The SPP Makes You Sick
Harmonization of environmental standards directly impacts Canadians’ health
The current struggle for
adequate funding for a not-for-profit health care system,
crucial though it is, must be
combined with the environmental
movement’s concerns
for the quality of our air and water.
This also needs to be connected to the
food security movement’s vision for the
quality of our food, the labour movement’s
emphasis on the quality of our
work, and the anti-poverty movement’s
analysis of income and wealth equity.
If we broaden our understanding in
this way, we will truly take the social
determinants of health and disease
into account, and come closer to
effectively addressing the health
concerns of Canadians.
Public health journals, environmental
science publications, committees of the
World Health Organization and the
Environmental Defence Fund all express
the view that cancer is primarily caused
by human-made carcinogens as opposed
to genetic or other “lifestyle” factors.
Heart disease and cancer, the first and
second leading causes of death in late
20th century industrial capitalist societies,
are linked to diets high in fat and
low in fibre. These are foods that have
been approved and promoted to suit
corporate profitability, not the health of
the citizens consuming them.
Cancer is also linked to chemicals in
our air, water and food from industrial,
agricultural, medical and cosmetic
sources. The World Health Organization
estimates that 20 per cent of cancers
are genetic in origin and 80 per cent
are environmentally based. This is
good news, because it means that the
vast majority of cancers are preventable
through changes to the environment
in which we live. Even the remaining 20 per cent often need an environmental
trigger.
Toxic dumping
Each year, medium and large-sized
March 7, 2008missions of carcinogens to the
National Pollution Release Inventory. In
2001, Canadian industries reported the
release of more than 18 million kilograms
of known carcinogens into our air,
soil and water. And this includes only
the 266 substances included in the 2001
National Pollutant Release Inventory and
takes into account only those businesses
that used at least 10 tonnes of a listed
substance in a given year.
When corporations dump carcinogens
into our environment, it helps them cut
costs by abandoning responsibility for
the safe disposal of toxic chemicals or
the use of more environmentally friendly
materials. This might allow companies
like Wal-Mart to slash prices to
consumers, but at what cost to people’s
health and safety?
Rising incidences of cancer cannot be
explained by our increased longevity.
From 1970 to 1998, the incidence of
cancer in Canada increased by 35 per
cent for men and 27 per cent for women.
No choice
It is not individual lifestyle choices
that expose us to carcinogens at work,
in the environment and at home. A
recent study was led by researchers at
the Mount Sinai School of Medicine
in New York, in collaboration with the
Environmental Working Group and
Commonweal. Nine volunteers, including
PBS journalist Bill Moyers, were
tested for the presence of chemicals,
pollutants and pesticides in their blood
and urine. None of the volunteers
worked with chemicals on the job. Yet
their bodies contained an average of
91 compounds, most of which did not
exist 75 years ago. On average, each of
the nine subjects carried 53 chemicals
linked to cancer in humans or animals.
A 2006 Security and Prosperity
Partnership report identified stricter
pesticide residue limits in Canada as a
“barrier to trade.” As a result, Canada is
raising pesticide limits on hundreds of
fruits and vegetables.
The move is part of an effort to harmonize
Canadian pesticide rules with those
of the United States, which tend to
allow higher residue levels in food. The
SPP is not about raising food standards;
it is about removing “trade irritants”
and deregulating the food industries.
Cancer is not a lifestyle issue or a
genetics issue so much as it is a political
issue. And the same corporate sector
that insists that Canadians accept their
agenda for “prosperity” will strongly
resist the changes to environmental and
health regulations needed to wage a true
war on cancer.
Robert Chernomas is an economics
professor at the University of Manitoba and a
member of the Council of Canadians’ Board of Directors.
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Photo credit: Christina Riley
