AlterNet: Government Suppresses Major Public Health Report

[marmar]

Government Suppresses Major Public Health Report

By Maggie Mahar, AlterNet. Posted February 12, 2008.

The public has been denied important information on the link between pollution and health problems including lung, colon and breast cancer.



This article originally appeared on Health Beat.

The Center for Public Integrity, a public interest investigative journalism organization, has obtained copies of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of environmental and health data in eight Great Lakes states that was scheduled for publication in July 2007. The report, which pointed to elevated rates of lung, colon, and breast cancer; low birth weight; and infant mortality in several of the geographical areas of concern has not yet been made public.

A few days before the report was slated to be released, it was pulled. Meanwhile, at precisely the same time, its lead author, Christopher De Rosa, has been removed from the position he held since 1992. The Center for Public Integrity is asking why.

The study, "Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern" was developed by the CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) at the request of the International Joint Commission, an independent U.S-Canadian organization that monitors and advises both governments on the use and quality of boundary waters.

The CDC report brings together two sets of data: environmental data on known "areas of concern" -- including superfund sites and hazardous waste dumps -- and separate health data collected by county or, in some cases, smaller geographical regions.

The study does not try to prove cause and effect. Instead, it outlines areas for further study and data collection on the link between pollution and health. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/76815/

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. This definitely deserves a K & R n/t

[Donnachaidh]

2. This is a DROP in the bucket

Read "The Secret History of the War on Cancer" by Devra Davis. A partial bio of the lady here, from Wiki:

(b. 1946) is an American epidemiologist and the author of When Smoke Ran Like Water, which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2002. Davis's second book, The Secret History of the War on Cancer was published by Basic Books in October 2007.

She is currently the director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, and Visiting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School. A former Scholar in Residence at the National Academies of Science, she completed her Ph.D. in science studies at the University of Chicago as a Danforth Fellow, and a M.P.H. at Johns Hopkins University as a National Cancer Institute post-doctoral fellow. Davis received a B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1967.


She goes into detail as to HOW and WHY our government, medical community and corporations have buried hundreds of reports on cancers and HOW they are started.

An amazing book. And a REAL eye-opener.

[lynnertic]

3. kick again.

[marmar]

4. A kick of your kick.....

:kick:

[malaise]

5. Is there anything this government hasn't suppressed

for its corporate friends?

[shanti]

6. yet another report "suppressed"?????

busy little beaver, aren't they?

[Supersedeas]

7. k&r because we can't rely on the GoP Media Establishment to inform us