Turmeric – This common culinary spice has been used medicinally for thousands of years. Modern herbalists value it for its many healing properties, including cancer prevention and treatment. It enhances the production of tumour fighting cells, is antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immune stimulating, and supports liver detoxification. Eat 1 teaspoon daily with food; combine with olive for better absorption.

Milk thistle – Our livers are very important for overall health and for cancer prevention. The seeds from milk thistle repair damaged liver cells, block liver toxins by binding to liver receptors, and protect against environmental toxins and damage caused by drugs and heavy metals, including chemotherapy. It also has anti-tumour properties. It is best taken in tincture form at bedtime, since the liver’s building (anabolic) stage occurs while we sleep.

Citrus peel –The peel of tangerines, grapefruit, oranges and lemons contains a potent anti-cancer substance called D-limonene which destroys cancer cells, is anti-tumour, and stimulates the detoxification of carcinogens by the liver. The peels can be grated into salads or baking, and can be dried and added to teas. Organic is best.

Medicinal Mushrooms - There are over thirty mushrooms that possess potent cancer preventative and immune strengthening properties. Maitake, reishi and shiitake are some of the most potent. They help to counteract the toxic effects of chemotherapy and radiation. I like to promote shiitake mushrooms because they can easily be added to the diet in fresh or dry form; boiling them as soup stock is my favourite way to extract the medicinal compounds. Lentinan, one of many active compounds in shiitakes, inhibits metastasis and prevents chemical and viral stimulated cancer cell development.

Sea Vegetables - Sea plants are highly nutritive and contain all essential minerals and trace minerals, plus vitamins, amino acids, and other medicinal components. They have anti-tumour properties and protect against radiation damage. Include these in the daily diet by grinding them and using them in a shaker instead of salt. Alternatively, seaweeds can be added to soups, toasted in the oven as a snack, used in sushi, and salads. Try wakame, dulse, nori, hijiki, kelp, and kombu.

Allium family – The allium family includes garlic, onions, shallots, leeks and chives. Eat them daily for their anti-tumour and immune enhancing components. Raw, crushed garlic is the most medicinally active preparation; mix it with other foods to tone down its strong flavour.

This is a small sample of the many herbs with proven cancer preventative properties. Just as cancer can develop slowly, with small daily exposure to carcinogens and toxins, small daily exposure to gentle yet effective medicinal herbs and vital, fresh foods helps to strengthen our self-corrective, healing capacity.

Sources:

•   Herbal Medicine, Healing and Cancer by Donald R. Yance, Jr., CN, MH, A.H.G., Keats Publishing, 1999
•   Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy by Simon Mills, MCPP, FNIMH, MA & Kerry Bone, MCPP, FNHAA, FNIMH, DipPhyto Bsc(Hons), Churchill Livingston, 1999

Article by Savayda Jarone, Medical Herbalist and PCN Board Member

 
Also in this issue on An Ounce …

• Thousands of ‘excess’ cancer deaths from CT scans
• Health Canada’s Ingredient Hotlist: Why are carcinogens allowed in cosmetics?
• Incineration: Burning Issues - 2009 in Review
• Herbs for Cancer Prevention
• Management of BPA: the latest government proposal
• The Trillium Foundation Supports Prevention Presentation
• Telling Our Story: Why prevention? We do it for love!
• What’s New!

Ban on BPA Baby Bottles

The Ministers have proposed various strategies to manage BPA. For example, the government has proposed prohibiting the advertisement, sale and import into Canada of polycarbonate baby bottles that contain BPA. This proposal is expected to become law in the near future.

Food Packaging – Safe Enough?

In October 2008, the government also proposed adopting a precautionary approach for BPA in food packaging for products intended for newborns and infants. The proposal is not to ban it, but to make BPA levels as low as “reasonably achievable” for this vulnerable population. We feel that a genuinely precautionary approach would eliminate the use of BPA in this application and demand safe alternatives.

Government’s Plan is Weak

With mounting evidence of possible health impacts at very low levels of exposure to BPA and, in particular, its effects on fetuses, babies and children, there is concern: is the government’s course of action for managing this chemical sufficiently aggressive?

BPA released into the water of industrial effluent has been established as the greatest source of release for this chemical. In November 2009, the government proposed to deal with this by recommending a concentration limit for release from industrial facilities of 1.75 micrograms/litre.

There are a number of concerns with this proposal:

• It only addresses industrial BPA releases at the end of the process (“end of pipe”) and does not attempt to reduce or eliminate BPA at the source;
• It excludes measures to directly limit or eliminate human exposure to BPA from consumer products;
• It does not consider minimizing the release of BPA from recycling and disposing of products which contain it;
• It focuses only on releases to water and not to air and soil.

While this is only one segment of the risk management for BPA, there is concern that attempts to manage BPA in other sectors may be equally weak and do not sufficiently protect human health or the environment.
We believe that government should set significantly lower release levels, explicitly recommend reduction of BPA over time, and set total elimination as the final goal.

Article by Sandra Madray, PCN Board Member

Resources:

Environment Canada - Consultation Document on bisphenol A (BPA), (Phenol, 4,4′-(1-Methylethylidene)bis-); Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number: 80-05-7; November 2009

Government of Canada - Order Amending Schedule I to the Hazardous Products Act (bisphenol A) – Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement; Vol 143, No. 26, June 27, 2009

Environment Canada & Health Canada - Screening Assessment for the Challenge – bisphenol A – October 2008

Environment Canada & Health Canada - Proposed Risk Management Approach for bisphenol – October 2008

ENGO Comments in Response to Consultation Document on Bisphenol A (BPA) Proposed Regulations for Industrial Effluents – Canadian Environmental Law Association and Chemical Sensitivities Manitoba, January 2010.

 
Also in this issue on An Ounce …

• Thousands of ‘excess’ cancer deaths from CT scans
• Health Canada’s Ingredient Hotlist: Why are carcinogens allowed in cosmetics?
• Incineration: Burning Issues - 2009 in Review
• Herbs for Cancer Prevention
• Management of BPA: the latest government proposal
• The Trillium Foundation Supports Prevention Presentation
• Telling Our Story: Why prevention? We do it for love!
• What’s New!

The Trillium Foundation has provided Prevent Cancer Now with funding to create a powerful multi-media presentation campaign to be launched this spring. The presentation, Prevention - the Real Cancer Cure, will document the many preventable causes of cancer and highlight the changes you can make, personally, in your community and at the national level to reduce incidence of cancer. It may surprise some. It may save lives. It will certainly challenge people to take charge over their health and not just wait for disease to hit. It will be authoritative and fully researched, with credible data and powerful visuals to communicate that message.

PCN will recruit volunteer presenters from all ages and all walks of life—some of whom may have personal experience with cancer—and train them to deliver the presentation in an informative, credible, and entertaining manner. They will pilot this life-saving message in public seminars in Ottawa area workplaces, schools and community centres, before taking the show on the road – across Ontario and the country.

With support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation and assistance from other partners, we expect to launch our first presentations in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario in May 2010.

Watch for our public announcements, providing dates and places for our free seminars. If you are interested in supporting this initiative, or getting involved as a presenter, we’d like to hear from you.

Please contact Jake Cole, Co-chair of Prevent Cancer Now. He can be reached at 613-755-0110 or info@preventcancernow.ca.

Article by Jake Cole, PCN Board Member

 
Also in this issue on An Ounce …

• Thousands of ‘excess’ cancer deaths from CT scans
• Health Canada’s Ingredient Hotlist: Why are carcinogens allowed in cosmetics?
• Incineration: Burning Issues - 2009 in Review
• Herbs for Cancer Prevention
• Management of BPA: the latest government proposal
• The Trillium Foundation Supports Prevention Presentation
• Telling Our Story: Why prevention? We do it for love!
• What’s New!

We tend to trust the doctors when they prescribe diagnostic and therapeutic x-rays, but it’s vital to remember that exposure to ionizing radiation – which underpins nuclear medicine through a variety of x-rays and the internal use of radioactive substances - is a known cause of cancer.

Computed tomography, or CT scans, are especially potent, and proving to be lethal for thousands of North Americans every year. Dr. Rita Redberg, editor of the US-based journal, Archives of Internal Medicine, reported in December that from the CT scans done in just one year – 2007 - there will be 29,000 new cases of cancer and 15,000 excess deaths (1). A third of these projected cancers will occur in people 35 to 54 years old when they received their CT, two-thirds will occur in women and 15 percent will arise from scans done in children or teens.

CT scans give doctors a view inside the body, often eliminating the need for exploratory surgery. But CT scans involve much higher radiation doses than conventional X-rays. A chest CT scan exposes the patient to 300 to 600 times the radiation dose of a chest X-ray, and – largely because of the greater availability of x-ray technology – patients today receive far more radiation than ever before. In the US, the average lifetime dose of diagnostic radiation – excluding therapeutic radiation – has increased sevenfold since 1980, according to The New York Times.

In Canada, there are currently no nationally accepted, evidence-based rules to help hospitals determine which patients need a CT scan. With children especially vulnerable, and with CT scans being increasingly efficient and much more readily used in recent years, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published a study in February which laid out a set of risk factors that signal a child could have a brain injury (2). By following the guidelines, doctors could help ensure that children who have these risk factors get help quickly – and prevent others from being needlessly exposed to radiation, the study suggests.

Given the danger of CT and other forms of medical radiation such as fluoroscopies, the US Food and Drug Administration recently announced it would take steps for more stringent regulation.

Our advice is that patients themselves need to be aware of the dangers of medical radiation, and be prepared to be their own best advocates.

Article by Liz Armstrong, Past-Chair PCN Board

References:

(1) Redberg RF, MD, MSc
Cancer Risks and Radiation Exposure From Computed Tomographic Scans: How Can We Be Sure That the Benefits Outweigh the Risks?
Vol. 169 No. 22, Dec 14/28, 2009 Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(22):2049-2050. 2009 http://archinte.ama-assn.org/content/vol169/issue22/index.dtl

(2) Osmond MH, et al CATCH: a clinical decision rule for the use of computed tomography in children with minor head injury
CMAJ published February 8, 2010 as doi:10.1503/cmaj.091421 [PDF]
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/rapidpdf/cmaj.091421v1
Vol. 169 No. 22, Dec 14/28

 
Also in this issue on An Ounce …

• Thousands of ‘excess’ cancer deaths from CT scans
• Health Canada’s Ingredient Hotlist: Why are carcinogens allowed in cosmetics?
• Incineration: Burning Issues - 2009 in Review
• Herbs for Cancer Prevention
• Management of BPA: the latest government proposal
• The Trillium Foundation Supports Prevention Presentation
• Telling Our Story: Why prevention? We do it for love!
• What’s New!

The chemical subjected to restricted use - hydroquinone - is a carcinogen. This approach for a chemical that is a carcinogen does not go far enough to protect human life. It also raises the all-too familiar question – why are there any carcinogens in cosmetics? With increasing evidence of toxic chemicals in cosmetics and other consumer products, you would think that it would be in the best interest of manufacturers to actively research safe alternatives.

One of the chemicals that the government has proposed prohibiting is BPA (bisphenol A), a potential hormone disruptor, that is used in cosmetics; its use in plastic containers and bottles aroused an enormous public outcry.

While there is general support for the Cosmetic Ingredient Hotlist, PCN is concerned that applying restrictions permits the continued use of toxic chemicals and is, therefore, inadequate. PCN wants the government to amend the Cosmetic Regulations under the Food and Drug Act to ensure that industry provides data to disclose any use of toxic chemicals and to demonstrate the safety of chemicals used in cosmetic products before releasing products to market.

Article by Sandra Madray, PCN Board Member

Resources:

Health Canada List of Restricted and Prohibited Cosmetic Ingredients (The Cosmetic Ingredient “Hotlist”).

Canadian Environmental Law Association (Fe de Leon) and Chemical Sensitivities Manitoba (Sandra Madray) Response to List of Prohibited and Restricted Cosmetic Ingredients and Proposed Changes to the Cosmetic Ingredient ‘Hotlist’ posted as of October 23, 2009.

 
Also in this issue on An Ounce …

• Thousands of ‘excess’ cancer deaths from CT scans
• Health Canada’s Ingredient Hotlist: Why are carcinogens allowed in cosmetics?
• Incineration: Burning Issues - 2009 in Review
• Herbs for Cancer Prevention
• Management of BPA: the latest government proposal
• The Trillium Foundation Supports Prevention Presentation
• Telling Our Story: Why prevention? We do it for love!
• What’s New!

Here’s Mary-Martha’s story:

I lost my father, my sister and my aunt to cancer. My niece underwent treatment for leukemia at the age of 15 and my sister-in-law is in treatment. Don’s brother died of it, and his two sisters went through the brutality of cancer treatment, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. One of Don’s sisters has since had a recurrence and is in palliative care and his Dad was recently diagnosed. Of 18 immediate family members, we have had to watch six experience the horrors of cancer, along with others. We have mourned the deaths of four of them, and prepare for the loss of another loved one.

Since 1988, Don and I have supported cancer research. In recent years, though, we have tired of the search for a cure. We don’t want to cure cancer anymore. We want to prevent it.

As a young kinesiology graduate 30 years ago, I felt strongly that health promotion and disease prevention were the answer, but no one was very interested in prevention – then or now!

Thank you for starting Prevent Cancer Now. What can we do to help?

Story by Mary-Martha Hale and Don Desnoyers

 
Also in this issue on An Ounce …

• Thousands of ‘excess’ cancer deaths from CT scans
• Health Canada’s Ingredient Hotlist: Why are carcinogens allowed in cosmetics?
• Incineration: Burning Issues - 2009 in Review
• Herbs for Cancer Prevention
• Management of BPA: the latest government proposal
• The Trillium Foundation Supports Prevention Presentation
• Telling Our Story: Why prevention? We do it for love!
• What’s New!

Over the last year, incineration proponents and their allies – consultants, lobbyists, municipal staff and some politicians – saw some gains in their attempts to frame the waste debate as simply being “incineration vs. landfill”. It is important to remember that incineration means both burning and burying: residues (ash, char, slag) still need to be managed (i.e. buried) after burning, a point often minimized by incineration proponents and not fully explored by decision makers. The debate further distracts municipalities from addressing waste issues at the “front end” - working to reduce, re-use and divert waste. Rachel’s Democracy provides a good review of how burning garbage impedes our transition to sustainability, yet seems to be making a comeback.

As people become more aware of the serious public health and economic impacts of burning garbage, and its inflexibility as a disposal option, incinerator vendors will find it much tougher to flog their technology.

2009 –Year in Review

Durham Region, Ontario - Despite a record number of citizen delegations, opposition by medical professionals and the efforts of a coalition that included labour, health and community organizations, Durham and York Region politicians voted in June 2009 to submit Environmental Assessment (EA) documentation to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment for the construction of a waste incinerator.

During the first round of EA public inspection, ending last September, citizens identified many errors, omissions, gaps and inconsistencies in the study documents. The amended EA was even more incoherent and difficult to review. Further, the council of the Municipality of Clarington, the potential host community for the Durham-York incinerator, prematurely terminated the work of independent experts to review proponents’ EA studies. Durham citizens have asked the Minister of the Environment to refer the EA study to the Environmental Review Tribunal so that all matters could be thoroughly aired at a public hearing. They continue to await a response from the Minister.

If approved as proposed, the Durham project would not employ state-of-the-art emissions control and monitoring technology, as promised by the politicians pushing it. It would be the first incinerator approved in over 20 years in Ontario.

Elsewhere in Ontario - Brant, Dufferin County, Port Hope and Sault Ste. Marie are looking at proposals for incineration. So far, there is no organized opposition in these towns. If you are interested in doing so, be sure to check our Canada-wide list of groups formed to oppose incineration proposals for some contacts and ideas.

Vancouver - Metro Vancouver released a draft waste plan at the end of November with a decision expected by next summer. Zero Waste Vancouver and Zero Waste B.C. are actively opposing this focus on incineration, and need your support to move Metro Vancouver towards more sustainable alternatives.

Elsewhere in BC – A number of proposals are causing concern across BC:

• A Covanta proposal in Gold River was exempted from having to undergo an environmental assessment. Two blogs provide details – ForestTalk.com and Zero Waste Vancouver.
• “Incinerator in disguise” proposals have emerged in Christina Lake and Kamloops.

What You Can Do

An informed and engaged community can be very effective at beating back mass burn incineration and “incinerators in disguise” proposals before projects gain too much political momentum.

• First, act locally. Reduce your personal waste footprint. Consider back yard composting - even if your municipality has a green bin program.
• Find out how waste is managed in your community. Learn about waste reduction, re-use and diversion options available to you.
• If your municipality is considering any form of incineration, take the time to learn about what this entails and educate your fellow citizens and decision-makers about safer and more sustainable alternatives. Refer to PCN’s recently updated Incineration Tool Kit to learn more.
• Sign our Position Statement, and encourage your family, friends and colleagues to add their names to the growing opposition to burning garbage, and the call for safer and more sensible options.
• If you live in BC, sign Zero Waste B.C.’s position statement and find out how else you can help guide B.C. towards a Zero Waste future.
• For resources on global waste, go to the Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance/Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) website. Join others fighting incineration on GAIA’s active list serve, where members share winning strategies and timely information.

PCN is here to support you, providing information and linking you with individuals and groups across Canada who oppose incineration. If you live in a community where no group is monitoring a specific proposal, please consider taking on the challenge to oppose incineration and lead your community towards more sustainable and healthy alternatives. Then please let us know who you are and how we could help.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy and incinerator-free 2010!

Article by Linda Gasser, PCN Anti-Incineration Campaign Coordinator
E-mail: gasserlinda@gmail.com; Telephone: (905) 983-5249

 
Also in this issue on An Ounce …

• Thousands of ‘excess’ cancer deaths from CT scans
• Health Canada’s Ingredient Hotlist: Why are carcinogens allowed in cosmetics?
• Incineration: Burning Issues - 2009 in Review
• Herbs for Cancer Prevention
• Management of BPA: the latest government proposal
• The Trillium Foundation Supports Prevention Presentation
• Telling Our Story: Why prevention? We do it for love!
• What’s New!

Hills of Erin Cancer Prevention Foundation Receives Charitable Status – PCN’s Board of Directors has been working hard over the past two years to establish a charitable foundation. We are pleased to announce our success! The Canada Revenue Agency confirmed that the Hills of Erin Cancer Prevention Foundation has passed all the requirements to become a registered charity.

Why “Hills of Erin”? That’s where the first germ of our movement was born – at Liz Armstrong’s kitchen table.

What this means is that donors will have the choice of funding PCN or the Cancer Prevention Foundation. Donations to the Foundation will go towards education and research, and will be eligible for a tax receipt. Because PCN devotes a considerable amount of time to advocating for change from our regulators and governments, we are not eligible for charitable status. Only a limited amount of lobbying is allowable for charities. Rather than hamper our efforts to make our world a safer place, we chose to establish a separate Foundation.

We welcome you to contribute to either organization!

Indoor Tanning is Out – UV radiation from indoor tanning beds increases the risk of skin cancer, including melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Recently, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer moved sunbeds (UV tanning beds) up to the highest cancer risk category—group 1— ‘carcinogenic to humans’. Check out this excellent campaign by the Canadian Dermatology Association for more information.

Welcome, Jake Cole, as PCN’s new Co-Chair! – A long-standing health advocate, Jake joined the Board of Directors of Prevent Cancer Now in June 2009. He has taken an active role as the Chair of the Fundraising Committee, leading efforts to secure a $30,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Jake has recently accepted the position of Co-Chair, working along-side Diana Daghofer to lead PCN.

• Rossland, BC – March 27
• Montreal – April 18
• Ottawa – May 29-30
• Toronto – June 23
• Halifax - date to be confirmed
• Victoria - date to be confirmed

Watch the PCN website for details of events across Canada, from March-July 2010.

Halifax’s 4th Annual Cancer Prevention Series - Beginning March 9, health professionals and environmental advocates will share their diverse perspectives on cancer prevention. This 8-week series offers practical solutions to reduce your toxic burden and generate wellness - for you, your community and the world!

When: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. on Tuesdays from March 9 to April 27, 2010
Where: The Westin Hotel, 1181 Hollis Street, Halifax
Cost: Free (donations accepted)

Click here for more information

 
Also in this issue on An Ounce …

• Thousands of ‘excess’ cancer deaths from CT scans
• Health Canada’s Ingredient Hotlist: Why are carcinogens allowed in cosmetics?
• Incineration: Burning Issues - 2009 in Review
• Herbs for Cancer Prevention
• Management of BPA: the latest government proposal
• The Trillium Foundation Supports Prevention Presentation
• Telling Our Story: Why prevention? We do it for love!
• What’s New!

• Using a Blackberry? Be Cancer-Smart About It!
• Asbestos: Mr. Harper’s really scary promise
• Cancer, conferences & big drug $$$
• Ban pesticides in your community
• Triclosan: it’s in you, and now dolphins too
• What else is in your cosmetics?
• Some great new films …
• Canadian wins prestigious book award
• Rx for CCS’s new prevention statement: Have a Red Bull or two…
• Tell us your story!

Andrew Nikiforuk paints an alarming picture in northern Alberta, Canada: International oil companies clear cut huge swaths of boreal forest, rake off the boggy soil, scoop up giant shovelfuls of oil sands with the largest machines on earth and use copious amounts of boiling water to separate tarry bitumen from the sand so it can be turned into petroleum for your car in Kansas. The toxic residue that comes off the sands is stored behind gigantic dikes that leak, and downstream both people and fish are sick.

Nikiforuk and the other winners of the SEJ’s annual awards for reporting on the environment received their awards at a gala ceremony in Madison, Wisconsin, held on October 7, 2009.

Related:

Andrew Nikiforuk’s Personal Website
PCN Book Review of Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent
Andrew Nikiforuk wins Rachel Carson Medal, The Globe and Mail
Buy the Book from Amazon.com

 
Also in this issue on An Ounce …

• Using a Blackberry? Be Cancer-Smart About It!
• Asbestos: Mr. Harper’s really scary promise
• Cancer, conferences & big drug $$$
• Ban pesticides in your community
• Triclosan: it’s in you, and now dolphins too
• What else is in your cosmetics?
• Some great new films …
• Canadian wins prestigious book award
• Rx for CCS’s new prevention statement: Have a Red Bull or two…
• Tell us your story!