2. False: The nitrates
in soil are derived from mineral fertilizers. Nitrates are hazardous products of chemical industry which enter plants and
threaten human health.
True: The largest source of nitrates are the bacteria living in all soils.
Nitrates protect us from infections by bacteria ingested with food. In humans the oral cavity is populated by bacteria which
reduce nitrates (salts of nitric acid) to bactericidal nitrites (salts of nitrous acid).
3. False: Incineration of household wastes pollutes the atmosphere and threatens
human health.
True: The flue gases from incinerators contain less toxins than the ambient
air.
4. False: All organic chlorine compounds are toxic and are not used by Nature
as components of living cells.
True: About two thousand organic compounds of chlorine were discovered
in living organisms, including several life-saving antibiotics.
5. False: The chlorination of potable water must be stopped because it produces
carcinogenic compounds.
True: Nobody died from chlorinated water while dirty water infested with bacteria
is killing millions of children.
6. False: DDT must be totally eliminated from the environment because it is
a potent poison, dangerous to humans and animals.
True:Despite its heavy use in agriculture over several years DDT was never
found to be the cause of human death or illness, whereas after the worldwide ban of DDT millions of poor people in tropical
countries died of malaria spread by mosquitoes.
7. False: The elimination of polyvinyl chloride (PCV) is most urgent because
of its extremely high toxicity.
True: Despite of its heavy use in a multitude of applications PCV was never
found to harm anybody.
8. False: Many chlorine compounds which were introduced into the environment
by industry are causing dangerous hormonal disorders, such as a decreased sperm count.
True: Papers on sperm count decrease by environmental pollutants were withdrawn
by their authors.
9. False: Dioxin is a man-made poison.
True:Large amounts of dioxin are found in 40 million years old clay deposits.
10. False: According to a report from the Environment Protection Agency one
molecule of dioxin is enough to induce cancer.
True: An average cell in human body contains 10 molecules of dioxin but there
is no evidence of dioxin carcinogenicity in humans.
11. False: Dioxin is the strongest one of all man-made poisons.
True: It is a false claim. Nobody ever died of dioxin, not even Viktor Yushchenko,
the Ukrainian politician who was given a huge dose of dioxin in a failed attempt to remove him from political scene.
12. False: Increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is
responsible for global warming with all of its dire consequences. The humanity should do everything possible to decrease the
production of carbon dioxide.
True: Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have nothing to do with global
temperature. Since the retreat of glaciation about a dozen thousand years ago there was a series of warm and cold periods.
The last warming occurred in the Middle Ages while the seventeenth century was so cold that the Baltic Sea was frozen from
coast to coast during some winters. The cool period ended in late nineteenth century and it is natural to expect a warming
now. Cool and warm periods alternated on our planet during the last two million years and there is no reason to expect that
the natural weather cycles are over. The annoying fact is that ecological organizations do claim that a catastrophic
warming is imminent but never mention in their publications that alternating climate changes were taking place since the beginning
of humanity.
13. False: The seasonal decrease of ozone concentration in the Antarctic stratosphere (the ozone hole) is
caused by freons.
True: a decrease of ozone concentration at the beginning of Antarctic spring was found before sufficiently
large concentrations of freons appeared in the air.
14. False: A poison is a poison at every dose.
True: The life would not be possible on Earth if small doses of lead, cadmium
or mercury were poisonous, because detectable amounts of these metals are present in the air we breathe and water which we
drink. Another example is provided by carbon monoxide, a deadly poisonous gas. Carbon monoxide is present even in the cleanest
air but does not threaten our lives. Living organisms are resistant to small doses of toxins which are eliminated by excretion
or transformed to harmless products.
15. False: Electromagnetic waves emanating from electrical appliances are
causing a variety of health disorders, such as sterility of men, insomnia, headache, hypertension, menstrual disorders, decreased
lactation, inborn defects, circulatory system disorders, indigestion, cancer, cataract and several other disorders.
True: The causation of all these disorders by electromagnetic waves was never
confirmed by serious scientific studies.
16. False: Several thousand people died of radiation exposure after reactor meltdown at Chernobyl
True:
According to a WHO report published in 2005 fewer than 50 deaths could be attributed to the Chernobyl catastrophe.
