1. Editors:
Julie Petit The Secret History of the War on
Jill McTavish
Nicholas So Cancer: Fighting the Right Fight?
Tuesday March 23, 2010
Did You Know…?
•The Lasker Award for Healthy Environments = Healthy People
Cancer Research was
created in 1946 and a Dr. Devra Davis, an epide- largely overlooked. Instead D
cure was expected miologist and professor of of fighting a war against the
within a decade preventative medicine, has disease once it has already
given us an in-depth look at manifested, we should in-
•Most of the 100,000
where we currently stand stead be focusing on pre-
chemicals used in com- with regards to environ- vention by fixing our envi-
merce haven’t been mental oncology and the ronment and imposing
tested for their human problems that remain. In much tighter regulations on
health effects her book, The Secret His- occupational exposures.
K
•In 1973, a can of hair- tory of the War on Cancer, Some revelations brought to
spray typically con- Davis focuses on how the our attention by Davis in-
clude the difficulties in pub- The leading causes of death in
tained up to 1/2 vinyl “War on Cancer” declared
Canada in 2005. Adapted from
chloride by President Nixon in the lic access to industry infor-
Stats Canada.
1970’s set out to treat and mation and skewed re-
•Sarnia, Ontario has 5x cure a disease but failed to search results due to indus- changing their ways to pre-
the level of meso- give attention to the envi- try funded research. Money vent the issue. While re-
thelioma as the rest of ronmental causes such as also plays a big role in search to discover better
the Lambton region asbestos, benzene, to- whether or not regulations treatments and eventually a
•The Nazis ran the first bacco, and radiation to will make a difference in cure are no doubt neces-
public advertisements name a few. She sheds light limiting our exposures; in sary, if we want to effec-
that warned of the dan- on how the world we live in general, it is cheaper for an tively decrease cancer inci-
gers of smoking and our occupations affect industry to pay out lawsuits dence we are going to need
our exposures to carcino- once a health problem is to focus foremost on fixing
•Leaders of the Ameri- gens and how this has been identified as opposed to our environment.
can Cancer Society
(ACS) included the VP
of a tobacco firm Sarnia Asbestos Workers Receive Compensation
•Collective annual ra- Sarnia, Ontario has the their jobs as insulation or
diation dose from medi- highest rates of pleural foundry workers to provide
cal exposure in the U.S. mesothelioma (a cancer evidence for compensatory
roughly equals the that is almost always claims. The study used a
worldwide collective caused from asbestos) in method called hazard map-
dose from Chernobyl Ontario. Between 1986 and ping to graphically recon-
1993, there was a four-fold struct their workplaces and
increase in mesothelioma to detail their exposures.
cases in Sarnia compared Participants also used body ceiving compensation. Total
to the rest of Ontario and mapping (shown at right) to claim payouts approached
74% of these cases were point out symptoms and $16,000,000 in lump sums
former workers from petro- diseases. Mapping results and $1,115,000 in monthly
A typical chest CT chemical industries or combined with government benefits.
scan can be equiva- Holmes Foundry. A study reports, medical diagnoses Int J Occup Environ Health 2004,
lent to 400 chest x- was carried out on workers and scientific literature re- 10: 144-153
rays exposed to asbestos in sulted in many workers re-

2. Page 2 The Secret History of the War on Cancer: Fighting the Right Fight?
Pennsylvania Lawsuits On The Rise As Public Links Illness to Gas Spill
Almost 15 years ago in exposing the residents to mia than the general pub- living near their refinery.
eastern Pennsylvania, the toxic benzene. Despite the lic. As a result of the spill, Both issues beg the ques-
industries of Laurel Gar- $25 million site clean-up, more than 200 lawsuits tion, could this have been
dens discover that their funded by the U.S. Environ- are pending, and the num- prevented, or is it cheaper
underground storage tanks mental Protection Agency, ber is expected to climb. for companies to settle the
for gasoline were leaking. groundwater in the area is This is a reminder of the lawsuits?
Eventually building to a still being treated and fil- detrimental effects of ben-
tremendous 50,000 gal- tered to remove remaining zene, specifically, a case in Adapted from Evelyn Pringle,
lons below the community, vapours and gasoline con- 2005 when the family of a 2006
the contamination gradu- tamination of the soils. The Missouri woman was
ally spread beneath more Archives of Environments awarded $13.3 million in
than 350 homes. Fumes Health report that Laurel damages from BP Amoco
seeped into houses Gardens residence are at a after she died as a result
through the sewer system, 4.5x higher risk of leuke- of benzene exposure after
Love Canal Declared Clean: Superfund Success?
The Love Canal tragedy is the site was declared clean ed to reinstate this tax
one of the most horrific — 21 years and $400 mil- starting in 2011. While the
stories of the toxic effects lion later. This tragedy Superfund is a good law for
of chemical waste in his- sparked the passing of the holding companies respon-
tory. The Hooker Chemical Superfund law: a U.S. fed- sible after the damage is
Company filled the canal eral law designed to clean done, we need to critically
with toxic waste containing up hazardous waste sites. analyze what policies are
over 80 industrial chemi- This law, implemented in in place for avoiding trage-
cals, many known to be 1980, held companies dies in the first place. As
carcinogenic, covered it retroactively responsible Hilary Clinton stated:
with earth and sold it to for past pollution and ini- “While Love Canal marked
the city of Niagara Falls, NY tially put $1.6 billion over 5 the beginning of Super-
for $1. A neighbourhood, years to pay for clean ups. fund, it’s successful
including a school, was This was bumped to $8.5 cleanup should, by no
built on top of this site. The billion in 1986. A ‘polluter means, mark it’s demise.
number of birth defects, pays’ tax was also set up, We still have a long way to
“The War on miscarriages and various but this tax expired in go”.
cancer cases skyrocketed 1995 and has failed to be
Cancer did not and eventually the area reinstated. The Obama Adapted from The New York
was evacuated. In 2004, administration has propos- Times, Mar. 18/04
target any of the
things known or
suspected of
causing cancer at
the time” - Davis