Re: Cancer Alley

["Susan K. Snow" <sksnow@1stnet.com>]

DrBillC@aol.com wrote:
> > 
> The excessive mortality rates reported for South Louisiana are not the result> of excessive incidence.  These results indicate poorer cancer 
prognosis in> this region, a phenomenon that deserves more scrutiny by the 
health> profession."

Some of this study's authors were part of another study which attempted to 
show that the incidence of cancer was not excessive.  In fact, one author 
participated in a study which tried to disprove the excessive miscarriage 
rate in St. Gabriel along Cancer Alley.  There, one billion pounds of toluene 
is acknowledged on one chemical plant location.  Toluene is known to induce 
spontaneous abortions, according to a Colorado physican.

And, then there's cancer.  Vinyl chloride is a known human carcinogen, as is 
benzene and many other chemicals produced in south Louisiana.  Louisiana has 
at least 1/3 of the world's petrochemical plants which often produce 
chlorinated intermediates.  The products made by these plants are shipped 
elsewhere for completion and marketing.  The pesticides and other solvents 
are shipped throughout the world, potentially contaminated food webs, air, 
and water wherever they go.  The chlorinated plastics may end up burned in 
energy recovery trash incinerators, back yard barrels, biomedical waste 
facilities including hospitals that are in our neighborhoods.  No wonder the 
cancer rates are increasing everywhere throughout the developed industrial 
world.

Toxicologists tell me they are having increased difficulty finding 
uncontaminated animals to study.  With pollutants poisoning the planet, no 
wonder studies either fail on their own accord or are designed to fail.


Since living in Louisiana, I have never met so many with damaged immune 
systems.  It's not only people.  My dogs died of immune disorders and immune 
related cancers.  In one of RACHEL's Environment & Health Weekly, Dr. Peter 
Montague writes: "Dogs have often served as sentinels of human disease..."
http://www.envirolink.org/pubs/rachel/rehw436.htm

Chemicals should be considered guilty until proven innocent; people should be 
considered innocent until proven guilty.  Not only for this, but for future 
generations.  Studies on chemical contamination should be considered alike 
viruses, bacteria, parasites, and other diseases --based on the weight of 
evidence, rather than conclusive proof.

Susan
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> Groves, Andrews, Chen, Fontham, Correa  J. La. State Med Soc 148, 155 (1996)
> 

Anyone see the recent article in the Journal of the Louisiana State Medical
> Society called "Is there a Cancer Corridor in Louisiana"? Since this site has> been a locus for this type of dicussion I thought you'd be interested.
>  Here's the abstract:
> 
> "Cancer mortality rates in South Louisiana are higher than the national
> averages leading to the area's designation as a "cancer corridor".  This> study was conducted to assess whether incidence data substantiate the> 
reputation derived from mortality statistics.
> 
> Age-adjusted cancer incidence rates for 1983-1987 were calculated for South> Louisiana as a whole, for five regional divisions of it, and for the 
combined> nine areas of the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) 
Program.
>  Significantly lower (p<0.0001) incidence rates were found in South Louisiana> among white females, black males and black females for cancers of 
all sites> combined; among women of both races for cancer of the breast; 
amopng men of> both races for cancers of the colon and prostate; and among 
whites of both> sexes for melanoma and rectal cancer.  South Louisiana 
incidence rates were> significantly higher than the SEER rates only for lung 
and larynx cancers in> white males.  The excess of lung cancer was 
significant only in the New> Orleans area.
> 
> There are lots of data tables, and while the authors don't say it explicitly
> there is good discussion of the lung/larynx cancer combination being a marker
> for smoking or smoking and alcohol.  Significantly, there does not seem to be
> a greater cancer incidence burden on people of color.
> 
> I think this is good news.  As the authors suggest, the mortality rates may
> reflect the need for more diligent health care in the area, but "Cancer
> Alley" appears not to be.
> 
> Bill Carroll
> Chlorine Chemistry Council