Decades-Long Chlordane Contamination ResultsChlordane is such a highly toxic and persistent chemical that homes treated de-
cades ago are still showing unsafe levels of it in indoor air. Problems develop because
the hundreds of gallons of chlordane applied underneath the home are entering it,
slowly evaporating and rising through cracks in the foundation or around plumbing
pipes. This became evident in the 1970s when the U.S. Air Force randomly tested
more than 500 apartments and housing units of its airmen. Results showed approxi-
mately 75 percent of the units tested contained chlordane in the air and more than
5 percent were above safety guidelines of five micrograms per cubic meter of air.
Unfortunately, this has turned out not to be an isolated case. Studies by the New
Jersey Department of Environmental Regulation and other agencies have found simi-
lar results in hundreds of homes in New Jersey and New York. Of great concern,
when testing sixty-four homes built before 1980, researchers found more than 30 per-
cent of the homes contained chlordane levels above the five microgram safety limit
set by the National Academy of Sciences.^30 There are now several university studies
showing that even so-called acceptable levels of chlordane in indoor air can cause re-
spiratory and neurological problems. These are discussed below.Illnesses Linked to Chlordane Home ExposureA study of 261 people who were either living or had lived in homes with higher
air chlordane levels were found to have nearly three times more respiratory illnesses,
including sinusitis and bronchitis. The study, conducted by the School of Public
Health at the University of Illinois, also found other illnesses significantly more often
in the chlordane homes. These included chronic cough, anemia, neuritis, ovarian/
uterine disease, and skin disorders. Migraine headaches, the worst acute symptom
found, were occurring in 22 percent of people living in the higher-level chlordane
homes.^31
According to recent statistics, one in eight women in the United States will develop
breast cancer, with rates nationally three to seven times higher than those in Asia. A
2005 study conducted by the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research and Texas
Tech University Health Science Center in Lubbock, Texas, revealed that cancerous
human breast tissue contained the chemical heptachlor epoxide at levels four times
higher than in non-cancerous breast tissue (heptachlor epoxide is found in chlor-
dane). An estimated 50 million Americans are currently exposed to the volatilization
of this chemical from previously treated pre-1989 homes.^32
An excellent test to determine how well a person’s immune system is functioning is
called proliterative response. This test measures how fast a person’s immune system
cells multiply in order to eliminate invading bacteria or viruses. In several different
tests of proliterative response, conducted at the Southern Illinois School of Medicine,
it was found that people living in chlordane-treated homes had immune system cells
that multiplied only about half as fast as the immune system cells of people not166 | Pesticides