A Brief Note On The North Fork Of Long Island - 1726 Words

Going out to the North Fork of Long Island, many people indulge in the wineries dotted along the two main roads. These wineries produce world renowned wines and have a great atmosphere. For those who get a little hungry, they might stop at our multiple family owned farm stands and buy some fresh salad greens, or go apple picking in the crisp fall air. This all sounds wonderful until you face the facts. Without the overuse of many topical chemicals to treat for pests, fungus, and weeds, these commodities would be much harder to come by. Chemicals such as PCB’s, PHA’s, and the now banned DDT were all once used on these fertile farmlands of Long Island and since then may be a direct factor to the rise in cancer rates on Long Island,†¦show more content†¦This hypothesis had lead scientists to believe that being within sight distance of a pre-1972 fogger truck spraying DDT may be associated with the estrogen receptive tumors, the most common type of breast cancer di agnosed among American women (White). While DDT is still banned, there is the factor of biological magnification that is still present today. Biological magnification is the process in which chemicals of small doses are absorbed into the fatty tissues of animals through the water they drink, and as they are absorbed into the fatty tissues, they are then passed down to the offspring of the animals through the mother’s milk, and are absorbed into the offspring’s fatty tissues. This is present in humans just as much as animals, and has lead to the fact that DDT still exists in our ecosystem to this day. Pesticides and other chemicals also enter the ecosystem through water sources. DDT is commonly known to be soluble in water, and have great biological magnification factors in the ecosystem of the Long Island Sound. In a study used in research done by Marietta College, there was biological magnification of eight hundred times from the water to zooplankton. Then, fish will eat the zooplankton, and those fish received another magnification of thirty-one times. Then a larger fish eats the first fish and receives a biological magnification of almost two times. Then the unfortunate larger fish is eaten by a seagull which