Pesticides leach into the Hawaii ground water system and end up in our drinking water. The warm tropical sun causes the pesticides to evaporate and enter the building through gaps in the foundation and infect breathing spaces inside the homes and schools and office buildings. Not only cancer but many respiratory diseases are caused by pesticides. Controlling insects with pesticides is a huge risk to drinking water and indoor air quality in Hawaii, and ultimately to matters of life and death to the public in Hawaii.
Unfortunately the diseases manifest themselves years after exposure and no immediate symptoms appear. And when a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer it is impossible to determine the cause. It isn’t that the cause isn’t known. It is just that businesses make more money if they can use chemicals in construction and since you can’t prove that your breast cancer came from the pesticides that were used under your house or in your public school, these unscrupulous businesses continue to poison the community. If I sound a little angry about this I don’t apologize. My wife died of cancer this year and I am committed to saving others from what she went through.
Chlordane was taken off the market in 1988 because it causes cancer. Dursban was taken off the market in 2000 because it causes cancer. The announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2000 made it clear the seriousness of pesticides.
This action comes after completing the most extensive scientific review of the potential hazards from a pesticide ever conducted. This action — the result of an agreement with the manufacturers — will significantly minimize potential health risks from exposure to Dursban, also called chlorpyrifos, for all Americans, especially children.
Hawaii children and families were heavily exposed to first Chlordane and then Dursban over a period of 50 years in all of the building of homes and schools and government buildings.
Do you, like me, wonder why companies like Dow AgroSciences and DuPont complain that too much government regulation is making it hard for them to bring new pesticides, fungicides and herbicides to the market, when their products routinely are removed from wide use in public places because they cause cancer and other serious illnesses? Why do Hawaii housing developers like Gentry, Castle & Cooke, Haseko and others continue to use pesticides on their projects? The only reason is that they make more more profits by using a cheap pesticide rather than other available methods. They know that the pesticides are invisible and that homeowners don’t realize what they are being exposed to these health risks in their indoor air, their kids playing in the yard or their drinking water. They put profits ahead of people.
We are all concerned about the melt down in our financial institutions. But isn’t our health even more important? Both crises are caused by lax regulation of big corporations. Both involve greed. And in both situations the public is paying dearly: in dollars with the banks and with our health and our lives with pesticides in our air and drinking water.
Is this new? No. In a 1997 study, Breast Cancer and Pesticides in Hawaii: The Need for Further Study, by Ruth H. Allen, Michelle Gottlieb, Eve Clute, Montira J. Pongsiri, Janette Sherman and G. Iris Obrams © 1997, Published by: The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the link between the widespread use of pesticides and breast cancer in Hawaii have been made:
They studied documented episodes of exposure to two endocrine-disrupting chemicals, chlordane/heptachlor and 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP), and recommend that further studies be conducted to warn Hawaii residents of other risks due to the continued use of pesticides in the Hawaii construction industry both public and private.
Interestingly the huge companies that have won billion dollar contracts for the massive military privatization housing projects now being constructed in Hawaii are using pesticides under and around all of the new homes where young military families will be living. Alternatives exist but the decision-makers for Actus Lend Lease and other of the privatization companies continue applying chemical pesticides despite the fact that they brag publicly about environmental and green building. each of the homes that will house young military families for the next 50 years will be be treated with pesticides to control pests, further endangering the air, soil and drinking water. They know about the health risks they are exposing the young military families to because they have encountered soil poisoned with Chlordane in the initial construction. Unless the public speaks up or Hawaii elected politicians take a stand, the women who contract breast cancer in the future from exposure to pesticides in Hawaii will die for a few dollars of profit for a huge corporation.
Article source – http://honolulu.injuryboard.com/toxic-substances/breast-cancer-risk-in-hawaii-linked-to-pesticides-in-drinking-water-and-indoor-air.aspx?googleid=252040
I am VERY interested in this blog posting, I just came across it while researching Hickam Communities/Lend Lease and pesticides. Our family as well as many other families here on Hickam AFB have been becoming ill du to what we suspect is pesticide exposure and we are trying to find as many resources as possible to help with the research. If you could help in ANY way…please email me
Thank you
LaDean
I’m sorry for your loss.
My beautiful wife past away in September 2011 after 20 years of misery as her Neuro-endocrine systems were engulfed by cancer as it grew through her body. She and my sons were exposed to Ariel spraying of pesticides, right down the middle of the street in Iroquois Point housing. We were there from 1989-1991 and they were fumigated in our home repeatedly over that time. Her death was followed by my son’s only 3-1/2 months later. They got away with it alright. from my research there hasn’t been any suits filed or investigation on the ariel spraying that happened while we were there. Attorneys I called either said they couldn’t help me or just never returned my calls. I’m not sure what to do or how I can ever get justice for my family. If you still monitor this page and have heard anything about the ariel spraying in Hawaii, please send me whatever information you can. My last son is still suffering and has not been checked for the cancer yet. My fear is that based on his life over the last 20 years, learning and behavior problems and he has grown 2-inches since his 23rd birthday. These I have recently discovered are all symptoms of Chlordane/arsenic exposure. You could not even imagine the hardships my family has endured over the last 20 years as this type of cancer affects behavioral/emotional functions as well as physical. Any information you have would be appreciated.
Thank you,
I was diagnosed with breast cancer on 5/16, Stage 2 triple negative. I grew up in Waipahu, and remember as a child running behind the mosquito trucks. I have lost many family members to different types of cancer, they to were all exposed to the mosquito truck chemicals. I to would like more info. My mother at 89 years young (thank god) was also diagnosed with breast cancer. I will be taking this info to my oncologist. I happen to have an appointment today and was told by my Dr. about this issue, after some conversation about my upbringing in the islands.