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Hispanics needed for bone marrow register
Given the opportunity to save a stranger’s life, would you? Joining the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) provides the opportunity to do just that.
Every year approximately 30,000 people in the United States are stricken with a blood-related disease, including leukemia and aplastic anemia. For many of these patients, a marrow transplant is the only cure.
Tissue types are inherited; therefore, it is more likely for a patient to find a compatible donor from someone of a similar ethnic background. 70% of patients must search the NMDP Registry for an unrelated donor because no match exists within their immediate family. On any given day, over 3,000 patients search the National Registry hoping to find someone who is a perfect match.
Currently, ethnic minorities only comprise 25% of the National Registry. As a result, the odds of an ethnic minority patient finding a match can be extremely difficult. There is a tremendous need for more African Americans, American Indians, Asians and Hispanics to join the program. The NMDP continually strives to improve the odds for all patients through the assistance of community-minded individuals.
Volunteering to become a potential marrow donor is quick, simple and safe. Donors are asked to complete a brief registration form, and then have a simple blood test. Only a tablespoon of blood will be drawn and tested. Sterile needles and supplies are used only once and are safely discarded. A simple procedure may change someone’s life forever.
Due to the high cost of HLA typing, a $30, tax-deductible donation is necessary for registration. This is reduced from around $100 with funding from a grant. However, the Colorado Marrow Donor Program relies on the generosity of their donors to help offset the remaining $30 cost. Due to the low representation of minority donors, a grant exists to cover the entire testing fee. Once identified as a match the patient’s insurance covers everything.
Compassion for Kids, McBee Photo.Graphics and the Colorado Marrow Donor Program will provide an opportunity to join the National Registry on April 12 from 4 to 7 p.m. at McBee Photo.Graphics on 25 E. Cheyenne Rd. Donors need to be in general good health and between the ages of 18 and 60. For more information, contact Compassion for Kids at 719-559-3128 or the Colorado Marrow Donor Program at 800-619-1099.
Laying blame
Chemicals cause thousands of preventable cancer deaths, American says
Sam Epstein says public ignorance about environmentally caused cancers is due to 'overwhelming' indifference to the problem among governments.
By Steve Arnold
The Hamilton Spectator
Jan 26, 2006 - An American professor says Canada's "cancer establishment" and multinational corporations are hiding vital information about cancer-causing chemicals in the environment and workplaces.
The result, Dr. Sam Epstein said yesterday, is thousands of preventable deaths and a major defeat in the war on cancer.
Epstein, author of 11 books and more than 260 academic articles on cancer, its risks and politics, is a professor emeritus of environmental and occupational medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health and chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition.
He told the McMaster World Congress that agencies such as the National Cancer Institute of Canada and Canadian Cancer Society are relying on faulty science when they claim industrial and environmental exposure to some chemicals accounts for only a tiny percentage of all cancers.
"There is no question about the reckless criminal conduct of corporations that is responsible for thousands of preventable cancer deaths," he said.
"We're just not dealing with a fundamental challenge to society to clean up its act."
Epstein made the comments at McMaster's 27th World Congress, an annual gathering of academics, students and the business community, dedicated this year to corporate governance. The conference, being held downtown, runs until tomorrow.
Epstein has written extensively on those allegations. In one 1990 publication in the International Journal of Health Services, he wrote that chemical companies frequently hide negative test results of their products to keep profitable compounds on the market.
He illustrated that allegation with the example of the U.S.-based Velsicol Chemical Company, maker of two pesticides widely used to kill termites in homes. The company praised the safety of the products, but failed to acknowledge studies which linked the products to aplastic anemia and lung cancer. Commercial sale of the products in the United States was banned in 1988 after several lawsuits.
Epstein argued the belief that environmental and industrial exposure is responsible for only a small amount of cancer is based on faulty science from the 1970s and 1980s, studies which based their conclusions on samples which excluded the oldest and poorest parts of the population, thus severely downplaying the real impact of such exposure.
The result of relying on these studies, he adds, is a failure to respond to alarming increases in non-smoking related cancers, especially among children.
In one generation, Epstein said, such cancers have risen by 50 per cent but instead of identifying cancer-causing agents and pushing governments to act against them, cancer agencies have focused on screening people for vulnerability to the disease and on treatments.
"There are some very critical issues here that have to be faced up to," he said. "The public is just not aware of a vast body of scientific information on avoiding these cancers because there is an overwhelming indifference at a government level."
Heather Logan, director of cancer control policy for the Canadian Cancer Society and National Cancer Institute of Canada, argued those studies -- many by British scientist Richard Doll -- concluded only that the average cancer risk in the population from environmental and industrial exposure is small.
Some parts of the population, such as asbestos miners, are known to be at much higher risk and require special support. Logan added the agencies remain committed to funding research into all causes of cancer.
"We are a strong supporter of providing information and ensuring that people have the information to make informed decisions," she said.
Canada's chemical industry has also made large investments in cancer research and prevention. Some of those are laid out in a 2004 document issued by the Canadian Chemical Producers' Association on the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster. A toxic chemical leak from a Union Carbide plant in that Indian city killed and injured thousands.
Since then, the industry group said, its 65 members have adopted a program called Responsible Care, aimed at "making the entire chemical life cycle safer, from research to the use, reuse and eventual disposal of existing chemicals."
The initiative includes a number of safety programs, sharing of information on best practices for plant operations and security assessments. Member companies are required to have their operations audited every three years. The industry also supports a range of cancer research projects.
sarnold@thespec.com
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