Hike up to remote areas of snow-covered Crater Lake National Park and you may be miles from civilization, but don't eat the snow because it contains industrial PCBs, the banned pesticide DDT and at least two currently used pesticides.
Go fly-fishing in Golden Lake at Mount Rainier National Park but don't eat the trout because they carry relatively high levels of toxic flame retardant.
Or try fishing Montana's spectacular Glacier National Park but make sure you don't eat them either because the DDT in them is higher than levels found in fish studies from Africa, even though the United States phased out DDT production in 1972 and Africa still uses it for mosquito control.
A six-year study of airborne contamination in 20 Western national parks and monuments was released this week showing that even our most remote wilderness lands are being contaminated. Yosemite and Kings Canyon, in California, and Rocky Mountain, in Colorado, are cited as having some of the higher levels of pollution.
It found that:
*most of the pollution was coming from cities and farms relatively near the parks, not from China or elsewhere overseas (exception is mercury).
*some of the fish had signs of being both male and female, a condition associated with pesticides, organophosphates and other chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system.
*in general there may be little danger to people as levels of pollutants were generally low.
Low today, should give you little comfort. If Glacier National Park is contaminated, how could our food supply be safe from contamination? How about our homes?
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