 |
Prize for U.S expert who says
curing cancer is wrong strategy
Prof.
Samuel Epstein, A world-renowned authority on the causes of cancer
and prevention of cancer and a scourge of the U.S cancer establishment,
was named today as one of the 1998 winners of the Right Livelihood
Award better know as the "Alternative Nobel Prize."
Epstein, who is a Professor of Occupational
and Environmental medicine at the University of Illinois [at
Chicago] and Chairman
of the Cancer prevention Coalition, received the award for his "exemplary
life of scholarship, wedded to activism on behalf of humanity".
Since his book, The Politics of Cancer, was first
published in 1979, Epstein has campaigned against the environmental
pollution which he has shown to be the cause of much avoidable
cancer. He has argued strongly for a strategy of cancer prevention
rather then putting all the emphasis on cures, which have not stopped
cancer rates rising. In stressing the responsibility of environmental
pollution for much avoidable cancer and in campaigning for its
phasing-out, Epstein - and in recent years the Cancer Prevention
Coalition which he founded - have put pressure on both governments
and corporations to take responsibility for product safety and
environmental protection. Epstein has thereby made an incomparable
contribution to the prevention of a disease that continues to be
responsible for a quarter of the deaths in industrial countries
and is increasing worldwide.
Three other recipients share the US$230,000
prize with Epstein. They are: The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN),
the first international citizens' network of its kind, founded
in 1979;, Juan Pablo Orrego and the Grupo de Acciónpor el Biobío
(GABB) in Chile, Katarina Kruhonja and Vesna Terselic of Croatia
and their respective organizations: the Centre for Peace, Non-Violence
and Human Rights in Osijek, and the Anti-War Campaign of Croatia,
based in Zagreb.
Epstein will receive a One-Fourth share of the prize money when
the awards are presented at a ceremony in the Swedish Parliament
in Stockholm on December 9, [1998], the day before the official
Nobel prize.
Aims of the RLA
Founded in 1980, the Right Livelihood Awards were introduced "to honour
and support
those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges
facing us
today". The idea came from Jakob von Uexkull, a Swedish-German philatelic
expert, who sold his valuable postage stamps to provide the original
endowment. Alfred Nobel wanted to honour those whose work "brought
the greatest benefit to humanity". Von Uexkull felt that the Nobel Prizes
today ignore much work and knowledge vital for the future of humankind.
For further information and photos of the 1998 Award recipients, including
contact addresses:
Kerstin Bennett, Administrative Director
Right Livelihood Award, Stockholm
Telephone: +46 (0)8-702 03 40 , Fax: +46 (0)8-702 03 38
Samuel Epstein was born in England in 1926, graduated as
a doctor and rose to work as a consultant pathologist at major
institutions and hospitals at London University before emigrating
to the US in 1960. For ten years he worked at the Children's
Cancer Research Foundation and Harvard in Boston before being
awarded a distinguished professorship at the School of Medicine
at Case Western Reserve University at Cleveland. In 1976 he
took his current position of Professor of Occupational and
Environmental Medicine at the School of Public Health at the
University of Illinois in Chicago where he set up the first
laboratories of toxicology and carcinogenesis in the United
States. He has authored or co-authored ten books and over 250
articles and has received a number of awards from academic
and environmental organisations. He has frequently broadcast
on radio and TV nationally and internationally.
Epstein has emerged as the leading international champion
of cancer prevention, and of winning the war against cancer
by preventing avoidable exposures to environmental carcinogens
in air, water, food and the work place.
He has conducted extensive basic
and applied research in experimental pathology, on toxic,
carcinogenic and mutagenic
affects of environmental and occupational contaminants, with
particular reference to industrial petrochemicals. His scientific
publications on the issue of environmental cancer date from
the early 1960s, his first book was "The Mutagenicity
of Pesticides" (1971), and his first listed broadcast,
on CBS TV, was in 1969 on the hazards of environmental pollutants.
His best-known book, "The Politics of Cancer" (1978)
won the Notable Book and other Awards. An updated edition was
published in October 1998. Epstein has also played an important
role in professional societies, especially of the more activist
kind, and acted as an adviser and legislation-drafter to a
number of Congressional committees.
Epstein's most recent surge of activity
arose from a major initiative on February 4th 1992, when
65 eminent doctors and
scientists, co-ordinated by Epstein, released a statement on
the 20th anniversary of President Nixon's launch of "the
war against cancer". The statement was headed "Losing
the War on Cancer After 20 Years". It noted an overall
increase in cancer incidence since 1950 of 44%, with much higher
increases in some kinds of cancer. The statement blamed this
increase unequivocally on the failure of the government particularly
the "cancer establishment" - the Federal National
Cancer Institute (FNCI) and the "philantrophic" -
the American Cancer Society (ACS) to tackle environmental and
occupational cancer and to prevent cancer. This was more important
than blaming lifestyles or funding ever more research into
basic science and "cures", which have not significantly
increased five-year survival rates. The statement also called
for a number of fundamental reforms at the NCI and ACS, to
align them with a preventative approach.
Out of this initiative was born the Cancer Prevention Coalition
(CPC), which is proposing a comprehensive strategy of outreach,
education andadvocacy to establish prevention as the nation's
top cancer policy. The longer-term objective of CPC is to win
the war against cancer by reducing modern epidemic cancer rates
to their pre-1940 levels. CPC's Board, of which Epstein is
the Chairman, includes the past Executive Director of Citizen
Action, Ira Arhook, the US's largest consumer and environmental
organisation with 3 million members in 33 states, two cancer-environment
organisations and some cancer specialists.
Epstein and the CPC are blunt in
their criticism of government bodies, such as the US Department
of Agricultureand the Environmental
Protection Agency, for failing to protect the consumer against
harmful foods and chemicals. And they accuse the NCI and the
American Cancer Society of ignoring the scope for preventing
the disease, while misleading the public with claims that they
can find cures if they are given more money. Epstein's book
(with David Steinman) "The Breast Cancer Prevention Program",
a second edition of which was published by Macmillan in October
1998. Its very title is a challenge to the NCI, which says
that the prevention of breast cancer is not possible. In March
1998 Epstein set out his critique of the US cancer establishment
in Congressional testimony, as a result of which he was asked
back to help plan hearings by another Committee on reform of
the National Cancer Institute, whose policies, according to
Epstein, have "in no small measure been a critical factor
in escalating cancer rates over recent decades".
CPC has developed a variety of educational and advocacy
programmes to operate at both local and national levels. These
include: (i) Consumer labelling/Right to Know; (ii) Citizen
Petitions; and (iii) National Policy. Other programmes are
being developed and will deal with avoidable causes of childhood,
ovarian and breast cancers.
The "Right to Know" programme is based partly
on a book, "The Safe Shoppers' Bible", co-authored
by Epstein, which evaluates some 3,500 consumer products -
food, cosmetics and toiletries and household products - for
undisclosed carcinogenic ingredients and contaminants. The
Programme includes meetings and the distribution of "Cancer
Alerts" on common consumer products containing carcinogens,
such as hot dogs and cosmetic talcum powder. In September 1995,
the Cancer Prevention Coalition got wide media publicity when
it announced, jointly with Ralph Nader, a "Dirty Dozen" list
of US consumer products containing carcinogenic or other toxic
ingredients by research and providing scientific information
to government regulatory agencies and the public. Two months
later they were in the news again with a study by Epstein concluding
that milk from cows injected with recombinantbovine growth
hormone (rBGH) increases the human risk of breast and coloncancers.
The CPC has now published about twenty "Cancer Prevention
Alerts" and is also producing a newsletter. CPC has also
started providing information on the Internet. It has participated
in a dozen regional and national conferences on health/cancerissues,
and gives numerous workshops. The "Bible" is to be
published in anew edition in 1999. Epstein notes that "several
global industries have since reformulated their products which
are now safer."
The "Citizen Petition" programme takes advantage
of US citizens' right to petition federal agencies to
take action, such as labelling or banning a hazardous product.
If the petition meets certain requirements, the agency must
comply within a given period or face legal challenge. CPC has
submitted four such petitions to the US Food and Drug Administration,
calling for (a) labels on cosmetic talc towarn about the risks
of ovarian cancer; (b) a ban on lindane-based shampoo to treat
children with head-lice; (c) labels on nitrite-preserved hot-dogs
to warn of childhood brain cancer and leukaemia; and (d) a
medical warning of breastcancer risks to be sent to all women
with silicone gel and polyurethane breast implants.
Under the "National Policy" programme,
CPC issues Press Releases on key concerns relating to national
policy
on cancer prevention. Some of these have been issued with the
endorsement of other national public interest groups, so that
they represent the views of several million citizens. In 1997/98
six press releases were issued, covering issues which included
hormonal beef and milk.
Epstein and CPC have amassed substantial
evidence that milk from cows treated with synthetic growth
hormones, and meat
from cattle treated with sex hormones, are carcinogenic. The "Los
Angeles Times" ran a Commentary/Editorial from Epstein
on the beef issue in 1997, when he was engaged in giving testimony
in support to the European Commission and the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) in support of the EU ban on hormone-treated beef. Epstein
also gave evidence to the UK Parliamentary Agriculture and
Health Select Committee against proposals bythe Ministry of
Agriculture to allow the use of the hormone, BST, in milk products,
against an EU moratorium. While the WTO initially ruled against
the EU, the WTO appellate ruling reversed this decision and
came out in favour of the EU ban. The CPC publications and
testimony were influential both in this decision and in the
EU decision to declare a moratorium on hormonal milk.
<< Back to Honors and Awards
|
