Toxins. Chemicals & Cancer in Today's Society

Toxins, Chemicals & Cancer

ä Educate yourself and work towards creating a healthy and safe environment at home and in your workplace.
ä Cancer - what's behind it?
ä One in two to three now have the probability of developing cancer.
ä Think about trespassing - they regulate, arrest, prosecute, we're real serious about it.
ä What about chemicals? They have entered our bodies and we have no rights against having chemicals enter us. Toxic chemicals are showing up in our bodies due to our society. Many of us are carrying around 100 different toxins.
ä PCB's biomagnify as they go in the food chain. PCB's are at 5 times the threshold limit in some Inuit women's breast milk. May 10th - Globe & Mail - "Nursing woman taking codeine for pain after childbirth, turned into morphine in her breast milk killing the baby".
ä Most of the toxic waste in the environment comes from sewer waste put out into the environment untreated - (VICTORIA).
ä Fire retardants on furniture, etc., release carcinogens when burned. Very hazardous to firefighting personnel as they respond to house fires.
ä Exposures add up over time. We need to be responsible about it ourselves.
ä How do we work with chemicals and keep industry running and our homes? We can find products that are not as harmful so that we can keep our jobs. Products may be able to be re-formulated. Even low doses matter as it all adds up.
ä Health & Safety Committees can eliminate known carcinogens and find replacements.
ä Janitors are often exposed because they are spraying and cleaning same as in our household. Substitute cleaners can be found.
ä In Canada our cancer rates are one out of every two or at least three people - 1930's one in ten; 1970's one in five; today one in two to three men and women. An increase of nearly 30% since 1970.
ä The chemicals we use are causing these cancers. We need to look at ways of stopping exposure.
ä The cancer industry is one of the biggest industries in Canada. Worldwide it is a 37 billion dollar a year industry that puts very little or next to none towards prevention.
ä They want to make their investors a ton of money off of cancer drugs. It is about growth and profit margins.
ä We have 100,000 chemicals on the market in Canada and less than 10% are tested for their toxicity. Many chemicals cause disruption to our hormones and are manifested into cancers, sterility and infertility.
ä We are seeing many things occur in our society and many toxic chemicals can be substituted and/or re-formulated.
ä Whales and fish washed up on shore many times have to be treated as toxic waste due to the high levels found in them.
ä We in the workplace have the right to know about chemicals. BC actually has some of the best regulations in North America. It may still do well for you to do more research using the Internet for home and industry concerns.
ä This is not so in the consumer end of things in the marketplaces. You have no right to know what chemicals are in products sold in stores. Sunlight has a known carcinogen, as does Mr. Clean Magic eraser, Fantastic spray cleaner may cause birth defects or infertility.
ä Products can be re-formulated. They can also have a large "C" on them to warn of cancer causing product. Cancer is expected to increase by 60% over the next 20 years, so it is a growth industry for the drug companies. We all need to become activists for life in the consumer market in the workplace and in the community. Chlorine, incidentally, used in water systems, mixing with organic materials (leaves, branches, etc.) produces formaldehyde, so that can make our water systems toxic.
ä To get rid of toxins, get rid of the exposures. We're still spraying like chemicals are the answer.
ä If you have a toxic substance, you must try to find a safe substitute. Next, engineer controls to stop exposure. Administrative control would be to remove the worker from exposure for periods of time and have the worker use proper personal protective equipment. PPE is a primary control when others are not practical. WCB and ourselves do not want to see mills shut down. We all want to help make things safer. PPE ought to be the last option to deal with chemicals on the worksite.
ä We must protect people, check MSDS's for "reproductive effects", "nervous system irritants". Often we need to take an extra step to look up more information for ourselves and our fellow workers' safety.
ä www.leas.ca www.scorecard.org - Chemical search sites that may be useful.
ä If manufacturers have in the MDSD 'no data available', one must assume that it is a worst case scenario - again research needed.
ä The essential point of all this is that we are seeing cancers increase and we want to see the cancers per person decrease We need to protect ourselves in the home, in society, at work and protect our next generations.
ä If we don't do something it will continue to rise.
ä Pay particular attention to "toxilogical properties" on MSDS's. If no information provided, then request it - that is a major concern.
ä www.2.worksafebc.com - Guidelines Part 5
ä Chemicals must be replaced with a material which reduces the risk, etc…
ä Some industries are always lobbying government that various chemicals do not get put in the carcinogenic category as this is not good for sales.
ä You may have to search a number of different websites to bring a lot of weight into your concern with chemicals in the workplace and consumer products producers.
ä We are accumulating toxins in our bodies and they are increasing. We need to find out why. There is more that we need to know.
ä "We can beat cancer" - is NOT the answer. We are not beating it, it is increasing. Our bodies are high on PCB's, cadmium, etc… and now it is considered normal. The Canadian Cancer Society doesn't see toxins in the environment as a concern. Don't smoke, eat fruits, vegetables, exercise, stay out of the sun, avoid chemicals in the workplace, don't drink too much. We know all this. We are doing this and cancer is still increasing. There is no real prevention being done. Questions are being asked , but no answers are forthcoming.
ä Canada is in a cancer epidemic now. One of two now are being told it is their fault, their lifestyle. We are not being told what the hazards are. The birth control pill is the largest single non studied cause of cancer ever. Canadian beef hormones, at least one hormone is carcinogenic and we are still eating it, Europe is not.
ä The Canadian Cancer Society is not there to save lives, otherwise they would try to prevent it. They just try to treat it after a person has it. Cancer is a huge business worldwide worth up to 37 billion dollars a year, big bucks are spent on drugs. There are no companies who are into prevention because there is no money in it. Why don't we treat the root cause of it, instead of just doing damage control? Cancer is increasing. We don't have enough drugs to treat people now. If it increases, the problem won't be dealt with. Cancer is a massive industry. European Union has removed carcinogens Canada still uses. They are requiring the listing of carcinogens, but not here in Canada.
ä There is lots of stuff we could be avoiding if we knew what to avoid - certain laundry soaps, pet products, personal care products, soaps, shampoos, make up. Those in the business of making these products say they are in safe doses. But remember, toxins build up over time. We live in a society that has too many chemicals in it. Why isn't the Cancer Society doing something about it? Our government and regulatory agencies are responsible to not put out products that are harmful for us. The Canadian Cancer Society is changing their position slowly on oral contraceptions and is supposed to put out a statement on it.
ä There are 2 types of people in the cancer camps, one is expected to live, one is expected to die. We really have to be more preventative.
ä Currently only 10% of cancer donations go to prevention and that is mainly on stop smoking campaigns.