After smoking, ban everything

MICHEÁL MARTIN has received wide acclaim for his crusade against more than one million smokers. But the smoking ban must be only the opening salvo in the war on all carcinogens.

Now that one ban is in place, could Health Minister Mary Harney immediately turn her mind to the many other carcinogens that are killing us and ban them all? The US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), supported by the ETA (the inspiration for the smoking ban), have a whole list of carcinogenic substances to which we are being exposed daily.

Here is a very small sample.

Long-term exposure to exhaust fumes can increase the risk of lung cancer by up to 50% (higher than smoking).

Exposure to small particles in diesel exhaust fumes has been linked to increased hospital admissions for respiratory diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, and heart disease, as well as up to 60,000 premature deaths each year in the United States, according to the American Lung Association. (That alone would translate into nearly 1,000 preventable deaths each year in Ireland.)

Even worse, new research shows that people living in homes built before April 1988 are most likely breathing the carcinogenic pesticide chlordane. It was banned in March ’88. Unfortunately, the ban did not take place until more than 30 million homes throughout the US had been treated. In Ireland, this would translate into more than 480,000 homes.

Chlordane is such a highly toxic chemical that homes treated 20-30 years ago are still showing unsafe levels of it in the indoor air. The problem occurs because the hundreds of gallons of chlordane underneath the home are slowly evaporating, rising through cracks in the foundation or around plumbing pipes and entering the home.

Ms Harney must now lead a national campaign to discover if people are getting cancers in their own homes, and, if so, these homes must go.

And even worse, acetaldehyde, found in perfume, dyes, fruit and fish preservatives, has been classified as a human carcinogen. It can cause eye, skin and respiratory tract irritation. Acetaldehyde is a carcinogen found in cigarette smoke, car exhaust, embalming fluid and alcohol. It has been shown to increase the risk of contracting dozens of diseases including alcoholism, cirrhosis of the liver and multiple forms of cancer. It can also cause mutations that lead to cancers of the oesophagus, larynx and liver. To protect ourselves from this vicious carcinogen, the minister must immediately ban all alcohol in Ireland (and that includes all perfumes).

Then there is acrylamide. It’s a cancer-causing substance that is found in fried potatoes, popcorn, olives and prune juice. Every right thinking citizen must now support a ban on popcorn in cinemas, chips in chip shops and, of course, a €3,000 fine for anyone caught eating these carcinogenic foods (and the same fine for the seller).

Ever notice the heavy pungent odour when passing road works? The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health estimated that more than 500,000 workers were potentially exposed to asphalt fumes.

The institute estimated in 1992 that more than 300,000 construction workers were exposed - primarily in road-paving and roofing operations. This suggests that up to 8,000 Irish workers have been similarly exposed. Studies have reported lung, stomach, and skin cancers following chronic exposure to asphalt fumes. Stop all road building now.

Captafol is a deadly carcinogen. It is widely used to control foliage and fruit disease on apples, citrus, tomato, cranberry, potato, coffee, pineapple, peanut, onion, stone fruit, cucumber, blueberry, prune, watermelon, sweetcorn, wheat, barley, oilseed rape, leek and strawberry. All must be removed from shops and banned forever.

Epichlorohydrin is used as a building block in making plastics and other polymers, some of which are used in water supply systems. The minister must act now to discover whether pipes in our mains water supply had epichlorohydrin used in their manufacture. At a time when we are being urged to drink more water, it would be ironic if it was killing us.

If the real purpose of the smoking ban was the protection of workers’ health against carcinogens, we can expect the new minister to introduce a whole range of bans on items we all consider normal today, with the vigorous assistance of the smoking ban lobby.

John Mallon

5 Shamrock Grove

Mayfield

Cork