Breast Cancer Awareness Month Misleads
Women
CHICAGO, Oct. 16, 2007 (AScribe
Newswire) -- Following is commentary by
Samuel Epstein, M.D., and Rosalie Bertell,
Ph.D.
- - - -
In 1984, the American Cancer
Society (ACS) inaugurated the National
Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), with
its Oct. 17 flagship National Mammography
Day. The NBCAM was conceived and funded by
the Imperial Chemical Industries, a leading
international manufacturer of
petrochemicals, and its U.S. subsidiary
Zeneca Pharmaceuticals. Zeneca is the sole
manufacturer of Tamoxifen, claimed to reduce
risks of breast cancer, even though it is
toxic and carcinogenic.
The NBCAM assured women that
"early (mammography) detection results in a
cure nearly 100 percent of the time." More
specifically, the NBCAM is primarily
directed to claims for reducing the
incidence and mortality of breast cancer
through early detection by annual
mammography starting at age 40.
Still unrecognized by the ACS, and
also the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is
strong evidence that mammography poses
significant risks of breast cancer. The
routine practice of taking four films
annually for each breast results in
approximately 1 rad (radiation absorbed
dose) exposure, which is approximately 1,000
times the dose from a single chest X-ray.
Each rad exposure increases risks of breast
cancer by about one percent, with a
cumulative 10 percent increased risk for
each breast over a decade's screening.
Moreover, the premenopausal breast is highly
sensitive to radiation. Not surprisingly,
premenopausal mammography screening is
practiced by no nation other than the U.S.
Risks of premenopausal mammography
are some four-fold greater for the one to
two percent of women who are carriers of the
A-T gene (ataxia telangiectasia), and highly
sensitive to the carcinogenic effects of
radiation. By some estimates, this accounts
for up to 20 percent of all breast cancers
diagnosed annually.
Compounding these problems, missed
cancers are common in premenopausal women
due to the density of their breasts.
That most breast cancers are first
recognized by women was admitted in 1985 by
the ACS. "We must keep in mind that at least
90 percent of the women who develop breast
cancer discover the tumors themselves."
Furthermore, an analysis of several 1993
studies showed that women who regularly
performed breast self-examination (BSE)
detected their cancers much earlier than
women failing to examine themselves. The
effectiveness of BSE however depends on
training by skilled professionals, enhanced
by annual clinical breast examination by a
professional. In spite of such evidence, the
ACS and radiologists dismiss BSE, and claim
that "no studies have clearly shown the
benefit of using BSE."
A leading Massachusetts newspaper
featured a photograph of two women in their
twenties in an ACS advertisement that
promised early detection by mammography
results in a cure "nearly 100 percent of the
time." An ACS communications director,
questioned by journalist Kate Dempsey,
responded in an article published in the
Massachusetts Women's Community's journal
Cancer "The ad isn't based on a study. When
you make an advertisement, you just say what
you can to get women in the door. You
exaggerate a point ... Mammography today is
a lucrative [and] highly competitive
business." She just couldn't be any more
correct.
With this background, it is not
surprising that the NBCAM neglects to inform
women how they can reduce their risks of
breast cancer. In fact, we know a great deal
about its avoidable causes which are
trivialized or ignored by the ACS. These
include:
- Prolonged use of the Pill or
estrogen replacement therapy.
- High consumption of meat which
is heavily contaminated with potent natural
or synthetic estrogens, or other sex
hormones, implanted in cattle in feedlots
prior to slaughter to increase muscle mass.
- Prolonged consumption of milk
from cows injected with a genetically
engineered growth hormone to increase milk
production. This milk is contaminated with
high levels of a natural growth factor,
which increases breast cancer risks by up to
seven-fold.
- Prolonged exposure to a wide
range of unlabeled hormonal ingredients in
cosmetics and personal care products.
- Living near hazardous waste
sites, petrochemical plants, power lines,
and nuclear plants.
- Occupational exposures of over
one million women to carcinogens. These
include benzene, ethylene oxide, methylene
chloride, phenylenediamine hair dyes, and
agricultural pesticides, including DDT
residues.
- - - -
AUTHORS/CONTACT:
- Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.;
Professor emeritus, Environmental &
Occupational Medicine, University of
Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health;
Chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition,
Chicago, Illinois; epstein@uic.edu /
312-996-2297; www.preventcancer.com
- Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D.; Former
President of the International Institute of
Concern for Public Health, Toronto, Canada;
Regent of the International Physicians for
Humanitarian Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland;
rosaliebertell@greynun.org
NOTE TO EDITORS: The above
commentary is available for free and
immediate use. If used, please contact
Samuel Epstein, M.D., as a courtesy to the
contributors.
-30-
AScribe -
The Public Interest Newswire / 510-653-9400
www.ascribe.org
