October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In keeping with the season, I’d like to salute the Dow Chemical Corporation of Midland, Michigan. It can be argued that Dow is responsible for making millions of women aware of breast cancer, in the most direct way possible.
In 1960, one out of 20 American women was diagnosed with breast cancer – today breast cancer strikes one woman in eight. A terrible statistic, but what fault is it of Dow’s? Thirty-six years ago, many women in America would not say the word “breast,” much less conduct a self-examination. Some breast cancer went undiagnosed. Some women didn’t live long enough to get breast cancer then, they died of other causes. All of these things can account for some discrepancy, but these factors combined do not account for the near-epidemic of breast cancer we are now experiencing.
Now consider the Dow Factor. The Dow Chemical Corporation is the world’s largest producer of chlorine. Since World War II, Dow chlorine has been used in myriad industrial applications. Most of these applications produce carbon-and-chlorine pollutants called organochlorines. Dioxin, another famous Dow product, is the best-known organochlorine.
But what, if anything, does this have to do with breast cancer? Organochlorines are carcinogens, they cause cancer. The cancer starts showing up about 20 years after the first exposure. Chlorine use skyrocketed in the years following World War II and breast cancer rates took off 20 years later. A big sink for chlorine is the plastics industry and Dow is a big player in plastics. Remember that guy nattering at Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate?” “I’ve got one word for you Ben: ‘plastics.'” He was probably the local Dow representative. He had two words for Mrs. Robinson: “breast cancer.”
Where did all the organochlorine pollutants from the plastic factories wind up? You guessed it. A study conducted by Dr. Mary Wolff at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine found women with high exposure to organochlorines develop breast cancer four times as often as women with low exposure to organochlorines.
Still not convinced? Think about this: In the early 1970s, women in Israel suffered from breast cancer at rates comparable to women in other industrialized nations. The Israeli government banned the use of certain chlorinated pesticides and a few years later, the breast cancer rate among Israeli women began to drop off.
Chlorine in, and breast cancer goes up – chlorine out, and breast cancer goes down. This is not difficult science. It is not a question of being smart enough to recognize the problem, it is a question of being compassionate enough to do something about it.
All across America this month, there are events designed to raise our awareness of breast cancer and to call for a cure. But there’s something even better than a cure. It’s prevention.
The Dow Factor
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In keeping with the season, I’d like to salute the Dow Chemical Corporation of Midland, Michigan. It can be argued that Dow is responsible for making millions of women aware of breast cancer, in the most direct way possible.
In 1960, one out of 20 American women was diagnosed with breast cancer – today breast cancer strikes one woman in eight. A terrible statistic, but what fault is it of Dow’s? Thirty-six years ago, many women in America would not say the word “breast,” much less conduct a self-examination. Some breast cancer went undiagnosed. Some women didn’t live long enough to get breast cancer then, they died of other causes. All of these things can account for some discrepancy, but these factors combined do not account for the near-epidemic of breast cancer we are now experiencing.
Now consider the Dow Factor. The Dow Chemical Corporation is the world’s largest producer of chlorine. Since World War II, Dow chlorine has been used in myriad industrial applications. Most of these applications produce carbon-and-chlorine pollutants called organochlorines. Dioxin, another famous Dow product, is the best-known organochlorine.
But what, if anything, does this have to do with breast cancer? Organochlorines are carcinogens, they cause cancer. The cancer starts showing up about 20 years after the first exposure. Chlorine use skyrocketed in the years following World War II and breast cancer rates took off 20 years later. A big sink for chlorine is the plastics industry and Dow is a big player in plastics. Remember that guy nattering at Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate?” “I’ve got one word for you Ben: ‘plastics.'” He was probably the local Dow representative. He had two words for Mrs. Robinson: “breast cancer.”
Where did all the organochlorine pollutants from the plastic factories wind up? You guessed it. A study conducted by Dr. Mary Wolff at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine found women with high exposure to organochlorines develop breast cancer four times as often as women with low exposure to organochlorines.
Still not convinced? Think about this: In the early 1970s, women in Israel suffered from breast cancer at rates comparable to women in other industrialized nations. The Israeli government banned the use of certain chlorinated pesticides and a few years later, the breast cancer rate among Israeli women began to drop off.
Chlorine in, and breast cancer goes up – chlorine out, and breast cancer goes down. This is not difficult science. It is not a question of being smart enough to recognize the problem, it is a question of being compassionate enough to do something about it.
All across America this month, there are events designed to raise our awareness of breast cancer and to call for a cure. But there’s something even better than a cure. It’s prevention.