnancy. This often leaves our children to face enormous health risks caused by environmental toxins.
    Often the reproductive health of our men is negatively affected as well.

These toxins are everywhere, depending on where we live:

the air we breath;
the food we eat;
the water we drink;
the buildings we live in;
pesticides;
consumer products.

They are the byproducts of industry such as the incineration of municipal, medical, and industrial waste; chlorine-bleaching processes for paper; pesticide production; metal smelting methods; and the manufacture of other household and industrial chemicals.

Plastic containers, plastic food wrap, plastic soda bottles, and other plastics such as styrofoam and vinyl products, can release chemical toxins into your food merely by the fact that the plastic has touched the food, or by microwaving in containers that have not been produced to withstand the extreme heat of a microwave oven.

What can we do? According to the article above, you are asked to:

    Limit your exposure to toxic chemicals by knowing what is in the products you buy for yourself and family.
    Buy organic fruits and vegetables, meats, and dairy products as much as possible.
    Limit your use of products (toilet paper, tampons, and other paper products) which have been through a chlorine process to whiten the product.
    Limit your exposure to plastic products.
    Use organic pesticides and encourage your neighbors to do the same.

If you don’t know this already, I’m a VERY strong advocate of environmental awareness & protection. I’ve been going green since I was Standard 6 - the presentation of endangered leatherback turtles at Rantau Abang, Terengganu by WWF affected me very deeply.

When I started work in communications, I was delighted to head the MNC’s public affairs programme, which entailed training our employees to become facilitators for hands-on science workshops with children and young teens.

I also enjoyed myself immensely in Earth Day celebrations - presenting to my boss the most viable (and meaningful) activities that would:
1. Make an impact on the environment
2. Engage as many employees as possible
3. Take the least amount of time and effort - can’t keep the worker bees away for too long!
4. Spark a media interest - a REAL corporate social responsibility effort :)

When I finally joined an environmental NGO, I knew that this is where I belong.

Even so, it is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to convince the man (or woman) on the street that it’s really in EVERYONE’s best interest that we care for the environment, that we change our lifestyles for good.

The arguments are always:

1. Inconvenience:

“I don’t like to shop at Makro because they don’t provide plastic bags. You have to carry everything to your car yourself.

Answer: The reason they could keep prices low is that they don’t need to provide plastic bags. Also, less landfill —> less rubbish polluting our drinking water —> less dioxins!

“Recycle? Aiyo…so mah fun-lah have to separate everything into paper, plastic and glass. MPPP also don’t provide enough bins to collect. I have to deliver them myself? Isn’t that what the MPPP are supposed to do?”

Answer: It’s more cost effective (and less use of fuel) if they collected rubbish several times a week instead of every day. Also, there’s not enough people pressure on the Federal or State governments to provide more such bins for collection. Hello, I pay maintenance fee for my apartment but I still have to dump my own rubbish!

“Don’t cement my garden? Very troublesome and dirtylah if I keep the grass and trees. I have to sweep the leaves and water the plants every day…”

Answer: The trees and leaves provide the “green lungs” that purify our air naturally (no need the expensive, fancy air purifiers etc). Also, the sweeping and gardening will keep you fit, slim and healthy as you sweat out all the toxins!

2. Culture

“Eh, you so kampung (Malay=provincial/hill-billy) one ah carry your Tupperware bottle around? Not cool.”

“Check out these cool sushi/cakes/bread/rojak packed in these cute, plastic containers. Don’t they look like the ones you see the New Yorkers in ‘Sex in the City’ or ‘Felicity’ ‘Friends’ eating? Finally, civilisation in Malaysia!”

Answer: Plastic packaging = more rubbish = bigger landfills = more dioxins in our ground water supply = more cancer!

Do you know that the insightful Westerner who already realizes the sins of their fathers are either:
a) moving to developing countries like Malaysia to start a new, unpolluted life? or
b) working very hard to get their government to go for sustainable development vs rabid industrialization?

Think about it, when you’re sick (or struggling for your life), do you still care about looking cool???

Seriously, people, it’s time to think and take stock of what we’re doing.

Why is it so hard to do something that’s good for you and your children?

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Comments

3 Responses to “Dioxin, recycling and your life”

  1. zewt on May 19th, 2008 4:47 pm

    yes, i have heard of this term before and i heard of quite some time ago. terms like DDT, very very bad for the body and yes, it’s everywhere and it’s here to stay.

    i think the scientists of our generation has invented so much substance to improve our lives now knowing that the by-products of these invention are also killing us.

    i have said it before… ppl in our generation will not die of old age, we will suffer from something and die. morbid eh?

  2. KittyCat on May 19th, 2008 6:42 pm

    Zewt - Not morbid - it’s very real and scary! I don’t want to go that way…I have a son.

  3. A Pregnant Pause » AVENT in Malaysia: An answer, please! on July 2nd, 2008 5:37 pm

    [...] baby bottles. It’s now known to be hazardous to human health. After my encounter with dioxins, I was stunned to hear that the pump and bottles containing the breastmilk that’s 100% good [...]

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