IssuesYou are what you eat. If plants and livestock feed on contaminated soil and water, you will, too.
Sounds scary, doesn't it? It is.
Toxic compounds enter the environment in many ways. Some are poured into sewers, some are burned in the backyard and others may be hauled off to the landfill. Regardless of how they get there, once in the environment, chemicals undergo a series of reactions that form new products, some of which may be toxic or take on a new phase of solid, liquid or gas.
And those solids, liquids or gasses move around. Take acid rain, for example. A toxic substance makes its way into the air, which inevitably turns to rain. When that rain falls on plants and livestock, they are affected. When we then eat or interact with those plants and livestock, we're affected, too.
Check out an illustration of the Contamination Pathway.
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© copyright 2001
Kansas Department of Health and Environment
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