To maintain good cardiac health, doctors recommend eating fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids twice a week. However, coal-fired power plants are spewing mercury into the air and water to such an extent that many species of fish are virtually inedible; pregnant women and women of childbearing age are advised to eat fish less often than once a month, and one out of every six women reading this article already has levels of mercury in her blood so high that her future children are at risk of some form of neurological deficit, from learning disabilities to brain damage.

Nutritionists advise us to consume three daily servings of dairy, but our milk supply has been corrupted by the hormones we give cows to produce more milk. The same goes for antibiotics in beef and poultry.

We’re supposed to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, but pesticide residue on produce slowly builds up in our tissues.

Doctors advise Americans to exercise more, but running outdoors exposes your lungs to harmful particulates, and air pollution has thinned the ozone layer so much that skin cancer rates are up despite advances in sunscreen and skin care. We’re supposed to drink eight glasses of water a day, but now scientists are finding tiny amounts of nearly every drug you can imagine – from Prozac to The Pill – in drinking water across the country.

How is all of this affecting us? It’s hard to say with precision, but many pesticides are chemically similar to estrogen, and breast cancer is on the rise in both women and men. We know contaminants in drinking water can lead to teratogenic birth defects and miscarriages and that childhood asthma attacks triggered by air pollution are becoming epidemic.

It’s to the credit of many Americans that an overwhelming majority of us are in favor of protecting our air, water and food. And yet, many government agencies that are supposed to regulate polluting industries are run by lobbyists who used to work for those very same industries. Rather than spend a fraction of their profits on pollution controls, power plants are allowed to foul the air. Rather than enforce the law, the Bush administration has dropped criminal investigations against some of its biggest campaign contributors and has rolled back more than 400 environmental regulations to date. These short-sighted measures will allow a small number of companies to enrich themselves at the expense of our health.

Polluters have spent lots of public-relations dollars trying to paint environmentalists as hysteric Chicken Littles. They argue that environmental laws are unnecessary burdens on businesses and that such laws hinder the corporations’ ability to compete in the free market.

The truth is, our standard of living is being compromised by our increasingly toxic environment, and polluters are escaping the discipline of the market by imposing enormous hidden costs on us in the form of health care and future cleanups. If we are to reclaim our public health, we must force polluters to live up to their responsibilities and pay for the damage they’re causing.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.