Grass Roots

Dr. Samuel Epstein
The Politics of Primary Prevention vs. Damage Control

WisCosh Conference, October 18, 2003

Some of you who couldn't go to last Saturday's conference wanted to know what the speakers had to say. So I asked Robin DeLeau to write a summary. For more details, you can go to Dr. Epstein's excellent web site: http://www.preventcancer.com/
Suzanne

From: DMRLDELEAU@aol.com
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 12:02:55 EDT
Subject: Summary

WisCosh (Wisconsin Committee on Occupational Safety and Health ) held a health and safety conference on Sat. Oct.18 2003 at the U.W.M. Golda Meir Library conference center focusing on occupational and environmental causes of cancer.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Samuel Epstein who is on tour with his "Stop Cancer Before It Starts" Campaign.

He says "The more money we spend on cancer the more cancer we get, there is no money spent on cancer prevention."

He suggests that if grassroots organizations want to fight for human rights here in the good-old U.S.A. they should network with churches and other religous groups, with African American and Hispanic groups, and with migrant workers, and get the word out to the public about the dangers of chemicals in the workplace and environment . "We are the canaries in the coalmine," he says.

Sue Ruggles and Belinda Thielen also spoke briefly, inspiring us to heed the Call to Action in regard to our individual group causes and encouraging those who advocate for workers rights to join together with environmentalists in spreading the word about carcinogenic chemicals in the workplace and environment and their effects on our health.

Living through the last 50 years in this "chemical age" has taken it's toll on us; perpetrators of this unregulated chemical usage are "tap dancing on workers' graves."

Rose Daitsman passed around a sign up sheet for all the groups attending to form a coalition.

We added a lot of addresses to the Grass Roots e-mail list.

Getting the word out takes organizing and educating the public about cancer clusters in our area......cancer is caused by more than cigarettes, bad diet, or genetics...Yikes ! A chemlawn truck just pulled up across the street I've got to shut my windows ........Don't spray my Way!