by Susan Braun
Around the world, more than 12 million human beings are diagnosed with cancer each year, and nearly 8 million die. That’s more than 20,000 dying EACH DAY from cancer. The numbers are staggering. Think of losing a small town each day. Or a mid-sized university campus full of students. Six times more people die from cancer than from car accidents. Six times more individual lives are lost to cancer than to malaria. And if statistics hold, it will be the number one cause of human death on this planet within this decade.
What causes cancer? At a meeting at the National Cancer Institute last month, experts talked about somatic changes, epigenetic changes, and genetic mutations. Layers of assault that cumulatively lead the body to be unable to control unusual growth of damaged cells. What are some of the assaults?
The public often hears about smoking, poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle. One layer of assault. When combined with a genetic predisposition—a second layer—each becomes even more likely to lead to cancer. But genetic predispositions are less common than most people believe: in the most common cancers—those in the lung, breast, colon, and prostate gland, it’s estimated that 20 percent or fewer cases are linked to family history. Stress, inflammation, and viruses are being studied to see what role they play. Another layer. These are all things we can assess in an individual; they are individual risk factors. Those related to our personal lifestyle we can try to change. Increasingly, our genetic predisposition is something we can measure and understand. And, as individuals, we can take steps to reduce risks related to our personal lifestyle.
But what of those things beyond our individual control? We’ve all heard the stories about asbestos, a common building material until it was banned in many countries in the 1980s. It is directly linked to a horrible form of lung cancer called mesothelioma. People didn’t choose to live in a home that had asbestos in the walls and ceilings. They didn’t even know. Radiation is also directly linked to many forms of cancer. But the people of Chernobyl didn’t choose to live in a region that was going to be the site of one of the world’s worst nuclear power plant accidents and become one of the thousands that developed cancer because of it. Some of the causes of cancer—another layer of assault—come from things in our air and water that we don’t know to avoid or simply cannot. Many people without cancer in their family, people with a healthy lifestyle, people who “did it all right,” develop cancer. And all too often they die. We can’t point to choices that they made and shake our fingers and our heads. These are our parents, our children, our friends. Can we protect them? Can we prevent their suffering?
For years, many believed that the environment played a minor role in most cancers. We believed that our air and water were kept safe. That the food we ate didn’t contain things known to cause cancer. That chemicals in the shampoo we used for our babies were tested by the government before being put in products. And now, the more we know, the more we realize that what we believed isn’t necessarily true.
After a year-long process of looking at the data and hearing from experts across the country, the President’s Cancer Panel has concluded that what some thought was a very small contribution of environmental factors to cancer may be quite significant. The President’s Cancer Panel is composed of three highly regarded individuals (one position is vacant at present), generally a physician, a scientist, and an advocate, appointed by the President of the United States to advise her or him on the status of cancer in our country. They work with a staff of experts to gather information on and draw conclusions about the most pressing concerns about cancer. They have the ear of the President and the attention of the public.
Many scientists, clinicians, researchers, journalists, and activists have long recognized the critical role of the environment in cancer causation. When a body of experts that speaks directly to the President—and has a significant reach into the public—makes strong conclusions about links between the environment and cancer, it helps us to better understand the critical role of a very important layer of assault in the web of cancer causation. It calls us to action.
(To read the report of the President’s Cancer Panel, see: http://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/pcp/pcp.htm)
Cancer is an enigmatic disease. It is complex. There isn’t one cause. Multiple assaults on one human being—genes, lifestyle, environment—lead to the formation of a cancer. Prevention will mean making our environments, both internally and externally, as healthy as we can. Fewer assaults will mean fewer cases of cancer. And to this end, we work at Commonweal through the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, the Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Health Care Without Harm, and other programs and initiatives to help inform the public about how and why environmental change is critical if we are ever to prevent cancer.
As evidence mounts about things in our environment that lead to cancer, we’re learning that the road to cancer prevention isn’t all about who we are as individuals and what we can do ourselves. It’s not just about our genes and our lifestyle. It’s also about knowing what’s in our food and air and water, what’s in the products we use around our homes and on our bodies, and working in community to effect changes. Changes in what we buy, changes in laws and regulations that are meant to keep us safe, changes in what we agree is acceptable for our children and for our earth if we are to continue as a species.
But the story doesn’t end there. What of the 30,000 people who will be told TODAY that they have cancer? What of the children and parents, husbands, wives, friends? Some will do well and go on to live long lives. And some will not. Irrespective of diagnosis or prognosis, an individual person with cancer can heal. In his book Choices in Healing, Commonweal’s President, Michael Lerner, defines healing as follows:
Healing…is an inner process through which a person becomes whole. Healing can take place at the physical level, as when a wound or broken bone heals. It can take place at an emotional level, as when we recover from terrible childhood traumas or from a death or a divorce. It can take place at a mental level, as when we learn to reframe or restructure destructive ideas about ourselves and the world that we carried in the past. And it can take place at what some would call a spiritual level, as when we move toward God, toward a deeper connection with nature, or toward inner peace and a sense of connectedness.
Healing…goes beyond curing and may take place when curing is not at issue or has proved impossible. Although the capacity to heal physically is necessary to any successful cure, healing can also take place on deeper levels, whether or not physical recovery occurs.
For 25 years, Commonweal’s Cancer Help Program (CCHP) has been helping people with cancer to heal. The program is perhaps the most respected residential support program for people with cancer and their significant others in the United States. Bill Moyers featured the CCHP in his award-winning PBS series Healing and the Mind. The CCHP is a week-long program of support groups, yoga, meditation, relaxation, massage, healing arts, primarily vegetarian whole foods cooking, individual counseling, and explorations of choices in healing, therapy, and facing death and dying if and when that time comes. Hundreds of participants report enduring transformative effects. They find healing.
As I write, we have just concluded Commonweal’s 152nd week-long Cancer Help Program. Eight people have shared with us their stories, their pain, their sadness, their joy. They often arrive stressed, frightened, angry, overwhelmed. And most often they leave calmer and stronger. They leave with a changed outlook on the meaning of their life. They leave not knowing how long the road ahead may be, but with a commitment to make that road as beautiful as it can be.
Cancer statistics paint the big and distressing picture. Cancer is rampant. Many good people are devoting their lives to change the course of the myriad diseases that comprise the collective term cancer and to deconstruct the layers of causation. While we do this, we cannot lose sight of those people who today are in the midst of one of the most difficult and frightening journeys that life can present. For each individual, each child, father, sister, friend, there is always a possibility for healing. In this there is joy. In this there is hope.
We are deeply grateful to the Alberta S. Kimball Foundation, the Compton Foundation, the Jenifer Altman Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, the Lia Fund, two anonymous foundations, and many individual donors for their generous core support of Commonweal.
Monday, August 30, 2010
The Toxic Truth: How Everyday Products Threaten Healthy Pregnancies
By: Erika Schreder and Sharyle Patton
First published by Mothering at www.mothering.com
Amy Ellings knows a lot about being healthy. In fact, she has worked to teach others about health and nutrition for the past ten years. So when she agreed to have her blood and urine tested for toxic chemicals as part of a study by the Washington Toxics Coalition and Commonweal on chemicals in pregnant women, she wasn’t expecting a lot of bad news.
In her own words, “When I found out I was pregnant, my priorities suddenly became all about making sure the baby was healthy. I did a lot of reading on having a healthy pregnancy, and quit drinking coffee, ate a lot of organic foods, ate a healthy diet, exercised, took vitamins, got regular check-ups, and took classes.”
She was in for a surprise. Amy’s test results showed sky-high levels of toxic bisphenol A and phthalates, which can interfere with hormone function. Her body was also contaminated with mercury, which can damage brain development, and other chemicals that build up in our bodies and breast milk.
The study, Earliest Exposures, found that babies enter the world already having been exposed to toxic chemicals. The study was a joint project led by the Washington Toxics Coalition and Commonweal, two organizations that have been on the forefront of testing people for toxic chemicals in their bodies. These kinds of tests have been made possible in the plast decade by major leaps in the abilities of certain specialized laboratories to detect chemicals in people.
For this study, the researchers wanted to look at exposures to toxic chemicals during the very most vulnerable period of life—when a fetus is developing in the womb. Researchers tested nine women from Washington, Oregon, and California who volunteered to donate samples of blood and urine during their second trimester of pregnancy.
The tests measured levels of five chemical groups in the blood and urine of pregnant women. The chemicals include phthalates, mercury, perfluorinated compounds (or “Teflon chemicals”), bisphenol A, and the flame retardant tetrabromobisphenol A. Tests also measured levels of thyroid hormones, which are important for a healthy pregnancy.
What our results show is that fetuses develop in an environment that exposes them to known toxic chemicals, with chemicals from everyday products contaminating their mothers’ bodies.
The study detected 11 to 13 chemicals in each of the pregnant women. The chemicals found include:
•phthalates, used in vinyl (PVC) plastic items like shower curtains, floors, and toys;
•bisphenol A (BPA), found in polycarbonate water bottles and food and beverage cans;
•mercury, which contaminates healthy food like fish;
•and “Teflon chemicals,” used to make stain proofing treatments for clothing, carpeting, and food packaging.
These chemicals can cause reproductive problems and cancer, disrupt hormonal systems such as the thyroid, and impair brain development. For more details on the study, see http://www.watoxics.org/earliestexposures.
Exposures before birth are of special concern because the developing fetus is highly vulnerable to the effects of toxic chemicals. The fetus develops quickly in the womb, and that development is easily derailed by toxic chemicals. The fetus also has a very limited ability to detoxify foreign chemicals.
Amy’s baby was born in good health, and Amy continues to make the same kinds of healthy choices she made during her pregnancy. After learning her results, she is even more careful. “I know it’s difficult to know the sources of the toxic chemicals in my body,” she said, “but once I learned more about some of the products we are using, I got a new shower curtain, non-plastic, just in case the old one was exposing me and my family to phthalates. I am breastfeeding my son, but when I’m at work he drinks from bottles that are BPA-free. Also, I shop for baby personal care products that are free from artificial fragrances or ‘parfum.’” And Amy always looks for baby toys from trusted companies whose products have tested free of toxic chemicals.
The moms in the study were universally frustrated that their healthy choices hadn’t worked to keep toxic chemicals out of the womb. Connie Galambos Malloy, a study participant from Oakland, California, complained, “Despite my best efforts, my body has been invaded by toxics from all angles. I’m angry that chemical companies can get away with putting harmful chemicals on the market.” Choosing safer products is important, but busy moms don’t always have the time to research which products are most likely to be free of toxic chemicals. And most manufacturers don’t list the chemicals they use to produce their goods, so research can be frustrating.
Companies get away with using harmful chemicals in their products because, by and large, no one’s minding the store. It comes as a shock to most people that manufacturers of everyday products don’t have to make sure the chemicals they’re using are safe. They don’t even have to tell anyone what those chemicals are.
That’s because U.S. chemical regulations are stuck in the 1970s, when we still allowed smoking on airplanes and kids didn’t wear seatbelts. Since the U.S. toxics law was passed, in 1976, the Environmental Protection Agency has required testing of only 200 of the approximately 80,000 chemicals now on the market.
More and more scientists and physicians are coming to the conclusion that a substantial part of the blame for rising rates of learning disabilities, cancer, and other chronic problems lies with these unprecedented chemical exposures.
“As this study shows, even the most careful mother can’t protect herself from exposures to chemicals, so the answer is to phase them out of products,” said Dr. Ted Schettler, a physician and toxics expert. “With increasing rates of chronic diseases, like asthma, diabetes, and breast cancer, we need to update our country’s laws to ensure that harmful chemicals aren’t used in products mothers and children use every day.”
More than 100 organizations, made up of nurses, physicians, cancer specialists, environmental health advocates, and parents’, have banded together to change these laws. They have formed the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition, brought together by common concern about toxic chemicals in our homes, places of work, and products we use every day.
What they’re asking for probably won’t sound revolutionary to the average parent, but it’s a whole new way of dealing with the thousands of chemicals in everyday products. It starts with getting rid of the worst of the worst chemicals, ones like mercury that don’t degrade but instead build up in our bodies and last for many years in the environment.
Besides tackling the worst of the worst, their strategy calls for replacing chemicals that can cause serious health problems, like cancer, learning disabilities, and infertility. Instead, companies should use only chemicals they have tested fully for safety—and they should tell people what chemicals they’re using.
And since states like Washington, Maine, California, and Connecticut have been on the forefront of addressing toxic threats, new federal laws should make sure states can still set higher chemical safety standards.
Molly Gray, a study mom who tested positive for 13 toxic chemicals, took her story of struggling for years with miscarriages before her successful pregnancy. In February, she delivered her message at a Senate hearing,. saying, “Something is wrong when I, as an educated consumer, am unable to protect my baby from toxic chemicals. I and all other parents should be able to walk into stores and buy what we need without winding up with products that put our families' health at risk.”
The moms in the study are doing more than getting angry—and so can you. Let your representatives in Congress know that the only way to protect the most vulnerable, including young children and developing fetuses, is to ensure that only the safest chemicals are used in products, and that you want a major update to the Toxic Substances Control Act.
For up-to-date information on progress in changing federal laws and how you can get involved, follow http://www.saferchemicals.org.
In the meantime, there is plenty that each person can do to minimize our own and our kids’ exposures to toxic chemicals. The Washington Toxics Coalition’s “Safe Start for Kids,” at http://watoxics.org/healthy-families/safe-start-for-kids-1, makes it easy to make the best decisions for our families while we wait for Congress to get our toxics laws out of the ’70s and into a safer, healthier future.
Tips for Avoiding Toxins in Pregnancy
- Choose your fish wisely. Avoid high-mercury fish, such as king mackerel, marlin, shark, swordfish, tilefish, and tuna steaks. Instead, choose wild salmon, sardines, anchovies, Atlantic herring, Dungeness crab, Pacific cod, Alaskan black cod, tilapia, farmed catfish, clams, mussels, and Pacific oysters.
- Avoid canned foods and fast foods to limit your exposure to bisphenol A and “Teflon chemicals.”
- Eat organic food as much as possible, especially these foods found to be most contaminated with pesticides: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, grapes (imported), spinach, lettuce, and potatoes.
- Stay away from PVC/vinyl products, as they often contain phthalates.
- Choose fragrance-free personal care products, and consider giving up perfumes, nail polish, and hair dye, which may contain harmful chemicals.
First published by Mothering at www.mothering.com
Amy Ellings knows a lot about being healthy. In fact, she has worked to teach others about health and nutrition for the past ten years. So when she agreed to have her blood and urine tested for toxic chemicals as part of a study by the Washington Toxics Coalition and Commonweal on chemicals in pregnant women, she wasn’t expecting a lot of bad news.
In her own words, “When I found out I was pregnant, my priorities suddenly became all about making sure the baby was healthy. I did a lot of reading on having a healthy pregnancy, and quit drinking coffee, ate a lot of organic foods, ate a healthy diet, exercised, took vitamins, got regular check-ups, and took classes.”
She was in for a surprise. Amy’s test results showed sky-high levels of toxic bisphenol A and phthalates, which can interfere with hormone function. Her body was also contaminated with mercury, which can damage brain development, and other chemicals that build up in our bodies and breast milk.
The study, Earliest Exposures, found that babies enter the world already having been exposed to toxic chemicals. The study was a joint project led by the Washington Toxics Coalition and Commonweal, two organizations that have been on the forefront of testing people for toxic chemicals in their bodies. These kinds of tests have been made possible in the plast decade by major leaps in the abilities of certain specialized laboratories to detect chemicals in people.
For this study, the researchers wanted to look at exposures to toxic chemicals during the very most vulnerable period of life—when a fetus is developing in the womb. Researchers tested nine women from Washington, Oregon, and California who volunteered to donate samples of blood and urine during their second trimester of pregnancy.
The tests measured levels of five chemical groups in the blood and urine of pregnant women. The chemicals include phthalates, mercury, perfluorinated compounds (or “Teflon chemicals”), bisphenol A, and the flame retardant tetrabromobisphenol A. Tests also measured levels of thyroid hormones, which are important for a healthy pregnancy.
What our results show is that fetuses develop in an environment that exposes them to known toxic chemicals, with chemicals from everyday products contaminating their mothers’ bodies.
The study detected 11 to 13 chemicals in each of the pregnant women. The chemicals found include:
•phthalates, used in vinyl (PVC) plastic items like shower curtains, floors, and toys;
•bisphenol A (BPA), found in polycarbonate water bottles and food and beverage cans;
•mercury, which contaminates healthy food like fish;
•and “Teflon chemicals,” used to make stain proofing treatments for clothing, carpeting, and food packaging.
These chemicals can cause reproductive problems and cancer, disrupt hormonal systems such as the thyroid, and impair brain development. For more details on the study, see http://www.watoxics.org/earliestexposures.
Exposures before birth are of special concern because the developing fetus is highly vulnerable to the effects of toxic chemicals. The fetus develops quickly in the womb, and that development is easily derailed by toxic chemicals. The fetus also has a very limited ability to detoxify foreign chemicals.
Amy’s baby was born in good health, and Amy continues to make the same kinds of healthy choices she made during her pregnancy. After learning her results, she is even more careful. “I know it’s difficult to know the sources of the toxic chemicals in my body,” she said, “but once I learned more about some of the products we are using, I got a new shower curtain, non-plastic, just in case the old one was exposing me and my family to phthalates. I am breastfeeding my son, but when I’m at work he drinks from bottles that are BPA-free. Also, I shop for baby personal care products that are free from artificial fragrances or ‘parfum.’” And Amy always looks for baby toys from trusted companies whose products have tested free of toxic chemicals.
The moms in the study were universally frustrated that their healthy choices hadn’t worked to keep toxic chemicals out of the womb. Connie Galambos Malloy, a study participant from Oakland, California, complained, “Despite my best efforts, my body has been invaded by toxics from all angles. I’m angry that chemical companies can get away with putting harmful chemicals on the market.” Choosing safer products is important, but busy moms don’t always have the time to research which products are most likely to be free of toxic chemicals. And most manufacturers don’t list the chemicals they use to produce their goods, so research can be frustrating.
Companies get away with using harmful chemicals in their products because, by and large, no one’s minding the store. It comes as a shock to most people that manufacturers of everyday products don’t have to make sure the chemicals they’re using are safe. They don’t even have to tell anyone what those chemicals are.
That’s because U.S. chemical regulations are stuck in the 1970s, when we still allowed smoking on airplanes and kids didn’t wear seatbelts. Since the U.S. toxics law was passed, in 1976, the Environmental Protection Agency has required testing of only 200 of the approximately 80,000 chemicals now on the market.
More and more scientists and physicians are coming to the conclusion that a substantial part of the blame for rising rates of learning disabilities, cancer, and other chronic problems lies with these unprecedented chemical exposures.
“As this study shows, even the most careful mother can’t protect herself from exposures to chemicals, so the answer is to phase them out of products,” said Dr. Ted Schettler, a physician and toxics expert. “With increasing rates of chronic diseases, like asthma, diabetes, and breast cancer, we need to update our country’s laws to ensure that harmful chemicals aren’t used in products mothers and children use every day.”
More than 100 organizations, made up of nurses, physicians, cancer specialists, environmental health advocates, and parents’, have banded together to change these laws. They have formed the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition, brought together by common concern about toxic chemicals in our homes, places of work, and products we use every day.
What they’re asking for probably won’t sound revolutionary to the average parent, but it’s a whole new way of dealing with the thousands of chemicals in everyday products. It starts with getting rid of the worst of the worst chemicals, ones like mercury that don’t degrade but instead build up in our bodies and last for many years in the environment.
Besides tackling the worst of the worst, their strategy calls for replacing chemicals that can cause serious health problems, like cancer, learning disabilities, and infertility. Instead, companies should use only chemicals they have tested fully for safety—and they should tell people what chemicals they’re using.
And since states like Washington, Maine, California, and Connecticut have been on the forefront of addressing toxic threats, new federal laws should make sure states can still set higher chemical safety standards.
Molly Gray, a study mom who tested positive for 13 toxic chemicals, took her story of struggling for years with miscarriages before her successful pregnancy. In February, she delivered her message at a Senate hearing,. saying, “Something is wrong when I, as an educated consumer, am unable to protect my baby from toxic chemicals. I and all other parents should be able to walk into stores and buy what we need without winding up with products that put our families' health at risk.”
The moms in the study are doing more than getting angry—and so can you. Let your representatives in Congress know that the only way to protect the most vulnerable, including young children and developing fetuses, is to ensure that only the safest chemicals are used in products, and that you want a major update to the Toxic Substances Control Act.
For up-to-date information on progress in changing federal laws and how you can get involved, follow http://www.saferchemicals.org.
In the meantime, there is plenty that each person can do to minimize our own and our kids’ exposures to toxic chemicals. The Washington Toxics Coalition’s “Safe Start for Kids,” at http://watoxics.org/healthy-families/safe-start-for-kids-1, makes it easy to make the best decisions for our families while we wait for Congress to get our toxics laws out of the ’70s and into a safer, healthier future.
Tips for Avoiding Toxins in Pregnancy
- Choose your fish wisely. Avoid high-mercury fish, such as king mackerel, marlin, shark, swordfish, tilefish, and tuna steaks. Instead, choose wild salmon, sardines, anchovies, Atlantic herring, Dungeness crab, Pacific cod, Alaskan black cod, tilapia, farmed catfish, clams, mussels, and Pacific oysters.
- Avoid canned foods and fast foods to limit your exposure to bisphenol A and “Teflon chemicals.”
- Eat organic food as much as possible, especially these foods found to be most contaminated with pesticides: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, grapes (imported), spinach, lettuce, and potatoes.
- Stay away from PVC/vinyl products, as they often contain phthalates.
- Choose fragrance-free personal care products, and consider giving up perfumes, nail polish, and hair dye, which may contain harmful chemicals.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)