On Sunday the Race for a Cure was going on. This Wednesday there will be a vote on whether to ban pesticides. We need to start getting serious about preventing cancer rather than hopelessly trying to find a cure.

Over 8,000 Calgarians came out on a cold fall day yesterday to help raise $1.24 million to help find a cure for breast cancer. Everyone is wearing pink these days in support of breast cancer. Hockey players are getting involved. Even NFL football players were wearing pink shoes, gloves, and sweatbands yesterday. Everyone wants to see a cure for breast cancer.

Billions of dollars have been spent trying to find a cure. The problem is more and more people are getting cancer each year. We have poured billions of dollars into cancer research and still have not found a cure. The money that has been raised has definitely helped those who have been diagnosed with cancer. Many cancer patients are living longer than they did in the past. The treatments and drugs are significantly improving.  

Sadly, only a pittance is being spent on preventing cancer in the first place. But by focusing on just finding a cure we are ignoring why cancer rates keep going higher in the first place. One of the major reasons for the increase is that we continue to poison our water, soil, and air with chemical toxins.

The Race for a Cure is symbolic of our 'looking for a quick fix' society. For example, we continue to wish for the magical appearance of the electric car that is powered by heat or wind so that we can keep on driving without harming the environment. What happens if technology doesn’t save the day? We are screwed. Same with cancer. All the attention is focused on wishing for a cure. We have put all our eggs in the same basket of blind hope.

In the United States cancer costs $107 billion a year. Cancer may be costly for some, but it is profitable for others. The cancer industry is raking in $107 billion. The incentive is not to find a cure, it is for more and more to be diagnosed with cancer so that these corporations and service providers can make more money. This is how capitalism works.

A cure would eliminate $107 billion of revenue each year. Why would a pharmaceutical company put themselves and their competitors out of business? They won’t. Trust me we won’t find a cure because they are not even looking for one. It is more profitable to treat cancer, preferrably for as long as possible. The sad reality is that we are Racing for Corporate Profits.

It wasn't always so. Jonas Salk found the cure for polio in 1955. Instead of cashing in he did the unthinkable, he didn't patent the cure. In response he said, “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” His foremost thought was getting the vaccine out as cheaply as possible to the hundreds of thousands who had polio. Saving lives trumped making a killing. Not so today though.

We may personally take all of the precautions (run in the Race for a Cure, eat healthy, and exercise), but with cancer causing toxins continually being released into the atmosphere, you can still get cancer. One of the chemicals that is accused of causing cancer is pesticides. According to the Coalition for a Healthy Calgary, “The weight of medical evidence increasingly suggests a strong link between exposure to chemical toxins found in pesticide formulations and certain types of cancer, neurological disorders, endocrine disruption, respiratory illnesses and behavioural issues. This is a no brainer. There are safe and healthy alternatives to managing landscapes and aesthetics. Given a choice doesn't it make sense to put aside toxic chemicals designed to kill merely to improve aesthetics without any countervailing health benefit.”

Well the answer is that corporations make lots of money convincing us to put pesticides on our lawns and public green fields. They have successfully lobbied our governments and convinced us with their lies that the dandlion is the devil through something called advertising.

The Clean Calgary Association believes that pesticides should be banned unless there is a threat to public health. Here here. Before Wednesday we need to Race to City Hall to demand that our city councillors protect our health by saying no to pesticides. Contact the city councillors individually below and demand that they say no to pesticides.

Dale Hodges, dale.hodges@calgary.ca

Ric McIver, ric.mciver@calgary.ca