EARTHFUTURE.COM by Guy Dauncey

That’s a very big question. In 1900, one in 25 Canadians got cancer during their lifetime. By the 1950s, it was one in 10. By the 1970s, it was one in four. Today, it’s almost half. These are scary numbers.
As CBC Marketplace co-host Wendy Mesley recently asked in the March 5 segment, Chasing the Cancer Answer, “What are we waiting for – for 100 percent of people to get cancer?”
The general opinion among cancer societies worldwide is that cancer is caused mostly by smoking, over-exposure to the sun’s UV rays, alcohol consumption and poor diet – our personal “lifestyle” choices – and that only a small percentage of cancers are caused by environmental or workplace pollution. To justify their conclusion, they refer to a now discredited 25-year-old study conducted by British scientists Richard Doll and Richard Peto.
Despite cursory updates in the 1990s, this 1981 study established the basis for the way the world thinks about cancer today. It is the rationale for why so much of the money raised is spent on the search for a cure, rather than on eliminating the causes.
It is a very convenient conclusion because it means that we do not need to ask difficult questions about the growing number of hazardous chemicals to which we are exposed. When Wendy Mesley, who has breast cancer, was tested for her “body burden” of cancer-causing chemicals, lab results showed that she had 45 carcinogens in her blood sample. The blood of a typical newborn baby’s umbilical cord contains 200 man-made chemicals. This can’t be good.
Doll and Peto’s study may have been good for its day, and the smoking issue remains paramount, but by today’s science, the rest of their research should be relegated to the back shelf of the library. Their analysis of occupational cancers, for instance, failed to consider anyone over the age of 65, which is strange, considering that workplace-related cancers take 30 or 40 years to materialize.
The old assumptions about cancer also ignore some very important factors: the way in which toxins work together in our bodies, crucial periods of vulnerability, such as puberty and pregnancy, and the special qualities of fresh, organic food, which may be critical to defeating cancer.
Prevent Cancer Now, a new, Canadian, non-profit organization, with which I am involved, launched in Ottawa at the end of April (www.preventcancernow.ca). Our purpose is to build and sustain a Canada-wide movement that will generate both the resolve and the action required to eliminate all preventable causes of cancer.
How could we do this? Canada could, as Sweden has done, make a commitment to phase out all hazardous chemicals by 2020 and develop a national strategy to develop non-toxic systems for green, sustainable production.
Canada could, as Massachusetts has done, introduce a toxics use reduction act, requiring companies to develop plans to reduce their use of toxic chemicals. As a result of the act, the use of toxic chemicals in Massachusetts was reduced by 40 percent between 1990 and 2000, and toxic releases in the environment were reduced by 90 percent.
Canada could, as Ireland and Scotland have done, ban smoking in all enclosed public places, right across the country.
Canada could, as California has done, make the labeling of carcinogenic chemicals in consumer products mandatory.
And we, as concerned citizens, could demand these kinds of changes.
There are many events that raise millions of dollars to help find a cure for cancer, but to my knowledge, only one focuses exclusively on cancer prevention.
At the end of May, Prevent Cancer Now is organizing the 2006 Run, Walk & Roll for Cancer Prevention in Ottawa, London, Windsor and Victoria to raise funds for the new organization and for a national cancer prevention conference in April 2007.
Many people are taking part, including myself and we need sponsors. Go to www.stopcancer.org/rwr06 to click on donate. An income tax receipt will be issued for contributions of $20 or more.
We need your help to prevent cancer.
Guy Dauncey is currently finishing a new book entitled Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic. He serves as a board member for Prevent Cancer Now and is president of the BC Sustainable Energy Association.