Molly Ivins October 12AUSTIN — And now for something completely different on Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I use the word "completely" with some confidence, as I know of very few other sources for what I'm about to tell you. The mainstream media have this Awareness stuff taped by now; we're supposed to tell women to get mammograms, stick to low-fat diets and study estrogen-replacement therapy carefully. Let me make a few other suggestions: DDT, dioxin, Agent Orange, vinyl chloride, Atrazine, CFCs, chlordane, benzene and 11,000 other varieties of organochlorines, 40 million tons of them produced annually. You are eating, breathing and drinking some of this toxic stew every day, no matter where you live, and your body is contaminated with organochlorines. Even the polar bears in the Arctic are now contaminated by them. People with breast cancer tend to have very high levels of organochlorines in their bodies. Likewise, women exposed to unusually high levels of organochlorines — such as chemical workers and farm workers — have unusually high rates of breast cancer. Even the medical establishment admits that no more than 50 percent of breast-cancer cases (cancer groups say no more than one-third of the cases) can be attributed to diet, family history and hormones. There's something else out there helping to kill a million women every year. Now here is the interesting part: Why does the cancer establishment refuse to look at the obvious? Why is the government not doing much research? Why do many in the media not report this? Because the cancer establishment is beholden to the chemical establishment, and they are often one and the same. Do you know who originally sponsored Breast Cancer Awareness Month — who approved every promo kit, pamphlet, news release, poster, radio spot, print ad and video? Imperial Chemical Industries, a $14 billion-a-year multinational maker of pesticides, plastics, pharmaceuticals and paper — organochlorines are a specialty. Just one of its subsidiaries has been held responsible for a third of the toxic chemicals dumped into the St. Lawrence River. Another subsidiary (since "demerged" into its own company) was named in a 1990 lawsuit by the federal government and accused of dumping DDT and PCBs into the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors. This information comes from Jim Hightower's new book, "There's Nothing In the Middle of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos" (we call it "Dead Armadillos" for short), published by HarperCollins and now at your local bookstore (make trouble if it's not).
The Breast Cancer Awareness story actually gets worse. According to Hightower, Imperial Chemical was the sole financial sponsor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month from the event's inception, but in 1993, one of ICI's corporate daughters called Zeneca Group split off, taking with it the pharmaceutical and agrichemical divisions, as well as the Breast Cancer Awareness Month program. Zeneca remains a key funder of Awareness Month and retains complete control of its message. Zeneca's pharmaceutical arm is also the maker of Nolvadex, the leading drug used in breast-cancer treatment. Think about that for a minute: First, they make money from the organochlorines that some say are linked to breast cancer; then they urge us all to go out and get mammograms to detect the cancer; then they make money trying to cure it. This is an entirely novel kind of vertical monopoly. I haven't read it, but I understand you can get more information on this specific issue from "Breast Cancer: Poison, Profits and Prevention," by Liane Clorfene-Casten. A review of the very latest studies on this topic shows a couple of interesting developments. A study done by researchers at the Institute of Chemical Toxology at Wayne State University showed that when DDT and another organochlorine were administered individually, they caused breast cells to proliferate, but only when present at a very high rate. But when the organochlorines were given in combination, they triggered cell increases similar to those associated with concentrations of estradiol, an endogenous estrogen that many think could be involved in the development of breast cancer. In other words, a combination of organochlorines, which we're all getting, mimics what some believe is a natural cause of breast cancer. The World Health Organization predicts that the number of cancer deaths throughout the world will double in most countries during the next 25 years. If you read the business pages, you can follow a charming struggle among the pharmaceutical companies as they buy each other out to gain dominance in this "attractive emerging market." But there is good news from Israel, where the government reports a dramatic 30 percent drop in breast cancer rates after the country banned three cancer-causing pesticides. All in all, Breast Cancer Awareness Month offers some serious material for awareness. *** Molly Ivins is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. COPYRIGHT 1997 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
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