Breast Cancer Deception Month: Hiding the Truth beneath a Sea of Pink, Part I
Thursday, October 22, 2009 by: Tony Isaacs
(NaturalNews) It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month again and from shore
to shore the country is awash in a sea of pink - from pink ribbons and
donation boxes to pink products, charity promotions, celebrities by the
score and even pink cleats on NFL players. Tragically, most people are
unaware of the dark history of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) and
of the players past and present who have misused it to direct people
and funds away from finding a true cure while covering up their own
roles in causing and profiting from cancer.
The Founding of Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Most
people are unaware that the BCAM idea was conceived and paid for by the
British chemical company Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), a company
that both profited from the ever-growing cancer epidemic and
contributed to its causes. The American subsidiary of Imperial Chemical
Industries, ICI/Astra-Zeneca, manufactures tamoxifen, the world`s
top-selling cancer drug used for breast cancer. ICI itself is in the
business of manufacturing and selling synthetic chemicals and is one of
the world's largest producers and users of chlorine.
Although
BCAM was co-founded along with two non-profit organizations and
although some big name companies were quick to associate with BCAM, for
the first several years, BCAM`s bills were paid by ICI's Zeneca
Pharmaceuticals.
As the controlling sponsor of Breast Cancer
Awareness Month (BCAM), Zeneca was able to approve - or veto - any
promotional or informational materials, posters, advertisements, etc.
that BCAM uses. The focus is strictly limited to information regarding
early detection and treatment, avoiding the topic of prevention and the
role toxins may play. A further look at the major players in breast
cancer awareness may give plenty of insight as to why a growing number
of critics are asking why such is the case.
Take Zeneca for
example; it later merged into Astra-Zeneca and in 2008,
ICI/Astra-Zeneca changed its name to AzkoNobel and reported annual
sales of over 22 Billion Dollars. ICI has long been among the world's
largest manufacturers of pesticides, plastics, and pharmaceuticals. Its
Perry, Ohio, chemical plant was once identified as the third-largest
source of potential cancer-causing pollution in the United States,
releasing 53,000 pounds of recognized carcinogens into the air in 1996.
After
Zeneca acquired the Salick chain of cancer treatment centers in 1997
and then merged with the Swedish pharmaceutical company Astra to form
AstraZeneca, creating the world`s third-largest drug concern, Dr.
Samuel Epstein, a professor of occupational and environmental medicine
at the University of Illinois School of Public Health stated, "This is
a conflict of interest unparalleled in the history of American
medicine."
"You`ve got a company that`s a spinoff of one of the
world`s biggest manufacturers of carcinogenic chemicals, they`ve got
control of breast cancer treatment, they`ve got control of the
chemoprevention [studies], and now they have control of cancer
treatment in eleven centers - which are clearly going to be prescribing
the drugs they manufacture."
The breakdown of $14 Billion in
profits for ICI in 1997 was 49 percent from pesticides and other
industrial chemicals, another 49 percent from pharmaceutical sales, and
the remaining 2 percent from health care services including 11 cancer
treatment centers. Zeneca's herbicide acetochlor is classified by the
EPA as a "probable human carcinogen", and AstraZeneca sold it until a
corporate reorganization in 2000, accounted for around $300 million in
sales in 1997. Their product tamoxifen citrate (Nolvadex) accounted for
$500 million in 1997 sales. Cancer prevention would clearly conflict
with Zeneca's business plan.
Quickly jumping onboard the
tamoxifen bandwagon was the National Cancer Institute, which announced
in April 1998 that breast cancer could be "prevented" by treating women
continuously with a powerful drug called tamoxifen. The New York Times
editorialized on April 8th that treating women with tamoxifen is a
"breast cancer breakthrough." However, The Times acknowledged that
treating 1,000 women with tamoxifen for five years would prevent 17
breast cancers but would cause an additional 12 cases of endometrial
cancer and 20 cases of serious blood clots in the same 1,000 women.
As
recent studies have shown, the risks implied in those less-than
breakthrough figures were vastly understated. Last month, Natural News
reported a study just published in Cancer Research which concluded that
long-term use of tamoxifen increases the risk of getting aggressive
cancer in the other breast by 440 percent.
Other
large corporations which contribute to breast cancer awareness also
have a vested interest in breast cancer. General Electric sells upwards
of $100 million annually in mammography machines. General Electric has
also been a major polluter of carcinogenic PCBs in the Hudson River. An
estimated million pounds of PCBs lie buried at the bottom of a 40-mile
stretch of the Hudson, where GE dumped PCB oil until the mid-1970s,
contaminating the entire 200-mile length of the river below Hudson Falls
DuPont,
another huge chemical company and major polluter, supplies much of the
film used in mammography machines. Both DuPont and GE aggressively
promote mammography screening of women in their 40s, despite the risk
of its contributing to breast cancer in that age group. And while
biotech giant Monsanto sponsors Breast Cancer Awareness Month's high
profile event, the Race for the Cure, it continues to profit from the
production of many known carcinogens.
Another large player is
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), with their Tour of Hope and promotions such
as 10 cent donations for drug store sales of selected BMS products. BMS
is also the manufacturer of Taxol (under the trade name of Paclitaxel),
considered to be "the gold standard" of chemo drugs. As Natural News
reported earlier this month, the so-called gold standard has more than
lost its luster, as was presented at 27th Annual San Antonio Breast
Cancer Symposium:
"German investigators from Friedrich-Schiller
University in Jena, have shown that taxol (the "gold standard of
chemo") causes a massive release of cells into circulation.
"Such
a release of cancer cells would result in extensive metastasis months
or even years later, long after the chemo would be suspected as the
cause of the spread of the cancer. This little known horror of
conventional cancer treatment needs to be spread far and wide, but it
is not even listed in the side effects of taxol."
The
list of corporate donors and players in Breast Cancer Awareness goes on
and on, including other chemical and pharmaceutical companies, cosmetic
companies, fast food restaurants, donut and cookie makers, and many
more. They all share the common traits of promoting "awareness" which
does not include the role their own products play, and promoting early
screening through mammograms. Likewise, other charities and
foundations, and their sponsors, have joined the pink bandwagon. Once
again, they have common links of promoting early detection, primarily
through mammograms, and of remaining mostly silent about toxins and
other environmental factors.
In part two of this series we
will take a look at the some of the other foundations and charities
that have become involved in Breast Cancer Awareness, including The
American Cancer Society - "the world`s wealthiest non-profit
organization".
Tony Isaacs, is a natural health advocate and researcher and the author of books and articles about natural health including "Cancer's Natural Enemy" and "Collected Remedies"as well as song lyrics and humorous anecdotal stories. Mr. Isaacs also has The Best Years in Life
website for baby boomers and others wishing to avoid prescription drugs
and mainstream managed illness and live longer, healthier and happier
lives naturally. He is currently residing in the scenic Texas hill
country near Utopia, Texas where he serves as a consultant to the Utopia Silver
colloidal silver and supplement company and where he is working on a
major book project due for publication later this year. Mr. Isaacs also
hosts the CureZone "Ask Tony Isaacs" forum as well as the Yahoo Health Group "Oleander Soup"
