The Politics of Cancer Revisited [Paperback]

Samuel S. Epstein (Author), John, Jr. Conyers (Introduction), David R. Obey (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0914896474 | ISBN-13: 978-0914896470 | Publication Date: October 1998 | Edition: Indexed

THE POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited, by internationally renowned authority on cancer causes and prevention, Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., backed by meticulous documentation, charges that the cancer establishment remains myopically fixated on damage control -- diagnosis and treatment, and basic genetic research with, not always benign, indifference to cancer prevention research and failure of outreach to Congress, regulatory agencies, and the public with scientific information on unwitting exposures to a wide range of avoidable causes of cancer. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American Cancer Society (ACS) are also accused of pervasive conflicts of interest, particularly with the cancer drug industry.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A unique and superbly documented indictment of the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society for their reckless indifference to cancer prevention, for their incestuous relationship with the cancer drug industry, and for their false claims for miracle cancer drugs and for winning the war against cancer. This is essential reading for every concerned woman and man on how to reverse the cancer epidemic by personal and political initiatives. -- Barbara Seaman, Co-founder, National Women's Health Network and author, "The Doctors' Case Against the Pill"

Cancer continues to be the scourge of many workplaces; this book is an extraordinary weapon to mount an attack on this deadly disease. It minces no words in indicting the cancer establishment whose misdirected efforts have contributed to the ongoing cancer epidemic. Dr. Epstein's work is a strong rebuttal to the self-interested Pollyannas in the cancer establishment and provides worker advocates with essential knowledge that will serve to protect the lives of those we represent. -- Robert Wages, President, Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union International Union, AFL-CIO

Every journalist reporting on cancer (as it should be covered) has within easy reach, a shop-worn, dog-eared, heavily underlined 1978 edition of Sam Epstein's "Politics of Cancer." For twenty years we have waited impatiently for the day when we would no longer have to update old findings. Our wait is over. Not only has Dr. Epstein provided new data, charts, epidemiology, and science, but he has refortified his contention that the war on cancer is unfinished, and far from triumphant. -- Mark Dowie, Former publisher and editor, Mother Jones

Samuel Epstein's book The Politics of Cancer blew the lid off the "cancer establishment" when it was published in 1978. Twenty years later, the new "POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited" is a blockbuster. It exposes the rampant industrial pollution that causes many preventable cases of cancer. It also shows the frightening power of industry in keeping us from winning the war against cancer. We all owe Professor Epstein a debt of gratitude for almost single-handedly keeping this issue alive and before the public for all these years. -- Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D., Director, The Moss Reports

Some twenty years later, we have a most worthy sequel to the ground-breaking "The Politics of Cancer." This work is muscular, relentless, and compelling. Its thesis: billions of public dollars are being misspent in an ill-conceived "war on cancer" -- a war we are losing because we are not addressing the increasingly carcinogenic environment that man has created. We have introduced these creations into our water and air, our food chain, our habitation, our workplace, and into the products produced there. In failing to allocate these resources for prevention, we are fighting the wrong war. The author documents that opposition from powerful corporate interests, and their allies in government and the academy, has sustained this strategy. We have here a must-read for the scientist and the citizen concerned with the public's health. -- Quentin D. Young, M.D., President, American Public Health Association

From the Publisher

In 1978 the Sierra Club Books landmark "The Politics of Cancer" documented the relation between increasing cancer rates and avoidable exposures to environmental and occupational carcinogens, and the culpability of the petrochemical industry. "THE POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited" analyzes subsequent public policy and scientific developments over the past two decades and charges the cancer establishment -- the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society -- with major responsibility for losing the winnable war against cancer because of its, not always benign, indifference to prevention, coupled with misleading claims for major advances in treatment and pervasive conflicts of interest.

Part I of THE POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited is the complete text of the 1978 "Politics of Cancer," which traces the shocking history of how the war against cancer was lost -- not irretrievably, but definitely lost -- during the Nixon and Carter Administrations by a number of lethally wrongheaded policy decisions of the American cancer establishment.

Part II picks up the story with the coming of the Reagan administration and brings it forward to the present -- brilliantly untangling a web of high-level obfuscation, duplicity, conflict of interest, greed, and outright criminality.

As an expose, THE POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited is a stunner. Dr. Epstein is not just one of the world's leading cancer experts. He is a fighter. His persistence in carrying the fight to the cancer establishment in the face of their strong-arm tactics defending their many grievous mistakes, makes for a stirring narrative. And his fight is no longer a lonely one. Scores of highly-credentialed experts in public health and cancer prevention have now rallied to the cause of forcing a radical reform of the National Cancer Institute and bringing about a real turning in the tide of the still-winnable war against cancer. All this makes for very exciting -- and very hopeful -- reading, especially in the field of cancer, where fear and despair too often are all that the ordinary individual and the individual family end up with after the political and professional posturing and hype have had their full innings.

But THE POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited is more than an expose. As incredible as such a wildly hopeful notion sounds, it is a fact that Dr. Samuel Epstein has a workable plan for defeating the scourge of cancer, in America and worldwide. Granted, implementation of this plan would cost a lot of money to bring about the removal of sufficient poisons from our food, our drinking water, and our industrial workplaces. And a number of vested interests at high levels would have to be effectively challenged and defeated. But this much can -- and must -- be demanded of our enlightened democracy, whose citizens are being killed off by the disease of cancer at the rate of one in four.

The important things to bear in mind about Dr. Epstein's plan are that it is realistic and it is authoritative. And, although it has been put together by scientists, it can be readily understood and carried forward by ordinary citizens -- at the individual and family level as well as at the higher levels of industry and government. This is the plan of individual prevention and effective political action spelled out in "THE POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 770 pages
• Publisher: East Ridge Press; Indexed edition (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0914896474
• ISBN-13: 978-0914896470
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #905,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We can stop losing the "War Against Cancer", December 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Politics of Cancer Revisited (Hardcover)

I can't remember when a book has cheered me the way this one has. As a longtime worker in the field of alternative cancer treatment, and one who has undergone his own battle with this disease, I rejoice that a voice of authority has finally stated the truth in loud, ringing tones -- the emperor has no clothes! The reiterated claim by our government and its associated medical professionals that we are "winning the war against cancer" is simply not true. And these stalwarts in the Cancer Establishment are not the selfless servants of humanity they have been portraying themselves as, either. Their ranks are shot through with cronyism, conflicts of interest, and subservience to the giant drug companies.

Masterfully, exhaustively, irrefutably, Dr. Epstein exposes this dirty little game that has been snowing the American public for the last 25 years. And he makes a powerful case that, in the field of cancer as in no other, an ounce of prevention is indeed worth a pound of cure. Cancer, once contracted, is generally a very tough disease to treat successfully. But, in very many cases, it can be prevented by avoiding known cancer-causing agents in the environment, in the workplace, and in consumer products.

Not only is "THE POLITICS OF CANCER Revisited" inspiring in its revelations and recommendations. It is a magnificent reference tool, one I have put on my shelf for ready access whenever I want to know if a particular cosmetic, food additive, drug, work setting -- or part of the country -- is carcinogenic and therefore to be avoided.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterful documentation of life-saving truths about cancer, January 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Politics of Cancer Revisited (Hardcover)

Could it possibly be true that: (1) Cancer is preventable? (2) Government agencies and the cancer establishment, with their false optimism, their emphasis on "damage control," and their opposition to non-toxic alternative treatments, are doing far more harm than good in the "war on cancer"? (3) Each individual, armed with the right knowledge, can significantly reduce the chances of ever getting cancer?

Dr. Epstein fully documents these truths with great force and clarity. Having read the book, it would be difficult not to believe these truths, to fully take them in, and to act accordingly.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant and timely exposé of cancer politics, November 30, 1998

By 

Dana Ullman, MPH (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Politics of Cancer Revisited (Paperback)

This book will likely change the way you see the world. Not only is the tripling of cancer rates in this century directly related to environmental and industrial conditions, but the same players also control the huge and hugely profitable cancer industry which has grown up arount it. Meanwhile promising nontoxic alternative treatments have been excluded from the playing field controlled by this oligopoly of self-interested players, many of whom are supposed to be the guardians of the public health. Epstein documents all this impeccably, but also lets citizens know what we can do to change the system. Highest recommendation. A must-read.