Prosperity Hinges on Health

Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada. In their 2015 Statistics, the Canadian Cancer Society and Statistics Canada predict 40% more cancer diagnoses by 2030.

In addition to heartbreak, the financial costs associated with cancer are crushing, and escalating. The Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Cancer Action Network reported in 2012 that the costs and hardships associated with cancer amount to tens of billions of dollars annually for health care systems, patients and caregivers.

Health care funding is not keeping pace with the needs of an unhealthy population, both the elderly and a surge of less healthy younger Canadians. How do you count something that didn’t happen, and costs avoided, when that “something” is cancer? Cancer prevention is cost-effective, prevents other chronic diseases, and boosts productivity. Cancer prevention requires science, rigorous interpretation methods and new approaches to public policy.

RELATED: See How To Vote in the October 2015 Canadian federal election

Ask your Candidates: If elected, what will you/your party do to prevent cancer?

Will your party commit to…

1. a healthy environment and healthy Canadians?
2. more science, to figure out what keeps us healthy and what makes us sick at home, work, school and in the community, and then to act on findings?
3. the safest possible chemicals and manufactured goods (e.g., reducing and eliminating known toxins, including chemicals that affect our hormonal systems, nanomaterials and radiation from wireless devices)?
4. making energy conservation a primary priority, and ensuring that power sources, infrastructure and devices are the least-polluting and most sustainable, displacing fossil fuels and phasing out nuclear power?

Confidentially share your candidates’ answers with us HERE and we’ll compile the results and share them with you before the election!

What would this mean?

A. Make health and the environment a high priority

• reinstate environmental protections and support rigorous, transparent science to ensure clean and safe air, water, land, food and manufactured goods;
• ensure that government decisions entail: full cost accounting of environmental benefits/services; “cradle-to-cradle” stewardship so that manufactured goods present minimum environmental impacts; and holding polluters responsible for cleanup, and breaches of laws and agreements;
• ensure that trade deals do not compromise Canada’s sovereignty to apply stringent standards, such as for pesticides in foods and toxic chemicals in imported goods; and
• address poverty, and accessibility to nutritious food and housing.

B. Connect the dots for environmental health – science, evidence and public policy

• improve monitoring of air, water and food;
• reinstate the long-form census, for high quality research to inform public policy;
• reinstate and improve the collection and dissemination of geo-spacial information (e.g. industries, land use, pollution releases, air quality, food availability, socio-economic status, contaminated sites);
• increase the quantity, quality and diversity of health data:
1. train physicians, nurses and other health care professionals in environmental and occupational health, including taking histories and toxicological testing;
2. increase the number and diversity of chemical agents assessed, locations of sampling, and participants including younger children, in the Canadian Health Measures Survey;
3. coordinate anonymous national medical data compilation for surveillance and research;
• extend “big data” research to contributors to chronic disease;
• translate findings into clear, public education for safest options; and
• change and enact policies, regulations and legislation, to streamline commercial choices to least-toxic options (“Substitution Principle”).

C. Act on information in hand, for safest alternatives

• require evidence of safety before introducing new substances or products;
• restrict the use of chemical and physical agents that could contribute to processes leading to cancer – not only “proven” carcinogens – and ensure that substitutes are indeed safer;
• increase research and support for organic agriculture;
• support “Right To Know” labeling, including chemicals, genetically engineered food and wireless devices; and
• require manufacturers to offer least-toxic product lines (e.g. minimally emitting wireless devices, or without chemicals that may predispose to cancer) and to aim for true zero waste and sustainability throughout the supply chain.

D. Make energy efficiency a priority, with renewable and least-toxic options replacing fossil fuels and nuclear power.

• support infrastructure, rules and processes to improve energy efficiency and sustainability, and to reduce pollution that causes cancer and other chronic diseases (e.g. building codes, efficient transportation, and alternative energy incentives and research); and
• transport only least-toxic petrochemicals long distances (e.g., “detox” bitumen before shipping).

Confidentially share your candidates’ answers with us HERE and we’ll compile the results and share them with you before the election!

HELP US PUT CANCER PREVENTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ON THE ELECTION MAP

About Prevent Cancer Now

Prevent Cancer Now (PCN) is distinct from other Canadian cancer organizations.

We work on the premise that the majority of cancers are preventable, by addressing contributors to cancer. We will not turn the tide overnight, but we must start now!

PCN recognizes that many exposures may contribute to processes leading to cancer, and works to ensure that these agents are reduced and eliminated from our environment and the products we use. We support agriculture, industry and energy sources that are least-toxic and sustainable. We also demand that our government regulators place a high value and priority on our health and the environment in their decisions, not waiting for near-impossible levels of “proof” before taking precautionary actions.

PreventCancerNow.ca        info@preventcancernow.ca