AMY GOODMAN: Bob Dole swept the Midwest primaries, at least among citizens who vote. And by the way, that percentage is appallingly low compared to most countries. Now the focus moves to California. But before we head there, we wanted to go back to one of those four Midwest states, to Michigan, where one of the most notorious industries has its corporate headquarters, Dow Chemical. Dow, of course, is most known for its production of Agent Orange, a defoliant the U.S. military sprayed over Vietnam, contaminating untold numbers of Vietnamese people and American soldiers. Less well known is the corporate giant’s continued practices, beginning at its home in Midland, Michigan.

This past weekend, I went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to cover an environmental conference, its official title, “Time for Action: The Third Citizens’ Conference on Dioxin.” More than 500 activists gathered to organize a growing national movement against dioxin and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Dioxin is a byproduct of incineration, as well as any industrial process using chlorine, from paper mills to plastics plants. Mounting evidence suggests these toxins act like natural hormones, like estrogen, for example, in the body, endangering fertility and overall health.

On Thursdays on Democracy Now!, we bring you a segment called “Living Democracy,” stories of grassroots efforts to improve the environment, public education, create jobs and hold public officials accountable. Today, we devote the whole show to “Living Democracy,” beginning with two environmentalists who attended the dioxin conference from Michigan, where they’ve been waging a battle against Dow Chemical. Tracey Easthope is with the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Diane Eber is with Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination in Midland. I asked Diane how it feels to live in the belly of the beast.

DIANE EBER: It smells bad, for starters, very repressive. I would say, rather difficult to lead a normal life. You know, in a corporate town, if you’re not in agreement with their policies and their smells and everything else that they do, you don’t fit in.

AMY GOODMAN: What does Dow do in Midland?

DIANE EBER: They do a little of everything. They produce quite a few chemicals. But my major concern and reason that I got involved is because they incinerate a lot of their waste, and as a result, we have very high levels of dioxin in the community. And we also have had health effects that have shown up that they’re suggestive of dioxin exposure, like soft tissue sarcoma. We’ve had some birth defects that have shown up that are very suspect or suggestive of chemical contamination.

AMY GOODMAN: And you say that it’s very repressive to live there. In what way does Dow control the town?

DIANE EBER: Well, they are the major industry. It’s a fairly small community. And, of course, they give freely to civic organizations. We have — it’s a very well-funded town educationally. We have a center for the arts, a very nice library, things that a town that size would not normally have without a large industry. And so, you can become unpopular in a hurry if you suggest that this industry is less than perfect. But I will say that in the past few years the attitude has started to change, and maybe even a drastic change in the last three years since the downsizing. There was a — there was a time when you couldn’t find anyone to speak against Dow. They’d say — if you said it smelled bad, they’d say, “Well, yes, that’s the smell of money.” Now, since the downsizing, there’s less loyalty. More people will say, “Well, yes, I don’t doubt that the health effects are caused by these chemicals.” And so, the trust in Dow seems to be gone. And so there are some changes that I’m seeing recently.

AMY GOODMAN: Tracey Easthope, you live two hours away from Midland, in Ann Arbor, yet you’ve also taken on Dow. Why is that?

TRACEY EASTHOPE: Because this company is responsible for contaminating the Great Lakes Basin, and really the world, and they’re one of the leading chlorine producers. Chlorine is essential to the formation of dioxin. I believe that my family has been contaminated. I believe the whole Great Lakes Basin has been contaminated, and the world.

AMY GOODMAN: How has your family been contaminated?

TRACEY EASTHOPE: I believe through eating fish. We’re Catholic. We ate a lot of fish.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you sued Dow.

TRACEY EASTHOPE: The Ecology Center sued Dow, sued Dow over a particular issue. And that was they wanted to burn more dioxin in Midland. And we thought enough was enough, so we sued them over their proposal to burn dioxin-contaminated waste that they had been storing on site for 20 years.

AMY GOODMAN: And what happened with the suit?

TRACEY EASTHOPE: Well, we put together kind of a scrappy legal team, and we lost. We sued using a number of different arguments, and we lost. However, Dow decided that there may be too much liability associated with burning dioxin-contaminated waste in Midland, and so sent it to another community, unfortunately, trucked it, trucked it to Coffeyville, Kansas.

AMY GOODMAN: So now Kansas has Dow’s waste.

TRACEY EASTHOPE: Now Kansas. I think Coffeyville was the only commercial dioxin-burning incinerator in the nation, and now they will get that contamination and risk to their families and community.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, how does all this activism fit into, or does it, electoral politics? For example, have you gone, Diane, to your elected politicians in Midland? And is there anyone independent of Dow there?

DIANE EBER: I’m not sure I could say there’s anyone independent of Dow. There’s certainly many dependent of Dow. For instance, our congressman, Congressman Dave Camp, is married to a Dow attorney. My state representative, Bill Schuette, is a Dow heir. His stepfather, Carl Gerstacker, was a previous Dow chairman of the board. Pretty much down the line, there’s a whole strip that I will leaflet. It’s all Republican row. As far as any allies or anyone independent, I can’t think of anyone. I think there are some people who listen and might be inclined to vote our way if there was enough pressure, but it takes a lot of — a lot of activity.

AMY GOODMAN: Does this make you feel like electoral politics is not the way to go? I mean, that the only action is grassroots action for both of you? Tracey?

TRACEY EASTHOPE: Clearly, the people lead. I mean, it seems like we aren’t going to see action unless we see a very broad and strong movement demanding that politicians do something. The interests arrayed against us are very powerful, and so we will need — politicians will need the support of the people before they do anything. I think there are a number of good people in the Legislature, but they’re small compared to the interests arrayed against us.

AMY GOODMAN: The Michigan primary just took place. We haven’t heard anything about Dow, and yet I assume Dow gives tremendous amount of campaign contributions when it comes to national and local politics. Do you know anything about that, Diane Eber?

DIANE EBER: I do know that locally there will be support for Dole, and Midland is probably 98% Republican, if I had to guess. You could hold the Democratic convention in a phone booth. And I do believe that David Camp has stated publicly that he is supporting Dole, so…

AMY GOODMAN: Does Dow know who you are?

DIANE EBER: Dow knows me very well. I was called by, the last meeting — well, the meeting before — Tracey was there — one of the Dow administrators called me what? The most toxic.

TRACEY EASTHOPE: Persistent and toxic. He called her a persistent, toxic compound, which is — which is what, you know, dioxin and all these horrible things are. So, but we thought it was a compliment, actually.

DIANE EBER: I consider it a compliment. I really consider it a compliment. And I think it says also, because I don’t have any resources, I’m not really anyone, that an individual can, can frighten a corporation, if you will, or intimidate. They take you seriously. If you you take the time, you do your homework, and you pay attention to what they’re doing, they have a healthy fear of what you might say about them. And what you say about them should, of course, be truthful, and I’ve done that. And they do have a healthy fear. I think any activist in any community can make those same inroads, if you’re persistent.

AMY GOODMAN: How do you feel when you see the Dow ads on television?

DIANE EBER: They’re disgusting. They’re truly disgusting. I guess maybe I know too much about them and what they’ve really done, their history, and so I can’t. It’s difficult for me to watch them.

TRACEY EASTHOPE: It’s clearly a well-funded campaign to discredit an environmental position. And they’re getting worried, I think, about the emerging evidence on hormone disruptors and dioxin, and so they’ve funded this enormous campaign to convince people, for instance, that plastics are central to a happy and healthy life, which I hope people recognize is really a big lie. They’re funding tremendous campaigns to discredit, to defund, to basically confuse people about the state of the science concerning these chemicals. And research scientists have recently said, in our area, they’re concerned about the corporate control of the research agenda. So, they are certainly funding, funding an effort to confuse people and to keep us ignorant.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re from Ann Arbor, Tracey Easthope, which is the town of University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. What kind of money has Dow contributed to the university? Do you know?

TRACEY EASTHOPE: I don’t know the dollar amount. I do know that the new chemistry building is the Dow Chemistry Building. I do know that the global stewardship chair of Dow is the head of the alumni association in my School of Public Health. They’re everywhere. They regularly give presentations to students. I know that they do fund research at the University of Michigan, as well as capital improvements. So, not only Dow, but a number of different companies are funding research. And I think people really need to question how much research is being funded by major corporations. It’s clearly there’s not — we’re losing publicly funded research in this country, and I don’t think people understand the implications of that, that we will have science driven for profit instead of science driven for the people. And it’s clearly already happening. I don’t know the statistics, but I know that there they fund quite a bit.

AMY GOODMAN: Is there anything else that either of you would like to add?

DIANE EBER: Yes, I think it’s — 

AMY GOODMAN: Diane?

DIANE EBER: I think it’s interesting. We had some discussions today about media and what we’d like to get out to the media. It’s so seldom that the real information of what’s going on gets out. For instance, one of the recent meetings with Dow, we were discussing the endocrine disruptors. Well, Dow is, in fact, studying — I believe they stated, what — nine chemicals that they are concerned may be hormone disruptors. They’re not publicly discussing that. The general public doesn’t know. Well, for them to study nine of these chemicals, that means they’re taking it very seriously. But if you listen to their public presentation, you wouldn’t know that. And I don’t think the general public knows that this is a very serious issue, very serious health issue, probably one of the most serious to come along in many years.

AMY GOODMAN: Vietnam veterans’ groups, are they strong in Michigan?

TRACEY EASTHOPE: The veterans have actually been really strong in Michigan. There is a Michigan dioxin group, veteran group, and the veterans have actually been active in — against spraying of 2,4-D, which is contaminated with dioxin, which is sprayed widely on Michigan lakes all over.

AMY GOODMAN: Made by Dow?

TRACEY EASTHOPE: Yes, made by Dow in Midland, I believe. And once a lake is sprayed with 2,4-D, it has permanent restrictions on its use. People don’t often know this. This is so that the company is relieved of any liability if there are problems, if their lake is sprayed. So, if you live in Michigan, you live near a lake, you ought to check out and see if your lake is getting sprayed, because likely it is.

AMY GOODMAN: What is the reason given for the spraying of the lake?

DIANE EBER: They do this for weed control, which could be done mechanically. And some communities have chosen not to use 2,4-D. I think people are becoming further educated.

AMY GOODMAN: Is there a number that people can contact if they’re interested in reaching your organization? For example, Tracey Easthope, over at the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor?

TRACEY EASTHOPE: Sure. People can call 313-761-3186, and we’re happy to answer people’s questions or help them get involved or give them information, whatever they might need.

AMY GOODMAN: In fact, something we didn’t discuss is your work around women and breast cancer.

TRACEY EASTHOPE: Yeah, we just held a major conference and public hearing. Bella Abzug came in. Leading researchers on this issue came in to talk about the link between environmental contamination and breast cancer, as well as rising rates of children’s diseases and developmental disorders and problems with the reproductive system, including declines in sperm count and increases in testicular cancer and prostate cancer.

AMY GOODMAN: Did the press give this much coverage?

TRACEY EASTHOPE: Some coverage, not as much as we would have liked, especially given the caliber of the scientists that we had. We decided to bring the science to the people and give people information about what’s going on in their communities and their own bodies. And people really responded very positively, because it’s clear that there’s something going wrong. Too many women are getting breast cancer. Too many young women are getting breast cancer. Too many women have endometriosis. Too many people tell me that they know young people or young men who are getting testicular cancer, birth defects. Michigan has a very high rate of chronic diseases, as well. So, clearly, there’s a problem. And people recognize there’s a problem. They suspect that that contamination may be the source.

AMY GOODMAN: And just for listeners who aren’t familiar, as you are, having just come from a conference on dioxin, on what is the relation between breast cancer, endometriosis, testicular cancer, what do they all have in common?

TRACEY EASTHOPE: They’re all hormone-mediated diseases, it’s believed. That is, the hormone system has something to do with how they’re acting. And they all are suspected to be related to environmental contamination, in particular, related to contaminants that act or mess up the natural hormone system. So, they have in common this hormonally mediated — dioxin is clearly the chemical that we have the most evidence for, is the most damning — neurological problems, immune system problems and all of these other hormone-mediated problems, in addition to PCBs and DDTs and a whole range of other things. And these compounds are still out there. Some of them are still being produced. Dioxin is clearly still — is an unwanted by product of all sorts of industrial processes. And we are all exposed to it. We all have it in our bodies, cycling through our bodies.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think you can get rid of dioxin?

TRACEY EASTHOPE: Absolutely, I mean, although it will take a while, and it’ll take a while to get rid of historical contamination. Dioxin has an enormous half-life in the environment and a half-life in our bodies of at least seven years. So, our body — our bodies are a little toxic waste dump and continue to expose us to toxins as they resuspend in our bodies. So, once we get rid of the sources, it’ll still take a long time. Like, we ban DDT, and we ban PCBs, but those are still very big problems, threatening people’s health. So, once we get rid of the sources of dioxin, we’ll still have problems. But I believe that this issue is of critical importance to our health, the community’s health, the public’s health, and we will — we will be forced to respond to it.

AMY GOODMAN: Tracey Easthope is with the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Diane Eber is with Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination in Midland. You’re listening to a “Living Democracy” special on Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman. Coming up, Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange talk about their lives and their despair, but first some speeches from the Third Citizens’ Conference on Dioxin, after this.