It seems like everyday I hear about another person struck down with cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, if you are male in this country, you have a 47% chance of getting cancer. If you are female, you fare a little better, but you still have a whopping 38% lifetime chance of getting cancer. Despite the greatly funded War on Cancer, it seems we have made little progress.

I just came across the film trailer about this very subject, based on the book, Living Downstream, by cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. Her mission with this amazing documentary film is to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links. The connection she makes between the health of our bodies and the health of our air, land and water is very powerful.

We often think that genetics play a role in this disease. According to the authors of a major review on diet and cancer, prepared for the U.S. Congress in 1981, genetics only determines about 2-3% of the total cancer risk.  Quite a few of Sandra’s family had cancer which indicated it was “in her genes.” However, Sandra was adopted. That began her own search into what else families had in common besides their DNA, which, of course, led to the environment around us.,

A story which breaks tonight on CNN, Toxic America , June 2 and June 3 at 8:00 p.m. ET, investigates the environment’s effects on our well-being as part of Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s special.   It discusses the same issues that Sandra found, that pervasive chemicals are on the move, invading our land and our bodies.  I was fortunate enough to be introduced many years ago to safe, non-toxic household cleaners so have at least been able to eliminate the toxins from the inside of our home; however, both the CNN special and Sandra’s moving story is about industrial pollution, an issue we should all be concerned about.

In the book, The China Study, T. Colin Campbell, PhD, after a long career in research and policy making, believes it is not just the synthetic chemicals in our environment and in our food,  nor the genes we inherit from our parents that leads to diseases such as cancer, but that a good diet based on plant-based foods are the healthiest and tend to avoid chronic disease.  His “China Study”  produced more than 8,000 statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and disease.

My own four steps to address this “war on cancer” include the following:

1.  Continue to use my non-toxic, environmentally safe household products.

2.  Educate myself by watching the CNN special on June 2, 3 (Join the live blog conversation starting at 8 PM ET on June 3rd:  http://www.enviroblog.org.) as well as seeing the documentary, Living Downstream.

3.  Seriously consider eating more of a plant-based diet and buy as much local food as possible.

4.  Continue taking whole food supplements to feed my cells.

What are your steps in fighting the “war on cancer?”

“One is not born into the world to do everything,
but to do something.” Henry David Thoreau

When I found out about this movie, OCEANS, I was very excited to share the news. I plan to see it with our grandchildren so they can see the wonders that nature offers us all. If you go during the first week of its showing (it opened today – Earth Day) Disney will donate some of the proceeds to saving the coral reef.

As I was sorting my recycling today at the local recycle bins I thought about my own childhood and how that was not even in my radar to do. We were not then aware of how little things like recycling and using non-toxic products could help our planet (and our breathing space!)  Chemicals were just then really becoming the norm to “super clean” our bathrooms, kitchen floors, etc. My mom loved her bleach and Ajax and all those super cleaners.

It wasn’t until I was a grandmother that I discovered that toxins in our home really affected all of us. Now my grandchildren benefit. I love sharing everything I know about pollution, environmentally-safe products, recycling, etc. with other families now. (One of the moms I shared a green product with did a post about it).  Be sure and check it out as there is a giveaway offered as well.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfully committed citizens can change
the world.
Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead

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