On Cell Phones
"I can't tell you that cell phones are safe. I can't tell you that they are harmful. But I can tell you that if you go to... The Bioinitiatives Report that we have good reasons for concern... We are already committed to cell phones. We know that the cell signal, which is a microwave signal, reaches the brain. It travels deeper in younger people. That's the reason why many governments - including the city of Bangalore, India - recommend that children not use cell phones except for emergencies. According to the BBC News, India has the fastest growing mobile-phone market in the world with more than 170 million subscribers. "I think you should use a cell phone with a speaker or with a hollow-tube or other type of earpiece to reduce exposure. I don't have it on my body all day long," says Davis.
"The newest studies from Sweden by eminent oncologist Dr. Lennart Hardell find that people who use cell phones for 10 years or more have doubled the risk of brain cancer. This isn't one study. These combine data from about eight or nine studies... The engineers are going to solve this problem by coming up with safer ways. But right now we don't have any assurance, so I think prudent precaution is appropriate. Cell phones save lives, but I'm very concerned about children, especially these teenagers who have the phone on for hours at a time." Davis stresses that the most immediate danger associated with cell phone use in the car is the risk of accidents. England, Sweden and Israel recommend that people under 18 refrain from cell phone use.
On Cleaning Products
"I think it's important that you look under your sinks and realize that you can do a lot with baking soda, vinegar, Borax, lemon juice." The Web site of the Center for Environmental Oncology notes that "we know that many products are harmful or poisonous because they have warnings on the labels. Many of the products that we use to clean our homes, cars and offices can cause serious illness or injury. These products can contain cancer-causing ingredients."
On Cosmetics and Personal-Care Products
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has more than 500 companies around the world signed up to try to reduce their use of toxic ingredients. The campaign is composed of U.S. health and environmental groups promoting nontoxic personal-care products. "I think that it is scandalous that the FDA in the United States and the regulatory authorities in Canada do not even have the authority to know whether or not there are carcinogens in cosmetics," says Davis. When the law was set, she notes, many exceptions were grandfathered in.
A chemical called 1,4-dioxane, which causes cancer in rats and mice, is outlawed for use in personal-care products in the European Union but can be found in baby shampoo in the United States. It also may be found in cosmetics, other shampoos and detergents that carry such listed ingredients as PEG, polyethylene, polyethylene glycol, polyoxyethylene.
On CT Scans
"There is no question that overuse of CT scans increases the risk of second cancers. There's growing evidence of... increased rates of acoustic neuromas following childhood radiation. As a result, health professionals are calling for reducing the amount of inappropriate CT scans... We're using alternative technologies."
Writing for the Center for Environmental Oncology newsletter, Davis, who notes that, like cell phones, CT scans can save lives, says, "Modern America's annual exposure to radiation from diagnostic machines is equal to that released by a nuclear accident that spewed the equivalent of hundreds of Hiroshimas across much of Russia and Eastern Europe" at Chernobyl in 1986... As Davis pointed out, "A group of Yale researchers, looking at current patterns, estimates that in one year, 700 people will die from cancers associated with CTs and 1,800 will die from radiation-induced cancer from abdominal examinations carried out when they were infants."
On Hormones
Between 1948 and 1972, some pregnant women received DES, the first synthetic hormone, which was developed in Germany in the late-1930s. Doctors believed that it would prevent miscarriages. The medication increased the risk of breast cancer for these women many years later.
The United States declared estrogen a cause of human cancer in 2002 following the abrupt discontinuation of the hormone-replacement program in the Women's Health Initiative, a national hormone-replacement therapy research program. Designed to promote healthy hearts, the program caused, among other things, a 26 percent increase in breast cancer. Some personal-care products, including some oils, nail polish, shampoos, conditioners and dyes, contain hormones or things that react like hormones.
On Job-related Cancers
"Even though we are now outsourcing... our most dangerous jobs, those people who work in small factories, who work as shoemakers, hairdressers, painters, carpenters, steelworkers and in a number of other professions, face an increased risk of cancer because of what they worked with decades ago," says Davis.
"Pittsburgh has a legacy of pollution, which is part of the contribution to cancer because cancer takes decades to develop. Pittsburgh is growing in industries that are going to be able to improve our ability to find, detect and prevent cancer. But there's no question that the past legacy has left an increasing cancer rate in Pittsburgh and other similar industrial areas around the world," says Davis.
Davis concludes that all the facts of a person's life can contribute to cancer - including where he or she lives and works, what he or she eats and drinks and whether or not he or she smokes. Work risks also extend into the neighborhoods surrounding factories and mills.
On Mammograms
"Mammography screenings will save lives in women who are just prior to menopause. We need to develop a better technology for finding breast cancer early and doing something about it. We're doing research to come up with a urine or blood test that would predict risk and allow us to find breast cancer earlier and intervene... I am very concerned about mammograms being given to women younger than 40." African-American women in this age group had double the amount of breast cancer between 1995 and 2000 as white women. The early exposure could start a cancer that won't show up for decades.
The National Breast Cancer Coalition doesn't take a stand for or against mammograms but suggests having a mammogram when specific symptoms, such as a lump, warrant it.
On Pap Tests
Part of The Secret History of the War on Cancer involves the long battle fought before Pap tests were accepted by the medical community. Doctors apparently were reluctant to have a technician make the call. "They [Pap tests] could have worked sooner," says Davis, "if the American Cancer Society had allowed the tests to come into use." In nations using Pap tests, cervical-cancer deaths dropped by 50 percent. Use of the test in the United States came 30 years after it was developed.
On Tobacco
The tobacco industry set the standard for how to avoid regulation, she contends. "The basic formula is to manufacture doubt," says Davis. Millions died while the tobacco industry fought controls to warn users of its dangers. Cigarette advertising in the 1960s represented one of every four dollars spent on ads. The tobacco industry meanwhile thrives today in India, China and Latin America.
Continuing the War
Regulation would seem to be an answer to some of the problems in the war on cancer. But, says Davis, "We've had eight years of pretty appalling lapses, gaps and subversion of the intent of government... When you drill down to the level of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration], EPA [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency], there's just been consistent failure to fund the agencies... so the federal budget becomes a very powerful instrument for undermining public policy... You don't have people to monitor pollution or enforce the laws."
Fortunately, Davis also notes, the cancer story is not "all gloom and doom." The Center for Environmental Oncology is researching such food items as broccoli, dark chocolate, cauliflower, red wine, fish oil and garlic, which can be "phenomenally powerful" in repairing damage to DNA, says Davis.
There's some more room to be hopeful: The presence of DTD and other pesticides in breast tissue today is at its lowest level in modern times, says Davis. Also, there's "less air pollution on average." Locally, UPMC is currently plotting its own Green Revolution; maybe green roofs on its buildings, maybe little things like stopping cars idling outside its buildings, using less water and chemicals for cleaning. Meanwhile, Davis advises, all of us can control, what we can control, which includes our own diet and exercise.
Ann Curran is a contributing editor and regular feature writer for Pittsburgh Magazine.