The technological advances of humanity have dramatically changed our lives. They continue to do so in both good and bad ways. The leading cause of death today, cardiovascular disease, is so prevalent because we eat too much of the wrong food and we are not as physically active as human bodies are accustomed to being. Recent research adds to a growing, although still minority, consensus that the second-leading cause of death, cancer, is also essentially a man-made disease.
Cancer clusters are unexpectedly high rates of cancers in certain locales. The movie, ERIN BROCKOVICH, tells the story of the human cost, investigation and legal maneuverings around one such cancer cluster. For three decades, US Marines and their families stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina were exposed to extremely high levels of a wide range of chemical toxins in their water (benzene, perchloroethylene, trihalomethanes and strontium-90). There is an ongoing investigation into the cancer cluster which has appeared among the people who have lived in the area. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/10/29/1794488/calendar-exposes-cases-of-breast.html
To gain attention to the problem and in keeping with October’s breast cancer awareness theme, 14 of the 64 local men diagnosed with breast cancer posed for a 2011 calendar. You might be surprised, because breast cancer is so rarely seen in males that many people do not realize that it ever happens. It does. But such a rare event does not become common without something very unusual causing it. This is the largest known cluster of male breast cancers. The chemical contamination of that area is almost certainly to blame.
Since the Industrial Revolution, cancer has become our second leading killer, behind cardiovascular disease. For some time, the absence of cancer in ancient human remains was attributed to the fact that people usually died younger. That point of view required overlooking the substantial number of cases of cancer we see today among even young children. For many years now, we have accepted that our environmental exposures, especially to cigarette smoke, are a major cause of cancer. Conservative estimates now attribute 75% of cancers to environmental factors.
The War On Cancer is an acknowledged failure. Billions of research dollars have lead to only paltry advances in cancer treatment and survivorship. The problem is that we have yet to accept that we are the cause.
Over the years, an unintended and often unforeseen consequence of our technology is death for the majority of us. I think that the reason our “War On Cancer” has failed is that those directing and funding the fight have had the tactics wrong. This very considerable effort has been misdirected.
We must continue to develop treatments, but the key point is that cancer is a seemingly inevitable consequence of environmental toxin exposures. The only major impact we have had on reducing cancer death rates has been through prevention programs, such as those targeting cigarette smoking. Although that fight took decades and clandestine drama (e.g., the film THE INSIDER) tobacco is a relatively easy target.
One of the reasons research priorities have been so wrong is that tackling the complexities of a disease caused by many thousands of chemicals dispersed throughout the environment, with unknown specific effects and interactions, is extremely difficult. Adding to that, the opposition of many special interests makes it even tougher. Then we must admit that our individual special interests, living a life in many ways founded upon the comforts of these same products, would erode the sort of dramatic changes that might be required to win the “War on Cancer”.
Sadly, even if you grasp the importance of avoiding chemical exposures in your food, air and water, both inside and outside of your home, this is not something you as an individual can control. Similarly, as a physician, I can only advise you about what to avoid and suggest better choices. Exposures from arsenic and atrazine in our water, hormone-mimicking chemicals in babies’ pacifiers, and unnecessary medical radiation can be managed with determination and knowledge. But when the contamination of our and water is odorless and tasteless, receipts are laden with BPA, and organic greens come tainted with rocket fuel, you simply can not avoid all toxic exposures.
