Toward a Cancer Free EconomyDecember, 2013

Lowell Center for Sustainable ProductionPremise

• Our systems of production and consumption are not only root causes of environmental and health problems, but also significant contributors to solutions.

Collaborating partners• Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition (JPNET)

– Chuck Collins, Carlos Espinoza-Toro• Lowell Center for Sustainable Production

– Dick Clapp, Polly Hoppin, Molly Jacobs• Jamaica Plain Centre-South Main Streets

– Mary Hannon• Toxics Action Center

– Sylvia Broude, Claire Miller• Funding/technical assistance: Toxics Use Reduction Institute

– Joy Onasch

Are we winning?

• 1 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the US this year• 13 million people in the U.S. are living with cancer• Direct costs in 2009: $243 billion• Since the 1970’s, billions of dollars spent on cancer research

– National Institutes of Health– Volunteer organizations

• American Cancer Society• Komen for the cure• Pan Mass Challenge

The trend for all cancers has leveled off and is declining, especially among men

MEN

BOTH

WOMEN

Yet rates of some kinds of cancer are dramatically increasing. These 4 also have

well-established environmental causes.

All ages, both sexes

Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

KidneyThyroid

Liver

All cancer, all children <20 years, U.S. SEER data

Deaths from childhood cancer have been falling for 35 years… But the numbers of kids getting the disease rises steadily

Rapidly increasing number of cancer

survivors

All cancers, <20 years old

Why are cancer rates rising?

• It’s not genes– These trends are too rapid

• It’s (mostly) not better diagnosis– There have been only modest improvements in

cancer diagnosis since the 1970s (e.g. PSA test for prostate cancer).

• That leaves environmental causes– Diet, water, air pollution, chemicals in food, indoor

environment

Oil production

Oil refining

Chemical production

Product manufacturing

Wholesaling

Retailing

ConsumptionDisposal

The (broken) production cycle of the chemicals economy

Lowell Center for Sustainable Production 9/28/13

Oil production

Oil refining

Chemical production

Product manufacturing

Wholesaling

Retailing

ConsumptionDisposal

Carcinogens are released at every step: air, water, soil, food contamination.

CANCER

CANCERCANCER

CANCERCANCER

CANCER

Lowell Center for Sustainable Production 9/28/13

• Research on cure• Research on early diagnosis• Patient support• Prevention: healthy behaviors• Prevention: environmental

Cancer Organizations

The production cycle causes cancers. The cancer organizations could intervene more effectively

Lowell Center for Sustainable Production 9/28/13

How Cancer Develops• A complex, multi-causal disease• Six or eight “hallmarks” that have to occur

before a cell becomes a cancer cell• But, “virtually all cancer is BOTH genetic and

environmental”– Factors outside the body cause genetic damage

inside the body– Can be multiple exposures that cause a series of

genetic changes over many years

Chemicals in the Environment & Workplaces: Part of a Comprehensive

Cancer Prevention Strategy

“The true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated.”

The panel recommended “removing carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase healthcare costs, cripple our nation’s productivity and devastate American lives.”

President’s Cancer Panel

Encouraging words from federal panel

“A precautionary prevention-oriented approach should replace current reactionary approaches to environmental contaminants in which human harm must be proven before action is taken to reduce or eliminate exposure”

Encouraging words from federal panel

“ ‘Green chemistry’ initiatives and research, including process redesign, should be pursued and supported more aggressively…”

The goal of a cancer free economy can drive innovation

Green Chemistry: “Green chemistry is the utilization of a set

of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture and application of chemical products.”

-Anastas and Warner, Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice, 1998

Some initial steps• Inventory businesses that use cancer-causing substances

– Dry cleaners that use PCE (perchloroethylene)• Linked to bladder cancer & NHL

– Auto body shops that use degreasing solvents (e.g. TCE (trichloroethylene) and repair asbestos brake shoes

• Linked to NHL, leukemia, kidney & liver cancers (TCE), lung cancer & mesothelioma (asbestos)

– Nail salons/beauty salons that use formaldehyde and that release from products VOCs (volatile organic compounds)

• Linked to leukemia and nasal cancers (formaldehyde)

• Promote safer alternatives– Boston Public Health Commission Green & Clean program– TURI wet cleaning processes