More cancer screening could reduce deaths: report
Tue, 11 Apr 2006
CBC News

Some of the 70,400 Canadians expected to die from cancer this year could survive if screening programs were expanded and improved, according to a new report released Tuesday.

The Canadian Cancer Society estimates 153,100 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in Canada in 2006, and more than half that number of people will die.

It says the numbers would be lower if there were more screening programs for cervical, breast and colorectal cancer.

For colorectal cancer, screening can help prevent malignancies from developing. Pre-cancerous polyps can be detected during a simple fecal occult blood test and snipped off during a colonoscopy. The test is recommended every two years for those over 50.

An estimated 20,000 Canadians will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer this year, and 8,500 will die from it.

“If they had [the test] every two years, we could reduce the death rates from colorectal cancer by 17 per cent and that’s based on strong scientific evidence,” said Heather Logan, the cancer society’s director of cancer control policy.
Full story at CBC News

The Canadian Cancer Society is urging municipalities across New Brunswick to ban the use of pesticides on residential and public property.
Apr 12 2006 CBC News

The Canadian Cancer Society says evidence linking pesticides with cancer is growing, and it simply doesn’t make sense to use a substance that could cause cancer to make a lawn look pretty.

Lynn Ann Duffley speaks for the Canadian Cancer Society in New Brunswick and says a ban is especially important to protect children. “We do know that children are very susceptible to the toxins within pesticides. And we know that repeated exposures to pesticides can increase the incidence of brain cancer, leukemia, non-hodgkins lymphoma.”

CropLife Canada is a trade association that represents pesticide companies, and its executive director Peter MacLeod rejects the cancer society’s argument. “I think that their explanation is very simplistic and misleading.”

MacLeod says no pesticide used in Canada is known to cause cancer, and he believes towns and cities should steer clear of regulation. “We just feel that municipalities by and large do not have the scientific capacity to make that choice, whether a product should be used or not. We should leave that to Health Canada.”

Seventy-three municipalities across Canada have already banned pesticide use, but only three of those are in New Brunswick – Shediac, Caraquet and Sackville. St. Andrews is holding a public hearing on the matter on April 24.