It was 40 years ago when Senator Nelson, from Wisconsin, helped start Earth Day.  (It started in March, 1970 with teach-ins at the University of Calif. Davis and San Francisco. I was there!)   Since then, there has been a battle between natural health, and chemicals and toxins.

Chemicals in Our Environment

• 1972:  DDT, an organochlorine pesticide, was banned
• 1976:  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establishes the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA)

62,000 chemicals were grandfathered in as being safe.  Two chemicals have been banned since 1976.

1. 1978 Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB)
2. 1989 Asbestos

There has been no attempt to ban a toxic chemical since 1989.
The amount of chemicals produced or imported by the United States in one day would fill up 623,000 tanker trucks with a capacity of 8,000 gallons each. (Taken from Dr. Dan Murphy who quotes: The Body Toxic How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being. By Nena Baker 2008)

Not counting the chemicals Americans take in from hormones, pesticides, herbicides, and other poisons in our fast food, super-sized nation, we pound prescription drugs in to our bodies.

American Prescription Drug Use

• The average number of prescriptions [drugs] per person, annually, in 1993 was seven.
• The average number of prescriptions [drugs] per person, annually, in 2000 was eleven.
• [The average number of prescriptions drugs per person], annually, in 2004 was twelve.

The total number of annual prescriptions [drugs] in the United States now stands at about 3 billion. The cost per year is about $180 billion, headed to and estimated $414 billion by 2011.  (taken from Dr. Dan Murphy who quotes:How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies Greg Critser 2005)

This is actually old data and the average number by 2010 is probably much higher. I have seen patients walk in with pages of 20 “’scripts”, and heard of even as many as 50. I am sure you have too.

In Our Drinking Water
A vast array of pharmaceutical including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.  in the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas _ from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky.   (USAToday)

Our Babies Swim Now In A Soup Of Chemicals.
287 human-made chemicals – most of them hazardous – in the blood of infants

According to a study released by the Environmental Working Group, a policy research and activist organization, tests measuring the so-called “body burden” of industrial chemicals, conducted on ten random samples of umbilical cord blood, detected 287 chemicals.

The samples, supplied by the American Red Cross, registered 180 chemicals known to cause cancer in adults, 217 that are linked to brain and nervous system damage, and 208 that have been shown to affect fetal or child development in animal tests. For 209 of the contaminants, this was the first time researchers had identified the chemicals in newborn blood.                                (Environmental Working Group)

What Should Be Done?
What do the so called health care leaders say about the poisons we feed to our planet, our people, and eventually our unborned children?  Where are the medical doctors or health insurers or pharmaceutical CEO’s speaking out against this. Or, our elected officials?

No one is talking, or if so, their voices are not heard.

And you know why?  Simple: because for the most part, they are not HEALTH Leaders.

And who are the health leaders?

You are! The chiropractor and the chiropractic professional. A healthy populace needs more than just “providers.” Your community needs leadership. The members of your town are bombarded with ads for drugs, for fast food, for industrial corporate food, for the easy “no effort way” to what they want. Add in natural human laziness, and you will find that your patients are getting sicker.

Health is a word which has been hijacked by the drug and insurance companies. But the chiropractor is the true health leader.

Earth Day gives you an easy avenue to extend your reach as a health leader into your community as well.  Well educated patients and community will seek to have a healthy town and a healthy body without the use of chemicals.

Ed

Sample posters. Link

Come celebrate with us on Earth Day by attending our seminar in Minneapolis.

Printable version of this article to give to patients. Chiropractic and Earth Day-for patients