| 1961: |
the FDA approves a medication called Ritalin for use by children with behavior problems. By 1975, about 150,000 children in the U.S. will be taking Ritalin. By 2005, about 6 million U.S. children will be using Ritalin, representing 85 percent of total Ritalin consumption in the entire world.
STAGE THREE: 1962-1973
Synthetic Toxins Migrate
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| In Stage Three of the Slippery Slope Index, a watershed event in public policy comes in 1962 with the publication of Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, documenting how toxic synthetic chemicals migrate through the environment and into the flesh of fish and animals. The spread of toxic chemicals is not limited to pesticides, but as later studies will show includes a wide range of common synthetic chemicals that begin to contaminate all human bodies. |
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| 1963: |
The drug thalidomide is given to pregnant women for morning sickness. More than 6,000 babies are born with severe deformities as a result of using the drug. Six years go by before this drug is finally withdrawn from the marketplace.
From this date forward, scholastic aptitude scores for U.S. high school children plummet every year. By the end of the century a possible link will be drawn to their consumption of food additives and other synthetic chemicals. |
| 1964: |
from this date to 1992, according to the USDA, chemical pesticide use in U.S. agriculture increased by 300 percent, though total cropland under cultivation remained virtually the same. |
| 1965: |
a worldwide study of heart disease called the International Atherosclerotic Project studies 20,000 autopsied human bodies from throughout the world and finds clear evidence that people who consumed more saturated fats had more heart attacks and more strokes.
A chemist working for G.D. Searle Company discovers aspartame, an artificial sweetener. |
| 1968: |
a Washington University in St. Louis scientist gives doses of MSG to laboratory mice and discovers widespread brain damage, especially in immature and newborn animals.
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration report reveals that lab animals fed irradiated foods “showed increases in pituitary cancer, testicular tumors, reduced fertility, and shortened life spans.” |
| 1970: |
in this year Americans spend $6 billion on fastfood provided by McDonald’s and other fastfood chains; by the year 2001, Americans will be spending $110 billion a year on fastfood, more than on music, videos, newspapers, magazines, movies and books combined. |
| 1971: |
an association is found between mothers who took DES and a rare form of vaginal cancer in their daughters. Apparently the DES taken during pregnancy affected fetal development.
The U.S. Congress declares war on cancer with the National Cancer Act; 30 years later, the overall death rate from cancer will remain the same as the date this war was declared.
Japanese food scientists syntheize in a laboratory a cheaper sweetener called high-fructose corn syrup that can be used in frozen foods as protection from freezer burn, as well as in baked goods and vending machine foods to hold freshness. An unanticipated discovery in later years is that fructose, once consumed, arrives almost intact in the human liver, not breaking down. No one can yet guess the health implications.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture prepares a publication called “Human Nutrition, Report No. 2, Benefits from Human Nutrition Research,” that attributes most major health problems to nutritional deficiencies found in the modern diet. For 21 years this report will be suppressed from public view, allegedly at the behest of the food processing industry. |
| 1972: |
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) bans the pesticide DDT for its cancer-causing potential in humans. |
| 1973: |
from this date until 1991, a 126 percent increase in prostate cancer is reported by the National Cancer Institute.
From this date until 1996, childhood leukemia increases 17 percent, childhood brain cancer increases 26 percent, breast cancer in women increases 25 percent, and testicular cancer increases 41 percent.
A pediatric allergist tells a conference of the American Medical Association that food additives acount for half of the hyperactivity cases he sees among his child patients. These children improve dramatically when they no longer consume foods with synthetic colorings, flavors, or preservatives.
The FDA bans the artificial coloring agent Violet No. 1 as a carcinogen. This cancer-causing dye had been used for the past two decades by the U.S. Agriculture Department to stamp every piece of meat sold in the U.S. with grades of “Prime” or “Choice” or “USDA.”
STAGE FOUR: 1974 Onward
Food Quality Deteriorates
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| In Stage Four of the Slippery Slope Index, most meat, fish and dairy products by the 1970s, if factory farmed, are laced with growth hormones, antibiotics, and a range of pesticides and other toxins. Processed foods have exploded in the sheer numbers of products on grocery store shelves and most are composed of synthetic chemical additives, such as colorings, preservatives, sugar substitutes, and taste enhancers. Fast food franchises have also emerged as the primary restaurant dining experience for most Americans. |
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| 1974: |
the U.S. FDA approves the artificial sweetener aspartame after its manufacturer, G.D. Searle, submits study results showing its safety. A year later an FDA task force finds evidence some of the data submitted by Searle had been falsified to hide results showing animals fed aspartame had developed seizures and brain tumors, but no recall or ban is enacted. |
| 1975: |
a report by the World Conference on Animal Production estimates that factory farmed animals contain up to 30 times more saturated fat than animals raised just three decades earlier. |
| 1976: |
the director of the National Cancer Institute, Arthur Upton, tells a committee of the U.S. Congress that half of all cancers are caused by diet. |
| 1977: |
The National Institutes of Health issues the first of three warnings that an epidemic of obesity is looming in the U.S.
From this date forward to 1994 the number of children in special education programs as a result of learning disabilities increases 191 percent.
Testing by the FDA finds 38 percent of all grocery foods sampled contain pesticide residue; by 1998 the FDA will discover that 55 percent of all foods sampled contain pesticides.
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| 1982: |
From this date to 1992, the annual death rate from asthma among young people increases by more than 40 percent. |
| 1985: |
a Smithsonian Institute cancer scientist publishes scientific papers demonstrating that historical outbreaks of cancer in fish only began after the widespread distribution of synthetic chemicals in the early 20th century.
The medical journal Lancet reports a study in which 79 percent of hyperactive children improve when artificial colorings and flavorings are eliminated from their diet.
Between 1976 and this date, reports the U.S. General Accounting Office, more than half of the 198 drugs approved by the FDA turned out to demonstrate serious health risks that included organ failure and death. |
| 1986: |
The National Academy of Sciences releases a report estimating that up to 15 percent of the U.S. population suffers from multiple chemical sensitivities causing various degrees of discomfort; by 1993, just six years later, the Academy will estimate that figure has doubled to 30 percent of the population. |
| 1988: |
the British medical journal The Lancet publishes a study showing a correlation between vitamin/mineral supplementation and intelligence scores among British schoolchildren. Dietary deficiencies were found to be hindering school performance. |
| 1989: |
a division of the National Academy of Sciences warns that the use of antibiotics in factory farms will create antibiotic resistant bacteria that will seriously undermine human health.
A laboratory study in Boston finds that rats given moderate amounts of fluoride in their drinking water give birth to hyperactive babies, while baby rats exhibit retardation and other cognitive defects. Many Americans are routinely exposed to higher relative levels of fluoride than the levels administered to the rats. |
| 1990: |
from this date forward, more than 120,000 NEW processed foods and beverages will be introduced into a marketplace already filled with 320,000 food products competing for shelf space.
From this date to 1998, the incidence of diabetes in the U.S. will increase by 33 percent. |
| 1992: |
The FDA announces a finding that 65 percent of women’s cosmetics sampled contain carcinogenic contaminants.
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| 1994: |
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the marketing of genetically modified foods. Within seven years, genetically modified varieties will account for 26 percent of the corn, 68 percent of the soybeans and 69 percent of the cotton planted in the United States. Food processors will use ingredients from transgenic corn and soybeans in 60 percent of processed foods on grocery store shelves.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that the number of low-birth-weight infants rose 6.6 percent in the U.S. between 1981 and 1991. |
| 1997: |
a study in the medical journal, Pediatrics, reports the results of a survey of 17,000 girls that finds by the age of eight about one in seven white girls and one out of every two African-American girls are starting puberty with breast growth and pubic hair. Even more startling, one out of every one hundred white girls and three out of every one hundred African-American girls show these characteristics at the age of three years old! The explanation for this early onset of puberty seems to be in their diets.
STAGE FIVE: 1998 Onward
Health Impacts Accelerate
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| In Stage Four of the Slippery Slope Index, most meat, fish and dairy products by the 1970s, if factory farmed, are laced with growth hormones, antibiotics, and a range of pesticides and other toxins. Processed foods have exploded in the sheer numbers of products on grocery store shelves and most are composed of synthetic chemical additives, such as colorings, preservatives, sugar substitutes, and taste enhancers. Fast food franchises have also emerged as the primary restaurant dining experience for most Americans. |
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| 1998: |
The Council for Responsible Nutrition reports that the U.S. health care system can save $10 billion a year on the costs of treating breast, lung and stomach cancers if only Americans would consume recommended levels of vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta-carotene.
A study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association reveals that 106,000 people die each year in American hospitals from the side effects of prescription medications. Another 2.2 million people a year have serious but nonfatal reactions to prescribed drugs. Adverse drug reactions have become the 4th leading cause of death in the U.S.
As of this date, 75,500 synthetic chemicals are registered as appearing in consumer products, agriculture and industry. The EPA has over 24,000 pesticides registered and the FDA oversees 8,000 chemicals used in cosmetics and as food additives.
The Journal of Epidemiology publishes a study showing serious negative side effects from chlorine byproducts found in drinking water. Chlorinated tap water in three regions of California increased miscarriages among women who drank more tap water containing chlorine than bottled water. |
| 1999: |
according to the Centers for Disease Control, the annual reported number of foodborne disease cases in the U.S. amounts to 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. Most are caused by viruses and bacteria.
As of this year, more than 25,000 cosmetics chemicals are in use. Less than 4 percent of these cosmetics ingredients have been tested for safety in humans. |
| 2000: |
the National Academy of Sciences reports that half of all pregnancies in the U.S. result in less than healthy babies. Up to one-third of the developmental defects in these babies were caused by exposure to toxic chemicals.
Half of all Americans now take at least one prescription drug every day; 25 percent of Americans take multiple prescription drugs every day.
The incidence of testicular cancer is now estimated to be four times higher than just 50 years earlier.
The Physicians for Social Responsibility releases a report describing “an epidemic of developmental, learning and behavioral disabilities” affecting an estimated 12 million children in the U.S. Evidence suggests the epidemic may be a result of toxic chemicals affecting the central nervous system of these children. |
| 2001: |
the Center for Disease Control announces that the food we eat is responsible for twice the numbers of illnesses in the U.S. in comparison to just seven years earlier.
The Journal of the American Medical Association publishes a study revealing that of 6.7 million adult annual visits to the doctor for a sore throat between 1989 and 1999, antibiotics were prescribed in 73 percent of the visits even though antibiotics do not treat viral infections. |
| 2002: |
the Journal of the American Medical Association reports a relationship between chronic disease and vitamin intake, recommending that all adults take at least one multi-vitamin a day because the absence of these vitamins in their food puts them at risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis.
The U.S. pharmaceutical industry now employs 675 lobbyists, including 26 former members of Congress, and spends $91 million a year on influencing decisions made by Congress.
For the first time since 1958, the U.S. infant mortality rate increases. It is now twice that of Japan and most other industrial nations.
Harvard School of Public Health researchers report in the journal Epidemiology that phthalates found in plastics may be contributing to reproductive defects. The study of 168 male patients at a fertility clinic found that the men with the highest levels of phthalates in their blood were also those with the lowest sperm counts and lowest sperm activity.
A study in the medical journal, Archives of Disease in Childhood, reveals how 400 children were tested for the effects of food additives and artifical preservatives on their behavior. The results demonstrated “a substantial effect” of these synthetics stimulating hyperactivity and behavioral problems.
The FDA announces that it is issuing twice the number of public advisories about drug risks and adding five times as many black box warnings on drug labels as it did just a year earlier.
U.S. Geological Survey scientists in Colorado discover that the byproducts of anti-bacterial soap, prescription drugs, steroids, bug spray and other chemical products are entering streams and groundwater and disrupting fish reproduction while increasing resistance to antibiotics among people who consume the fish.
The medical journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention reports a Columbia University study examining the health effects of exposure of pregnant women to air pollutants in New York City. A 50 percent increase in the level of persistent genetic abnormalities in infants was detected in those whose mothers had high air pollution exposure.
Yale School of Medicine researchers report that low doses of the environmental contaminant bisphenol-A (BPA) used to make many plastics found in food storage containers can lead to learning disabilities in children and neurodegenerative diseases in adults.
Surgical clinics surveyed by The Sunday Times in Britain report a sharp upsurge in the numbers of men seeking breast reduction surgery. Hormones in the water are blamed for a doubling of cases in just a year of gynecomastia, a hormonal-induced growth in men’s breasts.
Researchers with the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project discover that two-thirds of some species of fish examined from coastal waters off Los Angeles and Orange counties possess both male and female reproductive organs. The seafloor sediment in these areas is contaminated with estrogenic chemicals from wastewater effluent generated by nine million inhabitants of coastal cities.
A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, finds that the EPA is failing to protect people from tens of thousands of toxic chemicals. Chemical companies have provided health impact data to the EPA for only about15 percent of chemicals introduced over the past 30 years. |
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Breast cancer in women is very rare in 1900; by 1960, breast cancer will affect one in 20 women; by 2005, one in three women will develop breast cancer.
The first cases of a new childhood disorder called autism are reported by Johns Hopkins University psychiatrist Leo Kanner.
