Swimming in Toxic Sludge to Save the Earth: Environmental Hero or Idiot?

By Queuebot in Everything Else on Jun 11, 2009 at 7:20 pm

Ever wanted to swim in a lake full of chemicals, toxic algae, and junky electronic equipment? Sounds like good times for sure.

If you’d rather not risk disgusting infections and other diseases, leave the sludge swimming to Christopher Swain, who’s spent years of his life swimming through some of America’s most disgusting waters to raise awareness of environmental pollution. He’s currently swimming from Boston to the noxious harbor waters of Washington, DC, stopping in at hundreds of schools along the way to help kids learn about recycling.

Environmental hero, or just an idiot? You be the judge.



Swain has been focused on his mission for quite some time. In 2003 and 2004, he swam the length of four of America’s polluted waterways: the Charles River, Lake Champlain, the Hudson River, and the Columbia River, typically swimming about seven miles every day. Each day, Swain took photographs of the dirty waterscapes, and jotted extensive notes in a journal about each of the trips. “The water boasts the bouquet of a pond life smoothie: notes of mud, plants, tannin, poop, and gasoline, are all in evidence,” he wrote of his journey down Lake Champlain.

Swimming in this sort of pollution sounds like it could be hazardous to your health, and Swain knows for a fact that it is: despite taking frequent breaks to gargle with hydrogen peroxide, he’s gotten countless ear, respiratory, and lymph node infections. But, as he told ABC News in 2004, “I realized that if somebody doesn’t put themselves on the line, nothing changes.”

Link (Photo by Carrie Branovan)

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by gatsbyhawk.


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  1. Geekazoid
    Jun 11th, 2009 at 7:34 pm

    Good for him, but I don’t think anything is out of bounds for anyone these days wanting to be an activist or bring attention to their causes (or themselves as it increasingly seems).

    Anything that can be made into a blog with advertising revenue and other sources of profit I suppose.

  2. vonskippy
    Jun 11th, 2009 at 7:55 pm

    You know what else is dangerous? Power tools. Maybe the guy could cut off a few fingers or limbs to raise awareness on those dangers.

  3. secret asian man
    Jun 11th, 2009 at 8:18 pm

    White people are crazy!

  4. eni
    Jun 11th, 2009 at 8:18 pm

    If something changes because of what he’s doing, people will call him a hero. If it doesn’t they will call him an idiot. It’s simple. The winner writes history.

  5. Kalel
    Jun 11th, 2009 at 9:05 pm

    The power of his message won’t be complete until his activities finally kill him.

  6. ilikecows13
    Jun 11th, 2009 at 9:37 pm

    I’ll just say, I’m glad I’m not his wife.

  8. free online games for kids
    Jun 11th, 2009 at 10:32 pm

    I think a lot more can be done in terms of saving the environment other than swimming in the pollution yourself, although I certainly respect the perseverance and determination to bring across the message through such means. I hope something good certainly comes out of this.

  9. Justin
    Jun 11th, 2009 at 11:11 pm

    I assume he is talking about the Potomac River in Washington DC. If so I would hardly call it “noxious”. Decades ago I would have agreed with you, but there has been a concerted effort over the years to clean the river up and it is far from a cesspool.

    Granted there is some to be desired, and there is still work to be done, but it’s far from a sewer.

  10. Mytake
    Jun 11th, 2009 at 11:28 pm

    He must make quite an impression when he enters the classrooms he visits. Students can’t help but be impressed by an environmental hero, particularly one that glows in the dark and has an extra eye on his forehead due to his pointless wallowing in toxic waste.

    Someone should let this self-destructive egomaniac know that protecting natural life means taking care of your own well-being as well and avoiding juvenile oneupmanship attempts. Above all, set a good example. Don’t go out giving students bad ideas.

  11. 032125
    Jun 12th, 2009 at 12:13 am

    Isn’t tannin a naturally occuring acid that comes from trees? Why does he even mention it?

  12. iamthepush
    Jun 12th, 2009 at 8:14 am

    before he goes in the schools to speak they tell kids to stay off drugs, if they don’t they’ll end up like this guy

  13. seefish3
    Jun 12th, 2009 at 8:16 am

    This guy’s in the same catagory as that sting-ray-killed nature tv host who left a wife and kids behind because he wouldn’t stop f@#king with dangerous animals.

    Lost cause anyway. Pollution will stop only when we as a species die off or leave the planet.

  14. onecrazymomma
    Jun 12th, 2009 at 10:37 am

    i think it’s admirable that he’s willing to put his body and health on the line to support his beliefs, but i also think there are probably many other ways to educate people without having to risk your own health like this. aren’t enough people around the planet affected by all the environmental issues already? couldn’t he just draw attention to them?

  15. Emperor Tomato Catsup
    Jun 12th, 2009 at 10:49 am

    I vote “idiot.”

  16. Foreigner1
    Jun 12th, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    Yeah wel… Bit complicated this one. But I wonder how far you need to go on a personal level to show the world something’s wrong…. Perhaps when he’s ill, he can sue someone for several billions of dollars in damage…? Perhaps that would make a difference.

  17. LisaL
    Jun 12th, 2009 at 1:28 pm

    I vote idiot as well.
    There are plenty of other things he could do to raise awareness other than this.
    I’m sure we’ll be hearing about him coming down with some weird cancer b/c of these BS stunts.

  18. Petite Poi
    Jun 12th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

    Agreed…idiot.

  19. Bryan C
    Jun 12th, 2009 at 2:30 pm

    I’m not sure how this proves his point. In fact, it kinda seems to do the opposite. Exposure to trace amounts of gasoline and such have not and will not turn him into the Incredible Melting Man. You can pick up life-threatening infections from almost any body of water, if you try hard enough. And seeing as wildlife have notoriously sloppy bathroom habits, the most serious ones can entirely unrelated to human activity. So deliberately expose yourself to “toxic sludge” as a hobby, and you get sick exactly the same way as an unwary hiker sipping water from a crystal-clear brook just downstream from a pile of bear poo. That’s really not all that compelling.

  20. Oomi
    Jun 12th, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    Maybe he’ll turn into the Toxic Avenger.

  21. Tony
    Jun 12th, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    .idiut.
    ..when all the toxins and chemical elements that you aren’t supposed to bathe in finally catch up to him, his medical care will be a burden to our already over-burdened healthcare system. nice one!

  22. Avarana
    Jun 12th, 2009 at 4:15 pm

    “I realized that if somebody doesn’t put themselves on the line, nothing changes.”

    Well, nothing did change.

  23. Mouserz
    Jun 13th, 2009 at 5:53 am

    both. If you wanna be dumb you gotta be tough.

  24. Oscar
    Jun 13th, 2009 at 10:59 am

    another vote for idiot

  25. abdulhamid
    Jun 14th, 2009 at 12:27 am

    BASE jumping, climbing Mt. Everest, swimming in toxic sludge. Do you white harbor some kind of deep-seated collective deathwish?


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