Medical Experts Prescribe Legislation to Help Prevent Cancer

[Guest guest]

" But more importantly, non-smoking cancers -- due to known chemical and

physical carcinogens -- have increased substantially since 1975. Some of the

more startling realities in the failure to prevent cancer are illustrated

by their soaring rates of increase. These include:

* Malignant melanoma of the skin in adults is increasing by 168% due

to the use of sunscreens in childhood that fail to block long wave

ultraviolet light;

* Thyroid cancer is increasing by 124% due in large part to ionizing

radiation;

* Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is increasing 76% due mostly to phenoxy

herbicides; and phenylenediamine hair dyes;

* Testicular cancer is increasing by 49% due to pesticides; hormonal

ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products; and estrogen residues

in meat;

* Childhood leukemia is increasing by 55% due to ionizing radiation;

domestic pesticides; nitrite preservatives in meats, particularly hot

dogs; and parental exposures to occupational carcinogens;

* Ovary cancer (mortality) for women over the age of 65 has increased

by 47% in African American women and 13% in Caucasian women due to

genital use of talc powder;

* Breast cancer is increasing 17% due to a wide range of factors.

These include: birth control pills; estrogen replacement therapy; toxic

hormonal ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products; diagnostic

radiation; and routine premenopausal mammography, with a cumulative breast dose

exposure of up to about five rads over ten years. "

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Medical Experts Prescribe Legislation to Help Prevent Cancer

CHICAGO, IL, June 15, 2009 -- /WORLD-WIRE/ -- A report on the Obama Cancer

Plan to key Congressional Committees was released today by national

experts on the causes and prevention of cancer. The report recommends that

Congress enact legislative reforms to the 1971 National Cancer Act, including a

statement that it is the national policy of the United States to reduce

carcinogenic exposures by at least half during the next decade. The report also

urges the annual publication of a comprehensive public register of

carcinogens.

The experts prescribe major policy changes for the National Cancer

Institute (NCI). These include the appointment of a new Deputy Director for

Cancer

Prevention, and the allocation of at least 40% of the NCI budget to

prevention programs for Fiscal Year 2011.

The report emphasizes that President Barack Obama has boldly pledged to

reform the national health care system. Central to this, as the President has

stressed, is containing the spiraling costs of health care -- costs which

are soaring at about 6% each year.

Most experts agree that this is not possible without a better plan to

prevent Americans from getting cancer in the first place. This year, 1.5

million people will be diagnosed with cancer. Of them, 562,000 people - over

1,500 every day - will die.

The cancer epidemic strikes as many as one in three Americans and takes

the life of one in four. After 37 years of losing the war against cancer (a

war that President Nixon originally declared in December 1971), we are

taking grossly and demonstrably inadequate action to protect us from this

menace.

While research on the prevention and treatment of cancer is predominantly

the responsibility of the National Cancer Institute, other governmental

agencies are also involved. These include the Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the

Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and the Food and Drug Administration

(FDA).

Unfortunately, action amongst these agencies is uncoordinated and

unbalanced.

The connection between our losing the cancer war and the need to control

costs through prevention is clear. Cancer is not only one of the most costly

and sometimes deadly diseases in America, it is also one of the most

preventable.

Based on recent estimates by the National Institutes of Health, the total

costs of cancer are $219 billion a year. The annual costs to taxpayers of

diagnosis and treatment amount to $89 billion; the annual costs of premature

death are conservatively estimated at $112 billion; and the annual costs

due to lost productivity are conservatively estimated at $18 billion. And

these are the quantifiable, inflationary economic costs. The human costs are

of far greater magnitude.

To be sure, smoking remains the best-known and single largest cause of

cancer, particularly lung cancer. While incidence rates of lung cancer in men

have declined by 20% over the past three decades, rates in women increased

by 111%.

But more importantly, non-smoking cancers -- due to known chemical and

physical carcinogens -- have increased substantially since 1975. Some of the

more startling realities in the failure to prevent cancer are illustrated by

their soaring rates of increase. These include:

* Malignant melanoma of the skin in adults is increasing by 168% due

to the use of sunscreens in childhood that fail to block long wave

ultraviolet light;

* Thyroid cancer is increasing by 124% due in large part to ionizing

radiation;

* Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is increasing 76% due mostly to phenoxy

herbicides; and phenylenediamine hair dyes;

* Testicular cancer is increasing by 49% due to pesticides; hormonal

ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products; and estrogen residues

in meat;

* Childhood leukemia is increasing by 55% due to ionizing radiation;

domestic pesticides; nitrite preservatives in meats, particularly hot

dogs; and parental exposures to occupational carcinogens;

* Ovary cancer (mortality) for women over the age of 65 has increased

by 47% in African American women and 13% in Caucasian women due to

genital use of talc powder;

* Breast cancer is increasing 17% due to a wide range of factors.

These include: birth control pills; estrogen replacement therapy; toxic

hormonal ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products; diagnostic

radiation; and routine premenopausal mammography, with a cumulative breast dose

exposure of up to about five rads over ten years.

Reflecting these concerns about breast cancer, Representatives Debbie

Wasserman-Schultz and Henry Waxman have introduced bills promoting educational

campaigns, including teaching regular breast self examination to high

school students. However, and in spite of its scientifically proven efficacy,

this initiative has been strongly challenged by breast cancer prevention

" experts " who remain unaware of the scientific evidence on the cancer risks of

high dose radiation premenopausal mammography. Furthermore, these " experts "

are unaware of the well-documented scientific evidence of avoidable causes

of breast cancer, other than factors related to . . . " childbirth and

breastfeeding. "

It is now beyond dispute in the independent scientific community that

environmental and occupational exposures to carcinogens are the primary cause

of non-smoking related cancers. An October 2007 publication on environmental

and occupational causes of cancer by one of us (Dr. Clapp) further

emphasized that the increasing incidence of cancer is due to preventable

exposures to carcinogens in the workplace and environment.

The Clapp report provides a wide range of evidence showing preventable

cancers resulting from environmental exposures to formaldehyde, chlorinated

organic pesticides, and organic solvents, among other substances.

Dr. Clapp cites a wealth of evidence attributing the increasing incidence

of lung cancers to preventable occupational exposures to asbestos, silica,

chromium VI, formaldehyde, methylene chloride, benzene, and ethylene oxide.

The National Cancer Institute is the primary federal agency devoted

exclusively to fighting cancer. Paradoxically, the escalating incidence of

cancer

over the last thirty years parallels its sharply escalating annual budget

- from $690 million in 1975 to $6 billion this year. Of this a mere $131

million is allocated to NCI's mission on Prevention and Early Detection.

Furthermore, President Obama has proposed a 5% increase in funding the NCI for

unspecified cancer research, with a doubling to $11.5 billion over the next

eight years.

However, in spite of well-documented evidence relating the escalating

incidence of cancer to a wide range of avoidable carcinogenic exposures, the

NCI remains " asleep at the wheel, " and has stubbornly refused to devote

significant resources or even attention to prevention.

The NCI has also ignored proddings from Congress and independent

scientific experts to develop a comprehensive registry of carcinogens. Worse

still,

the NCI has misled the public by claiming that most cancers are due to

unhealthy behavior, " blaming the victim, " despite overwhelming evidence to the

contrary.

NCI officials still claim, for instance that 94% of all cancers are due to

" unhealthy behavior " such as smoking, poor nutrition, inactivity, obesity

and over exposure to sunlight – and that a mere 6% are attributable to

exposures to environmental and occupational exposures.

These estimates are based on those published in 1981 by the late U.K.

epidemiologist Sir Doll. However, from 1976 to 1999, Doll had been a

closet consultant to U.K. and U.S. industries, including General Motors,

Monsanto and the asbestos industry. Following revelation of these conflicts of

interest, just prior to his death in 2002, Doll admitted that most cancers,

other than those related to smoking and hormones, " are induced by exposure

to chemicals often environmental. "

Furthermore, the NCI has touted the imminent success of new cancer

treatments – promises that have seldom borne out, and which have been widely

questioned by the independent scientific community. For instance, in 2004,

Nobel

Laureate Leland Hartwell, President of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Control

Center, warned that Congress and the public are paying NCI $4.7 billion a

year, most of which is spent on " promoting ineffective drugs " for terminal

disease.

As members of the independent scientific community, we welcome the Obama

Administration's goal of health care reform and prevention. But while

President Obama has put forward a unique cancer plan, it focuses far too much

on

the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, rather than on prevention.

The simple truth is that the more cancer is prevented, the less there is

to treat. That will also save lives and money.

Congress now has an epochal opportunity to reform our health care system

and prevent diseases, particularly cancer, from occurring in the first

place. By taking some simple steps, Congress should enact reforms to prevent

cancer. Accordingly, we recommend that Congress enact the following specific

legislative reforms to the 1971 National Cancer Act:

* Congress declares that it is the national policy of the United

States to reduce carcinogenic exposures to confirmed or suspected carcinogens

by at least half during the next decade.

* Congress shall create a Deputy Director for Cancer Prevention of

the NCI who, in consultation with the administrators of EPA, OSHA, CPSC, FDA

and other relevant regulatory agencies, shall report to Congress annually

on steps needed during the next decade, under existing regulatory

authority, to reduce, by at least half, exposures reasonably anticipated to

reduce

the prevalence of future preventable cancers.

* The Deputy Director of NCI shall meet quarterly with the

administrators of EPA, OSHA, CPSC, FDA and other relevant regulatory agencies

to

identify opportunities to reduce exposures to carcinogens in the environment,

the workplace, pharmaceuticals, and consumer products -- food, household

products, and cosmetics and personal care products.

* The Deputy Director's annual report shall include recommendations

for changes in statutes, regulations and enforcement authority, necessary

to achieve this national policy, in consultation with the administrators of

the EPA, OSHA, CPSC, FDA and other relevant regulatory agencies.

* Congress shall allocate at least 40% of the NCI budget to explicit

prevention related programs for FY 2011, and 50% by FY 2014.

* Congress shall mandate the annual publication of a comprehensive

register of carcinogens. This will provide federal, state and local

governments, as well as the public, with comprehensive information on

carcinogens

in the workplace, environment, and consumer products so that necessary

preventive action can be promptly undertaken.

These steps alone will not win the war against cancer, but they will be

critical in redirecting a failing war on cancer that can best be described as

one of the most notorious public health failures of the 20th century.

Cancer prevention is a critical public policy area in which reform is long

overdue.

Accordingly, these concerns have also been addressed to four congressional

committees: Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions; Senate

Appropriations; House Energy and Commerce; and the House Appropriations

Committee.

Experts on Causes and Prevention of Cancer:

S. Epstein, MD Chairman, _Cancer Prevention Coalition_

(http://www.preventcancer.com/)

Professor emeritus Environmental & Occupational Medicine

University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health

A. Ashford, PhD., JD

Professor of Technology and Policy

Director, MIT Technology and Law Program

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

W. Clapp, DSc, MPH

Professor Environmental Health

Boston University School of Public Health

Quentin D. Young, MD

Past President American Public Health Association

Chairman, Health and Medicine Policy Research Group, Chicago

CONTACT:

S. Epstein, MD

Chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition

Professor emeritus Environmental & Occupational Medicine

University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health

Email: _epstein@..._ (mailto:epstein@...)

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