DOI: 10.5176/2301-394X_ACE15.49
Authors: Gerhard Schurer
Abstract:
Our current world of products is totally primitive.
A product that becomes waste is simply a bad product.
Bad chemistry.
Michael Braungart and William McDonough in C2C
Before the First World War mankind existed in a virtually synthetic free world. The production of synthetic substances has since grown exponentially and created an inventory of chemicals, too many to be analyzed, monitored and classified as to their toxicity by regulatory authorities. Their effect on the environment and its inhabitants, fauna and flora alike, is all too often untested and their impact unknown before their large scale industrial application. The flora is vital in the maintenance of a healthy environment, yet the quality of the air and water under the control of big corporations are constantly increasing the toxic burden on these life supporting components of our biosphere. The choice by the individual is more and more limited.
A similar increase manifests itself in the electromagnetic environment. The human body functions through very subtle electrical processes. Since the 1930’s the density and spectrum of electromagnetic fields from manmade sources has grown exponentially. They mostly differ significantly from the ones occurring naturally. The electromagnetic interference of the biological processes in the human body is constantly increasing through the saturation of the built environment with WIFI, radar, mobile telephony and the monitoring and surveillance by government, the military and corporations. The epidemiological effect remains for future generations to bear.
The paper investigates the escalation of the toxic burden in the built environment and the resulting pressure on the health and wellbeing of its occupants. It also points to solutions which have yet to become mainstream. While nature has plenty of toxins and poisons in her armory, we mapped the dangers and learned to live with them or to avoid them. The heavily polluted environment Homo sapiens has created, however leaves no escape. We can inform ourselves of the consequences of what we drink and eat and act accordingly, but we are prisoners of the polluted air, the toxins, carcinogens, POPs, HAPs and VOCs prevalent in our buildings, the electromagnetic pressure and the insidious radiation we bring to bear on all constituents of the biosphere, all so vital for our health and wellbeing.
Keywords: Environmental degradation, toxic burden, carcinogens, ions, radon, EMF, EMR, anthropogenic, biogenic
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