Download - Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013
![Page 1: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Toward a Cancer Free EconomyDecember, 2013
![Page 2: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Lowell Center for Sustainable ProductionPremise
• Our systems of production and consumption are not only root causes of environmental and health problems, but also significant contributors to solutions.
![Page 3: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Collaborating partners• Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition (JPNET)
– Chuck Collins, Carlos Espinoza-Toro• Lowell Center for Sustainable Production
– Dick Clapp, Polly Hoppin, Molly Jacobs• Jamaica Plain Centre-South Main Streets
– Mary Hannon• Toxics Action Center
– Sylvia Broude, Claire Miller• Funding/technical assistance: Toxics Use Reduction Institute
– Joy Onasch
![Page 4: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Are we winning?
• 1 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the US this year• 13 million people in the U.S. are living with cancer• Direct costs in 2009: $243 billion• Since the 1970’s, billions of dollars spent on cancer research
– National Institutes of Health– Volunteer organizations
• American Cancer Society• Komen for the cure• Pan Mass Challenge
![Page 5: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
The trend for all cancers has leveled off and is declining, especially among men
MEN
BOTH
WOMEN
![Page 6: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Yet rates of some kinds of cancer are dramatically increasing. These 4 also have
well-established environmental causes.
All ages, both sexes
Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
KidneyThyroid
Liver
![Page 7: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
All cancer, all children <20 years, U.S. SEER data
Deaths from childhood cancer have been falling for 35 years… But the numbers of kids getting the disease rises steadily
Rapidly increasing number of cancer
survivors
All cancers, <20 years old
![Page 8: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Why are cancer rates rising?
• It’s not genes– These trends are too rapid
• It’s (mostly) not better diagnosis– There have been only modest improvements in
cancer diagnosis since the 1970s (e.g. PSA test for prostate cancer).
• That leaves environmental causes– Diet, water, air pollution, chemicals in food, indoor
environment
![Page 9: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Oil production
Oil refining
Chemical production
Product manufacturing
Wholesaling
Retailing
ConsumptionDisposal
The (broken) production cycle of the chemicals economy
Lowell Center for Sustainable Production 9/28/13
![Page 10: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Oil production
Oil refining
Chemical production
Product manufacturing
Wholesaling
Retailing
ConsumptionDisposal
Carcinogens are released at every step: air, water, soil, food contamination.
CANCER
CANCERCANCER
CANCERCANCER
CANCER
Lowell Center for Sustainable Production 9/28/13
![Page 11: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
• Research on cure• Research on early diagnosis• Patient support• Prevention: healthy behaviors• Prevention: environmental
Cancer Organizations
The production cycle causes cancers. The cancer organizations could intervene more effectively
Lowell Center for Sustainable Production 9/28/13
![Page 12: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
How Cancer Develops• A complex, multi-causal disease• Six or eight “hallmarks” that have to occur
before a cell becomes a cancer cell• But, “virtually all cancer is BOTH genetic and
environmental”– Factors outside the body cause genetic damage
inside the body– Can be multiple exposures that cause a series of
genetic changes over many years
![Page 13: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Chemicals in the Environment & Workplaces: Part of a Comprehensive
Cancer Prevention Strategy
![Page 14: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
“The true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated.”
The panel recommended “removing carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase healthcare costs, cripple our nation’s productivity and devastate American lives.”
President’s Cancer Panel
![Page 15: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Encouraging words from federal panel
“A precautionary prevention-oriented approach should replace current reactionary approaches to environmental contaminants in which human harm must be proven before action is taken to reduce or eliminate exposure”
![Page 16: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Encouraging words from federal panel
“ ‘Green chemistry’ initiatives and research, including process redesign, should be pursued and supported more aggressively…”
![Page 17: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
The goal of a cancer free economy can drive innovation
Green Chemistry: “Green chemistry is the utilization of a set
of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture and application of chemical products.”
-Anastas and Warner, Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice, 1998
![Page 18: Toward a Cancer Free Economy December, 2013](https://reader035.vdocuments.site/reader035/viewer/2022081604/56816494550346895dd667c6/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Some initial steps• Inventory businesses that use cancer-causing substances
– Dry cleaners that use PCE (perchloroethylene)• Linked to bladder cancer & NHL
– Auto body shops that use degreasing solvents (e.g. TCE (trichloroethylene) and repair asbestos brake shoes
• Linked to NHL, leukemia, kidney & liver cancers (TCE), lung cancer & mesothelioma (asbestos)
– Nail salons/beauty salons that use formaldehyde and that release from products VOCs (volatile organic compounds)
• Linked to leukemia and nasal cancers (formaldehyde)
• Promote safer alternatives– Boston Public Health Commission Green & Clean program– TURI wet cleaning processes