Dioxin in agent orange herbicide impacts the human reproductive system and is associated with development of prostate and other cancers and also with birth defects in children.

Now a scandal is breaking over payments made for years by the Monsanto chemical company to a leading UK researcher into the effects of dioxin on humans. Sir Richard Doll, an Oxford scientist who did heroic work exposing the fact that smoking causes lung cancer, periodically received $1,500 a day as a consultant to Monsanto while researching effects of Agent Orange on humans.

Yesterday, Guardian, UK health editor Sarah Boseley alleged that Doll hid his paid consultancies with Monsanto, Dow Chemicals and other companies while issuing reassuring reports about Agent Orange and vinyl chloride. Boseley writes:
(full story…)

Canadian firefighter and prostate cancer warrior John Wagontall has cycled a long way since he set out from Victoria, BC in May of 2006 heading for St. John’s, NL (see John Wagontall’s Cycle Across Canada Click the link then look downpage).

A few days ago, June 20, John reached Sudbury Ontario.

Lethbridge firefighter and prostate cancer warrior cyclist John Wagontall (center) had worked up an appetite before he dropped into Sudbury’s number one fire station for spaghetti June 20.

Averaging 150 kilometers a day, Wagontall is cycling across the country from firehouse to firehouse, in a personal tour de force, to raise awareness for prostate cancer.

The 47-year-old spent part of the day on the road, cycling 196 kilometers from Thunder Bay to the Big Nickel, and spent the rest of it talking with people about his personal struggle with prostate cancer.

Diagnosed in 2004, Wagontall’s story does not come with a happy ending.

“I’m dying of prostrate cancer and it’s a needless death,” Wagontall said frankly. “My doctor’s tell me I won’t live to see 55.”

“Prostate cancer has a 95 percent cure rate, yet only three percent of men are being cured. Men need to know they have to be tested in order to catch it early on so they can be treated. In my case, the cancer has already spread to my bladder and lymph system.”
(full story…)

Study links cancer rate to Mass. dye plant

AP reports in national newpapers today say that a “disturbingly high number of cancer cases have been linked to a former textile dye-making plant and its waste ponds, where several people now battling cancer swam when they were children, state health officials say.”
(full story…)

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.

Company stays away from forum
Posted by the Asbury Park Press [New Jersey] on 01/13/06
BY JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU

TOMS RIVER — Angered that a representative of Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corp. did not attend the Jan. 9 meeting of the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster, Dover Township Council members said Tuesday that they will adopt a resolution demanding that the company send someone to future citizens committee meetings.
(full story…)

Citizens in Berkley, MA, population 6,200 citizens in southeastern Massachusetts (source: Berkely fire chief) , say a local dump site is causing cancer.

In a story subtitled “What if where one chose to live dictated whether or not they died of cancer?,” the Taunton Gazette reports:

A group of neighbors on Burt Street claims this may be the case, because they say a toxic waste cleanup site may not have been properly purified.

The site is part of a North Main Street property, known as Cranberry Crossing, that was used from the mid-1930s to the 1960s as a tannery waste dumping ground.”

A developer plans to build on this land and residents are upset.
(full story…)