Life's Delicate Balance
Causes and Prevention of Breast Cancer
by Janette D. Sherman, M.D.

Excerpts from Chapter 1
All Life is Connected
Cancer in humans and wildlife

Man has lost the ability to foresee and to forestall.  
He will end by destroying the earth.
    --Albert Schweitzer quoted in Silent Spring

It may be that biologists, rather than physicians, will be the major contributors to the health of our planet and its people. It was Rachel Carson, a biologist, who researched and wrote of the harm to wildlife caused by the combined action of pesticides and radiation.  In the tradition of the observant biologist, is Theo Colborn who, with her colleagues, provided a significant breakthrough in understanding the hormonal effects of environmental contaminants.  In July 1991, was a gathering of some of the world's most astute scientists at the Wingspread Conference Center in Wisconsin where they defined the pattern of diverse endocrine malfunction seen throughout the animal kingdom.  They revealed a picture of the Brave New World we should rigorously seek no leave as a legacy to our children.

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The data derived from animal observations are unequivocal: breast and genital cancers, genital abnormalities, interference with sexual development, and changes in reproductive behavior are all expressions of a root cause.  A possible connection between women with breast cancer and those having children with reversed sexual orientation is a question that bears study.  This is not an idea from science fiction, considering what we have learned from observing wildlife and the effects of inappropriate hormonal influence upon the breast, brain, and reproductive organs.  If an unequivocal answer were to emerge from human observation, it could have a significant impact upon the prevailing political and economic landscape, and may finally settle the nature or nurture issue of sexual orientation.  

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SILENT SPRING - SILENT WOMEN:

Considering the accumulated knowledge linking chemical and radioactive contamination of the environment with increasing breast cancer rates means we must focus our energies and efforts on prevention.  Early were the eloquent words and pleas for prevention from Rachel Carson.  Her book, Silent Spring, originally published in 1962, while she herself was suffering from breast cancer, is still a best seller.   Ms. Carson documented wholesale killing of species; animals, birds, fish, insects; the destruction of food and shelter for wild creatures; failure of reproduction; damage to the nervous system; tumors in wild animals; increasing rates of leukemia in children; and chronicled the pesticides and chemicals known at that time to cause cancer.  This was over thirty years ago  Carson's is a book for every citizen, for without understanding of our collective actions and permissions, we cannot govern democratically.  In Australia, a citizen is required to vote.  In the US, proclaimed by some politicians as the "greatest democracy on earth", often fewer than 50% bother to vote in a major election.  Of those who do take the time to register and vote, few are sufficiently alert and/or educated to vote with intelligence, thought and compassion.  Requiring participation in the governance of ones' own country is not a bad idea.  Requiring thoughtful voting may be more difficult, especially when it comes to such issues as cancer, pesticide use, consumer products, nuclear radiation, toxic chemicals, and environmental destruction.  Taking this thought one step farther, this democracy could do far worse than to require reading of Silent Spring as a requirement to vote!  Radical?  Perhaps.  But is the on-going cancer epidemic any less radical?

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  Note:  The above is without the references Dr. Sherman utilized in writing Life's Delicate Balance.  The actual book contains all reference material.