Sandra Steingraber
Women's Community Cancer Project, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cancer activists who participate with cancer researchers in shaping public health policy provide a different perspective on the question of breast cancer etiology. We place a higher priority on reducing women's exposure to suspected breast carcinogens than in debating the specific biochemical mechanisms by which these agents may operate. As the fruits of AIDS activism and antismoking campaigns illustrate, answers to mechanistic questions have not been and should not be the driving force behind public health policy. As such, cancer activists embrace a form of conservatism that advocates prudence in the face of exposure to estrogenic and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals. This perspective stands in contrast to scientific conservatism, which directs its caution toward the issue of proof. Unmet needs for cancer activists refer not so much to data gaps as to the failure to eliminate ongoing cancer hazards. For this author and activist, unmet needs include ending women's continued exposure to such common estrogenic compounds as detergents, triazine herbicides, plastics, and polychlorinated biphenyls. -- Environ Health Perspect 105(Suppl 3):685-687 (1997)
Key words: breast cancer etiology, cancer activism, public policy, breast cancer, breast carcinogens, endocrine disrupters, environmental estrogens, National Action Plan on Breast Cancer
This paper was presented in part at the Workshop on Hormones, Hormone Metabolism, Environment, and Breast Cancer held 28-29 September 1995 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Manuscript received at EHP 6 June 1996; manuscript accepted 10 September 1996.
This work was supported by a fellowship in women's health policy from the Center for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Illinois, Chicago, IL.
For information on PVC-free hospitals, contact Michael Lerner, Director, Commonweal, P.O. Box 316, Bolinas, CA 94924 or Robert Musil, Director, Physicians for Social Responsibility, 1101 14th Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005.
Address correspondence to Dr. S. Steingraber, Women's Community Cancer Project, 46 Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA 02139. Telephone: (617) 354-9888. Fax: (617) 666-4725.
Abbreviations used: APEOs, alkylphenol polyethoxylates; NAPBC, National Action Plan on Breast Cancer; PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls; PVC, polyvinyl chloride.
Last Update: April 10, 1997