Why isn't there more public uproar over DES?

Dr. Theo Colborn's pioneering work on endocrine disruptors raised an alarm, but too few in Canada are responding

By: Suzanne Elston

  There is is a fundamental problem when we try and deal with issues that affect the environment. The environment isn't just another subject or area of concern. The environment is our interface with reality. To borrow heavily from Albert Einstein, the inconceivable thing about the environment is that we attempt to conceive of it. It is effectively everything that we are. It's like trying to picture what we look like without ever viewing our image in a mirror.
  This is perhaps why we have been so totally ineffective at addressing environmental issues. They're too big. Our traditional scientific paradigm is about analyzing our world in microscopic pieces. Getting the big picture is simply outside this perspective. To use an analogy, it's like trying to draw an elephant by only looking at its foot. You miss too much by being too close.

Pioneer research
  Enter Dr. Theo Colborn. At 51, she went back to university to become an expert on water quality. Fortunately for all of us, she got sidetracked. Dr. Colborn's maturity enabled her to relate much of her studies to life experience. Her ability to see the big picture led her to theorize about the impact that some synthetic chemicals were having on the ecosystem, and hence, our health. What Dr. Colborn was able to determine was that these chemicals mimic naturally occurring hormones in living organisms. Some of the more notorious chemicals identified include dioxins and furans, PCBs and most pesticides. She called these chemicals endocrine disruptors because their presence interferes with the natural function of the body's endocrine system.
  This was not good news. The endocrine system is responsible for everything from brain function to our immune and reproductive systems. Chemically disturbing the natural endocrine balance could be blamed for everything from lower sperm counts and other reproductive disorders to learning disabilities in children. Dr. Colborn's theory was popularized in her best selling book, "Our Stolen Future", published in 1996. While Dr. Colborn's theory revolutionized our approach to environmental issues, her findings were no surprise to victims of DES.
  Diethystilbestrol or DES was the first synthetic hormone every developed in a laboratory. Unlike the endocrine disrupting chemicals to which we are inadvertently exposed in the environment, exposure to DES was deliberate. Between 1941 and 1971, DES was prescribed to millions of pregnant women because of the mistaken belief that it would help prevent miscarriage. As Dr. Colborn's research later observed, exposure to certain synthetic chemicals ­ like DES ­ can have significant long-term health impacts. Many of the sons and daughters exposed to DES in utero have developed health problems, including malformed reproductive organs, fertility problems, immune systems disorders and cancer. The mothers who were prescribed DES have an increased risk of developing breast cancer.
  Although I had heard about DES, I wasn't aware of its connection to Dr. Colborn's work until just this week when I attended a DES workshop. Following the workshop I was happy to join some of my colleagues for lunch. At the restaurant we encountered a young woman who had worked with one of my colleagues. Her name is Theressa Puchta. What was significant about our chance meeting is that Theressa had just finished her first round of chemotherapy. At just 31 years of age, she has been diagnosed with second stage breast cancer. Meeting Theressa, after learning so much about the connection between environmental chemicals and cancer, brought a strange personal perspective to the issue.
  I found it difficult to look at her. Theressa is one of those remarkable people whose eyes truly are a window to the soul. When she looks at you, you can almost feel her bewilderment and pain. A self-described environmental activist, writer and researcher, Theressa is exactly the kind of person you feel certain would never be affected by our chemical legacy. And yet, there she was ­ raw and aching and wondering.
  I wondered, too. I wondered how we have been able to ignore the evidence for so long. As a society we have anesthetized ourselves - consciously or unconsciously - ignoring what we intuitively know to be true.
  What we do to the environment, we do to ourselves. Theressa's cancer, DES and Dr.Theo Colborn are all compelling pieces of a tragic jigsaw puzzle. While we are finally beginning to see the picture that those pieces make when we put them together, it's not too late to alter what is seemingly an inevitable result. But in order to do so we must have to willingness and courage to look at a much bigger picture than our traditional science currently allows.

WEBSITES OF THE WEEK:
For further information about DES, go www.desaction.org

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