SECTIONS

Letters to the Editor

Thanks for the suport
Please let Council members know that we appreciate all that they and the Council staff have done to move the War Resisters issue ahead.

We will now be working hard to mobilize Canadians to demand that the government implement the War Resisters Motion. We know we can count on the Council for continued help in these efforts.

Peace,
Lee Zaslofsky
War Resisters Support Campaign\

What about the chemicals?
I am responding to Letters to the Editor, “Is cancer a lifestyle issue,” by Cornelia J. Baines (Canadian Perspectives, Summer 2008).

I am shocked. The 30,000 chemicals unleashed on all of us by the chemical industry were not even mentioned by Dr. Cornelia J. Baines. This is not surprising as the World Health Organization, her source of information, is heavily influenced by the chemical industry’s self-interested point of view. Surely, Dr. Baines is aware of the chemical load we are all subjected to on a daily basis, whether we smoke or not.

I understand that smoking is responsible for only 10 per cent of all environmentally caused cancers. This means that our chemical exposures are the decisive factor of our chemically induced morbidity and mortality. Whether we are addicted to the offensively stinking chemical perfumes and other “beauty” products, or buy the highly toxic household cleaning aids,
including smelly fabric softeners and chemical detergents, we are absorbing a chemical load that is most definitely not good for our health.

All this is extremely pertinent to cancer as a lifestyle issue.

K. Jean Cottam, PhD
Nepean, Ontario

Public health care for all
A few years ago I was in hospital several times for minor heart attacks and the removal of a cancerous kidney. I never had to wait for admission to the hospital, but I found the effects of the multitude of prescription drugs extremely upsetting. I am convinced that most of the drugs were designed to hide symptoms rather than prevent recurrence of my illness. I have since adopted an organic vegetable diet with vitamin supplements.

Through my experience, I strongly support universal health care for all Canadians and feel that health care taxes should be in direct proportion to income. Health care should not be privatized.

The first priority must be prevention – to reduce the number of people needing to go to the hospital. To achieve this, the system must concentrate on building up the immune system from conception and birth and on through life. I believe that this is the only approach that will make proper health care affordable to us all.

Sedley Sweeney
Cortes Island, B.C.

Printer-friendly version: Letters to the Editor in PDF Format (98kB)

Photo: Members of the South Shore chapter of the Council of Canadians participated in a vigil in May in Nova Scotia supporting the call to get Canadian troops out of the Afghanistan war. Credit: George Mossman

 

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updated January 11, 2010