Inside Prevention

Summiting for survivors (Daily Pilot, 5/26/2012)

Lori Fallace, 2012 Climb Against the Odds team member from Irvine, is the subject of a new article in the Daily Pilot:

Fallace, Irvine Unified School District 2012 middle school teacher of the year, has taught science and health classes for years. Before she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, Fallace thought that she knew all there was to taking care of her body.

Now she knows a whole lot more.

Since beating the cancer after six months of chemotherapy, Fallace has become a voice for the Breast Cancer Fund, a national nonprofit that advocates for the prevention of breast cancer through increasing education and lowering risk factors. (Read complete article.)

Go Lori! To learn more about Climb Against the Odds and this year's team, visit the event website. The climb is just three weeks away!

In memory of Wanna Wright, breast cancer prevention advocate extraordinaire

Wanna Wright, J.D.
December 11, 1944 – May 20, 2012

Wanna Wright was the heart and soul of our work at the Breast Cancer Fund for nearly two decades, serving on our board of directors with great distinction. We started calling Wanna our Poet Laureate in 1999 when she wrote “Alive /to Testify,” a powerful poem that expresses her deep concern for the health disparities faced by the low-income communities and communities of color that she was part of and worked on behalf of every day. "I's got to reach out to keep 'em alive, din you can teach 'em to testify 'bout de air an de waters dat's killin us daughtus," she wrote.

A breast cancer survivor and tireless advocate, Wanna volunteered her time, knowledge and heartfelt concern to speak out about the unconscionable rates of breast cancer incidence and mortality, especially among African-American women. She advocated for early detection, treatment and equitable access to care, and she helped shape the Breast Cancer Fund’s environmental health mission to prevent breast cancer before it starts. In 2001, to recognize her impressive contributions to breast cancer prevention, the Breast Cancer Fund honored Wanna with the Bella Abzug Advocacy Heroes Award.

With her purple hat and warm smile, and with her husband Charles at her side, she reminded us why we do this work, and we will not forget her. Wanna Wright, we dedicate our work to you with love and gratitude.

FDA warns of skin creams, lotions tainted with mercury (ABC7-TV San Francisco, 5/16/2012)

Mercury in imported skin-lightening creams is just the latest example of toxic chemicals in cosmetics. Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the Breast Cancer Fund's Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, spoke with ABC7 News about how shoppers can protect themselves and explained the importance of the Safe Cosmetics Act.

(Read transcript.)

Lessons from our Mothers: Joey Beauregard

In honor of Mother's Day this Sunday, our partners in the Safer States network are publishing a series of blogs, Lessons from our Mothers. Breast Cancer Fund advocate, Climb Against the Odds team member and breast cancer survivor Joey Beauregard shared a lesson from her mom for the series:

If everyone else jumped off of a bridge, would you? My mother drove those words into my head like a mantra. During my adolescence when I tried desperately to fit in, I heard them every day. Although my mother complained that her advice went in one ear and out the other (another phrase she liked to use), I did listen. Her wisdom has become a cornerstone on how I view the world today.

When I was 44, I received a diagnosis of breast cancer. Given that I had no family history of the disease, ate a healthy diet and exercised regularly, I could not understand why this happened to me. Within a few weeks of my diagnosis, I learned of other young women in my neighborhood that had also been told they had breast cancer during the past year.  We had all lived in our neighborhood for at least 16 years at that time. We also lived 1/2 mile from the Tower Chemical Superfund site where DDT and other toxic chemicals had polluted our environment.

I began questioning if our proximity to the waste site had caused our cancer. In search of an answer to my question, I reached out to the Florida Department of Health, the Florida Environmental Protection Agency and the EPA. Although none of the government agencies I contacted would admit that Tower Chemical had caused our cancer, the EPA did commence cleanup of the Tower site.

After learning what I could about toxic chemicals, I came to the realization that pollution in our environment affects more than just my neighbors and myself. It is a crisis that is affecting all of us. No matter where we live, we eat food, drink water and breathe air that is likely to be contaminated with toxic chemicals--and these chemicals are often hidden ingredients in every day products, like toys, cookware, shower curtains, even food containers. Mounting scientific evidence is linking the chemicals in our environment to breast cancer and a host of other diseases.

Our current chemical laws are outdated. The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was passed in 1976.  Of the over 84,000 chemicals on the market today, the EPA has required testing on only a few hundred of them. Only 5 chemicals have been restricted since TSCA went into effect. The chemical industry would have us believe all these chemicals are safe, but the growing scientific evidence suggests otherwise.

The Safe Chemicals Act (S. 847) was introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey in April of 2011.  The legislation addresses many of TSCA’s breakdowns. S. 847 will require a chemical to be proven safe for all people before it can be sold, require chemical companies to supply health risk information about their products to the EPA and consumers, setup a prioritization system for chemical testing and action that gives the highest priority to chemicals that are persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic and will encourage development of safer chemicals.

It is time for our government to enact the Safe Chemicals Act to protect us from the toxic chemicals that lurk in our environment. Chemical companies are attempting to turn the clock back and erase the modern science that is reflected in this bill. I am not willing to jump off a bridge with the chemical companies leading the way. Are you?

Joey Beauregard lives in Clermont, Florida and was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 44 after living near a toxic waste site for 16 years. In 2010 Joey participated in the Breast Cancer Fund's Climb Against the Odds, climbing Mt. Shasta to raise awareness and funds to eliminate toxic chemicals in our environment. She hopes for a day when sound laws are put in place to keep all of us safe from toxic chemicals in our environment.

Worth a read: How chemicals affect us

Nicholas Kristof calls out canned food and cosmetics as culprits and breast cancer as one tragic effect of our current stew of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. His latest column, published yesterday in the New York Times, makes a strong case for more research and better regulation of these chemicals.

Some of our Hereos, including Pete Myers (2008) and Linda Birnbaum on behalf of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (2012) are involved with a new scientific analysis that raises flags about endocrine disruptors.

Big Chem says all this is sensationalist science. So far, it has blocked strict regulation in the United States, even as Europe and Canada have adopted tighter controls on endocrine disruptors.

Yes, there are uncertainties. But the scientists who know endocrine disruptors best overwhelmingly are already taking steps to protect their families. John Peterson Myers, chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences and a co-author of the new analysis, said that his family had stopped buying canned food.

“We don’t microwave in plastic,” he added. “We don’t use pesticides in our house. I refuse receipts whenever I can. My default request at the A.T.M., known to my bank, is ‘no receipt.’ I never ask for a receipt from a gas station.” (Read complete article.)

"Endocrine disruptor" is still a foreign term to most Americans, but this is an issue that needs your awareness and action. Read the article and pass it along.

Untested chemicals in beauty products? (ABC World News, 4/30/2012)

Women put an average of 120 chemicals—some linked to cancer and other health problems—on their bodies each day via cosmetics, shared Diane Sawyer on last night's ABC World News.

The Consumer Watchdog piece features our Director of Program and Policy, Janet Nudelman, and highlights the Safe Cosmetics Act, a proposed law supported by the Breast Cancer Fund and our Campaign for Safe Cosmetics that would protect our health.

 

Styrene industry gets Congress’ ear on cancer listing, and we all lose

Today, the National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) crucial Report on Carcinogens is on trial in Congress and the scientists who decided—based on scientific evidence—to list styrene as a reasonably anticipated human carcinogen are being called to defend their work in the face of industry accusations that the listing hurts jobs.

In truth, of course, chemicals linked to cancer hurt our health and the health of workers exposed to them.

Within days of the NTP’s June 2011 decision to list the chemical styrene, trade groups representing the styrene industry attacked the report. In fact, they fought for years to keep styrene out of the report altogether.

Now chemical industry representatives, including a Dow Chemical exec, have pushed themselves in front of lawmakers as part of a Congressional hearing entitled How the Report on Carcinogens Uses Science to Meet its Statutory Obligations, and its Impact on Small Business Jobs.

The Report on Carcinogens was mandated by Congress in 1978. It reviews the peer-reviewed science testing chemicals’ effects on inducing or promoting cancer, and then lists the appropriate chemicals as known human carcinogens or reasonably anticipated human carcinogens. Chemicals that are not suspected carcinogens are not listed in the report.

The NTP and the Report on Carcinogens provides us with robust and thorough evaluations of carcinogens carried out by an objective scientific agency. The report provides essential public health information that can help consumers make informed decisions and support advocacy efforts to reduce exposures to carcinogens.

The Breast Cancer Fund and many of our colleagues have written letters to encourage Congressional support for the NTP and the Report on Carcinogens so that we continue to have rigorously evaluated evidence to help inform our advocacy and educational efforts.

You can watch the hearing live online [the recording will also be available at this link]. Our eyes and voices are critical to keeping the scientific process free of political and economic influence.

Irvine teacher's uphill battle against breast cancer (Orange County Register, 4/20/2012)

Another great article about a member of this year's Climb Against the Odds team!

Lori Fallace, a teacher and breast cancer survivor, was featured in the Orange County Register and describes her personal drive to climb Mt. Shasta and educate others about breast cancer prevention.

Fallace was always a healthy woman. She exercises and eats well, and has had a lifelong fascination with the human body – she wrote the middle and high school health curriculum for the district.

So when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 with no family history and none of the indicator genes, she questioned why.

The light bulb came on when she discovered the link between breast cancer and the environment, and the preventive measures that can be taken to avoid what her integrative medicine doctor called the "perfect toxic milieu" she created in her body.

After reading the Breast Cancer Fund's report on the link between chemicals in everyday environments and breast cancer, the 54-year old Fallace saw the big picture.

"I've become sharply aware of what I touch, breathe, and eat," said Fallace, a speaker for the fund. "There are things we can do that are within our control." (Read complete article.)

Meet Lori and her team members, and learn more about Climb Against the Odds this June.

If the food's in plastic, what's in the food? (Washington Post, 4/16/2012)

A new article in the Washington Post about chemicals used in food packaging leads with a study published by the Breast Cancer Fund and Silent Spring Institute that demonstrated a significant dip in families' BPA and phthalate levels when they cut packaged food from their diets for just a few days. How common are these chemicals and what can be done to protect people from exposure?:

[S]cientists are beginning to piece together data about the ubiquity of chemicals in the food supply and the cumulative impact of chemicals at minute doses. What they’re finding has some health advocates worried.

This is “a huge issue, and no [regulator] is paying attention,” says Janet Nudelman, program and policy director at the Breast Cancer Fund, a nonprofit that focuses on the environmental causes of the disease. “It doesn’t make sense to regulate the safety of food and then put the food in an unsafe package.”

How common are these chemicals? Researchers have found traces of styrene, a likely carcinogen, in instant noodles sold in polystyrene cups. They’ve detected nonylphenol — an estrogen-mimicking chemical produced by the breakdown of antioxidants used in plastics — in apple juice and baby formula. They’ve found traces of other hormone-disrupting chemicals in various foods: fire retardants in butter, Teflon components in microwave popcorn, and dibutyltin — a heat stabilizer for polyvinyl chloride — in beer, margarine, mayonnaise, processed cheese and wine. They’ve found unidentified estrogenic substances leaching from plastic water bottles. (Read complete article.)

Learn more about chemicals linked to breast cancer that are found in food and food packaging.

Climbing to new heights (The Register-Guard, 4/16/2012)

Ann Eikenberry of Springfield, Oregon explained to The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.) her reasons for climbing Mt. Shasta with the Breast Cancer Fund's 2012 Climb Against the Odds team:

Although she has not had breast cancer herself, she will climb in honor of her 74-year-old mother, who survived breast cancer once and may have developed it again, although because of age and other health issues she has chosen not to undergo further treatment.

The nonprofit Breast Cancer Fund’s mission is to develop public policy that “protects our health and is guided by the principle that credible evidence of harm rather than proof of harm is sufficient to mandate policy changes in the public’s best interest,” according to the organization’s website. The group focuses mainly on possible links between breast cancer and environmental poisons that may trigger it.

“That makes it different from many of the other breast cancer organizations, which are focused on medical research and dealing with cancer after it has been diagnosed,” the 41-year-old Eikenberry said. “Both approaches are valid — both are needed.”

...

Eikenberry has set a personal goal to raise $7,400 for the Breast Cancer Fund — $100 for each year of her mother’s life — as her contribution to the Breast Cancer Fund from the Mount Shasta climb.(Read complete article.)

Meet Ann and the rest of the team, donate and learn more about the event on the Climb Against the Odds 2012 site.