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"Microchemophobia" and cancer prevention misconcep
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John C. Hill
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Fri Oct 19, 2007 12:08 pm      Reply with quote
Written by a college professor at C. U. The information in this article is his opinion, and is being posted for informational purposes only...

There is, increasingly, in the U.S. (and perhaps elsewhere) a growing fear, a fear that can be called "microchemophobia"; moreover, we may be entering an era when scientists are having less impact on important policy decisions (e.g. nuclear power) than are those without particular expertise in the area who happen to be more savvy with politics and media manipulation. In the present context, over the years I have repeatedly found that environmental economics students at C. U. enter my class with strongly held beliefs that 1) cancer is a growing threat to mankind and 2) pollution, pesticides, food additives and other "synthetic chemicals" are the principle cause of the cancer epidemic. I am not sure why these beliefs are so strongly held (brainwashing?) but it turns out that both beliefs are demonstrably wrong.

Most of the material of this handout is paraphrased (or quoted) from Bruce N. Ames and Lois Swirsky Gold, "Environmental Pollution, Pesticides, and the Prevention of Cancer: Misconceptions," (FASEB Journal, July 21, 1997--modified from testimony on 3/6/97 for the U. S. Senate Hearing on Environmental Risk Factors for Cancer). Ames is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center, University of California, Berkeley (see his web site under "Bruce Ames"). His 380 publications have led to his being the 23rd most-cited scientist in all fields. Gold is Director of the Carcinogenic Potency Project at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center, U.C.,Berkeley. Ames in particular is the "real deal" in terms of his qualifications and expertise--if you disagree with much of the following, be prepared to defend your position with research published in top, peer-reviewed journal articles!

* The major cause of cancer are smoking (1/3 of U.S. cancer--90% of lung cancer--and 1/4 of heart disease; 400,000 premature deaths each year from this source), dietary imbalances (1/3 of U.S. cancer--especially lack of fruits and vegetables, with quarter of population having least fruits and vegetables have twice the cancer risk of the top quarter; only 22% of Americans get the recommended 5 servings of fruits and vegies daily), chronic infections (9% in developed world, but 20% in underdeveloped countries), hormonal factors (primarily life-style--lack of exercise, obesity, alcohol affect hormone levels, hence risk; synthetic chemicals trivial contributors), and other (excess alcohol, sun, viruses, genetic factors that interact with the preceding).
* There is no epidemic of cancer, except for lung cancer due to smoking (and cancers related to deliberate sun exposure). Cancer mortality rates (age-adjusted) have declined 16% since 1950. Some of the most dramatic declines have occurered in the 1990s.
* Regulatory policy focusing on traces of synthetic chemicals is based on misconceptions about animal cancer tests. In particular: a) rodent carcinogens are not rare, with half of all chemicals tested in standard high dose animal cancer tests, whether occurring naturally or produced synthetically, testing as "carcinogens". b) there are high-dose effects in rodent cancer tests that are not relevant to low-dose human exposures and which contribute to the high proportion of chemicals that test positive. c) the focus of regulatory policy is on synthetic chemicals (77% of tests), although 99.9% of the chemicals humans ingest are natural--e.g. coffee has over 1,000 chemicals in it; of the 28 that have been tested, 19 are rodent carcinogens (and, of course, plants in the human diet contain thousands of natural pesticides which protect them from insects and other predators: 63 have been tested and 35 are rodent carcingens).
* There is no convincing evidence that synthetic chemical pollutants are important for human cancer (e.g. we are exposed to 0.09mg/day of the 200 "worst" synthetic chemicals (a single cup of coffee gives a year's worth of equivalent known rodent carcinogens--and only 3% of the chemicals in coffee have been tested!). We receive 10,000 times the exposure to natural pesticides (1.5mg/day) and cooking food adds another 2mg/day in carcinogens and mutagens! Of particular note to environmental economics : median toxic control program costs 146 times more per life year saved than the median medical intervention and, importantly, if we are successful at reducing synthetic pesticides that raises the prices of fruits and vegetables, and consumption of fruits and vegetables will fall increasing cancer, particularly among the poor!
* "Prevention of cancer will come from knowledge obtained from biomedical research, education of the public, and from lifestyle changes of individuals. A re-examination of priorities in cancer prevention, both public and private seems, called for."

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Sat Oct 20, 2007 12:50 am      Reply with quote
Thanks for the info John. I am a bit of a tree hugger but only on the conservation side. I do believe that there are many plant products with great benefits for the skin, and possibly 98% are yet to be discovered. But I also believe that science has to be involved in formulating skin products that help with anti aging and keeping skin healthy. The most important part is getting the balance right and that includes what we eat as well as what we put on our skin.

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charlibets
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Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:15 am      Reply with quote
John C. Hill wrote:


2) pollution, pesticides, food additives and other "synthetic chemicals" are the principle cause of the cancer epidemic. I am not sure why these beliefs are so strongly held (brainwashing?) but it turns out that both beliefs are demonstrably wrong.

"


John,
In your opinion, does this include the perceptions about the dangers of accutane? I don't use it myself (unless it's in something like diet soda), but I'm skeptical about all the claims of ill health that are supposedly attributed to use of accutane.

Betsy
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Sun Oct 21, 2007 2:53 pm      Reply with quote
They have accutane in soda? Confused
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Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:37 pm      Reply with quote
Dahli wrote:
They have accutane in soda? Confused


Oops! Sorry! Aspertame. Somehow I sensed that didn't sound right when I typed it but couldn't think of anything else at the time.

Betsy
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Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:38 pm      Reply with quote
[quote="charlibets"]
John C. Hill wrote:


2) pollution, pesticides, food additives and other "synthetic chemicals" are the principle cause of the cancer epidemic. I am not sure why these beliefs are so strongly held (brainwashing?) but it turns out that both beliefs are demonstrably wrong.

"

Editing my previous post:

John,
In your opinion, does this include the perceptions about the dangers of aspertame? I don't use it myself (unless it's in something like diet soda), but I'm skeptical about all the claims of ill health that are supposedly attributed to use of aspertame.

Betsy
John C. Hill
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Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:10 am      Reply with quote
Well I must admit I avoid all colas because of both high fructose corn syrup and the diet colas because of artificial sweeteners like the one you are talking about. Ingesting these things versus rubbing them on the skin are two different animals. I do not ingest anything that gives me pause for concern, and artificial sweeteners are high on my "concern" list.

John

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