Born at Christmas time, blind, toothless, and white as snow, polar bears are exposed to one of the most toxic unnatural threats-industrial chemical poisoning.

Polar bear cubs, while gorging on their mother’s milk, ingest high levels of toxic chemical pollutants before they even leave the winter den.

The North acts as a giant sponge with unsafe levels of hundreds of globetrotting chemical contaminants, including PCBs, flame-retardants (applied to furniture and fabrics), and pesticides riding northwards on air and water currents. Polar bears are a barometer for toxic levels of dangerous chemical pollutants. Because the bears eat high on the food chain, consuming seals and other animals during the summer and burning these reserves during winter hibernation, chemicals are concentrated in their meat and milk. These animals are providing us with evidence for what is happening on a more insidious scale in the human population.

Studies show that polar bears have weak immune systems that cannot resist infection from common viruses. They have also been found to have low thyroid, testosterone, and progesterone hormones, along with low vitamin A. As a result of chemical exposure, polar bears also have fertility problems caused by sex organ deformities&with males having mostly female anatomy along with some male anatomy.

What do we see in human populations today as a result of everyday chemical exposure? Low thyroid function, weak immunity and poor resistance to infection, an increase in infertility, baby boys being born with penis deformities, girls menstruating earlier, estrogen dominance, and more. And the research doesn’t stop with polar bears.

Toxic levels of herbicides also affect plants, especially the herbicide glyphosate, known as Roundup. When Roundup is applied too often, the plant’s response is to die. Along comes genetic engineering whereby plants, soybeans for example, are genetically modified to sustain repeated applications of Roundup throughout the growing season. We call this Roundup Ready soy. Roundup not only kills plants, new research shows it may have other dangerous effects.

Research published in The New Scientist has found that Roundup may exacerbate a blight caused by the toxin Fusarium, a disease that destroys large grids of Canadian wheat. The research showed that fields treated with Roundup in the previous year had higher levels of blight compared to fields that did not use Roundup. Monsanto, Roundup’s manufacturer, is seeking Canadian government approval to sell genetically modified wheat that can be sprayed with Roundup during the growing season. Canadian scientists have recommended to the Canadian Wheat Board that they deny approval for Roundup Ready wheat.

We won’t really know the health effects of Roundup Ready foods on humans until we have been consuming the products for decades, but we do know the health dangers to humans from exposure to Roundup. Why would our government approve genetically modified wheat that can be sprayed with more of this toxic herbicide? Readers of alive must write to the government en masse and ensure that Roundup Ready wheat never hits the marketplace. More than a decade ago alive readers, writing thousands of letters, were instrumental in blocking the approval of bovine growth hormone for use in cows here in Canada. We can do it again. Write to your government representatives and tell them you do not want Roundup Ready wheat in Canada. Go to alive.com and print off a ready-to-go letter to government.

Buy organic foods (they are not genetically modified), eliminate all dangerous chemicals from your home, and tell everyone you know to do the same. You can make a difference.

Lorna Vanderhaeghe, BSc, is the author of several books, including the best-seller Healthy Immunity: Scientifically Proven Natural Conditions from A-Z (Wiley and Sons, 2001) and No More HRT: Menopause Treat the Cause (Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2002). She is also senior editor of alive’s Encyclopedia of Natural Healing(2002) and associate editor of alive Journal. Look for her Web site at healthyimmunity.com.