It's in the Air We Breathe, the Water We Drink, the Food We Eat...

After last weeks talk of a cancer-free fag from British American Tobacco (see here) here's a good article from CounterPunch (November 4, 2005). Kind of sums up the whole holism versus imperialism schism well.

Why We Can't Prevent Cancer by Peter Montague

"In 1999, cancer surpassed heart disease as the number one killer of people younger than 85 in the U.S.[1] Now a detailed report on the causes of cancer tells us why: cancer has been steadily increasing in the U.S. for 50 years as people have been exposed to more and more cancer-causing agents, including chemicals and radiation.

Richard Clapp, Genevieve Howe, and Molly Jacobs Lefevre have just published "Environmental and Occupational Causes of Cancer; A Review of Recent Scientific Literature" and it is a real eye-opener.

But before we dive into this report looking for nuggets, let's set the background.

About half of all cancer cases are fatal, and death by cancer is often prolonged, painful, and very expensive. Those who manage to survive cancer live out their lives molded by the after-effects of
harsh treatments popularly known as "slash and burn" - surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or some combination of the three.

As more people are kept alive each year with their breasts or testicles removed, the "cancer establishment" chalks up another "victory", and no doubt the victims are glad to be alive, but we should acknowledge that there's something very wrong with calling this "victory." Slash and burn seems more like a dreadful defeat.

The truth is, an epic struggle has been going on for 50 years between the "slash and burn=victory" camp, versus those who think the only real victory is prevention of disease. The struggle occurs across a fault line defined by money. To be blunt about it, there's no money in prevention, and once you've got cancer you'll pay anything to try to stay alive.

Cancer treatment is therefore a booming business, and cancer prevention is nowhere. That is the basic dynamic of the debate. Cancer surgeons can achieve the status of rock stars among their peers. Those who advocate prevention will most likely find themselves without funding, ridiculed and despised by the chemical industry, the pesticide industry, the asbestos industry, the oil industry and all their minions - lawyers, bankers, engineers, reporters, professors, and politicians - who make a fat living off those who pump out cancer-causing products and dump out cancer-causing by-products, aka toxic waste."

Full text here.