Subject: The Politics of Cancer Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 19:20:02 -0500 From: Robert Weissman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Multiple recipients of list CORP-FOCUS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *Follow-up note from last week:* The referenced William Hartung report on the military-industrial complex can be accessed at <http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/papers/micr/index.html> Here is this week's column: In 1999, one in two American men and one in three American women will get cancer. In the 1950s, one in four Americans were afflicted with this deadly disease. Despite the expenditure of $25 billion since the war on cancer was declared by President Nixon in 1971, cancer rates have soared. Why? In a recently released book, Dr. Samuel Epstein reveals evidence implicating industrial carcinogens that permeate our environment -- in our foods, our air, our water, our consumer products. And he blames the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American Cancer Society (ACS) -- what he calls "the cancer establishment" -- for ignoring these causes and instead spending billions on the elusive search for a magic bullet cure for cancer. Epstein maintains that with a comprehensive program of prevention, we can drive cancer rates back down to the relatively low rates of the 1950s. Every couple of months or so there is a major story in the national press about a breakthrough in cancer treatment. These breakthroughs rarely pan out and thus cruelly raise the hopes of cancer victims worldwide. These stories are hyped by mainstream journalists who have for the most part ignored the Dr. Epstein's work -- most recently in The Politics of Cancer Revisited (East Ridge Press, Fremont Center, New York, 1998. Copies can be ordered through Dr. Epstein's web site (www.preventcancer.com) or from the publisher by calling 1-800-269- 2921). This emphasis on a corporate cure fits well with the megacorporate agenda of externalizing toxics to increase profits, thus riddling the population with higher cancer rates and needless suffering. As Dr. Epstein points out, from 1950 to 1998, the overall incidence of cancer rose about 60 percent, with much higher increases for cancer of some organs. For non-Hodgkins lymphoma and multiple myeloma, the increase has been 200 percent. Breast cancers have increased by 60 percent. Prostate cancer has increased 200 percent. For testicular cancer in men of the ages 28 to 35, there has been a 300 percent increase since 1950. And don't let anybody fool you into thinking that the cancer rate increase is because the population is getting older -- these rates are age-adjusted. The cancer rates of a group of 50 year old men in 1990, for example, are compared to the cancer rates of a group of men in 1950. So, why is the cancer establishment losing the war against cancer? "The cancer establishment is fixated on damage control -- diagnosis, treatment and basic genetic research -- and is indifferent, if not sometimes hostile, to cancer prevention -- getting carcinogens out of the environment," Epstein told us recently. "The second factor is conflicts of interests, which are significant when it comes to the National Cancer Institute, but profound and overwhelming when it comes to the American Cancer Society. In the book, I go into great detail on conflicts between the American Cancer Society and the cancer drug industry, the mammography industry, the pesticide industry, and other such industries." According to Epstein, the outgoing director of the National Cancer Institute left that organization to go to the cancer drug industry. Another NCI director in the 1970s left NCI to go to the American Cancer Society and from there to head up the fiberglass industry (fiberglass is a recognized carcinogen). Epstein charges that the cancer establishment is misleading people into believing that it is spending a good chunk of its stashed away billions on prevention -- which is untrue. For example, Epstein says that the budget for occupational cancer is under 1 percent of the total NCI budget ($2.8 billion in 1998). Yet occupational cancers comprise at least 10 percent of all cancers in the country, he says, and are among the most preventable of all cancers. So, if Epstein were the general in charge, what would he do to win the war on cancer? In 1992, Epstein and 64 other experts in public health, preventive health and carcinogenesis called on the cancer establishment to clearly recognize and publicly state that cancer is largely avoidable and to increase its present minuscule appropriations for cancer prevention so that they achieve parity with diagnosis, treatment and basic research over a period of a few years. Then, they suggested, the cancer establishment must conduct detailed studies of the wide range of avoidable and involuntary carcinogenic exposures -- and Congress must act to get them out of the environment. For example, Representative Henry Waxman, D-California, has proposed that consumers be notified, through their water bills, of the carcinogens in their water and their concentrations. Such direct information to consumers on the carcinogenic assault on their bodies would justly create a political uproar. Epstein also supports legislation that would make it a crime for any corporation or corporate executive to knowingly introduce a new carcinogen into the environment. Looking for high crimes and misdemeanors? Read Dr. Epstein's book. Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.- based Multinational Monitor. (c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or repost the column on other lists. If you would like to post the column on a web site or publish it in print format, we ask that you first contact us ([EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Focus on the Corporation is distributed to individuals on the listserve [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to corp-focus, send an e-mail message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following all in one line: subscribe corp-focus <your name> (no period). Focus on the Corporation columns are posted on the Multinational Monitor web site <www.essential.org/monitor>. Postings on corp-focus are limited to the columns. 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