Cancer killers

Oct. 18, 2004  Written by: Suzanne Carere

Q: I keep hearing that the foods I thought were healthy can actually give me cancer. How can I tell what's safe to eat?

A: What doesn't give us cancer? Meat, cigarettes, ice cream, aspartame, the water, the air, our own skin. I've read a lot of research on the topic of health and nutrition and it seems as though every time I turn around, some new study, somewhere, is claiming they've found yet another product that can give us cancer.

What I've concluded from all of this reading, however, is that anything can give you cancer if you consume too much of it. Some foods just get you there faster. I like to think of it as buying tickets to the cancer lottery.

- 1 chocolate bar = 1 ticket

- 1 medium fries = 3 tickets

- 1 cigarette = 24 tickets

These numbers, although invented, do offer an easy example of how surviving in this world is more a game of balance than it is avoidance. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to finish life with the least number of tickets in your pocket.

Finding balance may not be easy in this fast-paced world, but it is something to strive.

Even vitamins kill

Remember, even vitamins can kill you. The reason cigarettes are an easy target is because they're a higher-ticket item that people become addicted. Addiction breeds imbalance. They aren't, however, the only answer to the problem. Just look at George Burns.

On the flip side, I see people who haven't smoked a day in their lives and die at 40 of colon cancer. Why? Perhaps genetic predisposition or maybe it's a diet too high in refined carbs and not high enough in fiber. Balance is needed everywhere.

What you need to do is find where you're lacking balance. What food or product are you abusing? Avoiding high-ticket items is very helpful, but eating a large number of low-ticket items can be just as bad.

What's your vice?

http://chealth.canoe.ca/columns.asp?columnistid=9&articleid=11991

 

Poll Comments: Smoking Ban In Cars With Infants –ON, CA
Thunder Bay's Source
Web Posted: 10/18/2004 4:03:01 PM  

The Ontario Medical Association wants smoking banned in cars where children are riding. Do you agree ?

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As a non smoker i dont think that a child has to tolerate having to inhale 2nd hand smoke. i feel the parents should be responcible enough to know better. i voted no simply because where does it stop. the government have taken full control on us already by governing the cost of living.........auto insurance (rip off) gas (rip off)....you get the point. by allowing them to this, we have just caved in for another stupid request by the govenment

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Smokers are the worst litter-bugs in the world. A filthy habit of leaving their butts and packages all over the place. They empty their car ashtrays onto the roadway at intersections. Just look at the litter around where they smoke, toss lighted cigarettes out of car windows along our highways and probably cause some forest fires. They not only contaminate the Atmosphere but also mother earth. 40 years for a cigarette filter to decompose in a landfill, longer along a roadway.Bill

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I am a smoker and I voted that smoking should be banned in cars where children are riding. I do realize that it is a nasty habit that I have and I should not make my children suffer for my bad habit. I do not smoke in my home with my children in it, I most certainly would not expose them to it in my vehicle. Children have enough problems to deal with on a day to day basis they do not need a health hazard added to it. Nita

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What's next? no smoking in homes, on the street, on the side walk? What's next on the agenda? I heard that more than 4 cups of coffee a day can be harmful, will we be monitored on this? with the new chip that can be implanted in your body and scanned, privacy will be gone and the government will have total control of what we can do and not do and we will turn into robots, democracy will be gone.

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Keep in mind that smokers are a selfish lot. They want what gratification for their addiction RIGHT NOW! The fact that there are one or more small children in the car with them matters not a bit. If they could be made to see that they've got a small gas chamber going, they might see things otherwise, but you cannot legislate common sense. Shelly

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What is the Medical Association going to want next? Will our bedtimes be regulated? Will it then want to control the amount of exercise we get? How about telling us what we can or cannot eat. These are all causes of health concerns. What a lot of people do not seem to care about is that the no smoking bylaw just opened the door for big brother. signed a concerned non smoking family.

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i do not agree with the ban of smoking in cars. the ontario medical association is the government. do they not also run the tabacco industry? if they want to control the smoking issues-just ban the tobacco industry in this country. wont that take care of their issues?. people cannot smoke in their workplace or vehicles how much control should they have over our cars and homes? maybe if the pay for our vehicles and mortgage then maybe i would allow them to dictate who smokes in our possessions. please give me a break.

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Absoultely........!!!..Smoking is stupid..!!!!!Get over it people...........!

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I have to say this people. I had put my comment earlier that I am a smoker and I votes yes. How dare you people who call smokers selfish and I believe one voter called us 'the worst litters of the lot'. That is terrible, I abide by the no smoking law in public and I don't smoke around my children as I do not litter and I am not selfish. I give to charity and help out anyone in need. Quit being a bunch of school children and quit the name calling. I am sure all you 'non smoker' have bad habits too. Remember the saying: People who live in glasses should not throw stones! Nita

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Smoking around children is possibly one of the worst things we can do to our kids. They are helpless to our poluted environment. I would rather see smoking allowed back into bars, casinos and bingo halls than watch someone smoke in a car with the children inhaling as much of the smoke as the adult who is smoking. I also find it disgusting when I drive past the high schools, that there is at least eighty children (16 and under) outside smoking on their breaks, while there is a police car sitting on the corner trying to enforce the 40 km/h school zone speed. Last time I checked, smoking under the age of 19 was illegal too. Our government spends too much time creating these outlawing smoking laws without enforcing them anyways. We should do more to protect our children, and let the responsible adults have there designated smoking areas back. I have two kids and I am a heavy smoker. I smoke outside of my house and car. I no longer go to the casino or bar. Norm

http://www.tbsource.com/Editorials/index.asp?cid=70655

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: Western Michigan University Should Rescind Employer of the Year Award to Philip Morris

10/18/2004 3:58:00 PM

To: State Desk

Contact: Joel Spivak of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 202-296-5469

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following is a statement of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids President Matthew L. Myers:

We urge Western Michigan University to rescind its decision to honor the nation's largest tobacco company, Philip Morris USA, as its Employer of the Year, an honor it is scheduled to award on October 21. A major institution of higher learning should not honor a company whose products cause so much death and disease in Michigan and throughout the United States.

If it proceeds with honoring Philip Morris, Western Michigan University will be honoring the company most responsible for the nation's leading preventable cause of death. Every year, tobacco use kills more than 400,000 Americans and costs our nation more than $75 billion in health care bills. In Michigan, 14,900 state residents die annually from tobacco-caused disease and Michigan taxpayers pay out a staggering $2.65 billion to treat illnesses caused by smoking. Every day in the U.S., another 2,000 kids become regular smokers, one-third of whom will die prematurely as a result. Philip Morris sells more cigarettes to smokers in the U.S. than any other company. In addition, more kids in the United States -- 49.2 percent of smokers aged 12-17 -- smoke Philip Morris' Marlboros than nearly all other brands combined, according to the federal government's National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health. This is not surprising because Philip Morris spends billions of dollars each year to market its products, often in ways effective at impacting kids.

Philip Morris also continues to fight proven measures to reduce tobacco use. The U.S. Surgeon General and other public health experts recommend tobacco tax increases and comprehensive smoke- free workplace laws as two of the most effective measures for reducing tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke. Yet Philip Morris remains a leading opponent of such measures. For example, recent news reports detail Philip Morris' role in working to defeat ballot initiatives in Colorado and Oklahoma to increase state cigarette taxes.

The decision to honor Philip Morris is an embarrassment to Western Michigan University and a slap in the face to the thousands of WMU alumni, students and employees who have lost family members because of the addictive and lethal cigarettes made by Philip Morris. Western Michigan University should rescind the "Employer of the Year" award to Philip Morris. A company that addicts children and ruins lives doesn't deserve it.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=38353

 

British Government Criticized Over Smoking Report

By Patricia Reaney Mon Oct 18, 2004 08:39 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - A leading anti-smoking group accused the British government Monday of sitting on a confidential report which confirms the health dangers of passive smoking.

ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) said there is no longer any excuse to deny the health damage caused by inhaling other people's cigarette smoke.

"This report show that Britain's leading medical experts have concluded that second-hand smoke is a serious risk to public health. It is deeply worrying that the government has sat on this for months," said ASH director Deborah Arnott.

The Department of Health denied any delay.

"It is not a cover-up. We are considering the evidence. It is not taking any longer than any other report would," a spokeswoman for the department said.

"It is not something we have sat on."

Arnott said the report, which has now been leaked to the Evening Standard newspaper, should have been published in time to inform debate ahead of expected government proposals to deal with second-hand smoke.

Health experts have urged Britain to follow Ireland's example and ban smoking in public workplaces, which would include bars, restaurants and pubs. According to ASH, the report concludes that "it is evident that no infant, child or adult should be exposed to second-hand smoke."

It also found there is an increased risk of lung cancer for non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke of about 24 percent and a greater likelihood of developing heart disease.

In children, passive smoking is linked to a raised risk of pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, middle ear disease, decreased lung function and sudden infant death syndrome, ASH added.

The Department of Health spokeswoman said the evidence in the report was about smoking in the home, not public places.

"It is not about public places, specifically," she added.

But ASH said the findings of the leaked report are further evidence of the need for a smoking ban. It added that exposure to smoke in both the home and workplace is causing several thousand premature deaths a year across the United Kingdom as well as many thousands of illnesses.

Arnott added the report shows "the absurdity" of any exclusions from a smoking ban. Health Secretary John Reid is reportedly considering exempting some pubs and clubs where food is not served from a potential ban.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6529027

 

R.J. Reynolds wins lawsuit brought by retailer –CA, USA

Fri Oct 15, 2004 07:53 PM ET

NEW YORK, Oct 15 (Reuters) - R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said on Friday that a federal court had ruled in its favor in an antitrust suit brought against the tobacco company by California-based retailer Cigarettes Cheaper.

R.J. Reynolds, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc, said a jury in Federal Court - North District of Illinois ruled unanimously against the retailer's claims.

Cigarettes Cheaper had accused R.J. Reynolds of wrongfully denying the retailer the opportunity to participate in the tobacco company's promotions and discount offers, R.J. Reynolds said in a statement.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6518353

 

U.N. Health Body Warns Against 'Kitchen Killer'

Fri Oct 15, 2004 05:59 AM ET

GENEVA (Reuters) - Some 1.6 million people, mainly small children, die each year from a "kitchen killer" -- disease brought on by inhaling smoke from cooking stoves and indoor fires, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

"While the millions of deaths from well-known communicable diseases often make headlines, indoor air pollution remains a silent and unreported killer," the United Nations' agency said.

Nearly half of the world cooks using fuels like dung, wood, agricultural residues and coal, which give off a poisonous cocktail that "more than doubles the risk of respiratory illness such as bronchitis and pneumonia," it said in a joint statement with the U.N. Development Program (UNDP).

Women and children living in poor rural areas of developing countries, who cook with a typical wood-fired stove, would be subject to levels of carbon monoxide and other noxious fumes that were seven to 500 times internationally accepted levels.

"The amount of smoke from these fires is the equivalent of consuming two packs of cigarettes a day," WHO said, adding one life was lost every 20 seconds to the "killer in the kitchen."

Children under 5 were particularly at risk of pneumonia, with some 900,000 deaths reported each year linked to smoke inhalation. Bronchitis was the main killer of women.

Although long term the solution was to replace solid fuels, there were cheap and quick steps that developing countries and rural communities could take in the meantime, said Eva Rehfuess, WHO technical officer for indoor air pollution.

Keeping children away from smoky areas and using dried wood along with lids on pans to reduce cooking time were simple actions that would reduce the toll, she said.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6511946

 

Heavy Kids Face Higher Cancer Risk as Adults

Mon Oct 18, 2004 01:33 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who are overweight appear to be at increased risk of cancer later in life, according to an analysis of British records.

A group of children had their height and weight measured at 14 centers in England and Scotland between 1937 and 1939. Some 2300 of these subjects, who were between 2 and 14 years of age at the time of measurement, were subsequently identified through the National Health Service Central Register.

A total of 188 men and 192 women developed cancer during 50 years of follow-up.

Using these data, Dr. Mona Jeffreys, of Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand, and colleagues estimated the relative risk of all cancers, smoking-related cancers, and certain site-specific cancers in relation to deviation from the norm for body mass index during childhood.

The risk of adulthood cancer increased by 9 percent for every standard increment in childhood BMI, the team reports in the International Journal of Cancer. No other factors such as socioeconomic status, body composition, energy intake during childhood, or birth order seemed to have an effect.

Most of the increase in cancer risk was seen in smoking-related cancers.

"If the cancer risk among today's young people mimics that of previous generations, our observations suggest that the impact of current childhood obesity on the cancer burden in the second half of this century may be substantial," the investigators write. "Efforts to reverse the increasing prevalence of obesity must continue to be supported."

SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer, November 1, 2004.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6532189

 

CITYCIDE: BAR OWNERS TO DEL MONTE: BUTT OUT –NY, USA

By David Staba

As she seeks a third term, Assemblywoman Francine Del Monte holds just about every conceivable advantage over challenger Paula Banks Dahlke.

The makeup of the 138th District she's represented since 2001 is heavily Democratic. Thanks to her faithful service as a rubber stamp for Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver, no matter how much his agenda ignores or hurts Western New York, she enjoys the generous support of the statewide party.

That cash stream funds the radio ads running on a number of local radio stations, spots in which she takes credit for the Seneca Niagara Casino and the "2,200 jobs" it provides.

The notion that she had anything to do with the arrival of the casino is pretty interesting, especially considering that Silver thoroughly ignored her while dragging the approval process out for as long as politically possible. But considering that politicians gladly grab credit for everything from the dawn to the sunset, the boast isn't nearly as notable as what she doesn't say.

What Del Monte doesn't mention, ever, is that those 2,200 jobs are located in as close to an all-smoking environment as you'll find in New York State.

Like her colleagues in the state Senate, Republican George Maziarz and Democrat Byron Brown, Del Monte defended her vote in favor of the nation's most restrictive smoking ban by saying that it was meant to protect the state's bartenders, waitresses and busboys. She also parroted the line scripted by Silver and state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, which claimed the ban would actually help business.

It has. For the casino, at least.

Walk into the Seneca Niagara Casino, and you'll see people smoking from the moment you set foot inside. In the hallways, in the restaurants, on the gaming floor, in the areas where passengers on bus tours wait to be picked up.

About the only place you don't see people lighting up is the small non-smoking section. Of course, you don't see anyone else there, either.

Meanwhile, back in the area Del Monte supposedly represents, dozens of the jobs she's allegedly protecting have already vanished, with hundreds more to follow as one small entrepreneur after another inevitably surrenders.

At least one group of proprietors isn't giving up that easily, though. Organized by Joe Casale of Casale's Tavern, Kathy and Rick Lewis of Kelly's Korner and Vince Gervasi of Gervasi's Bar and Grill, this consortium of local bar and restaurant owners has launched a grassroots campaign to make sure people don't forget the ban's impact on their bottom lines.

On Saturday, the group distributed coasters and matchbooks emblazoned with the slogan "Tell Francine to Butt Out."

The flip side of the coaster carries a message from the challenger.

"The smoking prohibition is just plain wrong," the coaster reads. "Reducing cigarette smoking in this fashion is not a good law! The issue is not about smoking cigarettes -- it's about government believing it can interfere where it does not belong. If you agree, vote for Paula Banks Dahlke Assembly District 138 (on) Tuesday, November 2."

Some kits, which include coasters, matchbooks and a container for donations, are available by calling 868-4993.

Meanwhile, Del Monte's ads offer a vision of a Western New York swelling with new jobs and hope.

Funny, but while driving through the Southern Tier last week, Citycide happened upon a radio spot for Susan John, Del Monte's fellow assemblywoman from Rochester.

The ads were clearly produced by the same people hired by the state Democratic Party.

Same narrator, same message, same bizarre tagline -- something along the lines of, "Sometimes it seems like things will never get better, but I'll never stop working."

Translation: We're not very good at what we do, but you should let us keep doing it anyway.

http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/citycide158.html

 

$10 Million to JHU for Study of Breast Cancer Spread

Collaborators include U. of Maryland and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

By Vanessa Wasta
Johns Hopkins Medicine

The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center has won a five-year $10 million government grant that will bring together national breast cancer experts to find new ways to halt metastasis, an elusive process that causes cancer cells to spread throughout the body and is the cause of death in most cancer patients.

"New technologies and the revolution in gene science have jump-started our understanding of how breast cancer cells spread," says Saraswati Sukumar, Barbara B. Rubenstein Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and principal investigator of the grant. "Now, we are pooling our knowledge and resources to solve important problems plaguing every cancer patient of whether their disease will return and how to fight the spreading disease."

The grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, will establish a Center of Excellence based at Johns Hopkins with collaborators at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Genzyme Biotechnologies. Breast cancer survivors will actively participate in project development, oversight and disseminating information on program goals and research results.

Sukumar will screen metastatic tumors for key molecular signatures that distinguish them from nonmetastatic tumor cells. Current cancer drug therapies have been unsuccessful in routinely preventing and eliminating those metastatic breast cancer cells that take root in other parts of the body.

"Molecular targets that are specific for metastatic cells may provide the foundation for developing new breast cancer drugs tailored to attack these cells," Sukumar says. With collaborator Steve Madden at Genzyme Biotechnologies, she will use a gene search tool to build a panel of breast cancer markers with high potential for identifying tumors capable of metastasizing, which also could serve as targets for drug development and other such therapies.

Other molecular targets may be teased out by attaching small proteins to bacterial viruses and mixing them with blood and tissue samples from metastatic breast cancer patients. M.D. Anderson's Renata Pasqualini, professor of cancer biology and medicine, will use this technique, called "phage display," to find proteins specific to metastatic cells.

Sukumar's colleagues at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center will focus on designing new therapies using molecular modeling and high throughput screening technology to identify promising new compounds that interact with the molecules discovered by Sukumar and Pasqualini.

Angela H. Brodie, a Greenebaum Cancer Center researcher and professor of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, notes that "a major problem with all tumors is that they can devise ways to survive the treatment that patients receive. They can adapt and grow even during the therapy. Our strength," she says, "is in new drug development for breast cancer, targeting those elements that cause or stimulate the growth of tumors."

Brodie's research has involved the discovery and development of a new class of drugs known as aromatase inhibitors, which help to prevent recurrence of breast cancer in postmenopausal women by reducing the level of estrogen produced by the body. According to Brodie, these inhibitors are proving to be more effective than the standard breast cancer drug, tamoxifen. She has focused on steroid biochemistry and the endocrinology of prostate cancer as well as breast cancer and other estrogen-mediated diseases.

Grant money also is expected to speed development of a therapeutic vaccine for breast cancer. Johns Hopkins cancer researchers Leisha Emens, an assistant professor of oncology, and Elizabeth Jaffee, Broccoli Professor of Oncology, say molecular discoveries will suggest ways to re-educate the immune system to target certain antigens found on metastatic cancer cells. Emens and Jaffee currently lead a clinical trial testing genetically engineered tumor cell vaccines against breast cancer.

To measure the response of newly developed drugs and immunotherapy tactics, Zaver Bhujwalla, professor of radiology and oncology at Johns Hopkins, will develop ways to use magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging to track the location of cells with targeted molecular alterations and immune signals. Her molecular imaging program uses noninvasive techniques to find the metabolic and molecular signatures of metastatic cancer cells. These techniques will reveal far smaller tumor deposits than standard imaging methods, enabling investigators to evaluate the success of new therapies.

Sukumar also will work with the Johns Hopkins Department of Pathology to establish a tissue-donation program to populate a bank of metastatic breast cancer tissues available for gene analysis.

"Scores of scientists have entered the breast cancer research field due to funding from the Department of Defense," Sukumar says. "Now, the creation of this Center of Excellence program has made it possible to bring some of the world's experts in this field together to make a major impact on a deadly aspect of this disease."

The Department of Defense began its cancer program in 1994 with $100 million in grants for breast cancer research. It also has funded cancer research programs in prostate, ovarian, brain, leukemia and lymphoma.

The grant is the latest example of collaboration between the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, representing Maryland's two academic medical centers. Both institutions are conducting other cancer research funded by the state's Cigarette Restitution Fund Program.

Additional grant collaborators from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center are Pedram Argani, assistant professor of pathology and oncology; Giovanni Parmigiani, associate professor of oncology, biostatistics and pathology; and Christopher Umbricht, assistant professor of surgery and oncology.

Among the representatives of survivor advocate groups are Lillie Shockney, Avon Foundation Breast Center at Johns Hopkins; and Nancy Armstrong, Johns Hopkins Breast Cancer Survivor Team.

http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2004/18oct04/18spread.html

 

Ethical Investing's Smoking Gun

A New Study Finds "Socially Responsible" Funds With Stock In Big Tobacco And Others With A Taste For Big Macs And Defense Contractors

Do you know what holdings your socially responsible investment (SRI) fund screens out? Before you make assumptions, better read the fine print in the prospectus. Across the world, nearly 600 publicly available funds representi