Giving all Americans the right to be born into a healthy environment that does not cause chronic disease.
Giving all Americans the right to be born into a healthy environment that does not cause chronic disease.
The 28 th Amendment Project—Giving all Americans the right to be born into a healthy environment that does not cause chronic disease.
AMENDING THE U.S. CONSTITUTION
Article V of the U.S. Constitution provides two paths for amending the Constitution:
Path 1:
• Step 1: Two-thirds of both houses of Congress pass a proposed constitutional amendment. This sends the proposed amendment to the states for ratification.
• Step 2: Three-fourths of the states (38 states) ratify the proposed amendment, either by their legislatures or special ratifying conventions.
What is more important for the long-term health of a nation than the health of its citizens? A nation grows weak as its people fall to disease. In 1985, 5-10% of children born in the US lived with a chronic disease. Today, just thirty years later, 40% of children live with chronic disease. Many diseases have increased 2-10 times from 1985 to 2015 (Figure 1). Children with chronic disease grow up to be adults with disabilities and disease. This increase in chronic disease is not due to a change in our genes, or a failure in our healthcare system. The increase in disease is the result of measureable chemical changes in our food chain, air, water, and soil. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was given the task of protecting human health by protecting the environment, but economic cuts have handicapped it since its last major contribution to public health, the banning of leaded gasoline in 1996 1 .
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| Figure 1. 40% of Children Born Today Suffer with Chronic Disease. The prevalence of over 20 diseases has increased 2-to-10-times since 1980s. |
The Naviaux Lab is seeking help to start a movement to create, refine, and ratify a 28 th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This amendment will enunciate a new right for all American citizens. This is “right to be born into a healthy environment”, an environment that will not cause chronic childhood and adult disease. This right is an inalienable right of citizens of the 21 st century. The text of this amendment will serve as a template for similar amendment in all nations of the world.
We didn’t need to think about preserving a healthy environment much in past centuries because the number of humans on the planet was not enough to permanently intoxicate and degrade the natural resources of the biosphere. This situation reached a tipping point in 1988 2-5 . In 1988, there were 5.1 billion people on Earth. In that year, the human population consumed resources and released waste products at a rate the Earth could renew and recycle sustainably. After that, we began to live on biological principle. In 2016, the human population is 7.4 billion. Ever since 1988, we have been consuming natural resources faster than they can be replaced, and releasing waste that is accumulating in both obvious in less obvious places. The Great Pacific Garbage patch is a slow moving swirl of plastics and non-biodegradable detritus that is now twice the size of Texas and continuously releasing pesticides and organic pollutants on a global scale 6 .
Nanoscale chemical waste is the natural cast-off of an unregulated industrial economy. Many of these chemicals can be shown to produce neurodevelopmental disease during fetal development and in the newborn period. Whole ecosystems have begun to sicken 7-9 . The Naviaux Lab is developing new mass spectrometry methods that will enable the rapid and regular testing of our environment and food chain to give scientists and policy makers the data needed to crack down on companies and practices that endanger the health of our children, the health of our nation, and the health of the natural world.
Empowering the EPA—Keeping Americans Safe from Pollution
Resources
References
