cancer news

[angela bischoff]

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"the trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it, and once you've
seen it, keeping quiet and saying nothing, becomes as political an act as
speaking out.  there's no innocence.  either way you are accountable".
                                                   - arundhati roy

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Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic
By Guy Dauncey, Liz Armstrong and Anne Wordsworth
New Society Press

Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic offers solid evidence that
many cancers are preventable, since their causes lie with the
contamination of our bodies by pollution from the air we breathe, the
products we use, the water we drink, and the food we eat. It is not being
caused by just diet, smoking, and the noon-day sun!

Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic takes a positive,
solutions-based approach to this unwanted disease. Its pages are filled
with practical advice and success stories that will inspire you to act to
protect your family, your neighbors, your fellow workers, and future
generations.

To purchase a copy of "Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic,"
visit: www.earthfuture.com/cancer
-------
PS. I have 15 copies of this fantastic book to give to the first 15 people
who make a donation to Greenspiration. I plan to print 5000 more
Depression Expressions once I've raised $1000. Donations can be made to:
Greenspiration
214 Macdonell Ave. Toronto, ON M6R 2A8
Thank you!
-angela

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Deodorants 'may be linked to breast cancer'
The Telegraph, 4 September 2007

Scientists have discovered a potential link between deodorants and breast
cancer. High levels of aluminium, which makes up 90 per cent of the
anti-perspirant part of most products, were found in the breast tissue of
cancer patients who had undergone mastectomies.

The element has been linked to the disease by earlier studies. Scientists
have previously warned that aluminium could be absorbed through the skin,
particularly after the armpits are shaved. Once in the body, it may mimic
the hormone oestrogen, which is known to be involved in the development
and progression of breast cancer. Researchers found "significantly higher"
levels of aluminium in the underarm region of the breast than other areas
in 17 patients.


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EU watchdog calls for urgent action on Wi-Fi radiation
The Independent, 16 September 2007

Europe's top environmental watchdog is calling for immediate action to
reduce exposure to radiation from Wi-Fi, mobile phones and their masts. It
suggests that delay could lead to a health crisis similar to those caused
by asbestos, smoking and lead in petrol.

The warning, from the EU's European Environment Agency (EEA) follows an
international scientific review which concluded that safety limits set for
the radiation are "thousands of times too lenient", and an official
British report last week which concluded that it could not rule out the
development of cancers from using mobile phones.

Professor Jacqueline McGlade, the EEA's executive director, said
yesterday: "Recent research and reviews on the long-term effects of
radiations from mobile telecommunications suggest that it would be prudent
for health authorities to recommend actions to reduce exposures,
especially to vulnerable groups, such as children."

The EEA's initiative will increase pressure on governments and public
health bodies to take precautionary action over the electromagnetic
radiation from rapidly expanding new technologies. The German government
is already advising its citizens to use wired internet connections instead
of Wi-Fi and landlines instead of mobile phones.

The scientific review, produced by the international BioInitiative Working
Group of leading scientists and public health and policy experts, says the
"explosion of new sources has created unprecedented levels of artificial
electromagnetic fields that now cover all but remote areas of the
habitable space on Earth", causing "long-term and cumulative exposure" to
"massively increased" radiation that "has no precedent in human history".
It says "corrections are needed in the way we accept, test and deploy" the
technologies "in order to avert public health problems of a global
nature".


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Cancer, Chemicals and History

by JON WIENER
[from the Nation, February 7, 2005 issue]

Twenty of the biggest chemical companies in the United States have
launched a campaign to discredit two historians who have studied the
industry's efforts to conceal links between their products and cancer. In
an unprecedented move, attorneys for Dow, Monsanto, Goodrich, Goodyear,
Union Carbide and others have subpoenaed and deposed five academics who
recommended that the University of California Press publish the book
Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, by Gerald
Markowitz and David Rosner. The companies have also recruited their own
historian to argue that Markowitz and Rosner have engaged in unethical
conduct. Markowitz is a professor of history at the CUNY Grad Center;
Rosner is a professor of history and public health at Columbia University
and director of the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at
Columbia's School of Public Health.

The reasons for the companies' actions are not hard to find: They face
potentially massive liability claims on the order of the tobacco
litigation if cancer is linked to vinyl chloride-based consumer products
such as hairspray. <snip>

(complete article here: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050207/wiener)

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Hello everyone.
November 16th marks one year since Health Canada’s mandatory labeling of
cosmetic ingredients came into effect. What changes have we seen in that
time?

 Even though ingredients are now listed, it’s hard to access information
on the safety of the labeled ingredients. As a matter of fact, the
Canadian government still allows some carcinogenic, mutagenic,
reproduction-toxic and hormonally disruptive ingredients, such as
formaldehyde and phthalates, in cosmetics. 

Companies do not have to reveal which ingredients are known or suspected
carcinogens. Many of the known toxic chemicals still permissible in Canada
have been banned by the European Union.

 Some companies that have eliminated toxic chemicals from their products
sold in Europe can still include these toxins in their Canadian products.
BCAM has 3 basic demands:

 1. Global reformulation of products to meet the EU REACH (Registration,
Evaluation and Authorization of CHemicals) standards

 2.Warning labels on cosmetics that contain ingredients not tested for
their long-term safety

 3.Clear warning labels on cosmetics that contain carcinogens, mutagens
and reproductive toxins

 Breast Cancer Action Montreal wants to draw attention to these
difficulties, and the problems of toxic chemicals in cosmetics. At noon
on Friday, November 16th, we will be standing on the corner of Peel and
Ste. Catherine Street, handing out information reminding passersby about
the connection between some toxic ingredients in cosmetics and health
risks such as breast cancer, and inviting them to take action by signing
a petition to the minister of health about our demands.

We would love to have you join us in our action by having a group of your
members meet on a corner of your city’s busiest intersection. If we can
tell the national press that concerned groups across Canada are mounting a
joint action, then, for little effort and money, we will get a big message
out.
When we did this last November and again in May, local TV and radio
stations and print media covered the story. There was also coverage on a
national television news programme.

Please join us! All you need is to get 5 or 6 people together to give out
information and get people to sign the petition on the anniversary of the
regulations, November 16th.  Give us your contact information and we will
organize a press release that you can send out in your city. If there are
names on the press release from across Canada, the story has a hook that
will interest the media.

Even if you can’t be on the street in November, you can still support this
action by giving us permission to use your organization’s name as an
endorser. (If you are nor part of an organization, we suggest you call
your group Safe Cosmetics Campaign Canada,  name of-your city Chapter.)
We really need to work on this together! We look forward to hearing from you.

Carol Secter,                                                           
Deena Dlusy-Apel
President,                                                             Chair,
Breast Cancer Action Montreal                         Safe Cosmetics
Campaign (Montreal)
514-489-9594
<mailto:cjsecter at vif.com>cjsecter at vif.com


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