Dr. Samuel Epstein, Chairman

Dr. Epstein is an internationally recognized authority on avoidable causes of cancer, particularly unknowing exposures to industrial carcinogens in air, water, the workplace, and consumer products--food, cosmetics and toiletries, and household products including pesticides--besides carcinogenic prescription drugs.

Dr. Epstein's past public policy activities include: consultant to the U.S. Senate Committee on Public Works; drafting Congressional legislation; frequently invited Congressional testimony; membership of key federal committees including EPA's Health Effects Advisory Committee, and the Department of Labor's Advisory Committee on the Regulation of Occupational Carcinogens; and key expert on banning of hazardous products and pesticides including DDT, Aldrin and Chlordane. He is the leading international expert on cancer risks of petrochemicals and of consumer products including: rBGH milk; meat from cattle implanted with sex hormones in feedlots, on which he has testified for the E.C. at January 1997 WTO hearings; and irradiated food. In 1998, he presented "Legislative Proposals for Reversing the Cancer Epidemic" to the Swedish Parliament, and in 1999 to the U.K. All Parliamentary Cancer Group. He is also the leading critic of the cancer establishment, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and American Cancer Society (ACS), for fixation on damage control--screening, diagnosis and treatment, and genetic research--with indifference for cancer prevention, which for the ACS extends to hostility. This mindset is compounded by conflicts of interest with the cancer drug industry, and also with the petrochemical and other industries in the case of the ACS.

His past professional society involvement includes: founder of the Environmental Mutagen Society; President of the Society for Occupational and Environmental Health; President of the Rachel Carson Council; and advisor to environmental, citizen activist and organized labor groups.

His numerous honors include: the 1969 Society of Toxicology Achievement Award; the 1977 National Wildlife Federation Conservancy Award; the 1989 Environmental Justice Award; the 1998 Right Livelihood Award ("Alternative Nobel Prize") for international contributions to cancer prevention; the 1999 Bioneers Award; the 2000 Project Censored Award ("Alternative Pulitzer Prize" for investigative journalism) for an article critiquing the American Cancer Society, and the 2005 Albert Schweitzer Golden Grand Medal for Humanitarianism from the Polish Academy of Medicine, and the 2007 Dragonfly Award from Beyond Pesticides. Dr. Epstein has extensive media experience with: numerous regional and national radio programs, including NPR; major TV programs, including Sixty Minutes, Face the Nation, Meet the Press, McNeil/Lehrer, Donohue, Good Morning America, and the Today Show; Canadian, European, Australian and Japanese TV; and numerous editorials and letters to leading national newspapers.

October 11:	Keynote Speaker Eyes Wide Open: A Breast Cancer and the Environment Conference Women's Health Care Centre Petersborough, Ontario
June 15:	Symposium on Food Irradiation UIC College of Pharmacy
April 27-29:	Press Freedom Conference and Alternative News Media Expo San Francisco State University Keynote Speech: The War Against Cancer - A Paradigm Failed and What To Do About It Panelist: Environment, Technology and Health - What Corporate Media Doesn't Report
February 15:	Panelist on Chicago Tonight, WTTW Channel 11, Chicago; topic Mad Cow Disease
February 15:	Panelist on the Effects of Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture; Public Health Hazards of Genetically Engineered (rBGH) Milk; Environmental Student Group (SEED) at Northwestern University Norris Center, Evanston, Illinois
February 16:	Panelist on the Public Health Hazards of Genetically Engineered (rBGH) Milk; Genetic Engineering Action Network (GEAN), Public Forum, Apparel Center, Merchandise Mart, Chicago

2000 Presentations

October 23:	Keynote Speech: "The Politics of Cancer, 2000", San Francisco Bay Chapter, Berkeley, California
October 23:	Keynote Speech: "The Politics of Cancer, 2000", National Sierra Club, San Francisco, California
October 22:	Panelist: "Breast Cancer Roundtable", Exploratorium, San Francisco, California
October 22:	Workshop: "Preventing Breast Cancer", Bioneers 2000 Convention, Marin Center, San Rafael, California
October 21:	Workshop: "Safe as Milk: ?rBGH", Bioneers 2000 Convention, Marin Center, San Rafael, California
October 14:	Keynote Speaker: "Breast Cancer: The Dirty Dozen Avoidable Risk Factors", Windsor Regional Hospital, Windsor, Ontario Canada
September 26:	Keynote Speaker: "Losing the War against Cancer: Who's Responsible and what to do about it", Nutrition for Optimal Health Association, Chicago, Illinois
September 16:	Speech: "Carcinogenic Hazards of Mainstream Industry Personal Care and Cosmetics Products: The Need for Safe Non-Mainstream Alternatives", Japanese National Convention, Narita, Japan
September 8:	Speech: "Cancer is Predominantly an Environmentally Induced Disease", European Commission, International Hippokrates Foundation, Kos, Greece
May 19:	Plenary Presentation: "Losing the Winnable War against Cancer: A Paradigm of Democratic Subversion", Conference, Re-Imagining Politics & Society at the Millennium, New York Open Center, Riverside Church, New York, New York
May 18:	Workshop: "Citizen Strategies for Reducing Avoidable Risks for Cancer", Re-Imagining Politics & Society at the Millennium, New York Open Center, Riverside Church, New York, New York
April 23:	Keynote Speech: "How to Win the Losing War Against Cancer", Earth Day 2000, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois
April 12:	Project Censored Award (aka "Alternative Pulitzer Prize" for Investigative Journalism) "Failure of the U.S. Media to Cover Important Medical Issues: Need for an Alternative Press", Fordham University, New York, New York
April 7:	Briefing: "Undisclosed Hazards: Beef Hormones and rBGH Milk", U.K. Parliament Select Committee on Agriculture, Chicago, Illinois
February 17:	Keynote Speaker: "Losing the Winnable War Against Cancer: Who's Responsible and Proposed Initiatives", National Silver Haired Congress, Alexandria, Virginia
February 11:	Keynote Speaker: "The Public Health Hazards of Monsanto's Genetically Engineered Milk", Vermont Law School's National Lawyers Guild Conference, Royalton, Maine
January 15:	Speech: "The Role of the Marketplace in Preventing Risks of Cancer from Mainstream Industry Consumer Products", Neways International Convention, Prague, Czech Republic

Albert Schweitzer Golden Grand Medal for Humanitarianism, the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa in Humanities, and Honorary Membership of the Polish Academy of Medicine.

Project Censored 2000 Award (better known as the "Alternative Pulitzer Prize") for Investigative Journalism for an article critiquing the American Cancer Society.

The 1999 Bioneers Annual Award.

The Right Livelihood Award (better known as "The Alternative Nobel Prize") for international contributions to cancer prevention, 1998.

American College for Advancement in Medicine, Annual Clarke Lecture Award, San Diego, California, 11/5/94.

Richard Jones Memorial Lecture Award, University of Tasmania, Australia 3/25/93.

Life-Time Achievement Award, National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, 3/16/91.

Environmental Justice Award, Citizen's Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes Inc, August 1989.

Harold Levine Memorial Lecture Award, Chicago Lung Association, 2/8/85.

Robert van den Bosch Memorial Lecture and Medal, University of California, Berkeley, 11/12/83.

Doctor of Humane Letters, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, Illinois 5/15/83.

Henry J. Kaiser Visiting Lectureship Award, "New Perspectives on Health," Institute for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University, December 1981.

Notable Book Award, "The Politics of Cancer," American Library Association, February 1979

National Conservation Award, National Wildlife Federation, 3/26/77

Society of Toxicology, Achievement Award, 1969.

Military Awards in Royal Army Medical Corps, 1953

Montefiore Gold Medal in Tropical Medicine; Montefiore Prize in Tropical Medicine; Ranald Martin Prize in Military Surgery