Membalikkan Wabak Kanser / Reversing The Cancer Epidemic

3 Hak untuk mengetahui / Right-to-know

The right-to-know is, or should be, an inalienable and fundamental democratic principle with the possible exception of national security concerns.

Claims of confidentiality and trade secrecy by industry are often a serious deterrent to the recognition of potential risks from carcinogenic, and otherwise toxic, products.

There is thus an urgent need to develop legislation to restrict claims of confidentiality to what is unarguably essential to protect independently validated non-health proprietary information, exclusive of any health considerations.

All other information on the identity of carcinogens in products, pharmaceutical drugs or processes, must be automatically and fully released and made fully available to the public.

It must be stressed that labelling is no substitute for a moratorium or ban. Labelling is discriminatory to the uneducated and lower socio-economic population groups.

Right-to-know initiatives must be directed to the totality of human exposures, besides ecological impacts including consumer products - food, cosmetics and toiletries and household products, prescription drugs, and environm

Membalikkan Wabak Kanser / Reversing The Cancer Epidemic

2 Kurangkan penggunaan bahan toksik / Reduce use of toxics

The second line of defence is the phase-out of carcinogens in use in the wide range of petrochemical and other products and process already established in commerce. Strategies based on toxics use reduction - phasing out the manufacture, use and disposal of carcinogenic chemicals, coupled with their replacement by safe alternative technologies - are not only practical but cost-effective as evidenced by the success of the "Toxics Use Reduction Act" passed unanimously by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1989.

The implementation of such strategies, however, requires the establishment of an explicit schedule for the shortest feasible phase-out time, and for monitoring industry compliance. Toxics-use-reduction legislation further exemplifies the Precautionary Principle of risk prevention rather than "risk management".

The active interest of mainstream industry could be further encouraged by granting tax incentives for the urgent development of safe alternatives to conventional toxic-based technologies, and tax penalties for failure to adopt available safe alternative technologies.

Cara Mengawal Teknologi Industri Yang Tidak Dikawal / How To Control Run-Away Industrial Technologies

1 Melarang kelulusan produk baru berkarsinogen dan teknologi baru yang tidak diuji

Langkah pertama menjauhi risiko karsinogenik yang boleh dielak dan pendedahan kepada bahan toksik ialah dengan mencegah sepenuhnya pendedahan berterusan akibat kelulusan yang diberikan untuk produk dan proses baru berkarsinogen. Tegahan seumpamanya adalah berdasarkan Prinsip Berjaga-jaga iaitu mencegah risiko baru dan dasar risiko sifar adalah pentin untuk perlindungan orang ramai dan alam sekitar.

Prinsip itu selanjutnya meringankan beban yang ditanggung oleh orang ramai dan badan penggubal undang-undang untuk membuktikan risiko sebagai maklum balas kepada cabaran industri, dan membenarkan pengharaman produk yang disyaki kerana ketiadaan bukti saintifik mengenai keselamatannya.
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1 Prohibit the authorisation of new carcinogenic products and untested new technologies

The first line of defence against risks from avoidable carcinogenic and otherwise toxicexposures is an absolute prohibition of further increasing the burden of current exposures due to the authorisation of new carcinogenic products and processes. Such a prohibition is based on the obvious Precautionary Principle that preventing new risks and that zero risk policies are essential for public and environmental protection.

This principle further absolves citizens and regulatory agencies from the heavy burden for proving risks in response to industry challenges, and allows the banning of suspect products in circumstances of scientific uncertainty.

Membalikkan Wabak Kanser / Reversing The Cancer Epidemic

Cara mengawal teknologi industri yang tidak dikawal*

Kita nampaknya semakin kalah dalam peperanganmelawan kanser. Beberapa dekad kebelakangan ini menyaksikan kejadian kanser di Eropah, Amerika dan negara-negara perindustrian lain meningkat kepada paras menjadi wabak. Nisbah jangka hayat risiko kanser di sesetengah negara mencecah 1 dalam 2 bagi lelaki dan 1 dalam 3 bagi wanita.

Peningkatan keseluruhan semua jenis kanser di Amerika antara 1950 - 1995 ialah 55%, di mana kanser paru-paru, terutama yang berpunca daripada tabiat merokok, kira-kira 12%.

Dalam tempoh yang sama, kanser yang bukan berpunca daripada merokok adalah seperti berikut: kanser prostat, limfoma bukan Hodgkin dan mieloma multipel, 200%; kanser testis, 110%; kanser otak dan sistem saraf, 80% dan kanser kanak-kanak, 10%.

Sementara itu, kemampuan kita untuk merawat dan "mengubati" kanser dengan beberapa pengecualian bagi kanser yang jarang berlaku seperti pediatrik, kekal tidak berubah di sebalik dakwaan mengelirukan dan berlebihan yang bertentangan keadaan sebenar.

Apakah punca utama wabak kanser dalam zaman moden ini? Jawapannya terletak kepada bukti saintifik yang membabitkan peranan teknologi industri yang tidak dikawal. Ini terutama membabitkan bahan petrokimia, di mana kemajuan pesatnya sejak tahun 1940an (tahap pencapaian berbeza antara negara) telah jauh melebihi perkembangan jentera kawalannya.

Akibatnya, keseluruhan persekitaran, udara, sumber air, produk pengguna - makanan, kosmetik dan bahan dandanan diri serta produk kegunaan di rumah termasuk racun makhluk perosak - dan keadaan di tempat kerja, telah dicemari dengan pelbagai karsinogen industri yang sukar disingkirkan. Ini menyebabkan masyarakat amnya terus terdedah kepada karsinogen yang tidak dapat dielak, daripada kehamilan kepada maut.
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How to control run-away industrial technologies*

We are losing the winnable war against cancer. Over recent decades, the incidence of cancer in Europe, the US and other industrialised nations has escalated to epidemic proportions, with lifetime cancer risks in some nations reaching 1 in 2 for men and 1 in 3 for women.

The overall increase of all cancers in the US from 1950- 1995 was 55%, of which lung cancer, primarily attributed to smoking, accounted for about 12%.

Over the same period, non smoking cancers increased as follows: prostate cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma, 200%; testis cancer, 110%; brain and nervous system cancer, 80%; and childhood cancer, 10%.

Meanwhile, our ability to treat and "cure" most cancers with the notable exception of some relatively rare caners such as paediatric, has remained virtually unchanged in spite of periodic misleading and exaggerated claims to the contrary.

What is the predominant cause of the modern cancer epidemic? The answer is based on a strong body of scientific evidence incriminating the role of run-away industrial technologies, particularly the petrochemical, whose exponential growth since the 1940s has, to varying degrees in different nations, outstripped the development of the means to control them.

Resultingly, our total environment, air, water, consumer products - foods, cosmetics and toiletries, and household products including pesticides - and the workplace, has become pervasively contaminated with a wide range of often persistent industrial carcinogens. As a consequence, the public-at-large has been and continues to be unknowingly exposed to avoidable carcinogens from conception to death.

Kaedah Memasak Yang Selamat / Safer Cooking Methods

Jika anda masih ingin memakan daging, cubalah memasaknya dengan kaedah yang kurang berisiko. Menurut NCI:

• Memanggang atau membakar dalam ketuhar adalah lebih selamat daripada menggoreng atau membarbeku kerana menggunakan suhu yang rendah.
  
• Memasak dalam ketuhar gelombang mikro, merebus, merenih dan mencarak pada suhu 212 F atau lebih endah dianggap agak selamat juga. Jika boleh elakkan memasak sup daripada lemak daging beku.

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If you must eat meat, the NCI advises that you adopt less risky cooking methods.

According to the NCI:

• Oven roasting and baking are relatively safer than frying or barbecuing as they are done at lower temperatures.
  
• Stewing, boiling or poaching are done at or below 212 F, which is also quite safe.

If possible, avoid making gravy from meat drippings.

Elakkan Daging / Avoid Meat

Kita sentiasa dinasihatkan supaya memasak daging dengan sempurna untuk membunuh bakteria yang menyebabkan keracunan makanan. Tetapi kajian terbaru menunjukkan memasak daging dengan sempurna sekalipun boleh menyebabkan kanser.

Selain itu, memakan daging juga boleh meninggikan kos perubatan seperti yang berlaku di Amerika Syarikat.

Menurut satu laporan dari sekumpulan doktor pada tahun 1995 dalam Preventive Medicine, rakyat Amerika membelanjakan antara US$28.6 bilion (sekarang kira-kira RM109 bilion) dan US$61.4 bilion (sekarang kira-kira RM233 bilion) setahun untuk membiayai rawatan perubatan bagi hipertensi, penyakit jantung, kanser dan kesakitan lain yang dikaitkan dengan pengambilan daging. (Laporan itu juga berkata, memakan daging tidak ubah seperti menghisap rokok dan ancaman kesihatan yang didedahkannya hampir sama jika anda memakannya secara berterusan sepanjang hayat".)

Berdasarkan semua bukti di atas, sebahagian daripada anda mungkin tidak lagi ingin memakan daging. Anda masih boleh mendapatkan sumber protein daripada sumber makanan lain seperti kacang dan produk berkacang, taufu, tempeh, kekacang, bijirin dan bijian.

Satu perkara lagi, kajian demi kajian mengesahkan golongan pemakan sayur lebih sihat daripada pemakan daging. Jadi kenapa anda tidak memulakannya sekarang?
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Traditional wisdom decrees that one should always cook meat throughly to kill any food poisoning bacteria that may be present. But this recent study has indicated that cooking meat thoroughly can lead to cancer.

Eating meat is thus a case of between the devil and the deep blue sea! Not only that, meat consumption can also result in high medical bills, as was the case in the US.

According to a 1995 report in Preventive Medicine by a doctors group, Americans spends between US$28.6 bil (now worth about RM109 bil) and US$61.4 bil (now worth about RM233 bil) a year in medical costs for treatment of hypertension, heart disease, cancer and other illness attributed to meat consumption. (The report also says that eating meat is comparable to smoking tobacco and the health threat is "of a similar magnitude when you keep it up over a lifetime".)

With all these evidence, some of you might want to avoid meat completely. If so, take heart. You can still get protein from other food sources like beans and bean products. tofu, tempeh, lentils, seeds and nuts.

And here's another consolation: Study after study have confirmed that vegetarians are healthier than meat-eaters. So, why not start today?