Many chemicals used in food products and personal care or found in our water, air, and soil can be hormone disrupters, bioaccumulative, or carcinogenic. Breast cancer rates are increasing; it is not a stretch of the imagination to connect the widespread use of synthetic chemicals and health or reproductive effects, such as earlier ages of puberty in girls or lower sperm counts in men or increased rates of breast cancer.
From the Women's Health special section of the Toronto Star, Thursday, January 10, 2008, page V and V6, an article about breast cancer and environmental issues, such as toxins in the air or in the workplace:
Breast Cancer Research
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
Six years ago, LaRose Lambert was diagnosed with breast cancer. The retired Sarnia nurse successfully dealt with it thanks to a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation, but like many women who get the disease, she remains haunted by a simple question: Why me?
Terrence Belford
Special to the Star
LaRose Lambert says she has a pretty good idea why she contracted breast cancer.
Genetics may have played a role - her mother was diagnosed with the disease at age 70. But Lambert insists the real culprit was likely where she lived and what she did for a living.
"There was a cluster of seven of us out of 20 nurses at Sarnia General Hospital who all developed breast cancer in a short period of time," says Lambert, 65. "That has to tell you something.
"I think the real cause is environmental and workplace exposure to toxins. You may be born with a genetic disposition but the toxins surrounding us trigger the disease."
Lambert is not alone in her theory.
The idea that environmental factors are the most common cancer triggers is gaining widespread acceptance among researchers and the medical community. That acceptance may change the way we live and work.
While there may not be definitive scientific proof linking many manmade chemicals to cancer, there is an overwhelming body of anecdotal evidence, say leading researchers and environmental activists. The battle against cancer of all kinds must start with banning substances we can identify as harmful and demanding more testing on the safety of new compounds.
"We have known for 50 years of the dangers of things like bisphenol A," says Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence, referring to a substance found in the plastic used to line metal food cans and make baby bottles and rigid, water-cooler-sized water bottles. "In the body, it mimics estrogen, which obviously has an impact on breast and prostate cancers."
He cites research by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control that found 93 per cent of 5,000 people studied had bisphenol A in their bodies.
The ability to mimic or affect the production of hormones is shared by many man-made substances, adds Dr. Devra Davis, director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh and author of The Secret History of the War on Cancer.
"We are waging war against cancer but with the wrong weapons," she says. "We have known for decades about many man-made carcinogens but still continue to produce and use them."
When it comes to breast cancer, just one in nine women can trace the cause of the disease back to a genetic imperfection, she says. "The rest of them had something in the (genetic) makeup that reacted to an environmental trigger.
"We don't know all of them yet but we do know a good many and have ignored them."
At the heart of the debate over the environmental impact is a growing understanding of the causes and nature of many cancers, says Sharon Wood, chief executive officer of the Ontario region of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
"Over the past 10 years, we have come to understand that the causes and relationships are increasingly complex," she says.
"In many cases there may not be single gene passed on, but perhaps a series of genes, all of which are susceptible to environmental factors. In fact, the seeds of cancer may be sown very early in life."
She cites the example of her own mother, who developed breast cancer in late middle age.
"She was raised on a farm and when the rest of the family worked in the fields, they put her in a seed bin to play with her dolls," she says. "The seed, however, was coated with formaldehyde to protect it against insects and rodents. We now know that formaldehyde is a carcinogen."
Lamber relates to Wood's story.
"Working in the emergy ward, we were constantly exposed to things we now know are carcinogens," she says. "We soaked instruments in formalin, which is based on formaldehyde. The fumes were enough to make you dizzy. We were exposed to X-ray radiation regularly. There were so many things that could have triggered the cancer."
Nor was there any relief off the job, she says. Sarnia, home to scores of chemical plants, has one of the highest incidences of cancers in the country.
"There is no such things as fresh air here," Lambert says."You get up in the morning and the car is always covered with this particulate. The air is full of toxins."
One of the paradoxes of the battle against cancer is that while we may have good reason to link many chemicals to cancer, politicians and courts demand scientific proof of that relationship before acting to ban them, points out Dr. Bruce Newbold, director of the McMaster Instittue for Environment and Health in Hamilton.
"Anecdotal evidence is not enough to take to court," he says.
In an effort to gain that scientific evidence, Lambert has been participating in a study on women's exposure to environment factors in the workplace, conducted by Drs. Jim Brophy and Margaret Keith of the University of Windsor. They are looking at the effects that toxins in the workplace have on women in agriculture, health care and auto manufacturing.
For Lambert, like most breast cancer victims, the priority is simple. "I just want to know what caused by breast cancer and why."
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Deadly Consequences of AIDS in Rwanda
From the Ideas section of the Sunday, January 26, 2008, Toronto Star, page ID3, is this article about photographic evidence of the effect of AIDS on people in Rwanda and a cooperative photojournalist project between Rwandan and Canadian photojournalists:
RWANDA
Chronicling the scourge of AIDS
Rwandan photographers learn from the best as they focus in on disease's deadly effects
Christopher Maughan
Special to the Star
Kigali - A weary, elderly woman stands against the wall of her tiny mud hut, huddling three of her grandchildren against her, squinting a bit as sunlight pours in through the doorway. The faded red letters of a French acronym - SIDA - loom large on a poster above her right shoulder, almost as if they're weighing her down.
The shutter snaps of two photographers who have come to take her picture are the only sounds that break an eerie silence. Mukandori, 72, waits patiently for them to finish their work.
She had 12 children, but only one is alive today. "Some died in war, others died of natural causes," she explains through a translator. "But when I remember the ones who died of AIDS, I still feel a deep sorrow."
Mukandori, who has just one name, is a Rwandan left to raise three of her grandchildren as a result of having lost three of her own children to a disease she calls "the scourge of all." She agreed to have her picture taken by Canadian photojournalist Steve Simon and one of his Rwandan counterparts, George Barya. The shoot was part of a unique, unprecedented effort to teach both the Rwandan and Canadian public about HIV-AIDS, a disease that has shattered Mukandori's family and so many others.
Simon is a long-time member of a Canadian photograph collective called Photosensitive. The group was founded in 1990 by former Toronto Star photographer Andrew Stawicki and Peter Robertson a former Star graphics editor. Over the years, they've dedicated themselves to non-profit social documentary projects, staging exhibits on homelessness, child poverty and literacy, to name just a few. Photosensitive current endeavour is their third on HIV-AIDS.
"This is an emergency situation; it's urgent," says Simon, explaining that his hope for the project is that it becomes a call to action for people in the west. "I think that people, when they are aware of it and they do help, they themselves are going to feel very good about doing so.
"If this scourge of AIDS were to hit the Western world the way it's hit Africa and now Asia and other parts, there's no question that it would be pushed up in terms of priorities," he says.
Cynics may wonder whether a simple photo exhibit can really fuel social responsibility, but Photosensitive's track record speaks. A 1996 project on Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children helped raise over $100,000. And a 2005 exhibit on Ontario's first native literacy camp helped secure funding for the opening of 35 more the next year.
For Photosensitive's latest project, seven journalists were in Rwanda documenting the social impact of HIV-AIDS. One photographer took pictures of HIV-positive prostitutes on the streets of Kigali. Another photographed women who contracted HIV as a result of being raped during the 1994 genocide. Others went into anti-retroviral and circumcision clinics and chronicled the latest efforts to stem the spread of the disease.
Stawicki says the key to Photosensitive's work isn't just that it educates or informs. It's that it makes people angry. "If they're angry, maybe they'll do something."
But what makes this year's project unique, Stawicki says, is that for the first time, Photosensitive is contributing to the development of foreign professional journalists. Over the course of their time here, each of the Canadians was paired with a local photographer. The Rwandans learned how to use modern, professional cameras (donated by Photosensitive and Getty Images) to produce images that go beyond traditional news pictures in their depth, quality and resolution. Those images will appear together as photo essays in each of Rwanda's major newspapers.
Local photographer Shyaka Anastase says the Canadian help is sorely needed. "A lot of people died or left the country during the genocide, and for that reason we don't have any great photographers here in Rwanda," he says, speaking in French. Anastase explains that because of the role of media in fuelling the killings, many potential journalists have shied away from the profession. This has left the country's few remaining reporters in charge of both writing articles and taking pictures, and as a result, photography in Rwanda has suffered.
"I used to think this aspect of journalism wasn't that important," says Anastase. "But in the last few days, what I've learned has instilled in me a love for taking pictures and has made me want to really do more."
Anastase has been working with Peter Bregg, a 40-year veteran who's covered everything from the Olympic Games to parliamentary news. Bregg, photo editor at Hello! magazine, says he's impressed with how far his trainee has come in such a short time.
"He's looking now to shoot things that he wouldn't have shot before," says Bregg.
Watching the two working together in the field, it's easy to get a sense of what Bregg is talking about. He's not a heavy-handed coach - instead, he teaches by example. Every so often on a shoot, Bregg will set up at an angle or in a spot that catches Anastase's attention, and Anastase will do his best to mimic the photo. If the results aren't the same, Bregg will take the opportunity to give a quick lesson on lighting, aperture opening, and shutter speed.
"After working with Peter, I think my pictures have much more feeling," says Anastase. "I learned a lot about how to avoid making mistakes after just a few days."
Anastase says he's been so inspired by his experience with Bregg that he hopes to create an association of Rwandan photojournalists in the hope that they might get together to plan more Photosensitive-style documentary projects.
In the meantime, a Photosensitive exhibit at the National University of Rwanda in Butare will serve as inspiration to the next generation of Rwandan journalists. Photosensitive plans to exhibit their work in to provide inspiration of a different sort - not to document, but rather to act.
"Whenever we bring AIDS to the front in Canada, it helps remind people the problem is still there," says Bregg. "And it's not insurmountable. A lot of our pictures will illustrate despair, but a lot will also illustrate hope."
Christopher Maughan accompanied photographers on the Photosensitive project. He is an intern with the Rwanda initiative, a Canadian and Rwandan journalism partnership.
RWANDA
Chronicling the scourge of AIDS
Rwandan photographers learn from the best as they focus in on disease's deadly effects
Christopher Maughan
Special to the Star
Kigali - A weary, elderly woman stands against the wall of her tiny mud hut, huddling three of her grandchildren against her, squinting a bit as sunlight pours in through the doorway. The faded red letters of a French acronym - SIDA - loom large on a poster above her right shoulder, almost as if they're weighing her down.
The shutter snaps of two photographers who have come to take her picture are the only sounds that break an eerie silence. Mukandori, 72, waits patiently for them to finish their work.
She had 12 children, but only one is alive today. "Some died in war, others died of natural causes," she explains through a translator. "But when I remember the ones who died of AIDS, I still feel a deep sorrow."
Mukandori, who has just one name, is a Rwandan left to raise three of her grandchildren as a result of having lost three of her own children to a disease she calls "the scourge of all." She agreed to have her picture taken by Canadian photojournalist Steve Simon and one of his Rwandan counterparts, George Barya. The shoot was part of a unique, unprecedented effort to teach both the Rwandan and Canadian public about HIV-AIDS, a disease that has shattered Mukandori's family and so many others.
Simon is a long-time member of a Canadian photograph collective called Photosensitive. The group was founded in 1990 by former Toronto Star photographer Andrew Stawicki and Peter Robertson a former Star graphics editor. Over the years, they've dedicated themselves to non-profit social documentary projects, staging exhibits on homelessness, child poverty and literacy, to name just a few. Photosensitive current endeavour is their third on HIV-AIDS.
"This is an emergency situation; it's urgent," says Simon, explaining that his hope for the project is that it becomes a call to action for people in the west. "I think that people, when they are aware of it and they do help, they themselves are going to feel very good about doing so.
"If this scourge of AIDS were to hit the Western world the way it's hit Africa and now Asia and other parts, there's no question that it would be pushed up in terms of priorities," he says.
Cynics may wonder whether a simple photo exhibit can really fuel social responsibility, but Photosensitive's track record speaks. A 1996 project on Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children helped raise over $100,000. And a 2005 exhibit on Ontario's first native literacy camp helped secure funding for the opening of 35 more the next year.
For Photosensitive's latest project, seven journalists were in Rwanda documenting the social impact of HIV-AIDS. One photographer took pictures of HIV-positive prostitutes on the streets of Kigali. Another photographed women who contracted HIV as a result of being raped during the 1994 genocide. Others went into anti-retroviral and circumcision clinics and chronicled the latest efforts to stem the spread of the disease.
Stawicki says the key to Photosensitive's work isn't just that it educates or informs. It's that it makes people angry. "If they're angry, maybe they'll do something."
But what makes this year's project unique, Stawicki says, is that for the first time, Photosensitive is contributing to the development of foreign professional journalists. Over the course of their time here, each of the Canadians was paired with a local photographer. The Rwandans learned how to use modern, professional cameras (donated by Photosensitive and Getty Images) to produce images that go beyond traditional news pictures in their depth, quality and resolution. Those images will appear together as photo essays in each of Rwanda's major newspapers.
Local photographer Shyaka Anastase says the Canadian help is sorely needed. "A lot of people died or left the country during the genocide, and for that reason we don't have any great photographers here in Rwanda," he says, speaking in French. Anastase explains that because of the role of media in fuelling the killings, many potential journalists have shied away from the profession. This has left the country's few remaining reporters in charge of both writing articles and taking pictures, and as a result, photography in Rwanda has suffered.
"I used to think this aspect of journalism wasn't that important," says Anastase. "But in the last few days, what I've learned has instilled in me a love for taking pictures and has made me want to really do more."
Anastase has been working with Peter Bregg, a 40-year veteran who's covered everything from the Olympic Games to parliamentary news. Bregg, photo editor at Hello! magazine, says he's impressed with how far his trainee has come in such a short time.
"He's looking now to shoot things that he wouldn't have shot before," says Bregg.
Watching the two working together in the field, it's easy to get a sense of what Bregg is talking about. He's not a heavy-handed coach - instead, he teaches by example. Every so often on a shoot, Bregg will set up at an angle or in a spot that catches Anastase's attention, and Anastase will do his best to mimic the photo. If the results aren't the same, Bregg will take the opportunity to give a quick lesson on lighting, aperture opening, and shutter speed.
"After working with Peter, I think my pictures have much more feeling," says Anastase. "I learned a lot about how to avoid making mistakes after just a few days."
Anastase says he's been so inspired by his experience with Bregg that he hopes to create an association of Rwandan photojournalists in the hope that they might get together to plan more Photosensitive-style documentary projects.
In the meantime, a Photosensitive exhibit at the National University of Rwanda in Butare will serve as inspiration to the next generation of Rwandan journalists. Photosensitive plans to exhibit their work in to provide inspiration of a different sort - not to document, but rather to act.
"Whenever we bring AIDS to the front in Canada, it helps remind people the problem is still there," says Bregg. "And it's not insurmountable. A lot of our pictures will illustrate despair, but a lot will also illustrate hope."
Christopher Maughan accompanied photographers on the Photosensitive project. He is an intern with the Rwanda initiative, a Canadian and Rwandan journalism partnership.
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