This is a reprint of my landmark article on the history of PCBs — my last major project before entering astrology full-time. It appeared in the September/October 1994 edition of Sierra magazine.
In response to an email -- and I don't understand what this is doing here. My argument is that intent is not desire but foreknowledge of an effect. It is not "premeditation" but rather being in possession of the facts necessary to understand that harm will be caused. This is more than mere negligence. The legal terms are mens rea, and scienter. The writing below reads like a publicist wrote it.
_____________
The intent to spread PCB and dioxin pollution specifically to make people sick is contradicted by the record. However, that does not rule out subsequent chemical classes, such as glyphosate (Roundup) and plasticizers, after the hormone effects of PCBs and dioxin were discovered.
The discovery of wide-scale PCB pollution, which was only later known to really mean dioxin-like compounds (due to the discovery of certain dioxin-like PCB isomers and congeners) was not discovered until 1966-1968 by Jensen and Widmark. Even if we could DDT, it was Risebrough who discovered that it killed birds in this same era by making their eggs to thin to hatch, then unknown to Carson.
PCBs are being used in hundreds of applications, from familiar electrical use to caulking and surgical implants. Their specifically hormonal effects are not discovered until after the ban in 1976-79.
Prior to that time, in the early 1970s, they were thought to be carcinogens, but that they had reached everyone and everything everywhere was not known until decades after the fact.
So while I believe there was intent, there is also evidence through the secret record that the suspicions were that PCBs made the men sick in industrial settings, due to industrial exposure in the 1930s.
They were ubiquitous long before the technology to find them in the environment; and I don’t think anyone at Monsanto or elsewhere would have predicted — before the fact — that they would be as widespread as DDT even though PCBs were mostly used only in contained settings.
These chemicals have a history that set long before the real problems are discovered. Said another way, in the secret files, the only indications are knowledge of sickness through industrial exposure (prior to the Yusho incident, which is a form of industrial exposure); and the only motive indicated is to keep the business going.
By the time of the discovery of environmental contamination, it’s all too late. But it’s not too late to warn them off of the next 10 generations of chemicals, from Roundup to Aspartame to BGH, which were and are known hormone and neurological pollutants.
As, a Michigan resident, I'm so glad the Palistine toxic dirt is being shipped to Michigan. As I write this a local news reporter is speaking of burning the dirt to make it safe to ship!
I do not know anyone, who helped himself or others through astrology. Though I do know people, who got what they wanted, but paid a terrible price for that and got it in a context, that was definitely unintended and just terrible. I feel complied to warn anyone against that path, not because it doesn’t work. When that doesn’t work it’s still the better scenario. When it does work, people get what they want in an unwanted context, that way to the desired outcomes is usually too toxic to take with terrible downstream effects. Basically astrology as opposed to prayer to the Creator and meditation means to cave to the system.
In response to an email -- and I don't understand what this is doing here. My argument is that intent is not desire but foreknowledge of an effect. It is not "premeditation" but rather being in possession of the facts necessary to understand that harm will be caused. This is more than mere negligence. The legal terms are mens rea, and scienter. The writing below reads like a publicist wrote it.
_____________
The intent to spread PCB and dioxin pollution specifically to make people sick is contradicted by the record. However, that does not rule out subsequent chemical classes, such as glyphosate (Roundup) and plasticizers, after the hormone effects of PCBs and dioxin were discovered.
The discovery of wide-scale PCB pollution, which was only later known to really mean dioxin-like compounds (due to the discovery of certain dioxin-like PCB isomers and congeners) was not discovered until 1966-1968 by Jensen and Widmark. Even if we could DDT, it was Risebrough who discovered that it killed birds in this same era by making their eggs to thin to hatch, then unknown to Carson.
PCBs are being used in hundreds of applications, from familiar electrical use to caulking and surgical implants. Their specifically hormonal effects are not discovered until after the ban in 1976-79.
Prior to that time, in the early 1970s, they were thought to be carcinogens, but that they had reached everyone and everything everywhere was not known until decades after the fact.
So while I believe there was intent, there is also evidence through the secret record that the suspicions were that PCBs made the men sick in industrial settings, due to industrial exposure in the 1930s.
They were ubiquitous long before the technology to find them in the environment; and I don’t think anyone at Monsanto or elsewhere would have predicted — before the fact — that they would be as widespread as DDT even though PCBs were mostly used only in contained settings.
These chemicals have a history that set long before the real problems are discovered. Said another way, in the secret files, the only indications are knowledge of sickness through industrial exposure (prior to the Yusho incident, which is a form of industrial exposure); and the only motive indicated is to keep the business going.
By the time of the discovery of environmental contamination, it’s all too late. But it’s not too late to warn them off of the next 10 generations of chemicals, from Roundup to Aspartame to BGH, which were and are known hormone and neurological pollutants.
As, a Michigan resident, I'm so glad the Palistine toxic dirt is being shipped to Michigan. As I write this a local news reporter is speaking of burning the dirt to make it safe to ship!
https://www.vindy.com/news/local-news/2023/02/contaminated-soil-is-shipped-to-michigan/
This is just the tip of the iceberg, isn't it?
I do not know anyone, who helped himself or others through astrology. Though I do know people, who got what they wanted, but paid a terrible price for that and got it in a context, that was definitely unintended and just terrible. I feel complied to warn anyone against that path, not because it doesn’t work. When that doesn’t work it’s still the better scenario. When it does work, people get what they want in an unwanted context, that way to the desired outcomes is usually too toxic to take with terrible downstream effects. Basically astrology as opposed to prayer to the Creator and meditation means to cave to the system.