A cursory glance at today’s headlines tells me this is going to be a loooonoong month. There are a wealth of articles out today, some good info and some that is just downright wrong, to wit:
The Chicago Tribune reports that a study commisioned by the National Breast Cancer Coalition found that breast cancer awareness is a misplaced priority,
“The vast majority of women already consider themselves quite knowledgeable about the disease, which is expected to kill 40,000 women in the U.S. this year. But their “knowledge” often includes more myth than fact, the survey found.
“We’re surrounded by pink ribbons and other messages about raising awareness,” said Fran Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, which commissioned the survey. “But these popular efforts lull the public into a false sense that adequate progress is being made.
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there,” Visco said. “In order to take meaningful action, we need to educate, not just raise awareness.”
Sounds like something I said a couple of years ago…
“Although it’s often the faces of young women diagnosed with breast that tend to be the focus during the month of October, Dr. Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women & Families, said women over the age of 50 are still most at risk for the disease.“We know that young women get this disease,â€? she said. “But this is not the norm. And when the media focuses on young women, we end up scaring young women to death and making older women think that they don’t have anything to worry about when actually the opposite is true.â€?
Dr. Marisa Weiss, an oncologist and the president of breastcancer.org, said the median age for women diagnosed with breast cancer in this country is 61.”
But what would ‘news’ from Fox be without at least a few misleading gems, here’s the weirdest (not to mention most obvious) one:
“Breast cancer is not fatal,â€? she said. “Breast cancer will not kill you. It’s when the tumors spread into the lymph nodes and into other organs, or into the bones or the blood stream that it becomes possibly fatal. But getting breast (sic), if it caught early and treated, will not kill you.â€?
Let’s rephrase that a bit more accurately. Breast cancer if caught and treated early leads to a 97% or so (I’ve seen articles today that say everything from 95% to 98%) chance of surviving for 5 years. If it spreads it is still breast cancer and it will, ultimately kill you if you don’t die of something else first.
Yahoo has an article “Breast Cancer: Busting Common Myths”. Unfortunately, 2 of the myths listed aren’t really myths. The article states that electronic devices such as cell phones can’t cause cancer. Unfortunately, the jury is still out on this. See this and this.
The piece also erroneously states that the small amount of radiation used with mammograms should not be of concern,
“The radiation from mammograms causes breast cancer. Oh, boy, that’s a doozie. The amount of radiation received in a mammogram is very small and not a risk factor. In fact, mammograms save many lives by detecting tumors early.Women diagnosed by mammogram with stage 0 or 1 breast cancer have a 98 percent survival rate, thus demonstrating the value of annual mammograms.”
Well no, it’s not a doozie. In fact there is no safe level of radiation and cumulative load is what is of concern, even if periodic doses are minimal. According to the National Academy of Science,
- There is no safe level or threshold of ionizing radiation exposure.
- Even exposure to background radiation causes some cancers. Additional exposures cause additional risks.
Finally, the Los Angeles Times tackles the link between environmental factors and breast cancer, something that is almost completely awol in most of the reporting on this disease. According to the Times,
“Women heavily exposed to the pesticide DDT during childhood are five times as likely to develop breast cancer, a new scientific study suggests.”
and further,
“Women born between 1945 and 1965 were most likely to have been heavily exposed as children to DDT, which was sprayed throughout the United States to kill mosquitoes and other insects. DDT use began in 1945, peaked in 1959 and was banned nationwide in 1972 because it was building up in the environment.”
Here’s hoping that we see a lot more coverage about the impact of toxins and pollution during the coming month.
Last note–Breast Cancer Action suggests one action you can take to prevent breast cancer–tell car companies to quit pink-washing their products and start making vehicles that cause less cancer-causing pollution. Click here to take action. Beats the heck out pink license plates (here in Kentucky ours says “Drive for the Cure”…)
Stay tuned–there are 30 more days in October…
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