BREXIT, BREAST CANCER & CHEMICALS

Join us on Thursday 26^th October 11am Portcullis House, Westminster for discussion on breast cancer, toxic chemicals exposure & regulation

Our From Pink to Prevention campaign is hosting this Breast Cancer Prevention Month event with the National Alliance of Women’s Organisations and Alliance for Cancer Prevention .As we come to the end of Breast Cancer Prevention Month, we will be considering the implications of Brexit on breast cancer and exploring the answers with a range of experts and campaigners. Event speakers include  Helen Hayes MP;  Zarin Hainsworth OBE & Chair NAWO; Helen Lynn From Pink to Prevention; Hilda Palmer  Hazards Campaign; Nick Mole Policy Office Pesticide Action  Network UK  Chair Deborah Burton TPNS/From Pink to Prevention.

In this Breast Cancer PreventionMonth, the real impact of Brexit on breast cancer needs to be understood.  Brexit gives us one more lens through which to better understand the scale of the exposures  problem, its links to breast cancer and critically, why we need to stay within the EU regulations regime if we are to better protect citizens and workers.

Through our everyday living we are exposed to hundreds of harmful chemicals including those known to have a carcinogenic and/or hormone disrupting effect and about which we are not informed.  From flame retardant on furniture and beds, to clothes and food cans and plastics, we are guinea pigs from pre-birth through our entire lives as we absorb and ingest these toxic substances.

Meantime, scientific evidence links many of these toxic chemicals to breast cancer.  The EU has gone some way to address this by responding to civil society calls to push back the powerful chemicals lobby. Many harmful chemicals are now banned through EU regulation.

And so, while the chances are you’ll never have thought about breast cancer prevention in relation to Brexit, they are linked. As EU citizens, consumers and workers our health has benefited and continues to benefit from the European Union chemicals regulation REACH  – a highly sophisticated, progressive pan-EU system to control toxic chemicals. Though not perfect, it is nevertheless regarded as the best in the world and at its heart is ‘the precautionary principle’, which means to take action to prevent harm, even if there is uncertainty. For the UK to be de-coupled from REACH as a consequence of Brexit would have a devastating impact on many aspects of consumer, workplace and environmental health as well as our economic wellbeing.

A woman’s chances of being diagnosed with breast cancer are getting higher with each decade. From 1 in 12 in the 1990s it is now 1 in 8 in 2017.  There has been an almost doubling of breast cancer cases since the 1970s.  This massive increase is not accounted for by ‘lifestyle risk factors’ (smoking, alcohol and weight) since they are linked to some 30-50% of breast cancer cases. To walk away from the EU’s REACH regulation is to deny vital progress made in the protection of women’s health through the banning of chemicals linked to breast and other cancers.

There is a major role for the breast cancer charities to be playing here. Since at least 50% of cases have no known cause, to ignore, as they do, the ever growing body of  scientific evidence linking environmental and occupational exposures to breast cancer, especially in the workplace, is highly negligent. We need them to both acknowledge and act on this evidence.  If they were to do this, in turn, it would mean they too could join the many diverse calls for us to stay in REACH.  Those advocates include the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (Chair Mary Creagh), a range of health and environmental NGOs, even some within the chemicals industry.

The good news is that increasingly, such new evidence (see end for full list) is being picked up by popular media, for example most recently published evidence showing that hormone disrupting chemicals affecting the endocrine system are found in household dust.  A new report launched by Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK) revealing that the fruit and vegetables given out to four-to-six year olds via a government scheme aimed at promoting healthy eating habits contained residues of 123 different pesticides, has also caught attention.  All this cumulative evidence is part of the reason why, six years ago, the World Health Organisation called for all governments to include environmental and occupational prevention measures as part of all national cancer plans. Additionally the American Public Health Association called for the links between breast cancer and certain chemical exposures to be acknowledged by their government.   (*A full list of latest evidence at the end)

So, given the many calls for action by international bodies (scientific, health, trade union, civil society) to address this evidence, coupled with ever rising rates of diagnosis, why is there such reluctance by all those in the UK with the power and responsibility – government, industry and breast cancer charities – to act? For decades the evidence linking these risks to breast cancer has increased, so why are we still waiting?

Find out more at https://frompinktoprevention.org/

Hope to see you on 26^th October

Deborah, Helen, Diana & Ho-Chih