Document vVR7R0dYr8MXnOEwoKax0RGx8

THE TIMES 31st July 1969 Pollution warning by scientist BY A STAFF REPORTER A warning that the world and human bodies with radia before long could become unfit Tor liiiinaii lial'tlilum was given l>v a leading aiillmruv <hi |dlii lion piohlciiis hi l.ondoii ycsler- Uay. Professor Barry Commoner, Prnfo*sr of Botany at Wash ington University. .Vt. Louis, Missouri, spoke of " a terribly grim challenge'' to mankind to solve the environmental crisis. lie was addressing a one-day conference organized by the Soil Association and he forecast a crisis, a point of no return which could reach the fields or waters of American major farm ing areas in 25 to 50 years' time .unless action was taken. tion. Insecticides had helped to hived resistant sli.inis ..I " lug, sluing, strapping hugs " and in parts of .Vmth America they had even had to import parasiticpests to prey on the smaller pests to redress the balance of nature after u-e of insceiic.de. Professor Commoner said we should start looking at our envi ronment as a whole instead of breaking it down into a number of special disciplines when con sidering pollution. There was now little leeway left in the system. " Time is short", he said. Dr. Kenneth Mcllanby. chair man of the Soil Association's lie said: "If we arc to sur reveal eh advisor committee ami vive as inhabitants of a w-mld director ol Monks Wood experi increasingly transformed by mental slalion. said that all was tei'lmology we need to ir.issess hv no means lost. Ill- vaul our altitudes loxvaiiN die actual " I lie air of London todjy is world on which our technology cleaner than for a century. intrudes'*. We had become cn- The Thames, until recently a liced into a nearly fatal illusion stinking sewer, is much levs that we had at last escaped from offensive, even if additional im our de|tcudencc on the rest of purities arc taking their toll. nature. " A concentration of some There was strong evidence persistent pesticides in our that our pollution problems bodies and in our food is declin were due to fundamental faults ing. ... I hope we will disown in our technology. 'I riuniphs in those Jeremiahs who say the developing the modem ear or countryside is totally ruined and nuclear reactor had been bal there is nothing left worth anced by failures in their opera saving." tion. Professor Commoner answer "Once lire automobile is al ing >|iirstions said there was lowed .mt of the larlviv ami rvulenvc to soggrsl that DDT into llir 'iiv MMMtiti'iii it is 11.iiis fiom iiiollr pioofed limbing Infilled If fticii leveals ilsrlt as could iH-icolate through tin- skin ait agent which has rendered into the body-lat. ft was known ill ban air carcinogenic, burdened that D.D.T. in the body could human bodies with nearly toxic .stimulate the activity of enzytrics levels of carbon monoxide anil in the liver which were respons lead, cnilx-ddr.l |>allmg>-m<' |.ai ible for regulating certain lim ides ol aslwsios iii Innnaii ittones. lings, and conlnhtilcd mcmiii- A new generation was being cantly to the pollution til .sur raised--with D.D.T. in their fat. face, waters carbon monoxide in their sys Once a nuclear reactor began tems and lead in their bones. to operate it threatened rivers "That is technological man '* and lakes with its heated waters he said. 5r PRODUCED f JM -83 i