Is There Such a Thing as a Cancer Belt?

Ever since we moved here in 1987, we have heard the words Cancer Belt.

My Grandparents who lived in the house in which we live both died of cancer. My Uncle Donnie who took care of them died of cancer. All three were heavy smokers, but why do some people get it and other don't?

Dozens of people that I have had the pleasure of knowing have died in the time that I have lived here and all from Cancer.

Why?

I have a couple of theories that I will share, now these are not based on scientific fact just plain old observation.

1) Nearly every weather system that develops on our continent goes from west to east, and we breath air blown all the way across the country blowing all of the good air mixed with all kinds of pollutants from other areas. Often during the summer, not only are we breathing all of those pollutants but we also end up drinking them and eating them. Many of the weather systems dump that weathers rain right smack on top of us with chemicals of all different sorts. Which leads me to my next observation...

2) If all of this weather from across the country rains or snows on us bringing all of the toxic chemicals right here to the ground on which we walk sow our seeds eat our vegetables, in the end seeps down into our groundwater, which in my backyard is exactly 4'1" from the surface.

3) If these various chemicals leach into our soil and eventually into our groundwater, then that means we are drinking all of them. This can't be good for us.

4) Additionally, we are host a huge array of factory farms not only on the eastern shore but the Shenandoah Valley, Pennsylvania, and western Maryland, all of whose water flows right to us.

We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Chicken farms create huge amounts of nitrogen. While nitrogen on very limited scale is good for the soil in mass quantities it is proven to cause cancer.

Moreover, all of the chemicals that we feed these animals including growth hormones and, antibiotics to name a few are not only being eaten when we purchase these animals in our local stores and ingest them, but they are also excreted in their waste.

Recently, it was reported on national news sources that pharmaceuticals have been found in our drinking water. What else is in there. They test for lead, ammonia, chlorine, and other things but are we testing for all of these other things and are we making provision to rectify these.

WBOC did a story the other day about how polluted the Pocomoke River is, because of an antiquated sewer system dumping millions of gallons a day of treated effluent into the river everyday from the Snow Hill, Sewer Treatment Facility. This town has got to address these issues post haste. They had the opportunity to have federal monies to replace it but a developer wanted to purchase a huge amount of land and was speculating on building a development that would double the current size of Snow Hill. Now that developer can't obtain the bonds necessary to install the system. The market is in the toilet, and he can't get the financing, and now we will all suffer.

I found a site factoryfarmmap.org this map will show you what factory farms are in your area, how many, and the top polluters.

According to the map Maryland is #10 in the nation for Broiler Chicken Production, and #23 out of 50 in polluters.

This is a very interesting site, and extremely informative. Check it out!

We owe to ourselves and our children to clean up our acts and take responsibility ourselves to make this a healthier place to live.