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The following are some famous environmental quotes centered on the theme of dangerous chemicals and pollution. If you would like to go to the online environmental forum Click Here.
“Remember when atmospheric contaminants were romantically called stardust?”
- Lane Olinghouse
“For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death.”
- Rachel Carson
“It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.”
- Dan Quayle
“Since December 1984, I have personally witnessed how broken widows with no future, or children who were forced to become heads of their orphaned families at the age of 9, and day-labourers who lost their ‘ability to work’, all turned into strong human beings, great activists, tireless campaigners and capable organisers. This self-empowerment through collective struggle is the single greatest achievement of the people of Bhopal and their transformation from victims to victors.”
- Praful Bidwai
“There is a very, very big connection between the emergence of new diseases and environmental change.”
- Nick Nuttall
“Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources.”
- Ronald Reagan
“I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”
- T. S. Eliot
“Your health isn’t bordered by your body.”
- Michael Pollan
“The U.S. is one of the most progressive countries in the world. We are one of the leading industrial nations, our citizens drive tens of millions of cars, our homes are insulated, we have central air conditioning and indoor heat, we produce more food than any other country in the world and store it in refrigerators, our floors are carpeted and our lawns are weed-free. We have makeup to make us look more beautiful, Botox™ to make us look younger, strips to make our teeth whiter and prescription drugs to make us live longer. So why are so many Americans, especially our children, getting and dying from diseases like CANCER? As it turns out, the very “aspects” of modern life that have supposedly made life easier are, in fact, making life more dangerous. And these “aspects” can be summed up in one word - chemicals. In 1989, the U.S. produced its one millionth man-made chemical. While many of these chemicals have made our lives more enjoyable, most are finding their way into our bodies and wreaking havoc. Of the 70,000 chemicals being used commercially in the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers 65,000 of them to be potentially — if not definitely — hazardous to your health. And that's not all. More than 6,000 new chemicals are being tested in the U.S. every week! What’s frightening is that these chemicals aren't just sitting around in warehouses. According to the Environmental Defense Group, more than 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals are released into the environment each year - 72 million pounds of which are known carcinogens. And where are these cancer-causing agents ending up? In the air you breathe, the water you drink and in the food you eat. They are everywhere.”
- Dr. Sherry A. Rogers
“Stratospheric ozone depletion threatens us with enhanced ultra-violet radiation at the earth's surface, which can be damaging or lethal to many life forms. Air pollution near ground level, and acid precipitation, are already causing widespread injury to humans, forests and crops.”
- 'Warning to Humanity', under the heading 'The Atmosphere', the statement signed by 1600 senior scientists from 70 countries including 102 Nobel Prize laureates on November 18, 1992.
“Give me cancer 50 million times, but please don't give it to my children.”
- Lance Armstrong
“Polluted rivers, filthy streets... are no advertisement for a prosperous or caring society.”
- Michael Heseltine
“When the planes still swoop down and aerial spray a field in order to kill a predator insect with pesticides, we are in the Dark Ages of commerce. Maybe one thousandth of this aerial insecticide actually prevents the infestation. The balance goes to the leaves, into the soil, into the water, into all forms of wildlife, into ourselves. What is good for the balance sheet is wasteful of resources and harmful to life.”
- Paul Hawken
“If man has not found ways to deal with environmental problems such as water and air pollution by 1998, it will be too late. The future is not determined and it lies in our own hands.”
- Margaret Mead
“We should never lose sight of the fact that Bhopal can happen in the United States.”
- Al Cholger
“I have no doubt at the present time that the greatest polluting element in the earth's environment is the proliferation of electromagnetic radiation.”
- Dr. Robert O. Becker
“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.”
- Helen Keller
“One of the first laws against air pollution came in 1300 when King Edward I decreed the death penalty for burning of coal. At least one execution for that offense is recorded. But economics triumphed over health considerations, and air pollution became an appalling problem in England.”
- Glenn T. Seaborg
“Children between ages one and three are at the greatest risk [of lead poisoning] because of normal hand-to-mouth activity and the increase in mobility during their second and third years, which make lead hazards more accessible to them.”
- President's Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children [2000]
“Loads of chemicals and hazardous wastes have been introduced into the atmosphere that didn't even exist in 1948. The environmental condition of the planet is far worse than it was 42 years ago.”
- Gaylord Nelson
“I have been deeply moved by the suffering, by the stories and by the voices of the people of Bhopal. I am extremely honored, therefore, to add my voice to the growing chorus of voices from around the world demanding justice for the victims of one of the world's largest industrial disasters. I consider it unconscionable and obscene that 18 years and some 20,000 deaths later we are still even having a discussion about just compensation, particularly, for the thousands of innocent men, women, and children who have been left scarred, disfigured, and maimed by this example of corporate negligence. However, this is not just about Bhopal, this is about all of us since it could happen to any of us. I also want to applaud the courage, the caring, and the compassion of people around the world, like Diane Wilson, who are currently engaged in prolonged hunger strikes in order to focus world-wide attention on the fact that--despite the boundaries and oceans that divide us--we are still one people. Their courageous actions are a reminder that we all inhabit one planet and we all breathe the same air. As I join with them in fasting for the next five days, I also join with them in urging Dow Chemicals to justly compensate the people of Bhopal.”
- Danny Glover
“Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day. But teach a man how to fish, and he'll be dead of mercury poisoning inside of three years.”
- Charles Haas
“If having endured much, we at last asserted our 'right to know' and if, knowing, we have concluded that we are being asked to take senseless and frightening risks, then we should no longer accept the counsel of those who tell us that we must fill our world with poisonous chemicals, we should look around and see what other course is open to us.”
- Rachel Carson
“Our health relies entirely on the vitality of our fellow species on Earth.”
- Harrison Ford
“Take air quality in the United States today: It's about 30 percent better than it was 25 years ago, even though there are now more people driving more cars.”
- Jared Diamond
“There is no comprehensive animal model for humankind. The truth is, and always has been, that the first clinical use of new medication in human patients provides the first reliable clues as to what can be expected of it. Pre-marketing research on animals is a lottery; post marketing surveillance comes too late for the first human victims of side-effects.”
- Dr. Peter Mansfield
“Research suggests there is no safe exposure to lead. Lead poisoning is one of the most serious environmental health problems in the U.S. and the world.”
- Jerome Nriagu
“Cancers of all types among women are increasing.”
- Gro H. Brundtland
“Growth and progress are among the key words in our national vocabulary. But modern man now carries Strontium 90 in his bones ... DDT in his fat, asbestos in his lungs. A little more of this progress and growth, and this man will be dead.”
- Morris King Udall
“In Mexico City, Tehran, Kolkata, Bangkok, Shanghai, and hundreds of other cities, the air is no longer safe to breathe. In some cities, the air is so polluted that breathing is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes per day.”
- Lester Brown