Health and the Environment: A Clear Link

First and foremost we need accurate information relating health to the environment. In the scientific community it’s called ‘clean data’; large, well documented, peer-reviewed, validated studies that measure health change relative to external variables. Fifty such studies, over a fifty year span, led to the well-understood link between smoking and cancer. Fortunately, not all consensus take so long, and today extensive information is readily available across numerous research areas.

The results of health related studies are announced daily, but often deciphering the complex information that they yield is not an easy task for scientists or individuals. One of the best known and most reliable sources of practical analysis is the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit organization based in Washington that is dedicated to using the power of information to protect human health and the environment.

EWG has compiled and analyzed significant data, available on its website, www.ewg.org, and provides guidelines to officials involved in policymaking, as well as to the public, on steps to take to protect the health of families. This is good news for anyone seeking better answers through information.

When it comes to health and the environment, we are also fortunate to have
outstanding expertise here in Pittsburgh, at the Center for Environmental Oncology, www.environmentaloncology.org, located at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

We now know that environmental factors cause between 80 and 90 percent of all cancers, and the Center for Environmental Oncology was formed to improve the understanding of avoidable causes of cancer development, and recurrence. Environmental, that is controllable causes of cancer, represent a largely untapped resource in the fight against the disease.

Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology is Devra Lee Davis, PhD, MPH, an epidemiologist who grew up in this area, and is now internationally recognized for her scientific and public policy work. She broke new ground in assembling a team of scientists and collaborators to form the worlds first such group, dedicated exclusively to cancer and its causes. “Environmental oncology tries to identify the causes of cancer that can be prevented, so that’s what we work on, prevention,” Dr. Davis told me recently. “Better to be safe than sorry, use the things you know about, that have the best record of safety,” she said. In response to a question about the practical, everyday steps we can take in our lives to combat cancer, she teaches that there are so many things that can be done now. Her detailed website includes a Guide to Green Living, with clean air, clean water, recycling, hazardous waste disposal, natural pest control, green buildings, energy conservation and safe household products as the key factors to act on. It contains important information and solid reminders of steps to take for good health and cancer control.

I also asked Devra about her progress on the enormous challenge she has taken on,
with initiatives in basic research, molecular, environmental and clinical epidemiology, environmental assessment, monitoring and control, and outreach and public policy program development. It is a remarkable undertaking. Without hesitation, she pointed me to a story from her book, “When Smoke Ran Like Water,” (www.whensmokeranlikewater.com). In the story, workers are asked to do something quite difficult and complicated. They protest, but their teacher replies, “It is not for you to finish the task. But – you must begin.”

And so it is with Dr. Davis’s life work - helping others to make better choices; a message to understand and pass along, not knowing the extent to which benefits are later realized. Complex information made clearer, and providing clear direction. •

For questions, or to volunteer, please call Maria at 412-221-3376 ore-mail Maria@Berdusco.com.