When I’d just returned from a year's travelling in Latin America, I had dinner with friends in an Amsterdam restaurant. It was early November 2002. Suddenly, the lights went out. It transpired later that a substation had caught fire. The entire centre of Amsterdam was shrouded in darkness for the night. Life came to an instant halt. Everyone panicked. After-dinner coffee was out of the question. I could not pay my bill. The waiters were incapable of adding up my order using pen and paper and tried to stop me leaving. I could not get my car out of the parking garage. Staying the night at a hotel was a no-hoper, too, because the receptionists didn’t have a clue about availability, could not check me in or take payment by credit-card. And even if they had provided me with a room, the electronic door opening system didn’t work.

Not for the first and definitely not for the last time, I realized just how vulnerable we city dwellers are. We flick a switch and expect light. We buy food and expect not just nourishment but health as well. We turn a handle and out comes water.

This month’s Dutch news has people infected with and dying of legionnaire’s disease caught in a hospital in The Hague. The bacteria spread through water. Last week saw the potentially deadly e-coli bacteria in the water supply of the area around Haarlem. A leaking roof may have allowed bird poo to enter the water. Note the passive speech. Note the failure for anyone to take responsibility – we failed to mend the roof. We flouted regulations.

The media tend to treat little news items like these in an isolated manner. The people at the centre of a crisis tend to cope while it lasts, then live to tell the tale. People not affected are thankful it’s not them; then read the next news item. The story doesn’t stop with contaminated water and a stop-gap quick solution, however. In and around Haarlem, there was a run on bottled water. Supermarkets ran out. “There was no anticipating this event” said a store manager. Passive speech. Not “we are failing our customers who rely on us during a difficult time”.

Britain’s big story this week is an undercover journalism report on breaches of hygiene regulations in food production. Sell-by dates are tampered with, food is left un-refrigerated for long periods of time, fridge temperatures are invented, hands are not washed after using the toilet, and carcasses aren’t disposed of safely.

Of course it’s not the fault of the individual manager of the Haarlem water board, The Hague hospital or Albert Heijn branch. If blame is to be appointed at all, it’s ‘the system’. It’s everything from the good business sense of Just-In-Time deliveries from a central distribution hub to big business interests, global warming, urbanization, the disintegration of the family as the cornerstone of society, the globalised economy. Quite simply, it’s the way we live. It’s all of our faults.

While writing this, countless other public health scandals and scares flood my memory. There’s been X-rays, Thalidomide (called Softanon in Holland), DES, DDT, Norplant contraception, asbestos, nicotine, salmonella, botulism, BSE and variant CJD (mad cow disease), bird flu, foot and mouth disease, Measles Mumps and Rubella vaccine cocktails, Coca Cola poisoned with the carcinogenic dioxin, haemophiliacs infected with HIV through blood transfusions, stem cell abuse, E-numbered food additives. An English friend’s mother went into hospital for chemotherapy and died soon after of an MRSA infection. The 3-year old child of a friend here in Holland was prescribed adult anti-malaria pills. I myself went into hospital for a laparoscopy and came out with peritonitis. I’m sure that everyone has a list of such stories. And equally sure that every new regulation to ensure public health comes with new breaches. Like every new technology and drug comes with new risks.

There are glimmers of hope. UK scientists researching the use of pig organs in humans downed tools because they no longer believed in their project. “Too little is known about viruses, animal viruses in particular, to prolong this line of enquiry” they said. A UK farmer participating in a trial of genetically modified cereal destroyed his own crop because he observed intolerable changes in wildlife presence and behaviour on his property. Whistleblowers from the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries try and raise our awareness of misinformation and malpractice.

And now my eggs won’t cook. Who has done what to the chickens or the eggs to make them behave in this unnatural way? More to the point, what can I do about it?

Let me get something straight at this point – I’m not campaigning to save the world, nor preaching that you should. What I want is to save my world, one that is populated by me, my children, family and friends. I want them to be safe and stay healthy. But as groups of friends and colleagues expand in ever increasing circles, I suppose saving my world means that I take responsibility for yours in whatever small way I can. Charity may begin at home but so does accountability.

Essentially, then, this is a plea for everyone to stop and think. Water contamination and food scares don’t happen to ‘other people’ – they happen to you and yours. I pledge to do a hundred small things that will make a difference to your future. I will hold myself accountable for the effect my actions have on others. I will be careful with water, minimize my use of plastics, recycle paper and glass, be mindful in traffic that your safety depends on me, use water-based paints, not use CFCs and buy my produce from local small scale farmers. I will also take big businesses and government institutions to task for their failings. Vote with my feet. Active speech. Will you do the same for me?

31 May 2007

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[Copyright Michaela 2007]