March 22nd, 1997

WHERE DO WE DRAW THE LINE?
By Jackie Giuliano

When do you say "enough is enough?" When do you know that your own personal limits have been reached? As you increase your environmental awareness and raise concerns about the effects of toxic chemicals on your health and the health of your family, such questions become difficult.

You know that our air and water are polluted, yet you have to breathe and drink. You can buy bottled water, but what about the air? You have to breathe, so you make a concession. "I won't worry about the air pollution today," you tell yourself. Otherwise, how could you get out the door each morning?

In Mexico City, breathing the air is like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. The incidence of birth defects is huge and it is not uncommon to get up in the morning, get ready for work, open the door, and vomit before getting on with your day. It becomes a way of life.

I am bothered each day as I strive for some level of consistency between my behavior and my values. I do not eat meat, dairy products, (well, the roll I just ate on the airplane probably had eggs in it), or refined sugar (unless I am at a party and there is a really good cookie). I do not wear leather products (well, those sandals I am wearing were on sale and they are so comfortable). Yet right now, I am writing this article at an altitude of 37,000 feet above the Earth in an L1011 jumbo jet which is spewing many pounds of carbon monoxide and other noxious chemicals into the atmosphere. All this so that I can get to St. Louis for a meeting tomorrow and then fly back to Los Angeles that night. I don't know where to draw the line. It seems to keep moving.

Something came up in the last few days where I was able to draw the line. I had to draw the line. It was emotionally traumatic and frightening. I would like to share this experience with you in the form of a letter to my landlord.

My fiancee and I moved into this home two weeks ago. My landlord is a Korean woman, a kind of person who has realized the American dream. She knows nothing of environmental concerns. I am challenged in a way I have never been before to explain what is important to me to someone who has no life experiences that relate to my issues, someone who is making decisions solely based on cost.

Dear Hye Soon,

We are as disappointed as you are about the termites. I assure you that we are not trying to be unfair in our concerns about the method used to kill the termites. Clearly, something has to be done. Your house is being damaged severely by the termites, and our peace of mind is eroded. Your insistence on going with the cheapest, and most dangerous, method of treatment is a problem for us. Let me try to explain my concerns.

I have spent all of my adult life studying the impact that we humans are having on our home - the Earth. We are poisoning the air, the water, and the soil. People are dying all over the world because of the poisons we are using. People in other countries are dying because pesticides that have been banned for use in the U.S. are still made here and sold to them. Everyone who uses pesticides suffers, if not now, then later in their lives. Farmers all over the world who use pesticides have sicknesses that make their lives miserable. It has to stop somewhere. Only you and I can make it stop.

Governments will not help. The sale of pesticides makes billions of dollars for the corporations who sell them. The people who run these corporations, who never touch the poisons themselves, are the ones making the money. Government laws, it seems, are often made to force us to use these harmful chemicals.

What has all this to do with our termite problem? EVERYTHING. Only you and I have the power to decide what is the right thing to do. Only you and I can choose not to harm our health, the health of the people who use the pesticides, or our precious Earth. The choices we make in the products we buy and the chemicals we decide to use can have a powerful healing affect on our world. We have to take the responsibility.

You see, Hye Soon, the chemicals used to kill termites are among the most deadly ever made. They have to be made very strong in order to kill insects, which are among the toughest life forms on Earth. But these chemicals hurt people all the time. Once the tent is put over the house, a huge amount of gas is released into the house. It gets into everything. It gets into the carpets, the drapes, seeps into the walls, gets on everything we own and stays there! It gets on clothes, dishes, books, towels, everything. It cannot be washed off. We would be living with the gas every day for years, breathing it in with every breath. When the tent is removed, the gas is released into the air, causing great harm to other animals and making everyone around us breathe it too.

Yes, I know you might say that this is done many times every day all over the country and therefore it must be OK.

Yes, it is done all the time - and people don't seem to be having any trouble with it. But how can we know that? The companies that do the termite control work do not keep track of the health of the people who live in these homes. No one follows up to see if they are getting sick. Studies show that the chemicals used are deadly, but we have another problem as well.

Humans and animals can tolerate a lot of bad stuff in our systems. Our bodies take a lot of abuse before they cease to function. We get sick, but we rarely associate our sickness with breathing in fumes from a bus or spraying pesticides on our gardens. And our society has made it "OK" to be feeling sick. It is just taken for granted that we are not going to feel right all the time.

People who are reacting to pesticides or other toxic chemicals in the environment and in their homes often will say "oh, I just have the flu." They may get sick months after exposure to the chemical.

So, Hye Soon, it has to stop somewhere. I know that the chemicals used by the termite company are harmful, even if the company tells you they are not. The company is allowed, by our government, to say the chemicals are OK even if they have been proven to cause sickness. OUR SOCIETY SAYS THAT BEING SICK IS OK. Ask your friend who gave you the cheap price on termite treatment to give you the Material Safety Data Sheet he is required to keep that tells about the chemicals he uses. Read it. Even though he is legally allowed to use those chemicals, the sheet will still say how harmful they are.

We cannot make decisions based on what is cheaper. The way the world is set up, we have defined our health to mean how much money we have. But this means very little. What good is money if you do not have your physical health, your mental health, and your spiritual health? The more toxic, dangerous chemicals are cheaper. Sadly, it costs more to use non-toxic alternatives that will not harm us or the world around us. Until more people start using the alternatives, they are going to be expensive. But it has to start somewhere.

We cannot bargain away our health or the health of our world. We cannot assume that everything is OK. We cannot go to the lowest bidder any more. There cannot be any tradeoff allowed between our health, the health of our world, and the best price. There is NO cost savings that can justify doing something where even the possibility of causing harm to people or pets or the environment around us exists.

If you are willing to help us do the right thing to protect our health, your health, and the health of the people around us, then we are willing to help you too. I would like you to pay for the entire amount. I feel that it was your responsibility to have this house checked before we moved in and to insure that it was clean and safe. You failed on that and I think you should take care of this termite problem. I also feel that you should use non-toxic methods because it is the right thing to do. The non-toxic method is not as expensive as you might think. If you use the tenting method, you would have to pay for us to stay somewhere else for at least two weeks. You would also have to pay for the kenneling of our dogs.

If you feel that you cannot pay for the non-toxic alternative, then we are willing to compromise. First, we ask that you agree to contribute the full amount that the toxic method would cost - not the reduced cost offered by your friend, but the $1400 estimated by the other company. We would then agree to pay the difference of $1000 to use the non-toxic methods. We would also ask that you reduce the rent by $100 per month.

If you agree to these terms, then I will get a structural inspection of the house first, to be sure that it is safe. If you do not agree to these terms, or if the inspector says that the house is not safe, then we will have no choice but to move out. We will expect you to refund our deposits and pay for our moving expenses. If you refuse, we will sue you for these expenses.

We will not allow ourselves to be exposed to deadly chemicals so that you can save money. The line has to be drawn somewhere. I am drawing it here.

Sincerely,

Jackie Giuliano

RESOURCES

For non-toxic pest control information: http://www.igc.apc.org:80/toxic/

For information on termites, contact http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu:80/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn016.html

For information on the affect of awareness of the polluted world on our mental health, inquire into Ecopsychology (discussed in previous articles for Envirolink) and check out the Ecopsychology home page at http://www.csuhayward.edu:80/ALSS/ECO/0996/index.html

If you are experiencing symptoms because of exposure to toxic substances, check out the various resources for multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS). Some web resources are found at http://www.ehcd.com:80/webboard/messages/224.html

{Jackie Giuliano is a Professor of Environmental Studies for Antioch University, Los Angeles, and The University of Phoenix Southern California campuses, and the Union Institute College of Undergraduate Studies. He struggles each day to be somewhat consistent with his values - which he is trying each day to understand.}