HUFFINGTON
07.22.12
CHEMISTRY LESSONS
ute quantity can bring about vast
changes in the body.”
Lanphear of Simon Frasier
University notes that we are now
worrying about even smaller exposures than Carson was suggesting. “Parts per billion,” he says.
Recent research has also questioned the popular notion that
“the dose makes the poison.” Minuscule concentrations of chemicals that disrupt hormones —
common in industrial pollution,
pesticides and plastics — may
have potent effects, sometimes
even when large doses of the same
chemical appear harmless. Some
chemicals also can accumulate in
the environment and the human
body, where they can combine and
interact with other chemicals.
“This is why there is no ‘safe’
dose of a carcinogen,” Carson
wrote. Carson pointed out one
combination of chemicals that
had already raised red flags among
scientists: malathion mixed with
other organophosphate pesticides.
Administered together, she wrote,
“a massive poisoning results — up
to 50 times as severe as would be
predicted on the basis of adding
together the toxicities of the two.”
Organophosphates, including
malathion, are still in use today.
“Things are far more complicated
chemically than they were in Carson’s time,” says Wargo. “There are
so many uses of many more active
ingredients, inert ingredients and
differently formulated products
that it’s become difficult for governments to identify the risks.”
“We are now living in a world
probably beyond what Carson
could have ever imagined, in
terms of the number of chemicals
kids interact with every day,” says
Pingree. “And we’re having all the
impacts that she worried about.”