THE TOXIC PLUME

From The Cancer Chronicles #3
© 1989 by Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.


Two interesting items recently crossed our desk:

1) A Massachusetts Institute of Technology press release.

"Ciba-Geigy Announces $3 Million Professorship and Research Endowment in Chemistry at MIT" (October 19, 1989).

MIT President, Paul E. Gray, praised the giant drug and chemical company for "its long-term philanthropic commitment to teaching and scientific research." An item in the same MIT press kit proclaimed, "The company maintains...a commitment to science education and the protection of the environment" (emphasis added).

2) A New York Times story:

"Toxic Levels For an Aquifer Worry E.P.A." (October 10, 1989).

An industrial polluter has created an underground lake of contaminated materials near Toms River, New Jersey. "The plume of poisons, about a mile square and between 30 and 100 feet deep, will have to be pumped at a rate of about 3 million gallons a day for three decades before the aquifer is cleansed to drinking water purity," said the Times. Government officials have already found 95 chemicals in the plume, including such "cancer-causing agents as benzene, arsenic and chloroform" (ibid.). Even the air around the site is dangerous to breathe.

The company has been fined $1.65 million for illegally dumping 14,000 drums of hazardous waste. It is in similar trouble in New York and Massachusetts and two of its officials have been indicted for illegal dumping.

The name of the company? Ciba-Geigy, of course.

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Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D. is the author of eight books and three documentaries on cancer-related topics. He is an advisor on alternative cancer treatments to the National Institutes of Health, Columbia University, and the University of Texas. He researches and writes individualized "Healing Choices" reports for people with cancer. For information on Healing Choices, you can contact coordinator Anne Beattie @ 144 St. John's Place, Brooklyn, NY 11217; Phone 718-636-4433; Fax 718-636-0186.


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