THE TRUTH ABOUT BREAST CANCER--PART 2

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RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY #572 .

 

.. ---November 13, 1997--- .

 

.. HEADLINES: .

 

.. THE TRUTH ABOUT BREAST CANCER--PART 2 .

 

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THE TRUTH ABOUT BREAST CANCER--PART 2

 

 

 

Roughly five to ten percent of cancers are caused by inherited

 

genetic disorders, but the remaining 90 to 95 percent are caused

 

by exposure to carcinogens (cancer-causing agents such as x-rays

 

or certain chemicals). This is true of breast

 

cancer,[1,pgs.237-241] and of all other cancers as well.

 

 

 

Some carcinogens are natural, such as cosmic rays from outer

 

space, and cannot be avoided. But many carcinogens are synthetic

 

(meaning 'created by humans'), such as fiber glass, x-rays, some

 

pesticides, etc. --and exposure to them COULD be avoided. Thus,

 

cancer is largely a preventable disease. Almost no one disputes

 

this.[1,pgs.55,265]

 

 

 

When women started asking about prevention of breast cancer in

 

the 1980s, they examined the scientific research " establishment "

 

and found it dominated by men who had close ties to industries

 

that produce carcinogens. For example, as recently as the late

 

1980s, the board of overseers of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering

 

Cancer Center was comprised of bankers and industrialists.

 

Before Leo Wade became the director of the Sloan-Kettering

 

Center, he had a long career as medical director at Standard Oil

 

of New Jersey,[1,pg.266] and he was a member of the American

 

Petroleum Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers,

 

and the Manufacturing Chemists Association. Under Wade's

 

leadership, Sloan-Kettering never weighed in on the side of

 

prevention.

 

 

 

In 1990 --and for several years before that --the National Cancer

 

Institute's " National Cancer Advisory Panel " (an influential

 

3-member group with direct access to the President --indeed, it

 

is now called the President's Cancer Panel) was headed by Armand

 

Hammer who was also, at the time, chairman of Occidental

 

Petroleum, a major polluter and manufacturer of carcinogenic

 

chemicals. When Hammer announced a drive to add a billion

 

dollars to the NCI's budget, the goal was " to find a cure for

 

cancer in the next ten years " and none of the money was earmarked

 

for prevention.[1,pg.266]

 

 

 

As we saw last week, Breast Cancer Awareness Month was created in

 

1987 by a British chemical conglomerate --Imperial Chemical

 

Industries (ICI) --and it is now funded and exclusively

 

controlled by an ICI spin-off, Zeneca Pharmaceuticals.[2] Breast

 

Cancer Awareness Month is focused narrowly on early detection of

 

breast cancer through mammography; it is not about prevention.

 

Zeneca plays a dual role in the cancer business. On the one hand

 

it earns $300 million each year from sales of the carcinogenic

 

herbicide acetochlor[1,pg.257] while at the same time earning

 

$470 million each year marketing the world's best-selling cancer

 

therapy drug, tamoxifen citrate,[1,pg.255] and it operates a

 

chain of 11 U.S. cancer treatment centers.[3] Clearly, cancer

 

prevention would conflict with Zeneca's business plan.

 

 

 

In the early 1990s, 180 cancer advocacy groups joined together

 

into the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC). Using

 

grass-roots organizing tactics pioneered by AIDS activists and by

 

toxics activists, the NBCC persuaded Congress to increase breast

 

cancer funding by $300 million,[1,pg.255] with an eye toward

 

prevention.

 

 

 

The creation of the NBCC represented a real threat to the

 

chemical industry which has been discharging millions of tons of

 

carcinogenic chemicals into communities for years --all perfectly

 

legal because the industry's friends in Congress have adjusted

 

the laws to make it so.

 

 

 

Grass-roots action to expose the truth about cancer --that CANCER

 

IS A POLITICAL DISEASE --was a real threat to the industry,

 

especially because the message was bubbling up from the

 

grass-roots and being amplified by cancer researchers like Dr.

 

Devra Lee Davis, who was at that time an adviser to the federal

 

Department of Health and Human Services.

 

 

 

If you look for a group of chemicals that is causing more than

 

its fair share of grief, you would probably pick organochlorines.

 

Very few organochlorines exist in nature, and then only in

 

relatively small amounts; the vast majority of organochlorines

 

were created by humans starting around the year 1900 but gearing

 

up big-time after World War II.

 

 

 

Today there are 15,000 different organochlorines but they all

 

tend to have three similar characteristics. First, they tend to

 

persist in the environment (because nature does not break them

 

down readily), so once created they stay around. Second, they

 

are not very soluble in water but they tend to be soluble in fat

 

--so they tend to enter food chains and bioaccumulate as they

 

move upward toward the big predators, like eagles, polar bears,

 

and humans. And third they tend to be toxic and in many

 

instances carcinogenic. Recently, it has been shown that several

 

of them interfere with hormones in wildlife --and probably in

 

humans --causing many other problems besides cancer.

 

 

 

Partly in response to the formation of the National Breast Cancer

 

Coalition, the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) and its

 

subsidiary, the Chlorine Chemistry Council (CCC), hired Mongoven,

 

Biscoe and Duchin (MBD), a PR firm in Washington, D.C., to

 

develop a plan for countering the " prevention " message.

 

 

 

MBD makes its living by spying on churches, labor unions,

 

environmentalists, and professors and students, writing wildly

 

inaccurate reports about them, then selling the reports to

 

gullible corporate clients, such as CCC. In addition, MBD helps

 

corporate clients develop strategies to resist pressures for

 

change. In its own words, MBD " assists corporations in resolving

 

public policy issues being driven by activist organizations and

 

other members of the public interest community. We help clients

 

anticipate and respond to movements for change in public policy

 

which would affect their interests adversely.... Forces for

 

change often include activist and public interest groups,

 

churches, unions and/or academia.... MBD is committed to the

 

concept that it is critical to know who the current and potential

 

participants are in the public policy process, to understand

 

their goals and modus operandi, and to understand their relative

 

importance. To this end, MBD maintains extensive files on

 

organizations and their leadership.... " (See REHW #361.)

 

 

 

A 5-page cover memo to the Chlorine Chemistry Council dated

 

September 7, 1994, and signed by Jack Mongoven, lists many

 

specific steps that CCC should take to defend chlorine and

 

undercut the breast cancer survivors: " It is obvious that the

 

battleground for chlorine will be women's issues--reproductive

 

health and children--and organizations with important

 

constituencies of women opinion leaders should have priority, "

 

Mongoven writes. (See REHW #495.)

 

 

 

MBD's August 1994 report to CCC listed a series of conferences

 

for breast cancer survivors scheduled by WEDO (Women's

 

Environment & Development Organization) in New York [phone:

 

212/973-0325]. The report says, " Devra Lee Davis is expected to

 

direct the Clinton Administration's policy governing breast

 

cancer and we expect her to try to convert the breast cancer

 

issue into a debate over the use of chlorine. As a member of the

 

administration, Davis has unlimited access to the media while her

 

position at the Health and Human Services (HHS) [department]

 

helps validate her 'junk science.' Davis is scheduled to be a

 

keynote speaker at each of the upcoming WEDO breast cancer

 

conferences. "

 

 

 

In his cover memo, Jack Mongoven suggests that CCC deal with Dr.

 

Davis, the breast cancer survivors, and anti-chlorine sentiments

 

as follows:

 

 

 

** Schedule through KPR [Ketchum Public Relations, in Washington,

 

D.C.] editorial board meetings in Dayton prior to Department of

 

Health and Human Services Devra Lee Davis['s] speech to a forum

 

on breast cancer sponsored by Greenpeace and WEDO to be held in

 

Dayton....

 

 

 

** Enlist legitimate scientists in the Dayton area who would be

 

willing to ask pointed questions at the conference....

 

 

 

** Stimulate peer-reviewed articles for publication in the JAMA

 

[Journal of the American Medical Association] on the role of

 

chlorine chemistry in treating disease.....

 

 

 

** Convince through carefully crafted meetings of industry

 

representatives (in pharmaceuticals) with organizations devoted

 

to specific illnesses, e.g., arthritis, cystic fibrosis, etc.,

 

that the cure for their specific disease may well come through

 

chlorine chemistry and ask them to pass resolutions endorsing

 

chlorine chemistry and communicate those resolutions to medical

 

societies. [End of MBD memo.]

 

 

 

MBD has some influential allies in the campaign to deflect

 

attention away from the fact that cancer is caused 90% to 95% by

 

exposure to carcinogens. For example, NEW YORK TIMES writer Gina

 

Kolata ridicules or ignores anyone who suggests that some portion

 

of breast cancers might be caused by exposure to carcinogenic

 

agents in the environment.

 

 

 

Last month HBO aired a documentary film about breast cancer and

 

the environment, called RACHEL'S DAUGHTERS.[4] The film centers

 

on a group of breast cancer survivors who interview scientists

 

who explain the nature and causes of breast cancer. Kolata

 

reviewed the film in the TIMES October 1, 1997.

 

 

 

In her review, Kolata forgot to mention that any scientists or

 

physicians appear in the film. Indeed, she gives the strong

 

impression that the women in the film have no scientific basis

 

for their concerns. Kolata writes, " The women [in RACHEL'S

 

DAUGHTERS] are far removed from the universe of scientists and

 

others who make distinctions between hypothesis and evidence, who

 

believe that speculation is not proof, and that when evidence

 

fails to support a hypothesis, the hypothesis should be

 

abandoned. " She ridicules the women in RACHEL'S DAUGHTERS, thus:

 

" Are crops sprayed with pesticides? Well, then of course

 

pesticides caused breast cancer. Do we use electricity? Well,

 

of course electromagnetic fields caused breast cancer. " In

 

summing up, Kolata dismisses the women's concerns as " paranoid

 

thinking. "

 

 

 

What Kolata neglected to mention is that the following scientists

 

and physicians (among others) appeared on-camera in the film,

 

supporting the women's concerns about the causes of breast cancer:

 

 

 

** Ruth Allen, Ph.D., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and

 

program director of the National Cancer Institute's Long Island

 

Breast Cancer Study Project;

 

 

 

** Julia Brody, Ph.D., director of the Silent Spring Institute in

 

Massachusetts and principal investigator of the Massachusetts

 

department of health study of breast cancer on Cape Cod;

 

 

 

** Devra Lee Davis, Ph.D., World Resources Institute, Washington,

 

D.C., formerly advisor on breast cancer to the federal

 

Department of Health and Human Services;

 

 

 

** John W. Gofman, Ph.D., M.D., professor emeritus of molecular

 

and cell biology, University of California at Berkeley;

 

 

 

** Stefanie S. Jeffrey, chief of breast surgery, Stanford

 

University School of Medicine;

 

 

 

** Donald C. Malins, Ph.D., D.Sc., Pacific Northwest Research

 

Foundation, Seattle, Washington, and member, National Academy of

 

Sciences;

 

 

 

** Marion Moses, M.D., Pesticide Education Center, San Francisco,

 

California;

 

 

 

** Susan Sieber-Fabro, Ph.D., Deputy Director, Division of Cancer

 

Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute;

 

 

 

** Shelia Hoar Zahm, Deputy Chief of the Occupational

 

Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology, National

 

Cancer Institute.

 

 

 

Happily, if the TIMES should ever dismiss Gina Kolata for writing

 

biased, inaccurate reports, she wouldn't starve. She has

 

demonstrated all the talents needed to hold down a lucrative

 

position with Mongoven, Biscoe, and Duchin.

 

 

 

[Continued next week.]

 

--Peter Montague

 

(National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981/AFL-CIO)

 

===============

 

[1] Robert N. Proctor, CANCER WARS; HOW POLITICS SHAPES WHAT WE

 

KNOW AND DON'T KNOW ABOUT CANCER (NY: BasicBooks, 1995). This is

 

a scholarly history of the development of human knowledge about

 

cancer, definitely worth reading.

 

 

 

[2] Monte Paulsen, " The Profits of Misery; Breast Cancer and the

 

Environment: How the chemical industry profits from an epidemic

 

it may be causing, " DETROIT METRO TIMES May 19-23, 1993, pgs.

 

unknown.

 

 

 

[3] Elisabeth Rosenthal, " Maker of Cancer Drugs to Oversee

 

Prescriptions at 11 Cancer Clinics, " NEW YORK TIMES April 15,

 

1997, section A, pg. 1.

 

 

 

[4] RACHEL'S DAUGHTERS will be available for screening in your

 

community as of January 1, 1998; to arrange a screening, contact

 

Light-Saraf Films, 264 Arbor Street, San Francisco, CA 94131;

 

telephone and fax: (415) 469-0139.

 

 

 

Descriptor terms: cancer; carcinogens; sloan-kettering cancer

 

center; national cancer institute; nci; robert n. procter; cancer

 

wars; armand hammer; occidental petroleum; standard oil of new

 

jersey; breast cancer awarenesn month; imperial chemical

 

industries; ici; zeneca pharmaceuticals; tamoxifen; devra lee

 

davis; national breast cancer coalition; chlorine chemistry

 

council; mongoven, biscoe and duchin; mbd; ketchum public

 

relations' kpr; new york times; gina kolata; rachel's daughters;

 

films; breast cancer; estrogens; hormones;

 

 

 

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