The UK Working Group on the Primary Prevention of Breast Cancer — a coalition of groups including Breast Cancer UK, UNISON, and the Women's Environmental Network — recently released a document accusing the British government and the 'cancer establishment' of being complicit in soaring rates of breast cancer. The report, Breast Cancer — An Environmental Disease: the Case for Primary Prevention, maintains that the government and cancer establishment are fixated on screening and treatment while real prevention goes ignored. The hard-hitting manifesto charges that there is a conscious "failure to disclose" regarding the role of manmade environmental pollutants as causes of breast cancer.

"Women have been sold the myth that breast cancer is normal and inevitable. It's not," says Diana Ward, primary author and chair of Breast Cancer UK. "We need a massive rethink of priorities. Government and the cancer establishment promote treatment and control and call this prevention. It's a travesty of the meaning of the word. To prevent breast cancer, women are told to change their diet, to exercise and to reduce weight. The truth is no lifestyle change can prevent breast cancer when we're exposed to cancer-causing and cancer-promoting substances on a daily basis. Our bodies have become long-term storage centres for synthetic chemicals and the implications for 'hormone dependent' diseases like breast cancer are huge."

The manifesto describes a bleak 'climate of political neglect of common sense approaches to cancer prevention'. Despite a mountain of evidence that many manmade agents are carcinogens and hormone disruptors,

industry gets government approval to routinely release carcinogens into our environment. Many widely used chemicals (now even found in our food) are known hormone disruptors.

the government promotes "screening" and lifestyle change as the best prevention. Official organizations ignore evidence linking cancer to manmade carcinogens and hormone disruptors. They include no public warnings about the existence of these agents in everyday life, and propose no strategies for reducing them.

medical science focuses on treatment and control. Huge resources go into chasing the cancer gene when only 5 to 10 percent of breast cancer (far less than most women believe) is inherited. Scientists are mostly silent on the issue of environmental pollutants.

cancer charities have no focus on primary prevention and are major fundraisers for research into treatment. They are part of a worldwide cancer industry which is remarkably silent on the role of carcinogens in the environment but confidently predicts a "cancer-forever" future in which rising cancer rates will be managed by lifelong monitoring and drug treatment.

the public are kept in the dark. Government, industry and science have known the truth for decades but the general public is largely unaware that breast cancer could be prevented by reducing exposure to cancer-causing agents. People trust government to make sure chemicals in the environment are safe. In fact, few industrial chemicals have ever been tested for their potential to promote cancer. Regulations are based solely on information provided by the manufacturers and data is kept secret — deemed commercially sensitive.

the media helps perpetuate popular cancer myths, such as breast cancer is largely inherited. Women's magazines carry breast cancer stories but they also run advertisements for cosmetics, toiletries and household goods, many of which contain the very toxins implicated in breast cancer.

The Case for Primary Prevention is a shocking indictment of cancer policy. The UK Working Group is demanding immediate action from government, industry and the cancer establishment to urgently prioritize primary prevention and to reduce production, release and use of toxic substances.

(The 98-page document can be downloaded at www.nomorebreastcancer.org.uk
For more information, contact info@nomorebreastcancer.org.uk)