letter to the editor sent to newspapers Emilia:
Forlì
August 1, 2009 Dear Director,
the recent deaths of children and young people to cancer in our area has filled the news in the last few weeks past the emotion of the moment and forget the questions that give rise to individual cases and which also investigates the Judiciary, I would go back to reflect on this issue as important. I recognize that, especially on August 1, it would be normal to think to leave and seek entertainment and distraction, but unfortunately there are problems from which we can not distract, if only because no one can be considered immune: according to the latest data from cancer registries in Italy one in two men and one woman in two is designed to look diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime . Beyond the benevolent fairy that someone, for decades, continues to tell and that is that the solution of the problem Cancer is at hand, that this is only an effect linked to 'aging, that in 10 years no woman will die from breast cancer, the reality is quite different and is visible to everyone. In fact
age of onset of cancer has dropped remarkably : A recent research shows that interventions in Italy for breast cancer at a young age grew in six years, 28.6% , and if a side decreases the incidence of cancer related to smoking, especially in males, is dramatically increasing the incidence of tumors that have little or nothing to do with smoking: lymphoma, leukemia, kidney cancer, pancreas, prostate, brain tumors has become increasingly associated with the use of mobile phones. ... The childhood cancers are then dramatically increasing: in Italy +2% per year (twice the European average) and among children under the age of the increase was even 3.2% per annum. I should also mention that the increase of cancer is just the tip of the iceberg of the total damage to health that we are bringing to our children: I am referring to the increase in neuropsychiatric disorders, intellectual, relational, behavioral, autism up to Not to mention the incredible increase in allergic diseases, respiratory, Endocrine - metabolic, diabetes, thyroid disorders, cryptorchidism, etc.. What's happening?
Could it be that what some doctors, often called "alarmists" argue for years is tragically true?.
I invite you to make a simple argument: what can happen if you ever walk into a minefield? It 'obvious that the more mines have been scattered more likely it is caught and blown up ... .. So it is with cancer and "mine" I refer to are known carcinogens for decades such as benzene, arsenic, nickel, chromium, cadmium, lead, dioxins, PCBs, not to mention, particulates, pesticides .... we continue to pour around us and that nobody talks about, because only the CO2 (which is not a poison!) seems to deserve the honor in the news! From official data shows, for example. That in Italy, in full compliance with the limits of the law, we entered into a year in air and water: 715.6 ton benzene, arsenic, 8.0 ton, 3.0 ton cadmium, chromium 140.0 tons, nickel 80.6 ton. 's European Inventory of dioxins tells us that in a year in our country have been produced 558 grams, that is, on average, about 1.5 g per day may not sound like much but it represents the maximum tolerable dose for more than 10 billion ( !) of people ... Knowing that we are molecules that have half-lives of tens / hundreds of years and then each new dose adds to the above, how do I fix that? Our region also has the largest use of pesticides and spread on average 5.7 kg of chemicals per hectare. Have you ever wondered where they end up all these poisons? Unfortunately, everywhere and even where we would never find them, such as umbilical cord blood in which hundreds of toxic chemicals and harmful carcinogens that are found regularly: some may think, in good faith to fulfill?
long it's time to move from words to deeds and act to reduce exposure of populations to toxicants promoting primary prevention.
do not need to do this knowing the details the process of carcinogenesis and the role each agent plays: the literature indicates now, on a large scale in healthy individuals, as the expression of genes "key" changes depending on exposure to environmental toxins and consequently affect critical functions in our body leading the way to the occurrence of cancer and beyond.
The failure of the "reductionist", the old paradigm that we analyze an agent for a time, without taking account of the many biological variables and that almost never allows to reach conclusions or exhaustive, it is now plain for everyone. Fortunately the world thickens the ranks of doctors and independent researchers arguing for a change of course in the strategy of the war against cancer, ie a drastic reduction of exposure to toxic and dangerous in all areas of life, the only way that so far there is so determined not to take a decision. Yet, in those rare cases where this has been done, the results are not missed in Sweden, where thirty years ago were banned certain pesticides, following the brave doctors, today we see a reduction in the incidence of lymphomas .
This is a difficult road, which goes against enormous interest, and not just economic. M. Planck (Nobel Prize for Physics) reminds us that "old paradigms are abandoned only when those who have built on them la propria carriera e fortuna sono morti”.
Ma ricordiamo anche le parole di Samuel Epstein, un grande medico americano:”quasi tutti gli americani conoscono le pene causate dal cancro a parenti e amici. Il crimine è che molti di questi tumori sarebbero evitabili ”; se trasferiamo queste parole all’infanzia ed alle giovani generazioni l’obbligo di abbandonare i vecchi paradigmi e di passare dalle parole ai fatti diventa ancora più pregnante e credo convenga a tutti noi riflettere, anche ai primi d’ agosto e sotto l’ ombrellone, sulla necessità di fare cambiare idea a chi di dovere prima che sia davvero troppo tardi per tutti !
Patrizia Gentilini, Oncoematologo
Association of Doctors for the 'Environment ISDE Italy
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