As you drive through the neighborhoods surrounding the former Kelly Air Force Base in Texas, you will notice small purple crosses planted in front lawns. The crosses mark the homes of cancer victims. The people who live in these neighborhoods call where they live the toxic triangle. They believe they have been poisoned by the industrial solvent, trichloroethylene, or TCE, that was dumped at the base for decades and subsequently spread for miles through a shallow aquifer under the 22,000 nearby houses.

The local health authorities admit they have found evidence of increased rates of liver cancer and birth defects for the residents of these neighborhoods, but state it is impossible to say that TCE is the cause. The residents are absolutely certain TCE is the cause of the cancers that plague the people who live there. And this same fate is playing out all over the country, in other cities that are home to military bases, industrial plants, nuclear weapons laboratories and NASA centers.

The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, in the first updated assessment of the nationwide health risk estimates for air toxics since 1996, reports that people who live in large cities have a 25 in a million greater chance of developing cancer than the general population. The lifetime cancer risk in transportation corridors and some other locations is greater than 50 in a million. Benzene is the most significant air toxic for which cancer risk could be estimated, contributing 25 percent of the average individual cancer risk identified in the EPA assessment. In addition, the EPA concluded that diesel exhaust is among the substances that poses the greatest relative risk. Which all helps to explain why, even though smoking is said to be the leading cause of lung cancer, many people who do not smoke cigarettes are diagnosed with lung cancer.

The Organic Consumers Association is alerting the public to the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, approval of use for the cancer-causing pesticide methyl iodide. If approved, farmers will be allowed to apply up to 400 pounds of the pesticide per acre. According to The Organic Consumers Association, the EPA admits this pesticide causes cancer, and yet, it is likely to be used as a fungicide for widespread application on tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, tobacco, melons, potatoes and other root crops. February 21 is the deadline for public input regarding this issue.

On the EPA's hazard summary page for methyl iodide, updated 2000, it states that no information is available on the carcinogenic effects of methyl iodide in humans, however, they do say there is evidence that methyl iodide is carcinogenic in animals.

The Organic Consumers Association has created an easy-to-use web form where you can send a message to the EPA, asking them to reject the registration of methyl iodide, and to start promoting safe methods of food production. If we want safe food and a cleaner environment, we have to start speaking up.