★★★★★ 5
[book review] Silent Spring
Format: Paperback
Author of Silent Spring Rachel Carson points out in Chapter 14 that cancer was increasing not only in the general public but also in youth: “The monthly report of the Office of Vital Statistics for July 1959 states that malignant growths, including those of the lymphatic and blood-forming tissues, accounted for 15 percent of the deaths in 1958 compared with only 4 percent in 1900. Judging by the present incidence of the disease, the American Cancer Society estimates that 45,000,000 Americans now living will eventually develop cancer. This means that malignant disease will strike two out of three families (221)”. “Today, more American school children die of cancer than from any other disease. So serious has this situation become that Boston has established the first hospital in the United States devoted exclusively to the treatment of children with cancer. Twelve percent of all deaths in children between the ages of one and fourteen are caused by cancer” (221). Why there were trends of increasing cancer? To answer the question, this paper delves into the 3 causes of cancers mentioned in this chapter - radiation, chemicals, and lack of oxygen for cells. Furthermore, it explores additional important questions it makes us ask.
Cancer can be caused by natural sources such as ultraviolet radiation from the sun, radiation from certain rocks, and other similar sources. While Carson admits they are still a factor in producing malignancy, she argues that since these sources have existed for longer than life on Earth and only those who are resistant to them have survived over time, modern-day organisms must have adapted to living with them. In other words, there are likely other reasons for increasing cancer rates besides natural sources. Carson believed that it was especially due to the widespread use of man-made carcinogens in pesticides and insecticides. Compared to natural cancer-causing materials, man-made carcinogens were brand new forms of chemicals that had never existed in the natural environment before, so human beings’ slow biological evolution has not adapted to them yet. Carson not only suggested this logical process but also shared some real-life examples of how humans started to realize that man-made materials can cause cancer. Some of them were due to a lack of knowledge about carcinogens and were somehow inevitable because it was occupational exposure. For instance, in 1775, Sir Percivall Pott declared that scrotal cancer, which was so common among chimney sweeps, must be caused by the soot that accumulated on their bodies. “In the early 1920’s women who painted luminous figures on watch dials swallowed minute amounts of radium by touching the brushes to their lips; in some of these women bone cancers developed after a lapse of 15 or more years. A period of 15 to 30 years or even more has been demonstrated for some cancers caused by occupational exposures to chemical carcinogens” (226). At least these occupational carcinogen exposures were limited to relatively small populations. However, DDT which has produced suspicious liver tumors on animal subjects during laboratory tests and was given the definite rating of a chemical carcinogen by Dr. Huper of the National Cancer Institute, and other insecticides were widely used. Not only the direct exposure to those chemicals are problem but also they don't simply disappear after they're used. They keep following up the food chain, ending up in humans and potentially causing cancer.
How do some chemicals cause cancer? German biochemist, Professor Otto Warburg has proposed a persuasive theory. He believes that these chemicals or radiation agents destroy the respiration of normal cells, depriving them of energy. This theory was confirmed in 1953 when other researchers were able to turn normal cells into cancer cells by depriving them of oxygen intermittently over long periods. The impact of these chemicals is not limited to existing organisms; they can also affect unborn babies. This is because babies have rapid cell divisions, making them more vulnerable to the effects of cancer-producing agents that penetrate the placenta and act on the rapidly developing fetal tissues. Dr. W. C. Hueper of the National Cancer Institute has suggested that congenital cancers and cancers in infants may be related to the action of cancer-producing agents to which the mother was exposed during pregnancy. The long latent period of most cancers is the time required for the infinite number of cell divisions during which fermentation gradually increases after the initial damage to respiration. However, since babies are in the process of rapid cell division, they may develop cancer faster when exposed to carcinogens compared to adults.
How do we end up surrounded by chemicals that potentially cause cancers to not only living humans but even further unborn babies? Carson wrote - “The chemical agents of cancer have become entrenched in our world in two ways: first, and ironically, through man’s search for a better and easier way of life; second, because the manufacture and sale of such chemicals has become an accepted part of our economy and our way of life” (242). But we can’t just stop developing chemicals to pursue better and easier lives or change our lives back to primitive levels because unsatisfactory is human nature. Then what’s the practical solution? I’ll say regulators with expertise. Just like we are not using toxic chemicals that were used in the past thanks to regulations, regulations should keep monitoring such potential dangers. Therefore regulators must be experts. But this approach isn’t perfect. Moving legislation to phase out the use of such carcinogenic chemicals has been slow which makes “what the public is asked to accept as “safe” today may turn out tomorrow to be extremely dangerous” (224). It's hard to believe that toxic chemicals like DDT were widely used just a few generations ago. However, it's important to consider that similar practices may be occurring today in the world we live in right now. In Professor Handwerk’s words “Now You See It… Now You Don’t.” and we must keep asking what are the DDTs - something harmful but shocking widely used - nowadays. It’s the important question that Carson made us think further about the cause of the cancer.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2024
