“No Family History” Eyes Environmental Links to Breast Cancer

I’ve complained before that articles on possible environmental links to breast (and other) cancers are relatively few and far between, and those that appear have no “legs.” So I was excited to hear about “No Family History,” an upcoming documentary investigating the links between breast cancer and the environment. Now in post-production, this independent film needs our support (donations are tax-exempt).

According to filmmaker Sabrina McCormick, an assistant professor of environmental science and policy at Michigan State University, she and her collaborators interviewed scientists, advocates, and survivors to (in the words of the promotional postcard) “move beyond ‘pink ribbon’ awareness to look at how we can prevent the illness.” The film addresses these issues through the story of one woman’s grueling story of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Though the website for “No Family History” is still very basic, a trailer should be on line soon. Meantime, it has numerous links to further information on women’s environmental health, many from organizations and institutions that take a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to studying the connections between environmental factors and breast cancer — one that involves both scientists and lay people. They include the Silent Spring Institute and the Breast Cancer and Environment Research Centers. (The latter is jointly funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Cancer Institute –- who knew?)

Democratizing Science
I met Prof. McCormick –- who is also writing a companion book to the film — last week at a session on “Science, Democracy and the Environment” at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. At it, she pointed out that while only a small percentage of cases of breast cancer have a known genetic cause, that etiology gets the lion’s share of attention. Meanwhile, chemicals in our environment are ubiquitous; yet, despite a growing body of evidence, they remain understudied, sometimes derided, and under-reported as a factor in this all-too-common disease.

She also addressed the importance of the growing movement of grassroots breast cancer activists, exemplified by Breast Cancer Action and others, who say that science and policy should not be left to the experts. Rather, ordinary people — who are experts in their own experience — should have open access to information on issues that affect them, and participate in setting research agendas.

McCormick turned to filmmaking to bridge the gap between the “ivory tower” and the general public: “Many valuable ideas are generated in academic settings, but they often go unnoticed because they are not communicated to broad audiences, ” she writes on her MSU website. “The films I make are an attempt to undo that disjuncture.”

News Media’s Role
McCormick is also a co-author of a 2001 article in the academic journal Sociology of Health and Illness on “Print Media Coverage of Environmental Causation of Breast Cancer.” The paper explains the results of a study that examined nearly 40 years’ worth of coverage in newspapers, newsweeklies, women’s magazines, and lay scientific periodicals such as Discover. Still relevant today, the article found that:

…there was little coverage of possible environmental causation…[and] scant attention paid to corporate and governmental responsibility. Articles often focused on individual responsibility for diet, age at birth of first child, and other personal behaviors [and] also emphasized genetic causation, even though this explained only a small fraction of breast cancer incidence.

Of their findings, the authors note, “Because the media have significant influence over public understanding and social action, the lack of attention may hold back scientific and activist pursuit of environmental causes of breast cancer.” (I’ll blog more on the article, and current news coverage, next time.)

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Environment, Health & Sexuality, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.