It is that time of year when it seems every weekend there is some race to cure or conquer cancer. Almost all of the money raised goes into treating cancer or looking for that ever elusive cure. Despite all the running and riding, the rate of cancer is increasing. This suits the cancer industry and business just fine.

Pink ribbons are everywhere lately. Hockey players are using pink sticks. Football players are wearing pink shoes. Even cowboys are donning pink shirts. The Canadian Breast Cancer’s Run for the Cure is the largest volunteer fundraising event in Canada. In 2009, there were 56 Runs for the Cure that had 170,000 participants who raised $26.5 million. According to the Canadian Breast Cancer’s website, money raised for the Run for the Cure goes into “research, early diagnosis and effective treatment, and providing a positive quality of life for those with breast cancer.” They even have a Finding Hope blog.

Breast cancer has turned into a feel good industry. We have been led to believe that we just need to run or ride and a cure will magically be found. Positive thinking has dulled our critical thinking skills. As Barbara Ehrenreich says in her 2009 book ‘Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America,’ “In the most extreme characterization, breast cancer is not a problem at all, not even an annoyance, it is a gift, deserving of heartfelt gratitude.” Ehrenreich also shows that there is no proof that positive thinking has any effect on those diagnosed with cancer.

The Ride to Conquer Cancer is another high profile event to raise money. They have cyclist Lance Armstrong, the alleged steroid doper, as their spokesperson. According to their website (Alberta chapter), money raised goes into “driving continuous improvement in treatment, attracting top clinicians to the province and facilitating clinical trials that can provide patients access to therapies that may not be widely available for up to 5 years.” They have raised over $100 million. The Terry Fox Foundation has raised over $400 million. These organizations put little to no money into preventing cancer in the first place.

These impressive amounts of money raised are peanuts though. At best they raise awareness of cancer and at worst are mindless exercises. For example, in the United States the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society alone have yearly budgets of $4.2 billion and $800 million respectively. Health Canada in 1993 estimated the annual cost of cancer in Canada to be $16.2 billion. In year 2000, the National Institute of Health estimated the cost of the cancer in the United States to be $180 billion. The only thing to show for these staggering amounts is better treatment for those who already have cancer. In reality, the more people that get cancer and the longer you live, the more money the cancer industry makes.

Despite the Runs and the Rides, cancer rates are increasing. In 2008, almost 78,000 Canadians died of cancer and 166,400 were diagnosed with cancer. Cancer kills 27% of men and 23% of women. North America has the highest cancer rates in the world. Factoring in that we are living longer and that we have better ways of detecting cancer, cancer rates have still gone up 35% in men and up 27% in women over the last two decades.

In 1964, the World Health Organization said that only 20% of cancers were caused by genetic factors and an astounding 80% of cancers were caused by environmental factors.  In the year 2000, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study of 44,788 pairs of identical twins and concluded that “the environment has the principal role in causing cancer.”

Yet the Runs and the Rides, in addition to the Cancer Foundations promote cancer as either a poor lifestyle choice or more benignly, something that is inevitable. What is ignored is the carcinogens and neurotoxins in our air, water and soil. In 2004 alone, Canadian industry released 18,000,000 kilograms of carcinogens into the environment. Cancer causing items are everywhere, in your home, at work, and outside.

Dr. Samuel Epstein, professor emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, and Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, has some harsh words for the cancer industry. Dr. Epstein says that the cancer industry is “fixated on screening, diagnosis, and treatment at the expense of primary prevention. For the cancer establishment, encouraging lifestyle changes to the exclusion of environmental and occupational changes has been their historic mission.” He goes on to say that this has been encouraged by “powerful corporate polluters and industries manufacturing carcinogenic products.” In Dr. Epstein’s estimation, “real cancer prevention will require real social, political, and economic change.” This is something that the Runs and the Rides ignore completely. Yet, this is the primary reason for the astonishing rates of cancer. 

Thankfully things are slowly changing. The Stop Cancer Run, Walk, & Roll fundraising events in Canada advocate for cancer prevention. They are now in Rossland (B.C.), Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, and Toronto. Hopefully they will someday be more popular than the other cancer fundraising events. 

The saddest thing is that industry is not only polluting the earth, warming the earth, but also giving us cancer. For the sake of humans and many other species on earth, it is imperative that we eliminate carcinogens and neurotoxins from the environment. Drastically decreasing cancers by eliminating carcinogens and neurotoxins from the environment is actually something to run or ride about.