Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Canaries in A Coal Mine?

There was a time when canaries were used in coal mines to let the miners know that they were in unsafe (I.E. toxic) caves. I often wonder if my boys are the canaries of modern society. Fact is, my family seems to have been poisoned. My children have been touched by epilepsy, autism and kerataconous...and all three have asthma. What do these illnesses all have in common?

It appears that while no one knows the specific causes of epilepsy, autism, keratoaconous or asthma what they all have in common is a mix of genetics and environmental toxins. It is often speculated that it is unknown toxins that can trigger these genetic dispositions.

Luckily..my canaries are still singing. They are singing despite the fact that we seem to be moving them from one toxic environment to another. They realize, these canaries of mine, that they have been blessed in relation to other, not so fortunate, canaries.

I wonder. Is it the house we lived in and refinished? Did it have lead paint?How about the playground? Was it filled with unknown metals? Did we worsen things with the manufactured home we bought years later? Was it packed with formaldehyde? Did we allow too many immunizations too close together?Were my children reacting to mercury in our tuna? Was it the massive amounts of power lines by the neighborhood pool? Too much chlorine? This list is endless. We try to keep things fairly safe and sound..but we've never been over vigilant. We obviously have missed on several counts.

But I want to know. I need to know. I'm tired of speculating.I need to know for my children. I need to know for my future grandchildren..(imaginary or not). I need to know for all future generations.

What are my canaries telling us?

2 comments:

Carol Pavliska said...

Nicole - I don't even know what to say. I have all the same thoughts, believe me. Why does Jules have a tumor? Why does he have asperger's? Was it something I did? Why is Joel a virtual pea soup of learning disabilities? I, too, go through all of it. The truth is...we will probably never know. But it chills me to think about "when" the trigger was clicked. I think about it all the time....

simplynicole said...

(sigh) I know. You're right. My mom pointed out that her generation somehow survived running behind trucks spraying DDT...but at least they finally recognized what they were doing!