The second World Conference on Breast Cancer, held in Ottawa July 26 -31, 1999, attended by over 1000 delegates from 55 nations, looked more closely at the environmental connection to this disease. Two hundred presenters from Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, Croatia, Africa, Canada, the US, and more came to share their expertise and strengthen the global network to eradicate this disease.

Outspoken critic of the cancer industry, Dr. Samuel Epstein, MD, from the Environmental and Occupational Medicine, School of Public Health, University of Illinois, Chicago, emphasized that cancer is an environmental disease caused by toxic chemicals, synthetic hormones, low-dose radiation, and some lifestyle factors. He clearly stated that, "We do not need more research in this area, we already have a ton of valuable scientific facts showing this connection. We need to pay more attention to the existing literature and develop public policy consistent with these findings." (Dr. Samuel Epstein - www.preventcancer.com)

Devra Lee Davis, Ph. D., of the World Resource Institute strongly urged nations to adopt the Precautionary Principle of prudent avoidance by saying that we already had enough information showing a strong link to environmental pollutants, and that, "'We have been doing nothing for too long about workplace and occupational hazards," (Devra Lee Davis, World Resource Institute - www.wrl.org).

Topics covered - genetic testing -male breast cancer -electromagnetic fields -hormones in the food supply -cancer clusters near nuclear reactors -radiation: the only proven cause of breast cancer -nutritional and holistic approaches -pros and cons of mammography, tamoxifen and hormone replacement therapy -research and the media -environmental risk factors -health freedom around the world -education, prevention, and more.

Delegates were quite pleased to learn about alternative diagnostic tools to mammograhy that are non-toxic and non-invasive. In many countries thermography is gaining acceptance because it does not expose women to even low-dose radiation. The AMA's blood test has been greatly improved over the past two decades and is now able to detect the location of a tumor according to Dr. Epstein, who also advocated MRIs in place of mammograms. Women were urged to educate their medical care providers about these safer diagnostic tools.

Nancy Evans, medical writer and co-producer of "Rachel's Daughters," a documentary about breast cancer and the environment, superbly summarized the week long conference in a very inspiring talk on the last evening. The following is excerpted from her talk:

"The breast cancer story has turned into a story of money. Women with breast cancer are no longer a population, we are a market. To the Zeneca Pharmaceutical Co., manufacturers of tamoxifen and the founder of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, breast cancer represents 255 million dollars in sales each year, just in the USA. Last month tamoxifen was approved for use by healthy women at high risk for breast cancer. With this expanded market use of tamoxifen could balloon to seven billion in the US alone.

There are true breast cancer stories, and then there are fictions. In the USA October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In October the breast cancer story becomes one of mammography. Mammograms are called early detection. They're called your best protection against breast cancer. Mammography is not protection. It is not even early detection, because by the time a tumor appears on a mammogram it has been in your body eight to ten years. And, mammography has a poor track record. It misses 20% of all breast cancers and more than 40% in women under 50(!)

I began annual mammograms when I was 40 years old. When I was 51, the annual mammogram found a 1.2 centimeter tumor. So, what good were those early mammograms? Did they actually contribute to the cancer? I think they might have, but I will never be sure.

Mammography exposes women to radiation, the one proven cause of breast cancer. That's why we must have a better test to detect breast cancer: a method that does not involve radiation or compression, a method that works for all women, a blood test for all women. That would be a real success story (rousing applause from the audience). The biggest success story would be prevention, real prevention, not chemo-prevention or tamoxifen, or reloxofene that may prevent one cancer while causing another.

But you cannot prevent a disease without knowing the cause. Except for radiation, it may be impossible to pinpoint a single cause of breast cancer because our world is complex. It is contaminated. It is continually changing. And it is swirled with the synergy of some 70,000 largely unregulated chemicals and countless wired and wireless technology. So, we are all interfaced with our genes, our diets, and our behaviors.

When we ask the experts about the causes of breast cancer, some tell the story of 'known risk factors' - early menstruation / late menopause, delayed child bearing / no child bearing, no breast feeding. But these factors have not been identified as causes of breast cancer. These events merely make the breasts more vulnerable to the development of breast cancer when they are exposed to radiation, or chemicals, or natural or artificial hormones.

But back to my own true story. In 1995 I collaborated with Allie Light and Irving Saraf whose 39-year-old daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer. Their world had been turned upside down. They wanted to know why this happened to her and to so many young women. We decided to do an investigative documentary. The film, 'Rachel's Daughters,' is named in honor of Rachel Carson, scientist and author of Silent Spring, who was diagnosed with breast cancer and died in 1964, less than two years after the book was published.

We made this film because we wanted to change the breast cancer story from a personal story to a political story, from the detection and treatment of breast cancer to the cause and possible prevention of this disease. 'Rachel's Daughters' looked at a whole range of known and suspected causes of breast cancer - hormones, diet, alcohol, reproductive and life style factors, radiation, chemical and electromagnetic fields.

(After) writing an article for MAMM mgz. (I) since heard the stories of 15 more young women diagnosed with breast cancer, a 36-year-old doctor, a 32-year-old attorney, a 29-year-old teacher, a 39-year-old nurse with metastasized cancer, and many others, women with young families who fear not seeing their children grow up, many others without adequate coverage, who are burdened with enormous medical debt.

It is not moral or acceptable for young women to have breast cancer. None of these women has a family history of breast cancer. All of these women were otherwise healthy at the time of their diagnoses. All of them wonder what caused their breast cancer, and medical science has no answer. So, it's fair to ask how many scientists are looking for the causes. For too long the research story has been a quest for a cure, something we have all hoped for, but we also have to look for causes.

In 'Rachel's Daughters' we show Rachel Carson testifying before a Congressional Committee. She asks, 'What about the children who are exposed to these chemicals from birth, maybe even before birth? What will happen to them in adult life?' That was in 1963. Now 36 years later we have the answer. In the US the life time risk of breast cancer is one in eight. The life time risk of some type of cancer is one in three for women, and one in two for men. What will it be for our children in 2033?

We believe the story of breast cancer and other cancers is really a chapter in a much larger public health story, a story of higher cancer rates all around the world and a rising rate of chronic disease and birth defects, some of which threaten our ability to reproduce our own species.

In the US, for example, 30 million couples have infertility disorders, five million children suffer from asthma, many of them poor children and children of color. This is a horror story that needs to be heard by governments, governments who have forgotten that humans are part of the global environment, governments who have forgotten that you cannot have public health without social justice, governments who put corporate interests ahead of global interests (rousing applause from the audience), governments who have forgotten that they exist to serve the common good.

The health of our breasts and the rest of our bodies, the health of our children, our communities and our nation is equally and everlastingly linked to the health of our planet. We have been taught to look within ourselves for the cause of our breast cancer - our genes, our unwise reproductive choices, stressful lifestyles. Although these factors may contribute to breast cancer, they are only part of the story.

What about dioxins in breast milk, about the pesticides in amniotic fluid? The toxic world we live in is ruining our children before they are born. Sometimes those ruins lead to birth defects, sometimes to asthma, sometimes to other cancers.

The story is still unfolding, and the end is yet to be written. Women at this second World Conference on Breast Cancer have the opportunity to change this story. For those of us from the industrialized countries of the world it is up to us to lead the way, because our countries have the resources to make it happen (more applause) .

.... It is impossible to be here tonight without thinking about Bella Abzug, the woman whose own story overflowed with passion, power, and purpose. Bella was a driving force behind the First World Conference on Breast Cancer. She called for recognition of the existence of a global environmentally induced cancer epidemic.

Bella made the connection between cancer and nuclear testing, toxic dumping, contamination of our air, food, water, and soil by the 400 billion pounds of chemicals released into the environment each year. She challenged us to stand up and take charge, count the living and the dead and post the numbers publicly.

In the year 2000 there will be 1.2 million new cases of breast cancer in the world and 500,000 will die from the disease."

Though the task is huge and daunting, Devra Lee Davis reminded the delegates of a quote from the Talmud: "It is not for us to complete the task, but we must begin it."

The "World Conference on Breast Cancer" was co-sponsored by the Women's Environment & Development Organization (WEDO), 355 Lexington Avenue, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10017-6603, U.S.A., tel. (212) 973-0325, fax (212) 973-0335, e-mail wedo@igc.apc.org, www.wedo.org, and the World Conference on Breast Cancer, 841 Princess Street, Kingston, ON, Canada, K7L 1G7, tel. (613)-549-1118, fax (613) 549-1146 e-mail brcancer@kos.net, www.brcancerconf.kos.net