Presentation by science writer Nalaka Gunawardene to a Media Workshop on Reporting on Chemical Safety issues, organised by Centre for Environmental Justice, Sri Lanka, in Colombo on 25 September 2012

1. Surviving Chemicals &
Making Sense of Them
By Nalaka Gunawardene
Science Writer & Columnist
www.nalakagunawardene.com
Presentation to Media workshop on scientific reporting
on chemical issues
Organised by Centre for Environmental Justice
Colombo, 25 September 2012

2. It’s All About Managing Risks!
 Modern life depends on 100s of
chemicals (going back to Stone
Age not an option)
 Toxicity depends on dose,
exposure, resilience, etc.
 100% chemical free life NOT
POSSIBLE ANYWHERE ON EARTH
 Understand risks; stay within
tolerable levels
 Don’t Demonise Science & Tech!

3. 5 Leading Lights in Public Science:
Balancing Risk & Benefits
 Rachel Carson (1907 – 1964)
 Alice Hamilton (1869 – 1970)
 Sherwood Rowland (1927 – 2012)
 Theo Colborn (1927 - )
 Anil Agarwal (1947 – 2002)
 Remind us
there are HONEST,
CONSCIENTIOUS SCIENTISTS too!

4. Rachel Louise Carson (1907-1964):
Inspired Environmental Movement
 Marine biologist
 Worked for US Bureau of
Fisheries
 Became nature writer in 1950s:
original books on oceans
 Late 1950s: Turned attention to
impacts of pesticides on
animals, ecosystems – humans?
 Most important book: 1962…

5. 50 Years ago, in 1962:
A book that changed the world…
 This is the way

6. Quick Impact…
 This is the way
 ththth

7. US Senate subcommittee on
pesticides, 1963
 This is the way
 ththth

8. Alice Hamilton (1869 – 1970):
Pioneer in Toxicology
 Trained as medical doctor 
professor of pathology
 Studied industrial medicine &
occupational health issues
 First woman to join as teacher
of Harvard Medical School
 Pioneer in toxicology: what
are chemicals doing to our
bodies?

9. Adding Lead to Gasoline/Petrol
 1924: Oil & car companies
introduce Tetra Ethyl Lead
(TEL) to prevent petrol car
engines ‘knocking’
 To boost octane & raise
compression ratios
 Public health specialists:
Lead is a well known poison!
 Industry: “Don’t worry - Not
harmful in small doses!”

10. Singing Praise of Lead Additives…

11. Counterpoint:
Surely you can do better?
“It would be foolish to talk of the
industrial value of tetraethyl lead,
when there is a health hazard
involved. Men who could discover
the fuel value of tetraethyl
certainly could invent or discover
something equally efficient and in
no way dangerous. American
chemists can do it if they will.”
- Dr Alice Hamilton, 1925

13. Evidence piles up over decades…
1970: US finally bans lead in petrol…
 This is the way
 ththth
Sri Lanka finally kicked lead addiction in 2002.

14. Kicking out Lead in Petrol:
A Rare Success Story worldwide
 Developing countries followed North
America & Europe  Lead phased out in
most countries by 1990s
 Sri Lanka: State petroleum monopoly
dragged its feet for dozen years, finally
did so in 2002
 Sustained evidence-based advocacy-
story recalled in my recent column:
http://collidecolumn.wordpress.com/201
2/07/15/when-worlds-collide-24-kicking-
lead-in-petrol-lessons-for-cleaning-up-
dirty-diesel/

15. Frank Sherwood Rowland
(1927-2012): Saved Ozone Layer
 This is the way
 ththth

16. 1974 - Sherwood Rowland & Mario
Molina: “CFCs damage Ozone Layer”
 This is the way
 ththth

17. CFCs: Another ‘Wonder Chemical’
turns deadly after a few decades…
 This is the way
 ththth

18. Govts reacted quickly to new
science…So many lives saved!
 Montreal Protocol is
estimated to have
prevented (1987-2010):
 19 million cases of non-
melanoma (skin) cancer
 1.5 million cases of
melanoma cancer
 130 million cases of eye
cataracts.

19. Theo Colborn (1927 - ):
Gender-Bender Detective
 Originally trained as a
pharmacologist
 PhD in zoology at age 58
 Discovery in 1980s at Great
Lakes of North America: fish,
birds, reptiles & mammals
suffering from mysterious
reproductive disorders
 Male/female hormones
affected – how & why?

20. Theo Colborn as ‘Detective’…
 Industrial chemicals (in pesticides,
plastics & cosmetics, etc.) interfered
with animals' endocrine systems, where
hormones are regulated.
 All chemicals had one thing in common:
at molecular level, they were
structurally similar to estrogen, female
hormone: GENDER-BENDERS?
 Colborn speculated: chemical pollutants
responsible for lower sperm counts
among men in Europe?

21. Our Stolen Future, 1996
A new scientific discipline:
Endocrine disruption
 Still active at 85…
 What are all these chemicals
doing to human bodies, at
chemical level?
 Look beyond cancers to
other effects too!
 Researchers keep probing
www.endocrinedisruption.com

22. Anil Agarwal (1947 – 2002):
Holding Science Accountable
 IIT-qualified mechanical
engineer  science
journalist & eco campaigner
 Reporter, Hindustan Times
(India), New Scientist (UK)#
 Founded Centre for Science
& Environment (CSE), 1980
 Started India’s Down to
Earth magazine, 1992

23. Evidence-based Advocacy:
e.g. People’s Right to Clean Air

24. Right to Clean Air – both outdoors
AND indoors…
 Not just outdoor pollution
by vehicles & factories
 ALSO indoor pollution from
poorly ventilated kitchens
 Exposing millions of women
& children to respiratory
illnesses & premature
deaths

26. Anil Agarwal asks in 1996: “My Story
Today; Your Story Tomorrow?”
 1994: Diagnosed with ocular
& central nervous system
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
(NHL)
 “I learnt that the black lines
in my eyes were cancer cells
which had formed a sheet in
front of the retina.”
 1996 Down to Earth cover:
his own story

27. We are shaped by what we eat,
drink & breathe…NO ESCAPE!
 “As an environmental activist and
writer, I have tried for years to
promote nationwide concern about
the deteriorating state of our
environment. The idea of writing about
my own travails as an environmental
victim had, however, never crossed my
mind. But obviously, I could not have
escaped what was and is happening all
around me.”
- Anil Agarwal in 1996

28. Covering Chemical Stories in Media:
A few generic tips
• ‘Chemical Pollution’ stories never
just that – there’s much more!
• Complex links to govt policy,
regulation, industrial lobbies,
technology options, etc, etc.
• Strong vested interests: money,
power, intrigue!
• At stake: public health & lives
• Hype & disinformation abound
• But success stories too!

29. How to cover complex, evolving
environmental stories…
 Many stories are science-based…
 Ideal media coverage: informed by
science, but NOT IMMERSED in it!
 Chemical safety: environment +
business + health + politics + rights
 Science is a self-correcting process
 There are good scientists, too!
 LOOK FOR HIDDEN STORIES…

30. Under-Reported Toxic Stories…
 Gradual poisoning of our bodies
and surroundings (too slow for
Breaking News?)
 Toxic chemicals mixed up in the air
(e.g. Diesel fumes that cause
cancer)
 Chemicals used by public agencies
& utilities (e.g. chlorine to purify
drinking water)
 HOW COME THESE GET AWAY
WITHOUT MUCH SCRUTINY?

31. Lead in petrol is gone…
Our next challenge: sulphur in diesel?
 June 2012: WHO Expert Group confirms diesel fumes
definitely carcinogenic
 Limited media reaction
in Sri Lanka: WHY?
 My column, 8 July 2012:
‘Slow Murder’ by Subsidised Diesel Fumes:
http://collidecolumn.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/w
hen-worlds-collide-23-slow-murder-by-subsidised-
diesel-fumes/

32. WHY ISN’T THIS CONFIRMED KILLER NOT GETTING AS
MUCH PRESS AS SPECULATED “ARSENIC IN RICE”?
Cartoon courtesy: CSE India

33. Diesel sulphur level in Sri Lanka: 3,000 parts per million
(ppm); Contrast with India 350 ppm & Japan, 30 - 50 ppm
DIESEL FUMES CAUSE CANCER: WHY ISN’T THIS A STORY?

34. Advice to scientist-activists…
“Scientists should first
establish themselves as
scientists, with a solid record
of peer-reviewed
achievement, THEN speak out
in their area of expertise
--loudly, if necessary.”
- Edward O Wilson
Harvard biologist, author

35. Asking Questions…
Connecting Dots…
Seeking Clarity…
Email: alien@nalaka.org
Blog: www.nalakagunawardene.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/NalakaG