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Text File | 1994-02-01 | 19KB | 332 lines

                        OF NOTE...
                        News to Use

Special Cancer Edition (41-50)                        December 1, 1993
Earl Appleby, Jr., Editor                             CURE, Ltd.

                              Addictions

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, about a third
of US high school dropouts still smoke during pregnancy, a rate seven
times that of college graduates. (The Smoking Habits of American
Mothers, Christine Russell, Washington Post Health, 7/13/93)

Some 46 million Americans smoke, with 400,000 dying from tobacco-
related diseases each year. In 1992 more than 45,000 African-Americans
died from conditions associated with smoking. According to the Centers
for Disease Control  and Prevention (CDC), the 6 million American
blacks who smoke face higher rates of lung cancer, other cancers,
heart disease and stroke when compared to whites. (Is Tobacco Racist?
Donna Thompson, Catholic Twin Circle, 8/1/93)

"The cornerstone of the charges against the Joe Camel ad campaign is a
series of studies published in the Journal of the American Medical
Association [JAMA] December 1991. The first of these studies allegedly
showed that children were able to connect pictures of the Camel
character to tobacco products. This is an interesting but largely
irrelevant finding. That children can connect 'OLd Joe' with
cigarettes says nothing about whether those children approve or
disapprove of 'Old Joe's' tobacco habit." --Jonathan Adler, policy
analyst, Competitive Enterprise Institute. (Camel Hunting with the
FTC, Adler, op ed, Washington Times, 9/3/93)

"Philip Morris's Thomas J. Borelli ('The Smoking 'Scare of the Week.'
letters, Aug. 20) asserts that there is no cause of concern about a
recent article by Dr. Michael Siegel in JAMA, the rigorously peer-
reviewed and scientifically prestigious Journal of the American
Medical Association, which concluded that restaurant workers had much
higher rates of lung cancer from secondhand smoke exposure...Mr.
Borelli's polemic is nothing more than a thinly disguised ad hominem
attack designed by tobacco industry lawyers to malign a medical
scientist by throwing around loaded terms like 'scare of the week,'
'predetermined conclusion,; 'statistic shell game,' 'selected and
biased' and 'manipulated data.'" --James Repace, Bowie, MD. (Clouding
the Issue of Secondhand Smoke, Repace, letter-editor, WP, 9/3/93)

"Thomas J. Borelli...states that we found no statistically significant
relationship between ambient tobacco smoke and lung cancer. This
statement is untrue. The conclusions of our paper state: 'In summary,
our study and others conducted during the past decade suggest a small
but consistent elevation in the risk of lung cancer in nonsmokers due
to passive smoking. The proliferation of federal, state, and local
regulations that restrict smoking in public places and work sites is
well founded.'" --Ross Brownson, division director, Missouri
Department of Health, and Michael Alavanja, special assistant for
epidemiology, National Cancer Institute. (Clouding the Issue of
Secondhand Smoke, Brownson and Alavanja, letter-editor, WP, 9/3/93)

The American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-
HNS) reports that each year 3,000 nonsmokers die of lung cancer caused
by secondhand smoke. For a free copy of "Secondhand Smoke and
Children," write: Secondhand Smoke, c/o AAO-HNS, 1 Prince St.,
Alexandria, VA 22314. (Are You a Secondhand Smoker? Catherine O'Neill,
Washington Post Health, 9/21/93)

"A cigarette tax...helps almost everyone. A substantial cigarette tax
would benefit not only the entire nation by helping to provide more
accessible health care at a lower cost, but...smokers would benefit
because it would help them to quit; nonsmokers would benefit because
the air they breathe would have less harmful smoke; children would
benefit because fewer kids would get hooked on cigarettes;and--if the
tax is done right even tobacco farmers could benefit. The only real
losers would be the tobacco industry, which has made its profits by
lying to the American people about the dangers of smoking." --C.
Everett Koop, MD, Surgeon General (1981-1989). (A Tax That's Good for
You, Koop, op-ed, Washington Post, 9/21/93)

"(Enos 'Country') Slaughter is best known for scoring all the way from
first base on a single in the ninth inning of the seventh inning of
the 1946 World Series...(winning it) for the St. Louis Cardinals....
Nervously, I introduced myself to Slaughter. Then, showing the agility
of an 18-year-old college freshman, I jumped back. Egos Slaughter, the
Hall of Famer, had spit at me. Well, not AT me, but almost ON me. I
happened to arrive at a moment when Egos needed to unleash some juice
from the large chaw stuck in the side of his mouth and stepped right
into the line of fire. Welcome to baseball, kid!...Chewing tobacco has
been used by baseball players since the first rules of the game were
written in 1847." (Chewing Tobacco: A Baseball Tradition That Can Be
Deadly, John Feinstein, Washington Post Health, 10/19/93)

"Industry ads portray the use of smokeless tobacco as refreshing,
traditional, manly, and 'cool.' The US surgeon general and other
public health leaders see it as insidious and deadly. Far from cool,
they say it is the leading cause of cancer of the mouth, lip, jaw, and
throat. Far from a romantic part of baseball lore, they say, it led to
the throat cancer that killed baseball's greatest hero, Babe Ruth, at
53." (Chewing Tobacco: A Baseball Tradition That Can Be Deadly, Don
Colburn, Washington Post Health, 10/19/93)

"As one who has a parent who smokes, I don't feel it's my right to
tell others they can't smoke. But I'd love to be able to go anywhere
and not be around smoke. I'm fortunate to be working in a smoke-free
building, and I don't allow smoking in my house.'  Kay M. Grosinke,
33, environmental engineer, Hampton, VA. (Question: Should Smoking Be
Banned in Public Buildings? USA Today, 11/1/93)

"All of their no-smoking rules stink. I enjoy smoking. I think all
these people who don't should just not smoke. But don't tell me what
to do." --Roxanne, a Gaithersburg, MD tobacco shop clerk "in her 50s."
Maryland's secretary of licensing and regulation William Fogle has
announced his intention to prohibit smoking in the workplace by
emergency measure in the wake of a cigar-related explosion and fire
that killed three persons in a Baltimore elementary school. (Proposal
Riles Smokers, Sonya Senkowsky, Washington Times, 11/2/93)

A study of over 22,000 male doctors finds smokers twice as likely to
have strokes, which are experienced by a half million Americans each
year. (Smokers Found to Have Double the Risk of Stroke, WP, 11/9/93)

                           Cancer Chronicles

"More evidence that moderate drinking can increase breast cancer risks
comes from Spain." (Drinking Risk, USA Today, 7/1/93)

"The first noteworthy report of tumors in lower animals in North
America can be found...in the journals of naturalist Henry David
Thoreau...In an 1858 entry, Thoreau described 'an inky black kind of
leprosy, like a crustaceous lichen' on the skin of pouts--the old name
for catfish--in the Assabet River west of Boston.  Similar spots--a
form of skin cancer--can be still be found today on brown bullhead
catfish in the nearby Sudbury River, Smithsonian Institute researcher
John] Harshbarger said." (Medical Detective Finds Clues on Cancer
Among Fish in Pollution, Earl Lane, Washington Post, 7/12/93)

According to a study conducted by the University of California,
Berkeley, waiters and bartenders breathe up to six times more
secondhand tobacco smoke than office employees and are 50 percent more
likely to develop lung cancer than the general public. (Restaurant
Workers Seen at Risk for Lung Cancer, Washington Post, 7/28/93)

"The success of the National Breast Cancer Coalition is winning
increased funding for research has forced scientists and public
policymakers to pay attention to breast cancer advocates. Now we are
told that we are too greedy, that our strategy is harmful to science
or that we take money away from other diseases." --Frances Visco,
president, National Breast Cancer Coalition, Philadelphia, PA, and Kay
Dickerson, PhD, Research Task Force, National Breast Cancer Coalition,
Baltimore, MD. (Issues in Cancer Research, Visco and Dickerson,
letter-editor, Washington Post Health, 8/3/93)

"Within the first two or three months, we came to suddenly realize
that this was a lot better than we would ever have hoped for. Patients
4were going into complete remission. One patient had a pound of tumor
in his abdomen, and it shrank away to almost nothing with minimal side
effects." --Mark Kaminiski, MD, University of Michigan. (Radioactive
Antibodies Fount to Destroy a Cancer, New York Times, 8/12/93)

Dr. Robert Atkins, author of two best-selling diets books, and creator
of a controversial approach to cancer--"ozone gas therapy," is "an
imminent danger to the health" of New Yorkers, charges state health
commissioner Mark Chassin in an order suspending his medical license.
Atkins responds with a countercharge: Leaders of the medical
profession "have issued a call to arms--get the leaders of alternative
medicine." (NY Suspends Diet Doctor Atkins' License to Practice,
Martinsburg Journal, 8/13/93)

Each year a thousand men are diagnosed with breast cancer. While
breast cancer is often regarded as "a women's disease," according to
Dr. Harry Bear, Medical College of Virginia, men account for 0.5 to 1%
of cases. (Breast Cancer and Men, Martinsburg Journal, 8/21/93)

Scientists discover a genetic mutation that may be involved in one of
11 cases of cancer. One in 10 healthy people carry the mutations which
roughly doubles the risk of cancer, reports Dr. Theodore Krontiris,
New England Medical Center.(Mutant Genetic Variations Linked to Many
Cancers, Martinsburg Journal, 8/21/93)

"I'm just lucky because these are the only guys doing this in the
world. If this had happened a year ago, they couldn't have done it."
--Heather Farr, 28, professional golfer, who will undergo experimental
surgery at the University of Arizona next month to destroy a cancerous
tumor without damaging her spinal cord.  Adds the LPGA star, who has
been diagnosed with cancer three times, "I guess it's sort of that
'here we go again' thing, but now I have my husband, and my family
always supports me, and that really helps." (Farr Faces Further
Surgery for Cancer, Washington Times, 8/26/93)

"A good deal of attention has been paid to claims that waiters and
waitresses are at higher risk of lung cancer because they are exposed
to cigarette smoke at work...These claims are based on a publication
by Michael Siegel that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical
Association (JAMA) on July 28...Your readers should be aware that Dr.
Siegel's conclusions are unfounded and, in fact, misrepresent the data
from the studies he cites." --William Simmons, director, Smoking and
Health, RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co., Winston-Salem, NC. (Smoking Doesn't
Pose a Threat to Restaurant Workers, Simmons, let-ed, WT, 8/26/93)

"Kate is 44 years old and looks the picture of health after a bout
with cancer last year. She attributes much of her strength to a
program that matches cancer survivors with those about to undergo
treatment. The privately supported CHEMOcare program supported Kate
when she was diagnosed with cervical and uterine cancer; now, she'll
be able to support someone who faces the same treatment she did...'The
support these patients receive is invaluable and can't be replaced,'
said Eileen Werbel, a social worker at University Hospital in Newark.
CHEMOcare Executive Director Randi Schayowitz said the presence of
survivors shows patients that they have not received a death
sentence." (Cancer Patients Are Teeming Up to Spread Message of
Survival, Sunday AM, 9/5/93)

"Stacy S. Dick, senior vice-president for strategy at Tenneco, Inc.
mainly remembers the silence. It was so different from the charged
bustle that had accompanied Tenneco Chief Executive Michael H. Walsh
when he arrived 17 months early to turn the misdirected company
around. On January 20, Walsh bluntly told the world he had been
diagnosed with an inoperable form of brain cancer...Dick's mother had
died of cancer when he was a child, so perhaps the shock was
particularly poignant for him...The first time they spoke after the
announcement,...Walsh tried to put his halting lieutenant at ease.
'Everything's O.K.,' the boss said simply. 'Don't worry about it.'
Eight months later, it's hard not to. Walsh, 51, has clearly been
battered by his cancer and its treatments...But get past the outward
appearances, and Walsh's confidence and candor remain startling
intact. With the same intensity that propelled him from the US
Attorney's Office in San Diego to the world of corporate turnarounds,
the hard-edged, 'no-excuses' executive is now managing the fight of
his life." (The Fight of His Life, Business Week, 9/20/93)

"Funny, sad, fact-filled--and finally devastating--Hollis Sigler's
'Breast Cancer Journal: Walking with the Ghosts of my Grandmothers' at
the Natural Museum of Women in the Arts is an exhibition no one
concerned about breast cancer, 'the other epidemic,' should miss. The
14 paintings on display are a bittersweet success for the Chicago
artist, herself a breast cancer 'victim'...(who) first learned she had
the disease in 1985, and is now experiencing her third bout. It has
spread to her bones, pelvis, and spine....Bringing her deceptively
delicate faux-naif style to bear on enduring questions about life,
dying, and death, she taps the range of emotions: rage, joy,
frustration, sorrow, acceptance, and transcendence. Ultimately these
paintings are the moving chronicle of a (struggling) human spirit."
(Journal of Joy and Sorrow, Lee Fleming, Washington Post, 9/21/93)

"It's the first time we have been able to definitively show that
sunscreen lowers the risk of getting skin cancer later in life."
--Darrell Rigel, New York University Medical School, on recent
Australian study. (Sunscreen Found to Reduce Common Precancerous Skin
Growths, Washington Post, 10/14/93)

"I felt perhaps I could do something. Somebody has to speak out."
-Fred Miccio, husband of Maria, who would have been 45 yesterday had
she not died of breast cancer last month. (A Growing Chorus Against
Breast Cancer, Amy Goldstein, Washington Post, 10/19/93)

The National Cancer Institute (NCI)'s Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial
hopes to enroll 18,000 healthy men, age 55 and older, to determine
whether Proscar (finasteride), a hormone-suppressing drug, can prevent
the second most deadly cancer in men. Blacks are particularly hard hit
by the disease, with a death rate twice that of whites. For further
information, contact: the NCI's Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER
(1-800-422-6237). (Prostrate Cancer Prevention Study Launched, Robin
Herman, Washington Post Health, 10/19/93)

The National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) Radiology Department adds a
new weapon to its arsenal against cancer: the Stereoguide Stereotactic
Biopsy Table. According to Dr. Claudia Galbo, head of the mammography
department, doctors can now investigate the possibility of cancer with
a less invasive and less expensive procedure than surgical biopsy.
(Biopsy Table Helps Doctors Hunt Cancer, Teal Ferguson, NNMC Journal,
10/21/93)

"We don't know the cause and we don't know the cure. Until we make
such a commitment, we're not going to know either one."  Nancy
Brinker, chairwoman, Special Commission on Breast Cancer, urging
another $500 million annually to combat the disease that will kill an
estimated 460,000 women by the year 2000. (Breast Cancer Funding Is
Hit, Daily News, 10/28/93)

The Special Commission on Breast Cancer charges a half million
American women will die of breast cancer in this decade, while
promising research projects offering hope of more effective treatments
languish because of inadequate funding. (Presidential Panel Calls
Breast Cancer Research Underfunded, Washington Post, 10/28/93)

"Cancer is a family affair. As the husband of a breast cancer
survivor, I'm appalled that some husbands are not supportive when
their wives need them most. I like to think that we've been married
for better and for worse." -Charlie McKinnie, whose wife of 31 years,
Harley, is a seven-year breast cancer survivor. (Cancer's Impact on
the Family Discussed, Bernard Little, Stripe, 10/29/93)

With the coming holidays, West Virginia University officials hope
celebrants will purchase Christmas cards that benefit the state's
youngest cancer patients. Sale of the "Cards of Hope," the creation of
current and former cancer patients, will benefit the WVU Children's
Hospital and the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center in Morgantown, WV.
For further information, contact Stephanie Hall at 304-293-3711.
(Christmas Cards Give Hope to Cancer Patients, MJ, 11/2/93)

                           Food for Thought

"The Clinton administration is preparing to ask Congress to relax a
long-standing ban on cancer-causing pesticides in food. The move is
part of a plan to revise food safety standards, administration
officials said. The most controversial part of the package is...the
'negligible risk factor' standard...(that) would...allow (pesticides)
that present a lesser risk. The cutoff point is still being
debated...That proposal would replace the Delaney Clause of the
Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which strictly prohibits
carcinogens in processed foods...Environmental groups are opposed to
any weakening of the Delaney Clause. 'It's very difficult to conceive
of a food safety plan that is worth its name that doesn't contain a
strong support for Delaney and an expansion of that concept, rather
than a weakening of it,' said Jay Feldman, executive director of the
National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides...Representatives
of the food industry, who have long worked to see pesticide
restrictions loosened voiced...support for the package." (Relaxed Food
Safety Rules on Pesticides to Be Sought, John Schwartz, WP, 8/20/93)

                        A Word From Our Sponsor

OF NOTE is CURE's biweekly digest of disability/medical news. This Special
Edition focuses on one of many topics it covers. The editor, Earl Appleby,
is the moderator of ABLEnews, a Fidonet backbone conference, featuring
news, notices, and resources of interest to persons with disabilities and
those sharing their concerns.

Special Editions include Abled, AIDS, Cancer, Family, Health Care,
Legal, Medical, Mental Health, Seniors, and Veterans.

...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street, Berkeley
Springs, West Virginia 254511 (304-258-LIFE/5433).