They’re good girls and boys. Racing for the cure. Crying for the cameras. Sharing their pain. Wearing that crown of thorns like a halo. Nice folks. And aren’t they “better people” for just having “survived” breast cancer?.  Or…are they being played for suckers? Conned by a clever marketing strategy that makes heroes out of victims, and saints out of sinners. Racing for the cure, but running from the cause.  Most of the well-financed breast cancer organizations make little or no mention of the non-genetic causes of breast cancer. Go to their websites. Read their literature. These organizations don’t focus on the environmental and pharmacological causes of this epidemic because it’s a dank dark alley that leads right to their corporate sponsors.  National Breast Cancer Awareness Month was established by Zeneca, a bioscience company with sales of $8.62 billion in 1997. Forty-nine percent of Zeneca’s 1997 profits came from pesticides and other industrial chemicals, and 49% were from pharmaceutical sales, one-third (about $1.4 billion’s worth) of which were cancer treatment drugs.” Says the Green Guide, a publication of Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet.

Zeneca also makes Tamoxifen, “a known carcinogen” according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). After only a few years of exposure, Tamoxifen can actually cause breast cancer, says a 1999 study from Duke University. “There is strong evidence of Tamoxifen’s toxicity, including high risks of uterine, gastrointestinal and fatal liver cancer,” reports the Cancer Information Network, adding “The Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (BCPT) conducted by the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) “found that women taking Tamoxifen had more than twice the chance of developing uterine cancer compared with women on placebo”.

General Electric is a huge global conglomerate that provides all kinds of products and services. GE also owns health clinics that use GE equipment that can expose patients to different types of radiation. GE makes ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and mammography machines – a known cause of breast cancer in younger women. In addition, there are 91 nuclear power plants based on the GE design operating in 11 countries, says GE on its website. Nuclear power  plants are a known source of radiation leakage.  Radiation is a “ complete carcinogen “ says Dr. Peter Montegue, in his 1997 5-part series, “The Truth About Breast Cancer”. Montegue writes, “Very few things have the ability to initiate cancer AND promote it AND make it progress. Things that can do this are called complete carcinogens.” By analyzing 50 years of U.S. National Cancer Institute data, Dr. Jay Gould, director of the Radiation and Public Health Project, Inc., says, “of the 3,000-odd counties in the United States, women living in about 1,300 nuclear counties (located within 100 miles of a reactor) are at the greatest risk of dying of breast cancer.” GE is also a contributor to many efforts to “battle"  breast cancer.

Other corporations, such as Rhone-Poulec, Rohn & Hass, Eli Lilly Novartis, American Cyanamid and Dupont have also profiteered from both sides of this manufactured epidemic.  In addition to these duplicitous industries and their heavily financed non-profit partners-in-deception, is the National Institutes Of Health (NIH). Its cozy relationship to(and increasing financial reliance on) business and industry through organizations like the Centers for Disease Control Foundation, is a blatant conflict of interest. Not surprisingly, the NIH website for breast cancer research is very similar to research funded by the top breast cancer organizations…it’s all about detection, cures, and genetics. Of the 14 areas of research listed, only 2 studies relate to the links between breast cancer and non-genetic influences. And those studies dismiss the notion of any connection.

The NIH studies are grossly misleading.  On June 26^th 2002, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), part of NIH issued a news release that said, “Study Finds No Association Between Oral Contraceptive Use  and Breast Cancer For Women 35 and Over.”  Actually the study did not include women older than 65 or younger than 35, which begs the question, “Why Not?”   What also makes this study hard to swallow are the results of the study on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) two weeks later.  On
July  9th 2002 (and after more than forty years of widespread use) the NIH announced that HRT (low dose estrogen plus progestin) can cause an increase in heart attacks.

Actually, there was no difference between the outcome of those two studies, admitted Dr. Bob Spirtas, of the National Institute of  Child Health and Development (part of NIH), in a conversation with this writer. A woman’s risk for breast cancer is 16% higher at the time she is taking oral contraceptives or HRT and for five years after she stops, at which point the risk is 3% or “statistically insignificant” said Dr. Spirtas.  Well, that certainly wasn’t the message conveyed by the NIH, which seemed to give oral contraceptives a clean bill of health .

The NIH has also come to the rescue of the chemical industry. On May 15^th 2001, the NIH announced, “DDT, PCBs Not Linked to Higher Rates of Breast Cancer, an Analysis of Five Northeast Studies Concludes.” However, the highly regarded authors of OurstolenFuture.com point out that most studies are flawed, “The problem is that DDE and the commonly-studied most persistent PCBs act as an anti-androgen and anti-estrogens, respectively, not estrogens. Findings that indicate these contaminants are not associated with breast cancer risk are completely irrelevant to the hypothesis that xenoestrogens may induce breast cancer.”

Its pretty clear. We’re firing blanks in this “war against breast cancer.” While industries release toxic chemicals, unsafe drugs, and radiation, they also fund government agencies and large non-profits who provide effective “cover” for their devastating activities.  I call it the Breast Cancer Money-Go-Round.

The above is presented with the kind permission of the author, Lynn Landes.  Lynn Landes is a freelance journalist specializing in environment and election issues. Lynn’s been a radio show host, a regular commentator for a BBC radio program, and a news reporter for DUTV in Philadelphia, PA. She may be reached at 217 S. Jessup Street, Philadelphia, PA. 19107 Phone: (215) 629-3553 Fax (215) 629-1446

Email: lynnlandes@earthlink.net
 

And now a message from the Muriel S. Miller Foundation, bringing you the truth about the evils of the Cancer and Pharmaceutical Industries. After reading the above we would like to inform our readers that one of the  Non-Profit organizations mentioned would most probably be the American Cancer Society. As October 2003 approaches and the American Cancer Society prepares to launch its annual fundraising program entitled: National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, please be aware of just who is funding and controlling operations for this month long affair while the American Cancer Society goes begging for contributions with runs, walks, etc. Ask your local chapter why Astra-Zeneca pays for and influences every leaflet, poster, publication and commercial produced by National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.. Astra-Zeneca Pharmaceuticals is a spin-off of Imperial Chemical Industries, one of the worlds largest manufacturers of chlorinated and other industrial chemicals, including those incriminated as causes of breast cancer. As Lynn Landes mentioned in her report Zeneca is also the maufacturer of Tamoxifen, the worlds top selling anti-cancer and breast cancer “prevention” drug with over 400 million dollars in annual sales. Studies show in addition to statistics in the above report women taking Tamoxifen after surviving breast cancer have a higher propensity to develop Endometrial Cancer. Its no wonder during the month of October no mention is made of carcinogenic industrial chemicals, pollution and their relation to breast cancer. Imperial, Zeneca’s parent company profits by manufacturing breast cancer causing chemicals. Zeneca profits from treatment of breast cancer. The American Cancer Society does not want you to know about the above, we can’t blame them.
 

As you sell your daffodils, mail out fund raising letters, take part in  relay races, walks, runs, donate your old cars, or bequeath part of your estate please take the time to think over where your money may be going. Check out other sections of our website. Discover the  origin and history of the American Cancer Society, its aims and goals, record of cancer prevention (or lack of)  so called cancer research, links to the pharmaceutical industry (their contributions and grants to the ACS) links to big business,  Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital Cancer Center and finally their infamous “Unproven Methods List” used successfully to prevent any treatment other than conventional, including alternative medical procedures that may have possibly cured some cancers. Upon its founding the American Cancer Society described itself as a “ temporary “ organization that would cease to exist once cancer had been eradicated. That was on May22nd 1913 and now nearly a century later the society is the richest private medical-oriented charity in the world with no sign of going out of  business. We can’t blame them, they would have to give up tens of millions of dollars in real estate holdings, hundreds of millions of  dollars in interest bearing accounts, fleets of cars, six figure salaries and other perks. We don’t believe a cure for cancer is in their interest.

REMEMBER , IT’S MORE PROFITABLE TO TREAT CANCER
THAN TO CURE IT.