ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICITY - Types and Causes of Cancer

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Cancer

Types and Causes of Cancer

" One of the main problems with environmental toxicity is that the chemicals

associated with cancer can be found almost anywhere, including in our air,

our water, our workplaces, and our homes. "

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" Environmental toxicity is one of the most important areas of cancer

causation and cancer prevention and it is yet to receive adequate recognition

from the cancer research establishment, " Dr. Epstein notes. " Neither the

National Cancer Institute or the American Cancer Society have ever given

scientific testimony before Congress or any regulatory agency on the

importance of avoiding exposure to toxic chemicals. " This, despite

significant evidence that environmental carcinogens in the home and the

workplace are one of the primary causes of cancer.

" We have more than enough scientific information on the relationship between

environmental and occupational toxins and increasing cancer rates, " Dr.

Epstein adds. " The problems are economic and political. Industry, with its

powerful lobby, has moved heaven and earth to prevent increased emphasis on

the phase out of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals in air, water, food, and

the workplace. "

Subsequently, independent researchers in the United States, supported with a

grant from the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,

conducted a similar study. Their findings verified that high concentrations

of PCB's and other common toxins found in drinking water and household

products exist in the breasts of women with cancer. But these same chemical

concentrations were not found in the breasts of women with only fibroid cysts

or benign tumors.

One of the main problems with environmental toxicity is that the chemicals

associated with cancer can be found almost anywhere, including in our air,

our water, our workplaces, and our homes. Even chemicals such as DDT, which

have been banned from use for years, still show up in the environment today.

These chemicals are very durable and do not break down easily. Their residues

can stay in the soil or water for years, to be passed on indefinitely through

the food chain as they go from soil or water to plant to animal to human

consumption.

The use of home and garden pesticides is another major source of toxicity and

has been linked to a variety of cancers, including childhood leukemia and

brain cancer. In a recent study, indoor pesticide use was found to result in

a risk factor four times higher than normal for childhood leukemia. This risk

became seven times higher for the children of parents who used garden

pesticides, and continued to climb in both cases, as the frequency of

pesticide use went up.30

Childhood brain cancer has been directly associated with the use of chemical

pesticides, such as diazinon and carbaryl, in the garden or orchard, as well

as with various herbicides used to control weeds. Pesticides used to control

pests in the home have also been implicated in this disease, including those

found in no-pest strips, termite pesticides, home pesticide bombs, and flea

collars for pets.31

No-pest strips may seem innocuous, but they emit continuous vapors of DDVP

(the active ingredient used in most strips), a highly carcinogenic chemical

associated with an increased risk for all types of cancer in children and

adults alike, according to the EPA. People who use these strips as directed

and are exposed to them over a lifetime have a greatly increased chance of

getting cancer. This can be as high as one in one hundred, which is ten

thousand times the risk that the EPA considers to be of significant concern.

The EPA also estimates that members of a household using the pest strips face

a cancer risk ten times greater than even pest control workers who apply DDVP

thousands of times a year without wearing protective clothing.32

The cancer danger of the use of some pesticides extends to pets who come into

close contact with contaminated soils, lawns, and plants. Flea collars with

DDVP put pets at a similarly increased cancer risk.33

Also, in our industrial age of plastics, chemicals, and metals manufacturing,

it is common to find a higher incidence rate of cancer in any group of

workers which are overly exposed to any of these carcinogens. Arsenic and

vinyl chloride have been found to cause liver and lung cancers in smelting,

tanning, and plastic workers. Asbestos has been linked to lung cancer in

miners, glass and pottery workers, and iron workers. Painters and dye workers

have been found to have a higher incidence of bone marrow cancers and

leukemia because of their exposure to benzene. It is estimated that 10

percent of all cancers are attributable to job-related exposure to

carcinogens.34

Indoor pollution, found in offices and homes, can also contain contaminants

which lead to cancer. Some examples include formaldehyde fumes from pressed

wood furniture and cabinets; fumes and vapors produced by cleaning products,

air fresheners, paints, hobby supplies (glues, varnishes, etc.), and

improperly vented gas stoves and dryers; lead and other chemicals found in

drinking water; office or home air systems which fill the air with bacteria,

mildew, and viruses; and radon gas infiltration. The EPA estimates that

indoor radon pollution may cause as many as ten thousand cancers a year in

the United States.35

The established link between cancer and toxins in the home, workplace, and

environment indicates the need for further research concerning the threat

these toxins pose to overall health. To support the use of goverment funds

for research in this field, write your elected representive.The disinfection

of drinking water with chlorine, which is standard practice throughout the

United States, has also added to the toxic level of carcinogens Americans are

exposed to on a daily basis. While the EPA tries to downplay the cancer risk

from chlorinating drinking water by asserting that the known risk of

water-borne disease in humans, if water is not disinfected, is much greater

than the theoretical risk of developing cancer, a recent study conducted

jointly by the Medical College of Wisconsin and Harvard University, has found

a very definite link between chlorine and cancer. The study found that the

consumption of chlorinated drinking water accounts for 15 percent of all

rectal cancers and 9 percent of all bladder cancers in the United States, or

an additional 6,500 cases of rectal cancer and 4,200 cases of bladder cancer

each year. Additionally, people drinking chlorinated water over long periods

of time have a 38 percent increase in the chance of contracting rectal cancer

and a 21 percent increase in the risk of contracting bladder cancer.36

DENTAL FACTORS AND THEIR LINK TO CANCER See Biological Dentistry,Energy

Medicine.

Industrial toxicology is an emerging technology which enables people to

quantify the level of dangerous toxic chemicals absorbed into their

bloodstream and bodily tissues via exposure at the workplace. One of the

leading scientists in this field is Hildegarde L. A. Sacarello, Ph.D.,

founder and past President of the International Academy of Toxicological Risk

Assessment.

Dr. Sacarello monitors the level of various contaminants in the workplace by

obtaining tissue samples from workers and comparing the levels found to the

recommended maximum safety levels. (She is also able, in the case of male

workers, to determine levels of toxins by analyzing semen.) Her expertise in

this area enables her to determine the risk which a particular worker faces

of developing environmentally induced illness, including cancer, and to

advise that person accordingly. In some cases the employee is advised to

totally avoid any further exposure.

For example, a seventy-five-year-old man was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Dr. Sacarello analyzed specimens of the cancerous tissues. These tissues

showed abnormally high levels of a variety of carcinogenic chemicals,

including arsenic, chlordane, and DDT, causing toxic overload and liver

dysfunction in the patient. After three months of a detoxifying herbal and

vitamin therapy, the patient's tumor shrunk by about a third.

Industrial toxicology offers the chance for workers to limit damaging

exposure in the workplace, as well as a way for them to determine what

factors may affect their health in the future.

Alternative health practitioners knowledgeable in energy medicine and

biological dentistry have noted for some time a link between dental problems

and degenerative illness. When a tooth is infected or otherwise affected, it

can block the energy flow along one or more of the body's acupuncture

meridians, causing the deterioration of a corresponding organ or tissue,

which may in time lead to cancer.

These blockages can also be caused by the use of dental amalgam material,

namely the silver fillings most people have in their mouth. " These so-called

silver fillings actually contain 50 percent mercury and only 25 percent

silver, " says Joyal , D.D.S., of Rancho Santa Fe, California, President

of the Environmental Dental Association. This makes such fillings especially

harmful, since mercury is a noted carcinogen, as well as having the ability

to impair immune function and create blockages.

Practitioners in the field of energy medicine have been able to use this

relationship between certain teeth and various organs and tissues of the body

in order to diagnose cancer in its earliest stages. Also, by removing or

correcting the dental problems which may have helped lead to the cancer

formation in the first place, they are able to aid in the treatment of the

disease as well. In addition, dentists in the field of biological dentistry

advocate the proper removal and replacement of all toxic amalgams as a

preventative measure, regardless of the patient's current health.