What Are The Poison Papers, and Why You Should Care

Something happened last week which could shake up the chemical and pesticide industries forever. Because these events concern chemical toxicity, and the pesticide industry in particular, we thought you should know a little more about them. Here’s a quick outline on what’s being called The Poison Papers.

 

What Are The Poison Papers?

The Poison Papers consist of over 200,000 pages—or three tons of documents—which outline scientific studies, communications and other interactions between chemical companies and government regulators. Going back to the 1920s, these papers were collected by impassioned activist and author Carol Van Strum via decades of litigation with Dow Chemical, the EPA, Monsanto (the makers of suspected carcinogenic weed-killer Roundup) and other private and public agencies.

Van Strum took up the charge of challenging chemical-based pesticides when in 1974 she discovered the Forest Service was spraying her rural Oregon community with the herbicide 2,3,5-T. One of two active ingredients in the now banned chemical warfare substance Agent Orange, 2,3,5-T had been linked to cancer and birth defects, and so Van Strum made it her mission to stop its use in her own backyard. After all, if it was too toxic for the U.S. Military in war efforts, it was certainly far too dangerous for use around the public (from ‘72 to ‘77, the Forest Service sprayed some 20,000 pounds of 2,4,5-T in the area directly surrounding Van Strum’s home).

Shortly after Van Strum’s neighborhood was blanketed with this toxic herbicide, the community began witnessing frightening effects: including several unexplained miscarriages, unusual illnesses, and sightings of mutated wildlife, such as ducks with backward-facing feet. Sadly, Van Strum’s very own children—who were accidentally sprayed while fishing at the local river—suffered nosebleeds, headaches and bloody diarrhea.

Combatting these chemicals and their promoters became a lifelong project for Van Strum, and the Poison Papers are the result of her valiant efforts. With the help of the Bioscience Resource Project, watchdog group The Center for Media and Democracy, and journalist Peter von Stackelberg, these documents have now been digitized and made public for the first time.

 

What Do They Reveal

Peter von Stackelberg, the journalist who helped make the documents public, says The Poison Papers “lay out a 40-year history of deceit and collusion involving the chemical industry and the regulatory agencies that were supposed to be protecting human health and the environment.” Among its countless revelations, The Poison Papers show how industry figures and regulators collaborated to conceal evidence that many chemicals deemed safe were in fact dangerous, and that many of the studies used to show their safety were known to be faulty. Additional revelations include:

• EPA collusion with the paper industry to “suppress, modify, or delay” the results of studies meant to test the toxicity of chemicals used in baby diapers, coffee filters and other paper products
• EPA concealment of studies which found dangerous levels of toxins in human breast milk due to use of 2,4,5-T by the Forest Service (the same pesticide sprayed on Carol Van Strum’s community)
• Testimony in which Monsanto’s chief medical officer, George Roush, admits under oath that Monsanto’s studies into the effects of its chemicals on workers were falsified to conceal their toxicity

The most disturbing aspect of The Poison Papers is not the damning evidence it provides against chemical companies (many have long suspected they’re corrupt), but rather the extent to which government agencies—the very entities meant to protect us—colluded with these companies to deceive the general public. We now know children, families and the environment have been exposed to harmful, potentially fatal toxins for decades on account of these deceptions. According to Dr. Jonathan Latham, Executive Director of the Bioscience Resource Project, “these secret activities extended and increased human exposure to chemicals they knew to be toxic.”

Worst of all, almost every chemical highlighted in The Poison Papers is still being manufactured, sold and used today!

“In total, the stark truth revealed by these 50 years of documents is that the entire pesticide industry could not exist without lies, coverups, rampant fraud, and government enablers,” Van Strum, who spent decades of her life compiling these papers, concludes.

 

HOW YOU CAN SEE THEM

Want to have a look for yourself? Now that they’ve been made public, The Poison Papers are accessible and searchable by the public. To learn more about The Poison Papers and to view all 20,000 documents, visit poisonpapers.org.

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