Poverty is the Worst Carcinogen

What environmental problems kill humans in the greatest numbers today? It isn’t Alar, ozone depletion, dioxins, nuclear wastes, electromagnetic radiation, pesticide residue, PCBs, asbestos, or global warming. What kills the most people is dung smoke and diarrhea, which are both directly related to poverty. Poverty can therefore be described as the worst carcinogen.

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Every year about 11 million children die before their fifth birthday, most of them from no more than five conditions: pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, malaria, malnutrition, and measles. Others suffer infections that are preventable with currently available vaccines or medicines. (1) Impure drinking water and waste treatment are not the only killers. When children die in the Third World, it’s mainly because they live in poorly ventilated huts where fuel wood, cow dung, or agricultural waste are used for heating and cooking. A 2008 report from the New York-based Blacksmith Institute and Green Cross Switzerland noted the world’s worst pollution problems. (2) The top ten listed alphabetically rather than by qualitative rank are:

1. Artisanal gold mining
2. Contaminated surface water
3. Indoor air pollution
4. Industrial mining activities
5. Groundwater contamination
6. Metals smelting and processing
7. Radioactive waste and uranium mining
8. Untreated sewage
9. Urban air quality
10. Used lead acid battery recycling

Steven Hayward notes, “Two observations leap from this list. First, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change are conspicuously missing from the list. From the sheer amount of media coverage, a casual reader would suppose that climate change is easily the most important global environmental problem. This leads to the second observation: these environmental problems are seldom seen in any significant way in the United States or any other wealthy nation; they are overwhelmingly problems of poor and developing nations, once again reinforcing the central point that economic growth and development is the essential pathway to environmental improvement.” (2) Worldwide some 1.1 billion people defecate in the open, and speaking of this human function, it’s interesting to note that far more people in India (the world’s second most populous country) have access to a cell phone than to a toilet and improved sanitation, according to UN experts. Roughly 366 million people (31 percent of the population) had access to improved sanitation in 2008. Meanwhile, 545 million cell phones were connected to service in India’s emerging economy. Says Zafar Adeel of the Institute for Water, Environment and Health: “It is a tragic irony to think that in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones, about half cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet.” (3) Reducing poverty throughout the world should be a top priority for environmentalists. Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore, now an outspoken critic of the group he once led, looks at it this way. “I helped start the environmental movement to protect people as well as our planet,” he said. “Unfortunately, too many policies today ignore the needs of the Earth’s poorest people. That’s not just unnecessary. It’s eco-imperialism. It’s counter-productive, and morally wrong.” (4) Ironic isn’t it? Folks who worry and protest about the latest parts per zillion of some contaminant in our air or food because they claim it will kill people, choose to ignore environmental issues in developing countries that could save millions in real time.

References

• The 10/90 Report on Health Research 2001-2002, Susan Jupp Editor, (Geneva, Switzerland, World Health Organization, 2002), 181
• Steven F. Hayward, 2011 Almanac of Environmental Trends, (San Francisco, Pacific Research Institute, April 2011), 25
• “Greater Access to Cell Phones Than Toilets,” United Nations University, April 2010
• Paul Driessen, Eco-Imperialism, (Bellevue, WA, Free Enterprise Press, 2003), 49