Inside Prevention

Styrene industry gets Congress’ ear on cancer listing, and we all lose

Today, the National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) crucial Report on Carcinogens is on trial in Congress and the scientists who decided—based on scientific evidence—to list styrene as a reasonably anticipated human carcinogen are being called to defend their work in the face of industry accusations that the listing hurts jobs.

In truth, of course, chemicals linked to cancer hurt our health and the health of workers exposed to them.

Within days of the NTP’s June 2011 decision to list the chemical styrene, trade groups representing the styrene industry attacked the report. In fact, they fought for years to keep styrene out of the report altogether.

Now chemical industry representatives, including a Dow Chemical exec, have pushed themselves in front of lawmakers as part of a Congressional hearing entitled How the Report on Carcinogens Uses Science to Meet its Statutory Obligations, and its Impact on Small Business Jobs.

The Report on Carcinogens was mandated by Congress in 1978. It reviews the peer-reviewed science testing chemicals’ effects on inducing or promoting cancer, and then lists the appropriate chemicals as known human carcinogens or reasonably anticipated human carcinogens. Chemicals that are not suspected carcinogens are not listed in the report.

The NTP and the Report on Carcinogens provides us with robust and thorough evaluations of carcinogens carried out by an objective scientific agency. The report provides essential public health information that can help consumers make informed decisions and support advocacy efforts to reduce exposures to carcinogens.

The Breast Cancer Fund and many of our colleagues have written letters to encourage Congressional support for the NTP and the Report on Carcinogens so that we continue to have rigorously evaluated evidence to help inform our advocacy and educational efforts.

You can watch the hearing live online [the recording will also be available at this link]. Our eyes and voices are critical to keeping the scientific process free of political and economic influence.

Irvine teacher's uphill battle against breast cancer (Orange County Register, 4/20/2012)

Another great article about a member of this year's Climb Against the Odds team!

Lori Fallace, a teacher and breast cancer survivor, was featured in the Orange County Register and describes her personal drive to climb Mt. Shasta and educate others about breast cancer prevention.

Fallace was always a healthy woman. She exercises and eats well, and has had a lifelong fascination with the human body – she wrote the middle and high school health curriculum for the district.

So when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 with no family history and none of the indicator genes, she questioned why.

The light bulb came on when she discovered the link between breast cancer and the environment, and the preventive measures that can be taken to avoid what her integrative medicine doctor called the "perfect toxic milieu" she created in her body.

After reading the Breast Cancer Fund's report on the link between chemicals in everyday environments and breast cancer, the 54-year old Fallace saw the big picture.

"I've become sharply aware of what I touch, breathe, and eat," said Fallace, a speaker for the fund. "There are things we can do that are within our control." (Read complete article.)

Meet Lori and her team members, and learn more about Climb Against the Odds this June.

If the food's in plastic, what's in the food? (Washington Post, 4/16/2012)

A new article in the Washington Post about chemicals used in food packaging leads with a study published by the Breast Cancer Fund and Silent Spring Institute that demonstrated a significant dip in families' BPA and phthalate levels when they cut packaged food from their diets for just a few days. How common are these chemicals and what can be done to protect people from exposure?:

[S]cientists are beginning to piece together data about the ubiquity of chemicals in the food supply and the cumulative impact of chemicals at minute doses. What they’re finding has some health advocates worried.

This is “a huge issue, and no [regulator] is paying attention,” says Janet Nudelman, program and policy director at the Breast Cancer Fund, a nonprofit that focuses on the environmental causes of the disease. “It doesn’t make sense to regulate the safety of food and then put the food in an unsafe package.”

How common are these chemicals? Researchers have found traces of styrene, a likely carcinogen, in instant noodles sold in polystyrene cups. They’ve detected nonylphenol — an estrogen-mimicking chemical produced by the breakdown of antioxidants used in plastics — in apple juice and baby formula. They’ve found traces of other hormone-disrupting chemicals in various foods: fire retardants in butter, Teflon components in microwave popcorn, and dibutyltin — a heat stabilizer for polyvinyl chloride — in beer, margarine, mayonnaise, processed cheese and wine. They’ve found unidentified estrogenic substances leaching from plastic water bottles. (Read complete article.)

Learn more about chemicals linked to breast cancer that are found in food and food packaging.

Climbing to new heights (The Register-Guard, 4/16/2012)

Ann Eikenberry of Springfield, Oregon explained to The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.) her reasons for climbing Mt. Shasta with the Breast Cancer Fund's 2012 Climb Against the Odds team:

Although she has not had breast cancer herself, she will climb in honor of her 74-year-old mother, who survived breast cancer once and may have developed it again, although because of age and other health issues she has chosen not to undergo further treatment.

The nonprofit Breast Cancer Fund’s mission is to develop public policy that “protects our health and is guided by the principle that credible evidence of harm rather than proof of harm is sufficient to mandate policy changes in the public’s best interest,” according to the organization’s website. The group focuses mainly on possible links between breast cancer and environmental poisons that may trigger it.

“That makes it different from many of the other breast cancer organizations, which are focused on medical research and dealing with cancer after it has been diagnosed,” the 41-year-old Eikenberry said. “Both approaches are valid — both are needed.”

...

Eikenberry has set a personal goal to raise $7,400 for the Breast Cancer Fund — $100 for each year of her mother’s life — as her contribution to the Breast Cancer Fund from the Mount Shasta climb.(Read complete article.)

Meet Ann and the rest of the team, donate and learn more about the event on the Climb Against the Odds 2012 site.

Steamboat Olympian raises funds to help fight breast cancer (Steamboat Today, 4/11/2012)

Our Climb Against the Odds 2012 team is hard at work training and fundraising before the June expedition. Among them is teammember Tarsha Ebbern, an Olympic skier from Steamboat Springs, Colo. Steamboat Today introduced Tarsha and her reasons for climbing in an article this week:

Like many people, Ebbern has had loved ones die from cancer. Her dad was taken by non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and her stepmother died from breast cancer.

“It just seems to be really prevalent in my life and is coming to the forefront,” said Ebbern...

She said she chose to work with the Breast Cancer Fund because it is the only organization in the United States that focuses on breast cancer prevention. (Read complete article.)

We're cheering on Tarsha and all the climbers as the months before climb week slip away. Learn more about Climb Against the Odds and sponsor a climber on our website.

Even nail polishes labeled "natural" may not be (Daily Green, 4/11/2012)

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control has found "toxic trio" chemicals toluene and dibutyl phthalate in most samples of salon nail products tested -- even those that claim to be free of the harmful substances.

The state agency selected 25 products, 12 of which were labeled as not containing one or more of the toxic trio (the third chemical in the trio is formaldehyde). In fact, lab analysis revealed that most samples, whether they made "three-free" claims or not, contained toluene, DBP or both. As reported by the Daily Green:

"Consumers have had it with the current system that tolerates cosmetics companies outright lying to consumers, putting dangerous chemicals in our products, and getting away with it," said Lisa Archer, director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics at the Breast Cancer Fund. (Read complete article.)

For more information about the findings, visit DTSC's website.

Lawmakers pushing to regulate cosmetics (Marketplace, 4/2/2012)

A hearing last week in Congress is pushing cosmetics regulation -- and the Safe Cosmetics Act -- into the spotlight. Breast Cancer Fund Program and Policy Director Janet Nudelman spoke with Marketplace yesterday: