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Stop Cancer Where It Starts!
Contact
Greenaction to
volunteer and get involved!
stopcancer@greenaction.org
(415) 248-5010
Visit
the website of the
Toxic Links Coalition
www.toxiclinks.net
See Also:
Read
the San Francisco Chronicle August
6th story on breast cancer and toxics, and how our government continues
to ignore environmental links to cancer epidemic!
For more
information, contact:
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Fact Sheet
Too many people
young and old, male and female, are suffering and dying from cancer.
Too many industries are allowed
to emit dangerous levels of cancer-causing pollutants into our environment.
The toxic link to cancer
is obvious to everyone, except our government and polluters.
It is time to stop cancer
where it starts, by ending dangerous emissions of toxic and radioactive
pollution into our environment.
- Things to keep in mind
when thinking about cancer:
· We cannot catch cancer from each other.
- · Cancer mortality
has risen from 5% of American deaths a hundred years ago to 25% today.
Lifetime rates for Americans have risen from one in four people in
1960 to 1 in 2 for men and more than 1 in 3 for women.
- · The human gene
pool takes many millennia to significantly change.
Myth: Most cancers
are genetic.
Fact: There are relatively rare genetic predispositions to some
cancers, but that predisposition is not a guarantee of disease; an environmental
insult is required to trigger the growth of a tumor.
Myth: We don't
know what causes cancer.
Fact: Some substances, like ionizing radiation or benzo(a)pyrene
for instance, have been scientifically established as carcinogens. Exactly
how the many suspected chemical agents cause cancer is not known, but
the weight of the evidence that they are carcinogenic is overwhelming.
The lack of "scientific proof" is used by industry to rationalize
the continued use or production of carcinogenic materials.
Myth: Cancer is
a curable disease if detected early.
Fact: For some cancers (such as testicular cancer) this is true.
But for the big killers, like breast, colon, and lung cancer, there
is no guarantee of a cure because there is no way to detect distant
metastases.
Myth: Cancer research
will provide the answer.
Fact: Since
the 1971 "War on Cancer" was started, more than a trillion
dollars have been spent on cancer research and treatment. Yet the incidence
rate for all cancers has increased by more than 50% in the last 50 years
and the mortality rate from cancer has risen by 10%. In the meantime,
the poisoning continues and the disease rates increase.
Myth: Cancer is
a "lifestyle" disease.
Fact: Some aspects of lifestyle, such as smoking, do contribute
to one's cancer risk. But there is no way to protect oneself from exposure
to carcinogens in the air, land, water, and food. Workers who get cancer
after exposure to cancer-causing chemicals on the job (in oil, chemical
or nuclear industries, for example) are not suffering from a "lifestyle"
disease.
Myth: Cancer rates
are going down.
Fact:
The government's cancer organization, the National Cancer Institute
(NCI), says that cancer rates are going down. Recently, however, the
NCI published a report that the cancer mortality rate in the U.S. has
been underestimated as deaths caused by cancer treatments have not been
included in the numbers. Further, the former chief of the World Health
Organization has estimated that cancer rates in industrialized countries
will double by 2020.
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