You can't wipe out cancer under capitalism

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2 SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 1992 Shortly after her husband left her, Judy Brady discovered she had breast cancer. Many women would have collapsed after a double whammy like that, but not Judy Brady. After undergoing a bilateral mastectomy and a harrowing cycle of chemotherapy, Brady's cancer has been in remission for more than 10 years. A diagnosis of breast cancer is among the most devastating news a woman can hear, and not just because of the health issues. This sick, sexist society measures the worth of a woman by the size of her bustline. A woman with small breasts is considered unattractive; a woman without breasts is considered a freak. Compounding this fear are the staggering—and rising—risks of developing breast cancer. In 1980, women stood a one-in-14 chance of getting breast cancer. By 1991, that risk had risen to one in nine, while women in Los Angeles face a one-in-seven chance of developing breast cancer. According to the Women's Cancer Resource Center, 142,000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991, and 43,000 died from it. After Brady was diagnosed, she began searching for an explanation. She read a 1980 report from the National Research Council his corne By Joni Jacobs called "The Effects on Populations of Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation." As she recalls, "The first sentence of the section on breast cancer read, "The female breast is one of the organs most susceptible to radiation carcinogenesis. "

Then she looked at a map of the United States that showed the distribution of ionizing radiation producers. These include nuclear energy and fuel production plants, weapons production plants, and toxic waste dumps. Brady discovered that California-where she had lived all her life—has the highest number of heavy radiation producers west of the Rocky Mountains.

Discovering this link between ionizing radiation and breast cancer had a profound effect on Brady. It turned her from a cancer survivor into a cancer activist. Brady edited a book of articles on women with cancer entitled "One in Three: Women with cancer confront an epidemic." The opening essay in the book makes a powerful case against the collaboration of the government, the multinational corporations, and the American Cancer Society in the cover-up of a growing epidemic in this country.

The World Health Organization And yet the government's approach to cancer is that it is an individual problem, caused by genetics, diet or poor lifestyle choices, like smoking. While these are all contributing factors, they do not tell the whole story. Yet if you get cancer, more often than not doctors make you feel that it's somehow your fault.

Millions of dollars are spent to test chemicals in an attempt to regulate our exposure to harmful toxins. However, Brady points out, "There is no known 'safe level' of exposure to any cancercausing agent. You can't be a little bit pregnant, and you can't be 'safely' exposed to a little bit of lethal poison." This is especially true considering the cumulative effect of thousands of toxins and carcinogens we're exposed to on a daily basis from many sources—auto exhaust, power line radiation, industrial waste, etc.

It's not particularly shocking to read about the denials of the government and the corporations about the harmful effects of pollution. As Brady says, "Given that the profit motive is the driving force of our economic system, it's not surprising to hear industry clamor that cancer is caused by the cancer victim."

Brady's exposure of the role played by the American Cancer Society (ACS), however, is shocking. Brady charges that the ACS—an organization formed supposedly to fight cancer-is actually a powerful collaborator in the national cover-up of cancer. Instead of warning about the harmful effects of industrial polin the world should logically be in the forefront of the environmental movement if it were truly about the business of fighting cancer," says Brady. But the ACS board of directors shares its members with other corporate entities, many of which are producing the very carcinogens that cause cancel.

The ACS also plays a leading role in setting the programs and policies of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Both organizations appear to have serious conflicts of interest regarding cancer prevention and treatment.

Brady reports that of the three standard drugs used in her chemotherapy treatment, two were made by companies that had officials formerly associated with ACS and NCI.

Editors: MICHAEL SCHREIBER Staff: Paul Colvin, Gerry Foley, Joni Jacobs, Hayden Per Seligman, Kwame M.A. Somburu, Sylvia Weinstein.

Business Manager: Joseph Ryan.

Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly Second-class postage is paid at San Francisco, Calif.

Francisco, CA 94110.

Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of expressed in editorials. Premarin, saying that warning of the cancer risks of such drugs would "interfere with the practice of medicine." It sided with the saccharin manufacturers against warning the public about the cancer risks of that substance.

Brady concludes that the ultimate cure from the ravages of cancer has nothing to do with doctors or drugs—it has to do with politics.

In my opinion, it has to do with rationally planning our industrial production. It has to do with putting the needs and health concerns of people before the profits of industrial polluters and fat-cat pharmaceutical companies.

Reading Brady's excellent book just gives me another reason to fight for socialism. We'll never wipe out cancer without it.

Closing date:

AUG. 8, 1992 for $8 per year by Socialist Francisco, CA 94110.