Please support cancer prevention -

sign on to the Cancer Prevention Declaration!


Many of us are unaware that more than half of cancers are preventable, caused by our exposures to harmful substances, including in chemicals in household products, cleaners, pesticides, and additives in our food.

More than one third of Canadian women and nearly half of Canadian men will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives.  That means that this year, nearly 150,000 Canadians will learn they have cancer and 70,000 will die from cancer. By the end of this decade, more Canadians will die of cancer than of any other cause.

It is time to end this epidemic, and focus on cancer prevention.  We must urge all our elected officials to come together and stop cancer before it starts.

A group of Canadian environment, health, labour, and social justice leaders have come together to form Prevent Cancer Now (PCN), and national coalition that will put the prevention of cancer first, in government policy, in
delivery of health services, and in the public's mind.  PCN has developed a declaration that details a number of actions that government can take to attack the root causes of this terrible disease, and we urge your organization to join us in signing the Cancer Prevention Declaration.

PCN will be soliciting support for the Declaration for presentation to Parliament in Canadian Cancer Month (April) as we celebrate Earth Day.

Please take a moment and sign the Cancer Prevention  Declaration today.

For more information or to sign on, contact Prevent Cancer Now at info@preventcancernow.ca
or by phone at 613-482-8124.

 Please include your name, organization name, email, and contact information
by Friday, April 20, 2006.

Cancer Prevention Declaration

We, the undersigned, do not accept that Canada's epidemic rates of cancer are the price we must pay for modern living.
  
We are no longer prepared to grant that cancer has become a recognized disease of childhood; that our women friends are expected to stoically sport scarves and turbans while awaiting an uncertain fate from breast cancer;
that young men are increasingly diagnosed with testicular cancer; and that workers in many occupations are dying in order to make a living.

Taking all cancers together, over one third of Canadian females, and closer to half of all Canadian males will know the fear, pain, and anguish of cancer at some point in their lives.

Cancer is imposing a huge and growing burden on Canada's health care system, draining valuable public resources and affecting our nation's productivity.

Scientists tell us we know enough now to prevent well over half of all cancers. Good personal habits, such as not smoking and drinking alcohol in moderation, are important, but we must also stop the toxic trespass of
carcinogens into our bodies from the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat.

 We appeal to the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, the Minister of Health, the Honourable Tony Clement, and the Minister of Environment, the Honourable Rona Ambrose, to make primary cancer prevention a national priority.

We applaud your $260 million commitment to the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control, and we urge that a significant portion of this funding be dedicated to cancer prevention - stopping cancer before it starts.

We ask you to act immediately to reduce or eliminate exposure to known and suspected carcinogens, in our homes, schools, workplaces and ecosystems throughout Canada.

.        We urge you to meet, and even exceed, the chemical stewardship goals of the European Union's REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) legislation and the Strategic Approach to
International Chemicals Management (SAICM).

.        We ask you to adopt a new approach to pollution prevention in Canada, particularly as this applies to occupational hazards. This initiative would apply to all toxic substances in commercial use, and emphasize the elimination of known and suspected carcinogens from our workplaces. We further ask that you fund a national Just Transition Commission to ensure that workers are able to shift from toxic jobs and industries to sustainable, equitable employment opportunities in healthy communities.

.        We ask you to strike an independent, multi-stakeholder, Green Chemistry Task Force that will explore legislative and other mechanisms to establish and encourage new productive capacity in the design, manufacture,
and use of chemicals that are safer for biological and ecological systems, and place Canada on the path to a sustainable future.

.        We ask you to work with other stakeholders to develop a Toxics Use and Products Reduction Act  that will provide incentives for industry to reduce the amounts of toxic chemicals used.

.        We ask you to immediately implement product labeling laws requiring the disclosure of all possible, probable and known carcinogens, so that consumers can make informed purchase choices.

.        We ask you to implement government procurement contracts requiring vendors to provide carcinogen-free products.

.        We ask you to fund a national cancer registry requiring local and provincial cancer registries to take occupational and environmental
histories of patients.

.        We ask you to work with your provincial, territorial and municipal
counterparts to effectively accomplish the above-mentioned strategies and
more.

 

As Canadians, we have a shared responsibility to eliminate the causes of
cancer. To focus on treatment and 'the cure' for cancer is good and
necessary. To focus on eliminating the root causes of cancer is better.

 

We ask that you act to prevent cancer now.

 

Signed:    

 

Liz Armstrong, Co-Chair, Prevent Cancer Now

Guy Dauncey, Co-Chair, Prevent Cancer Now

Elizabeth May, Executive Director, Sierra Club of Canada