Chapter two of Protecting New Jersey’s Environment, called Poisoned Fish was full of information that I found extremely frustrating. The very first point that shocked me that the agricultural company of Monsanto created a chemical that was “the most toxic synthetic organic chemical ever made by humans” (Belton 35). I found it very frustrating to know that a company that should be making healthy food was contributing to the use of highly toxic materials. This same idea goes alone with the used of PCB when Monsanto purchased the Swann Chemical Company. This is another point that I found frustrating, the fact that an agricultural company purchased a chemical company, and no one questioned it! I found it extremely shocking to learn that even after the negative effects of PCB was known to some of the public the PCB was still being used on products. Finally it took people getting seriously ill for any minor actions to take place, and don’t think that’s right. The worst part is that the PCB is still putting people at risk because of the fish industry and well as it being used in the American food industry (Belton 37). I think by far the most frustrating quote I read was on page 38, when a law was put into place to prohibit the manufacturing of PCBs, however they used a phase-out approach “which allowed the continued use of PCBs in closed systems” (Belton). If a product is known to have harmful health effects such as causing cancer and birth defects, WHY is it still allowed to be put in products what so ever!
However, my frustration only grew from this point on as I read and saw that several states participated in a study that was done; they learned about the contamination of fish and they still did not take action! No one wanted to step up and fund or fix the problem, so they settled for advising the public (especially pregnant women) to not eat the fish. I think the quote that perfectly sums up my thoughts from the chapter is “sometimes that hurts because we know what’s killing us while other line in the bliss of ignorance. Facts give people the information they need to make decisions” (Belton 47). This quote wraps up my feelings about having knowledge but not being able to share it effectively to help people.
Overall this chapter, while frustrating, was extremely eye opening to how much work and research goes into finding out the environmental causes for an issue. It was shocking to read about how many studies had to be done to essentially prove the same point over and over to the same people. I’m glad that we have had some political leaders that took this information seriously and tried to do something about it. However, so much more can be done and it blows my mind to see how little the public knows about what does on behind the scenes.
Written by: Katie Kiwi