http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1148
Europe to curtail common chemicals that cause most cancers, European Public
Health Alliance (EPHA) Environment Network (EEN), Prof. Dominique Belpomme
2004.09.28: Murray 2005.01.20 rmforall

http://www.pan-uk.org/pestnews/pn63/pn63p6.pdf [ photo ]
http://www.pan-uk.org/pestnews/pn63/pn63p6.htm

"In France, between 70% and 80% of cancers are now due to environmental
pollution from chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polyvinyl
chloride, some heavy metals, nitrates, nitrites, dioxins, some food
additives and pesticides."

PAN International Website Pesticides News No. 63, March 2003, page 6

Rise in cancers from environmental chemicals

Professor Dominique Belpomme, a medical oncologist from the University of
Paris, has new research showing that environmental exposures to pesticides
and other contaminants are now more significant as a cause of cancer than
tobacco. He summarised his findings during the PAN Europe network members'
conference in Copenhagen.

IARC, the International Agency for Cancer Research, now considers data
showing environmental pollutants such as pesticides are more significant in
causing cancer than previously thought.

This is an important milestone for a team of French scientists who have
challenged the orthodox notion that tobacco is still the main cause of
cancer across all the industrialised nations.

Primary prevention policies

'It is now clear that these environmental factors account for the increased
incidence of cancers in all industrialised countries,' said Professor
Dominique Belpomme, a medical oncologist and president of the French
Association for Research on Treatments Against Cancer (ARTAC).

'Public health policies in these countries must now focus on the
relationship between environment and health, as the French Government is
doing. Realistic primary prevention policies should be introduced with the
aim of avoiding the deleterious factors which we introduce into the
environment.'

Tobacco less important

Before his data had been published and accepted by the French scientific
community, Professor Belpomme spoke at the PAN Europe network members'
conference in Copenhagen. In his speech, Professor Belpomme explained why
tobacco is now being considered less significant as the main cause of
cancer.

In 1981, Sir Richard Peto and Sir Richard Doll, the famous British
researchers, estimated that tobacco accounted for about 30% of mortality by
cancer. But Professor Belpomme has calculated that in France, tobacco now
only causes between 15 and 20% of new cases of cancer. Deaths from such
cancers are between 18% and 22%.

These figures would be similar in other industrialised countries, and
Professor Belpomme argued that governments in these countries should now
focus more on the relationship between the environment and health.

In France, deaths from cancer have doubled since the Second World War
and now stand at 150,000 people each year. At the same time, cancer
incidence has increased dramatically during the last 20 years and there are
now 280,000 new cases a year.

Cancers due to occupational exposure represent no more than 5% to 6% of
cases.
Genetic factors account for no more than 5% of cases,
and it had been shown that some viral contaminations could explain the
occurrence of 10% of the cases, including primary liver cancer, leukaemia
and lymphoma.
Natural and artificial radioactivity could account for another 10% of cancer
cases, including soft tissue sarcoma, leukaemia and lymphoma.

Environmental pollution

'These factors alone cannot contribute to the recent increase in cancer
incidence. So, it is clear that environmental factors are involved, mainly
through food and/or atmospheric pollution in cities, at home or at work.'

In France, between 70% and 80% of cancers are now due to environmental
pollution from chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polyvinyl
chloride, some heavy metals, nitrates, nitrites, dioxins, some food
additives and pesticides.

Some pesticides have been classified as carcinogenic by international
organisations including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the US
and the IARC based in Lyons, France (an agency of the World Health
Organisation).

'Furthermore, an increasing number of epidemiological hot spot studies
strongly suggest that pesticide exposure is associated with several types of
cancers, including leukaemia, soft tissue sarcoma, brain tumours, testicular
cancer and child cancers. The involvement of pesticides in the increased
incidence of prostate or breast cancers has still to be determined.'

Professor Belpomme argued that the precautionary principle demands that
pesticides classified as carcinogenic by IARC and the US EPA should be
prohibited. The prohibition should cover US EPA groups L1 (likely to cause
cancer at high doses) and L2 (likely to be carcinogenic to people) and
groups I (carcinogenic to humans), IIA (probably carcinogenic to humans) and
IIB (possibly carcinogenic to humans).

Professor Belpomme represents PAN Europe on the European Commission's
Environment and Health Strategy technical working group on endocrine
disruptors, which has concentrated on the integrated monitoring of endocrine
disrupting chemicals: he has written a letter to the group chairman and
other members pointing out the need to consider the cancer causing
properties of these chemicals as well as their endocrine disrupting ones.

Database of pesticide effects

Finally, Professor Belpomme explained that he is contributing to the
French national anti-cancer programme agreed by President Jacques Chirac and
run by the French health ministry. Professor Belpomme is in charge of the
environmental part of the programme, and has already argued that pesticides
should be a top priority. He asked PAN Europe to help by contributing to a
'scientifically sound' database linking pesticides to their health effects.

To discuss his concerns further, Professor Belpomme and ARTAC have
organised an international meeting on the links between cancer and the
environment - examining the role of pesticides in particular - on 7 May this
year in Paris.

Les grands défis de la politique de santé en France et en Europe, D
Belpomme, Ecologie et Santé, Editions Librairie de Médicis, France, 2003.
Ces maladies créées par l'homme. Comment la dégradation de l'environnement
met en péril notre santé, D Belpomme and Bernard Pascuito, 2004.

Prof. Belpomme can be contacted at ARTAC, 57-59 rue de la Convention, 75015,
Paris, France email artac@... , Website www.artac.info
[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 63, March 2003, page 6]

Editor admin@...
*************************************************************

http://www.env-health.org/a/1420

European NGOs launch campaign for safer chemicals

European Public Health Alliance director Tamsin Rose addressed a packed
meeting in the European Parliament on Tuesday, 28 September 2004 to
emphasise that REACH, the EU's proposed chemical legislation, was not
primarily to do with chemicals and science but "about the health of our
citizens and the environment in which we live."

Speaking on behalf of a broad-based platform of health and environment NGOs,
Ms Rose told MEPs that REACH was the most important dossier they would deal
with during their five years in the Parliament. "Ninety-three per cent of
European citizens think chemical safety is important for their health," she
said.

Safety data is currently available on only 14% of chemicals produced at
levels of more than 1,000 tonnes per annum.

The 30,000 chemicals that were already on the market in 1981, when safety
regulation was introduced, still have no safety data. (1)

"During 20 years of continued exposure, we have been living as guinea pigs
without any awareness of how little is known on the safety of chemicals in
regular use," Ms Rose said. "Legislation on REACH should phase out the use
of hazardous chemicals, only allowing their continued use if no safer
alternatives are available and their use is essential to society," she said.

French cancer professor Dominique Belpomme told the meeting of concern
within the medical community. "Many scientists now believe that the
environment, and more specifically the chemical pollution of the physical
environment, has a major role in explaining the origins of cancer and
numerous other diseases, such as some malformations of the reproductive
system, certain diseases of the nervous system, allergies and asthma in
children."

Professor Belpomme said that in France, the incidence of breast cancer had
doubled, and prostate cancers had tripled, during the past twenty years.
Children are also affected.

Quoting an IARC study (2), he said that over the past 20-30 years, the
number of paediatric cancers has increased by 1% per year.

A hundred international scientists, including several Nobel Prize winners,
and 200 NGOs have signed Prof. Belpomme's call for a withdrawal of products
containing harmful chemicals, known as The Paris Appeal (3).

Italian MEP Guido Sacconi, who hosted the meeting, said that certain
"pressures" had led to delays in the legislation. As EU parliamentary
Rapporteur on REACH for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
Committee, he supported the efforts of the platform of health and
environment NGOs.

The following day, platform representatives including members of EEN, EPHA,
Women in Europe for a Common Future, WWF, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace,
and European Environment Bureau were visiting MEPs from their own countries.

All carry the unified message on the phasing out of harmful chemicals and
the need for stronger registration and more transparent information on the
chemical composition of goods that European consumers buy and use every day.

EPHA Environment Network (EEN) is a new international NGO that brings
together networks and groups advocating environmental protection as a means
to improving health and well being. (4)

More information:
Genon Jensen, Director, EPHA Environment Network (EEN),
tel: +32 2 233 3885, email: genon@...;
Tamsin Rose, General Secretary, European Public Health Alliance,
tel: +32 2 233 3886, email tamsin@...

Below you will find papers by Professor Dominique Belpomme and Tamsin Rose

Notes to editors:
1.Before regulation was introduced in 1981, industry was not required to
provide data on chemicals. When the regulation was introduced, it applied
only to new chemicals coming onto the market. Those already on the market in
1981 still do not have safety data. Since the requirement was introduced,
the rate of new chemicals arriving on the market date has slowed
considerably.

2.IARC: International Agency for Research on Cancer

3.The Paris Appeal can be viewed at www.artac.info

4.For more information on EPHA Environment Network, www.env-health.org

Information release

NGO briefing

http://www.env-health.org/IMG/pdf/Speech_Belpomme_English.pdf
Speech Professor Belpomme - English, 2 pages

Speech Professor Belpomme -FR

http://www.env-health.org/IMG/pdf/Speech_Tamsin_Rose.pdf
Speech Tamsin Rose - English, 2 pages

Last modified on October 4th 2004.

Highlights

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http://www.preventcancer.com/publications/pdf/REACH_Tab_050304.pdf
REACH: An Unprecedented European Initiative for Regulating Industrial
Chemicals, Samuel S. Epstein MD, 2004.05.07, 43 pages
*************************************************************

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1145
EPA Preliminary Remedial Goals (PRG) 2003 Oct, air and tap water --
methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid -- sources omitted are methanol from
aspartame, dark wines and liquors, fruit pectins: Murray 2005.01.18 rmforall

[ Introductory summary by Rich Murray: They gave the same data on
2004.10.27. I have put the data for methanol, formaldehyde, and formic acid
together in this plain text version, since oral ingestion of methanol,
whether from the 11% methanol component of aspartame, or the similar level
of methanol impurity in dark wines and liquors, about one part in ten
thousand, inevitably leads to full absorption in the human GI tract. Some
is excreted, but most is largely converted into formaldehyde, and thence
largely converted into formic acid -- both potent, culmulative toxins that
affect all cells and tissues.

Very large amounts of methanol are released by bacterial degradation of
pectins from fruits and vegetables in the human colon:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1143
antiseptic? antifungal? antiviral? methanol (formaldehyde, formic acid)
disposition: Bouchard M et al, full plain text, 2001: substantial sources
are degradation of fruit pectins, liquors, aspartame, smoke: Murray
2005.01.05 rmforall

So, the key fact here is the RfDo, a lifetime safe level for daily ingested
oral exposure, which for these three chemicals are:

0.5 mg, 0.15 mg, and 2 mg per kg per day, which for a smallish adult of 60
kg, is 30 mg, 9 mg, and 120 mg daily for methanol, formaldehyde, formic
acid.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1141
Nurses Health Study can quickly reveal the extent of aspartame (methanol,
formaldehyde, formic acid) toxicity: Murray 2004.11.21 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1108
faults in 1999 July EPA 468-page formaldehyde profile:
Elzbieta Skrzydlewska PhD, Assc. Prof., Medical U. of Bialystok, Poland,
abstracts -- ethanol, methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid, acetaldehyde,
lipid peroxidation, green tea, aging, Lyme disease:
Murray 2004.08.08 rmforall

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@...
1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505 USA 505-501-2298
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
139 members, 1,148 posts in a public searchable archive

The moderated newsgroup, bionet.toxicology , has accepted 27 of my long
reviews since March 24:

Dr. Charles "Chuck" A. Miller III rellim@...
Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
374 Johnston Building, SL29
Tulane Univ. School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
1430 Tulane Avenue New Orleans, LA 70112 (504)585-6942
Bionet.toxicology news group http://www.bio.net/hypermail/toxicol/current

[ NutraSweet, Equal, Canderel, Benevia, E951 ]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/927
Donald Rumsfeld, 1977 head of Searle Corp., got aspartame FDA approval:
Turner: Murray 2002.12.23 rmforall

A very detailed, highly credible account of the dubious approval process for
aspartame in July, 1981 is part of the just released two-hour documentary
"Sweet Misery, A Poisoned World: An Industry Case Study of a Food Supply
In Crisis" by Cori Brackett: cori@...
http://www.soundandfuryproductions.com/ 520-624-9710
2301 East Broadway, Suite 111 Tucson, AZ 85719

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartame/messages
Aspartame Victims Support Group Edward Bryant Holman, Chief Moderator
823 members, 17,954 posts in a public, searchable archive
http://www.presidiotex.com/aspartame/ bryanth@...

http://www.HolisticMed.com/aspartame mgold@...
Aspartame Toxicity Information Center Mark D. Gold also Co-Moderator
12 East Side Drive #2-18 Concord, NH 03301 603-225-2110
http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/abuse/methanol.html
"Scientific Abuse in Aspartame Research"

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/957
safety of aspartame Part 1/2 12.4.2: EC HCPD-G SCF:
Murray 2003.01.12 rmforall EU Scientific Committee on Food, a whitewash

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1045
http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/scf2002-response.htm
Mark Gold exhaustively critiques European Commission Scientific
Committee on Food re aspartame ( 2002.12.04 ): 59 pages, 230 references

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1131
genotoxicity of aspartame in human lymphocytes 2004.07.29 full plain text,
Rencuzogullari E et al, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey 2004 Aug: Murray
2004.11.06 rmforall
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