Prevention is the cure!
WECF's message on primary prevention of breast cancer well received at Breast Cancer Conference in Berlin (press releases in English and German)
16.04.2008 |Chantal van den Bossche
WECF at 6th European Breast Cancer Conference in Berlin
WECF asked this morning at 6th European Breast Cancer Conference in Berlin (EBCC6) for strategy on primary prevention of breast cancer - European Parliament passed an important resolution on combatting cancer to highlight the environmental causes behind the disease.
Berlin, Germany, April 16th 2008. Mounting evidence points to exposure to environmental contaminants as a major concern in relation to rising cases of breast cancer. To highlight this fact Women in Europe organised this morning a meeting for the press and attendants of the European Breast Cancer conference.
Environmental pollution has only just started to surface as a subject when talking about prevention and conference attendants this morning were on the whole very receptive towards WECF’s message. An oncologist from Sweden emphasised that breast cancer is a multifactorial disease en we need indeed much more research into the causes.
WECF, as the women's organisation on health and the environment, has been calling on the EU for years for a strategy on the primary prevention of breast cancer. And finally, this week the European Parliament passed an important resolution on combatting cancer, with an overwhelming majority of Euro-MPs agreeing to amendments proposed by Green MEP Caroline Lucas, to highlight the environmental causes behind the disease.
Drawing on scientific evidence showing that cancers can be caused by environmental factors including toxic chemicals found in household goods, pesticides and poor air quality, this is considered to be a landmark decision and seen as a recognition of the fact that environmental causes like pollution and chemical contamination must be considered in any strategy to combat cancer.
In its briefing in January “Politics and Prevention: linking breast cancer and the environment’ WECF stated that tens of thousands of cases of breast cancer could be prevented in the EU if governments, policy makers and cancer organizations recognized environmental and occupational risk factors as a contributory factor in the rising breast cancer epidemic.
The new EU resolution may have far reaching repercussions according to Helen Lynn of WECF: “We support the call to set up a EU cancer task force and urge each country’s Health Minister to ensure that primary prevention is the way forward”.
Heilen ist gut, vorbeugen ist besser!
In Europa stirbt jede sechs Minuten eine Frau an Brustkrebs
WECF fordert heute in Berlin Primärprävention durch die Verringerung krankmachender Chemikalien - EU Parlament will Umweltbelastung als Ursache für Krebs stärker in Visier nehmenDie europäische Frauen- und Umweltorganisation WECF- Women in Europe for Common Future fordert, gesundheitsschädigende Chemiklalien und Arbeitsplatzbedingungen als Risikofaktoren für die Entstehung von Brustkrebs anzuerkennen und der Prävention Priorität einzuräumen. Als ertten Erfolg und Schritt in die richtige Richtung bewertet WECF, dass das Europäische Parlament in der vergangenen Woche mit überwältigender Mehrheit einem Antrag der Grünen Fraktion zugestimmt hat, Umweltfaktoren als Ursachen für die steigende Zahl der Krebserkrankungen hervorzuheben.
Zehn von 1000 Brustkrebsfällen könnten in der EU verhindert werden, wenn Krebsforschung und Politik diese Risikofaktoren anerkennen und dazubeitragen würden, dass gesundheitsschädigende und Arbeitsbedingungen aus unserem Alltag verschwinden, so WECF. In Berlin findet derzeit die 6.Europäische Brustkrebskonfernz statt, bei der die Diagnostik und Behandlungsmethoden im Mittelpunkt stehen. WECF weist in diesem Zusammenhang auch auf mögliche Gefahren der Mammographie hin und unterstreicht die Notwendigkeit, alternative Vorsorgemaßnahmen zu entwickeln.
Related News
Meet the Winners of the Gender Just Climate Solutions Award at COP24
On the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we awarded Gender Just Climate Solutions Winners at the climate negotiations in Katowice, Poland
11.12.2018
Invitation: Gender Just Climate Solutions Award 2018
10 December, COP24 Katowice
04.12.2018
Getting to the Future We Want
4-7 November, Brussels: European Environmental Bureau’s (EEB) Annual Conference
12.11.2018
GoodFood4All
WECF and partners all over Europe start GoodFood4All Campaign
06.11.2018
#Ruralwomen: join our Women2030 campaign!
15.10.2018
