Breast cancer continues to take toll

By Christine Carpenter

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It is breast cancer awareness month and again we are funding the cure, shopping for the cure, getting our mammograms and doing self-breast exams. Yet breast cancer continues to take a toll here and globally despite significant awareness and resources directed at the disease.

The current culture and marketing surrounding cancer focuses on individual awareness, early detection and drug development. Few resources go toward identifying known and preventable causes and eliminating them from our economy.

Wouldn't it be better if known and suspected causes were eliminated and we prevented cancer before it starts? Renowned biologist Sandra Steingraber in her groundbreaking book, “Living Downstream,” begins with a parable: There was once a village along a river. These residents began noticing increasing numbers of drowning people caught in the river's swift current. And so they went to work devising ever more elaborate technologies to resuscitate them. So preoccupied were these heroic villagers with rescue and treatment that they never thought to look upstream to see who was pushing the victims in.

Steingraber then looks at her life, growing up in central Illinois, and connections between toxic environments and cancer, including her own.

A 2007 American Cancer Society study documents 216 chemicals known to cause breast cancer in animals. Of these, 73 are found in food and consumer products, 35 are air pollutants, and 29 of them are produced in the United States in large amounts every year. Many studies show that lifetime use of common household pesticides may be associated with an increase in risk for many forms of cancer and chronic illnesses. Children are especially at risk.

Yes, we have a lot of work to do, and it will take more than a sea of pink to get us there. Choose to do one of the actions below and make a difference.

l Visit the Breast Cancer Fund website, www.breastcancerfund.org, to learn how to reduce your risk.

l Use alternatives to weed killers and insecticides at home and schools. Visit www.nysipm.cornell.edu to learn safer pest management.

l Ask Senators Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin to support the new Safe Chemicals Act of 2011, which aims to protect us all from toxic chemicals.

Get to know the environmental hazards linked to breast cancer and take action. We will all be better for it.

Christine Carpenter of Cedar Rapids, diagnosed with breast cancer 18 years ago at age 45, is founder of the Iowa Breast Cancer Advocacy Network and co-founder of the Healthy Cedar Valley Coalition in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Comments: christine.carpenter@cfu.net