This page brings you a discussion of cancer and (and other articles) what it is doing to all of us, and possible sourcces. Eye-opening articles to say the least. This will be updated as we receive new articles which we think will be of interest to our viewers. It really doesn't matter where we live - these products that contain chemicals effect us all - and from the data that is coming out - very severely.

Toronto Star June 13th, 2005. 01:00 AM

What's causing cancer?
Chemicals fingered as rates reach epidemic proportions, by Mitchell Anderson

Cancer in Canada is now projected to afflict one in every 2.2 men and one in every 2.6 women in their lifetime. In the 1930s, those numbers were less that one in 10. What's happening? Why are we now seeing what many are calling a "cancer epidemic"?

Some would suggest we are simply an aging population and cancer is a disease of the old. Not true. Recent statistics show that the net incidence rate of cancer has increased 25% for males and 20% for females from 1974 to 2005 - after correcting for the effects of aging.

Children are increasingly the victims. Researchers in Britain have shown that certain childhood cancers such as leukemia and brain cancer have increased by more than a third since the 1950s.

In Canada, hundreds of millions of dollars are raised and spent for cancer research and treatment. The elephant in the room, however, is the contribution of environmental toxins and whether many of the cancers striking Canadians can be avoided rather than simply managed.

The World Health Organization estimates that fully 25% of cancers worldwide are caused by occupational and environmental factors other than smoking. You don't have to look far for some potential chemical culprits. There are more than 85,000 chemicals that are currently licensed for use in North America. Less than half have ever been tested for human health risk and even fewer for potential environmental impacts.

The U.S. Centers For Disease Control recently turned their attention toward pollution detection - not in the environment, but within the human body. Their study in 2002 found the presence of 81 different toxic chemicals, including PCBs, benzene and other carcinogens in their sampling of 2,500 people tested.

It is somewhat of a no-brainer that reducing exposure to known carcinogens will reduce the risk of developing cancer. Surprisingly, this simple logic seems to have been lost on our federal government. Many chemicals that are scientifically demonstrated carcinogens or otherwise toxic are freely used here without any legal obligation to identify them on the label. Some of these same chemicals are entirely banned elsewhere. A trip to your local supermarket reveals a small sample of these hidden poisons:

Mothballs contain either naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene, both of which are carcinogenic. A recent U.S. study linked mothball use to an increased incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Polycarbonate plastics used in food-grade plastic containers such as water bottles can leach Bisphenol A, an estrogen-mimicking chemical linked to a variety of disorders, including hormone-related birth defects, learning disabilities, prostate cancer and neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.

Several leading perfumes, nail polishes and other cosmetic products sold in Canada contain the endocrine-disrupting phthalates DBP and DEHP - both banned for use in cosmetic products in European Union countries.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs are common chemical fire retardants found in everything from foam mattresses to computer parts. They have similar properties to the now outlawed PCBs and are known neurotoxins and hormone disrupters. The most dangerous forms are now banned in the EU, though they remain legal here in Canada.

Many leading brands of household laundry detergent contain trisodium nitrilotriacetate, another suspected carcinogen as well as an environmental pollutant.

Chemicals that endanger human life also go down the drain and impact the environment. A gruesome example involved a dead orca that washed up south of Vancouver in 2000 that was so contaminated with persistent chemicals that Ottawa considered shipping the carcass to the Swan Hills toxic waste facility for incineration.

Like orcas, we are perched at the top of the food chain and are becoming the unwitting receptacles of many of the chemicals designed to make our lives more convenient.

Ballooning cancer rates are simply not worth whiter clothes or fewer moths.

Cancer must be fought on many fronts. Research and treatment are undeniably important but so is environmental cancer prevention. It is therefore shocking that our government is not moving faster to ban known and suspected carcinogens, and requiring mandatory "right to know" labeling so that Canadians can better protect themselves and their families.

Anything less is quite simply putting the interests of the chemical industry ahead of human life.

Mitchell Anderson is a board member of the Labour Environmental Alliance Society, a Vancouver-based charity that educates the public on cancer prevention.

Tony Bekavac
Manager, Business Development
Individual Health
Office: 1-519-888-3900 x5852
Cell: 1-519-404-0365

---

Dangerous staph strain on the rise

By PATRICIA GUTHRIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/12/05

Dublin High School football player Drew Griggs almost didn't live to see this season. Six months ago, a new "superbug" that is showing up in locker rooms and among children attacked him, leaving him tethered to an artificial lung for weeks.

The doctors told us if he had not been in such good shape, he wouldn't have made it," Bonnie Griggs said of her only son. "He was in the hospital 35 days, then a week in rehab and then he stayed out of school for several more weeks."

Drew Griggs is one of five patients suffering from a tenacious strain of staph bacteria to be treated at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston Hospital this year. Two children have died, said Jim Fortenberry, director of critical care medicine at Egleston.

Community-acquired methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or CA-MRSA, has become a "common and serious problem," often requiring hospitalization of children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this spring.

"This [strain] seems to come in through wounds or attach itself to the lungs with relative ease. It's a much more virulent and aggressive bacteria when it gets in the wrong place," Fortenberry said.

Staphylococcus aureus, or staph, is a common germ that many people carry in their nasal passages, under fingernails or on the skin with no ill effects. But given an opportunity a skinned knee, insect bite, surgical incision it invades the body. Usually, minor infections result.

When the body's immune system weakens, staph can attack. In Griggs' case, he was sick with the flu when staph jumped in and covered his lungs. Months earlier, a bad cut on his leg had been treated for staph.

"Drew was basically on his deathbed," said Roger Holmes, coach of the Fighting Irish football team and one of many Dublin residents who visited the sedated, motionless athlete at Egleston. "Now he's back to his normal self, thanks to a lot of prayer and obviously great work by his doctors."

On Friday night, the 17-year-old suited up for the first time this season.

It 'has just taken over'

For years, antibiotic-resistant staph infections have caused illnesses and fatalities in hospital and nursing home patients and among those living in crowded conditions. Two years ago, clusters of cases, first mistaken for spider bites, were reported among inmates of Georgia's Department of Corrections, which now takes preventive measures against the spread of staph.

Then it started showing up among college and professional athletes and in military quarters. Now it's everywhere.

"This thing has just taken over. What we're seeing is everybody being affected," said Dr. Henry Blumberg, infectious disease specialist at Emory School of Medicine and Grady Memorial Hospital. "There are two predominant strains or clones that have emerged."

Frank Berkowitz, an Emory infectious disease specialist and Grady pediatrician, said, "It's like seeing a new disease."
Metro physicians report seeing an increase of skin abscesses, caused by CA-MRSA (pronounced ca-mersa in medical circles.) It's not uncommon, they say, for families to pass the germ around.

Standard antibiotics for skin infections won't kill it. It's susceptible only to newer sulpha antibiotics.
However, some patients may go untreated or go home with an older, ineffective antibiotic because some doctors don't recognize the new staph strain, Berkowitz said. "It's important now for doctors to actually take a culture and to be aware that MRSA is occurring in the community," said Rachel Gorwitz, CDC medical epidemiologist. Staph can lead to bone, joint and bloodstream infections, pneumonia, and the infection known as flesh-eating bacteria.

But most infections caused by the new staph strain are treatable. Local doctors stressed that the public shouldn't be alarmed.

"But parents need to have heightened awareness of a child or teenager who has a cut that doesn't heal within five days," Fortenberry said.

Antibiotic resistance

Community-acquired MRSA became a notifiable disease in Georgia this year, meaning physicians are required to report cases to the state Division of Public Health.

Since January, about 200 cases have been reported, said state medical epidemiologist Katie Arnold. But that may not reflect the true number, she said.

Fighting staph infections is a recurring challenge of modern medicine. Penicillin became powerless against staph bacteria within a decade. Heavy use of another class of antibiotics, methicillin, then led to another antibiotic resistant strain, known as MRSA.

Improper overuse of antibiotics leads to the tough new bugs. But the practice of prescribing antibiotics for viruses and flu for which they are worthless continues, studies show.

The Southeast is one of the nation's biggest offenders of inappropriate antibiotic use, said Jim Wilde, director of Medical College of Georgia's Children's Medical Center emergency department. "Resistance is increasing faster than new drugs can be developed," said Wilde, also head of a group of physicians and health educators called Georgia United against Antibiotic Resistant Disease. "Unless this trend is stopped, one day we might find ourselves without effective antibiotics."

Athletes prone to spread

Staph infections require skin-to-skin contact to spread. Germs can pass directly from person to person or via shared items, such as razors, bedding and towels. The bug thrives in humid, crowded conditions, such as locker rooms and gyms. Clusters of cases have been reported among professional and collegiate athletes, particularly among football, baseball and wrestling.

Ron Courson, director of sports medicine at the University of Georgia, said he makes a point of educating athletes about the bug. "In last two years, we've had six cases out of 1,200 athletes, so it's minimal exposure," he said. "We want to keep it that way. We talk to our athletes: Dont share towels, don't share razors, don't share equipment, wash uniforms immediately.'"

While professional and college sports have taken heed of "the bug in the locker room," the message has yet to penetrate high school sports, Courson said. "High schools may be more at risk just because they may not have as many resources as colleges and professional sports," Courson said.

School officials in Fulton, DeKalb and Cobb counties, and the cities of Atlanta and Marietta said they didn't know of any extra efforts to protect students against the new strain of staph, beyond usual good-hygiene measures.

In Savannah, Chatham and Camden County school nurses received a lesson on the new bug last month. "We've equipped them with a fact sheet with staph prevention measures, and we're hoping it gets included in the packet that is sent to parents," said Cristina Pasa, epidemiologist with the state's Coastal Health District.
Pasa also has spoken with local high school coaches and athletic trainers, and sometimes, directly to students themselves, she said.

Bonnie Griggs almost lost a child to the latest strain of staph. She's also a coach of the Dublin High School girls softball team and a physical education teacher.

But her southeast Georgia school district, like many, has yet to initiate any awareness efforts aimed at staph infections. "As far as officially teaching the coaches and trainers, no, there hasn't been any information," Griggs said. "There should be formal education. A lot of people have a misunderstanding about staph just being in the hospital. "I've learned that's not what it is."

---

Unborn babies soaked in chemicals, study finds
Average of 287 contaminants found in cord blood of U.S. infants
Reuters
Updated: 11:32 a.m. ET July 14, 2005

WASHINGTON - Unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides, according to a report released Thursday.

Although the effects on the babies are not clear, the survey prompted several members of Congress to press for legislation that would strengthen controls on chemicals in the environment.

The report by the Environmental Working Group is based on tests of 10 samples of umbilical-cord blood taken by the American Red Cross. They found an average of 287 contaminants in the blood, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides and the Teflon chemical PFOA.

“These 10 newborn babies ... were born polluted,” said New York Rep. Louise Slaughter, who spoke a news conference about the findings Thursday.

“If ever we had proof that our nation’s pollution laws aren’t working, it’s reading the list of industrial chemicals in the bodies of babies who have not yet lived outside the womb,” Slaughter, a Democrat, said.

Cord blood reflects what the mother passes to the baby through the placenta.

“Of the 287 chemicals we detected in umbilical-cord blood, we know that 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests,” the report said.

Blood tests did not show how the chemicals got into the mothers’ bodies, or what their effects might be on the babies.

Mercury and pesticides
Among the chemicals found in the cord blood were methylmercury, produced by coal-fired power plants and certain industrial processes. People can breathe it in or eat it in seafood and it causes brain and nerve damage.
Also found were polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which are produced by burning gasoline and garbage and which may cause cancer; flame-retardant chemicals called polybrominated dibenzodioxins and furans; and pesticides including DDT and chlordane.

The same group analyzed the breast milk of mothers across the United States in 2003 and found varying levels of chemicals, including flame retardants known as PBDEs. This latest analysis also found PBDEs in cord blood.

Slaughter had similar tests done on her own blood.

“The stunning results show chemicals daily pumping through my vital organs that include PCBs that were banned decades ago as well as chemicals like Teflon that are currently under federal investigation,” she said in remarks prepared for the news conference.

“I have auto exhaust fumes, flame retardant chemicals, and in all, some 271 harmful substances pulsing through my veins. That’s hardly the picture of health I had hoped for, but I’ve been living in an industrial society for over 70 years.”

The Government Accountability Office issued a report Wednesday saying the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the powers it needs to fully regulate toxic chemicals.

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, found that the EPA’s Toxic Substances Control Act gives only “limited assurance” that new chemicals entering the market are safe and said the EPA only rarely assesses chemicals already on the market.

“Today, chemicals are being used to make baby bottles, food packaging and other products that have never been fully evaluated for their health effects on children ­ and some of these chemicals are turning up in our blood,” said New Jersey Democrat Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who plans to co-sponsor a bill to require chemical manufacturers to provide data to the EPA on the health affects of their products.

Go to: Cancer Therapy Alternatives - Page 2 | Main Complimentary Medicine Section