-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Information about this email appears at the bottom. Some Good Science on Cancer On an individual level, the answer to the question where should we put our energies in the fight against cancer is clear: If you've got it, fight to cure it; if you haven't, take steps to prevent it. But as a society, do we have the right balance between cure and prevention? In "Living Downstream: A Scientist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment," Sandra Steingraber makes the case that prevention, in the form of attention to the environment, gets short shrift. Fifty-four million pounds of synthetic pesticides are applied each year to the 89 percent of Illinois that is farmland, the state where the author, herself a cancer patient, was raised. But how can we tell the extent to which chemicals such as pesticides and PCBs--polychlorinated biphenyls, which are used in electrical transformers, pesticides, carbonless copy paper, and small electronic parts--cause cancer? Scientific papers in the last few years have begun to shed new and disturbing light on the answer. One study published in the Summer 1997 issue of “The Lancet” revealed that patients in the study who contracted the deadly non-Hodgkin's lymphoma had dramatically higher levels of PCBs in their blood than did others who were similar demographically but remained cancer-free. People with the highest levels of PCBs in their blood showed a 4.5-fold increase in risk of developing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Writes Steingraber, "In the meantime, a new Dutch study found that the blood plasma of preschoolers who had been breast-fed as infants contained more than three times the level of PCBs than did the blood of children never breast-fed. Breast milk thus turns out to be a richer source of PCBs than either children's food or prenatal transfer across the placenta. Because there is no satisfactory substitute for mothers' milk, the results of this study--as well as the one cited above--urge us toward the necessity of ridding our food supply of these long-banned but still extant pollutants." This is entirely doable--most PCBs are still in landfills or waiting to be thrown out, and could be rescued before entering the food chain. But aren't things getting better? Aren't the cures working? In 1997, researcher John Bailar published an update of his famous 1986 study on this topic, "Progress Against Cancer?" The update, entitled "Cancer Undefeated," gets right to the point: "In 1986, we concluded that 'some 35 years of intense effort focused largely on improving treatment must be judged a qualified failure.' Now with 12 more years of data and experience, we see little reason to change that conclusion." Yes, there has been a slight decline in overall cancer death rates in recent years. But that largely reflects a decline in smoking rates rather than success in disease treatment. He argues for renewed efforts focused on prevention, including removing carcinogens from the environment. His view is backed by similar conclusions from a team of researchers at the National Institute on Environmental Health Sciences, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety, and their colleagues in France and Sweden. A 1997 study in Britain provides the most comprehensive picture of local environmental hazards and cancers in children. Researchers mapped the homes of all 22,458 children who died from leukemias and other cancers in Scotland, Wales and England between 1953 and 1980, and combined it with charting the location of every potentially hazardous site ranging from power plants to auto-body shops. Their findings reveal that children face an increased risk of cancer if they live within a few kilometers of certain kinds of industries--especially those involving large-scale use of petroleum or chemical solvents at high temperatures. The danger decreases as the distance of the home from the plant increases, although for those who had moved, cancer correlated most heavily with the address at birth. Several U.S. studies correlate with this finding; there appears to be a link between childhood cancer and contaminations of mothers while they were pregnant. From solvent-contaminated water to treating pets with flea and tick pesticides, a mother's exposure during pregnancy significantly increased her child’s cancer risk. Steingraber notes other studies linking pollution of the environment to cancer. A Finnish study points to hazards of chlorinated water while a new study from Alaska reports that people who have just finished filling up their cars at self-service stations show elevated levels of a variety of volatile gasoline by-products in their blood and exhaled breath. Steingraber reveals a bright side to uncovering pollution as a major source of cancer: from organic alternatives in food and even golf courses (where a typical green uses four times the amount of pesticide used on a farm field), to recycling rather than burning hospital waste, prevention is possible. Steingraber argues for a three-pronged approach: 1. "Public and private interests should act to prevent harm before it occurs. This is known as the precautionary principle, and it dictates that indication of harm, rather than proof of harm, should be the trigger for action… Our current methods of regulation, by contrast, appear governed by what some frustrated policymakers have called the dead body approach: wait until damage is proven before action is taken." 2. The principle of reverse onus: the burden of proof should be shifted from the public to those who produce, import or use the substance in question. Chemicals are not citizens, and should not be presumed innocent until proven guilty. 3. "The principle of the least toxic alternative, which presumes that toxic substances will not be used as long as there is another way of accomplishing the task." While there are some opportunities to align the corporate drive for profit with these principles, the fiscal temptations to ignore them can only be constrained by widespread social pressure. These facts come from Sandra Steingraber's "Living Downstream: A Scientist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment," available at a discount at http://www.commoncouragepress.com/downstream.html TOMORROW: Our Stolen Future This is the free Political Literacy Course from Common Courage Press: A backbone of facts to stand up to spineless power. Email 55, November 18 1999. Week 11: The New Math of Science + Corporate Power Homepage: http://www.commoncouragepress.com To subscribe (or unsubscribe) for free: http://www.commoncouragepress.com Chatroom: http://www.cartserver.com/bbs/a/3827/index.cgi Feedback/Title suggestions: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Missed any? Course archive: http://www.commoncouragepress.com/politlitarchive.html YES! This course is partly advertising for books. 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