As a physician who has made children's health my specialty, and their future my priority, I consider A HEALTHY BABY GIRL a remarkable video.
In A HEALTHY BABY GIRL, Judith Helfand tells the story of her diagnosis at age 25 with clear-cell adenocarcinoma of the cervix, a rare tumor now known to be caused by exposure to the synthetic chemical hormone diethylstilbestrol, DES. Judith's exposure to DES took place when she was still in her mother's womb.
Judith's story teaches us many lessons. First, it reminds us in the most vivid terms that the youngest members of the human family - embryos, fetuses, infants and children - are the most vulnerable among us to chemical toxins in the environment. Particularly in the earliest stages of human development, there exist windows of extraordinary vulnerability when exposure to chemicals such as DES can cause devastating effects whose consequences last a lifetime.
The DES story makes us all aware that there exist intergenerational toxins, synthetic chemicals which wreak havoc on our endocrine systems. When DES is given to adults the immediate effects are relatively mild. But when a fetus is exposed to DES, as happened in Judith's case, the effects can be catastrophic. The damage to developing cells that is caused by DES becomes evident only two, three, or four decades after exposure.
DES does not exist in isolation but is part of a much larger story in American society of widespread exposure to inadequately tested synthetic chemicals. In the years since World War II, more than 75,000 new chemical compounds have been developed, and are being used in drugs, pesticides, food additives, cosmetics, and industrial chemicals. Fewer than half of these chemicals have been tested for their potential toxicity to humans, and fewer still have been tested for their potential to cause toxic effects in fetuses and the very young. Through our heedless behavior, our society is by default conducting a massive clinical toxicological trial. In this trial, our children and our children's children are the experimental subjects .
And we know some of these chemicals. The DDT that was sprayed in our yards, chlorinated solvents used on the shop floor, the chlorine bleach in our paper, the dioxin by-products of PVC plastic burned in our hospital incinerators. Like DES, some of these chemicals are synthetic hormones, with the potential to disrupt our endocrine systems - increased risk of spontaneous abortion, cancer, reproductive and developmental disorders, effects on our neurological and immune systems. Our exposure is cumulative over our entire lifetimes, as our bodies store these toxins in our fatty tissues. Those who suffer most severely the effects of this environmental degradation are the most vulnerable - developing fetuses and children.
Three points are important to note:
A final lesson that we can take from Judith's story is the importance of taking action and of not falling into despair. Judith's life is a lesson about the dangers of putting untested chemical agents into people's bodies, about the dangers of heedless chemical pollution of the planet, about the dangers of heedlessly burning toxic waste, about the dangers of letting industry operate without oversight and accountability. Her story is a powerful stimulus to action, a wake-up call to bring the scientific and political abstractions of "toxic exposure" literally home to us.The carcinogenicity of DES was, in fact, recognized in animals years before any cases of clear cell cancer were diagnosed in young women. This information was, however, not heeded by the pharmaceutical industry in marketing the drug.
Long after DES had been found to have no value in preventing miscarriages, and after it was contraindicated for use during pregnancy in this country, the pharmaceutical industry continued to market DES overseas.
Likewise, the carcinogenicity of dioxin, DDT and other toxins has been known for years, yet the chemical industry continues to produce these environmental toxins in the U.S. and overseas.
Most important to remember is that we are not helpless - the pages that follow show some of the key questions you can ask in your daily life, and point to resources you can use to protect the health of future generations.
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