 |
| ||||||||||||
|
Toxic Links Coalition Media Advisory Read the Mayoral Proclamation See Also: Press Coverage:
For more information, contact the Toxic Links Coalition:
|
San Francisco Mayoral Proclamation Declares October "Stop Cancer Where it Starts Month" Proclamation Calls for Cancer Prevention by stopping pollution: breast cancer "awareness or treatment" is not enough. Coalition calls for Cleanup of Toxic Pollution in Bayview Hunters Point San Francisco, CA -- In response to pleas from cancer survivors, Mayor Willie Brown today issued a Mayoral Proclamation declaring October "Stop Cancer Where It Starts Month" in San Francisco. Supervisor Amos Brown, himself fighting prostate cancer, spoke at the press conference along with other cancer survivors to urge stronger action to stop the environmental causes of cancer. The Mayoral Proclamation was presented by Francesca Vietor, Director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment to community leaders ofthe toxic conaminated Bayview Hunters neighborhood. Bayview Hunters Point cancer survivors demanded health and environmental justice, and called for an immediate and thorough cleanup of cancer causing pollution in their community. Bayiew Hunters Point has one of the highest known rates of breast cancer anywhere. "Stop Cancer Where It Starts Month" is a response to "Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM)" a polluter sponsored public relations effort that focuses completely on detection, treatments and "cures" for cancer, and never mentions prevention or environmental causes of cancer. BCAM tells the public that "early detection is a woman's best prtection". However, detection is not prevention! We are told that getting older and being female are the major risk factors for breast cancer. Yet these "risk factors" do not cause cancer. Many of the same corporations that sponsor Breast Cancer Awareness Month events either profit off of cancer or produce cancer-causing toxic chemicals which is why they never mention cancer prevention or the environmental causes of cancer. The Mayoral Proclamation notes that traditional "cancer awareness" campaigns focus on early detection and cure, and exclude the issue of real prevention. Breast Cancer Awareness Month consistently fails to mention that many chemicals, such as dioxins, dibenzofurans, and organochlorine pesticides, known to cause birth defects, reproductive harm and cancer, continue to be released into California water, soil, air and sediment where they are expected to persist for many years to come. "Most cancer awareness campaigns focus on detection instead of prevention, which ultimately has no effect on the rising incidence of the disease," said Catherine Porter of the Women's Cancer Resource Center. "The only way to truly prevent cancer is to find the causes and eliminate them". "It's time to stop cancer where it starts, at the chemical plants, refineries and incinerators that spew deadly cancer-causing chemicals into our air and water," said Bradley Angel, Executive Director of Greenaction. |