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Advocacy
The following resources about breast cancer advocacy are
from Advanced Breast Cancer: A Guide to Living
with Metastatic Disease, 2nd Edition by Musa Mayer, copyright 1998, published by
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. To order, or get more information about
Musa's book, call 1-800-998-9938.
Permission is granted to print and distribute this list of resources for
noncommercial use as long as the above source is included. This information is
meant to educate and should not be used as an alternative for
professional medical care.
National Action Plan on Breast Cancer
http://www.napbc.org/napbc/index.htm
The NAPBC, a public/private partnership of many member organizations in
government and the private section, is coordinated by the Public Health
Service's Office on Women's Health, Department of Health and Human Services.
The mission of the NAPBC is to speed progress toward eradicating breast cancer.
Has good links to a variety of organizations and background information.
Breast Cancer Fund
282 Second Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
(800) 487-0492 or
(415) 543-2979
FAX: (415) 543-2975
World Wide Web:
http://www.letlive.com/text/bcfund.htm
Cancer Prevention Coalition
520 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 410
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 467-0600
The National Breast Cancer Coalition
1707 L Street, NW, Suite 1060
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 296-7477
FAX: (202) 265-6854
World Wide Web:
http://www.natlbcc.org/
The National Breast Cancer Coalition is a grassroots effort in the fight
against breast cancer, composed of a network of activists across the
country—350 organizations and 41,000 individuals in 1997. In five years,
NBCC has increased US federal government funding for breast cancer research
nearly sixfold—from $90 million to more than $500 million. Its goals are:
- Research: increasing appropriations for high quality, peer-reviewed research and working within the scientific community to focus research on prevention and finding a cure.
- Access: increasing access for all women to high quality treatment and care and to breast cancer clinical trials.
- Influence: increasing the influence of women living with breast cancer and other breast cancer activists in the decision making that impacts all issues surrounding breast cancer.
Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)
355 Lexington Avenue, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10017
(212) 973-0325
email:
wedo@igc.apc.org
World Wide Web:
http://www.wedo.org
Co-sponsor of the 1997 World Breast Cancer Conference in Kingston, Ontario,
this organization has a focus on prevention of breast cancer through education
and action. Ask for their "Action for Prevention: Breast Cancer and the Environment"
program.
Local Advocacy Organizations
There are local breast cancer advocacy organizations in almost every state
and in many major cities in the US and Canada. Contact the National Breast
Cancer Coalition (NBCC) listed above for one in your area. Many publish
informative newsletters, offer informational programs to members and the public,
and lobby to influence local and national legislation. Following are two examples
among many—one American and one Canadian:
Breast Cancer Action
55 New Montgomery, Suite 624
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 243-9301
FAX: (415) 243-3996
World Wide Web:
http://www-med.stanford.edu/bca/index.html
Breast Cancer Action, Ottawa
Billings Bridge Plaza
P.O. Box 39041
Ottawa, ON Canada K1H 1A1
(613) 736-5921
FAX: (613) 736 8422
e-mail:
bcanet@magi.com
World Wide Web:
http://infoweb.magi.com/~bcanet/
Breast Cancer Bulletin: News from the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative,
Canadian Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute of Canada: 19 Alcorn Avenue,
Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario M4V 3B1. This free newsletter contains information about
research on breast cancer and the environment.
Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment, by
Sandra Steingraber. New York: Addison Wesley, 1997. An eye-opening review of the
research to date on environmental links to cancer, from a biologist and cancer
survivor. Consider this book a very readable jumping-off place for further
investigation of the role that environmental pollution of all kinds may play as
a cause of breast and other cancers.
Patient No More: The Politics of Breast Cancer, by Sharon Batt.
Gynergy Books/Ragweed Press, 1994. This outspoken book exposes the "fear and cheer"
filter, as the author terms the unrealistically optimistic assessments of various
treatments on the part of the medical community, insurance companies, pharmaceutical
companies, government researchers and regulators, the media and various purveyors of
popular culture, as well as cancer charities.
Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1962.
The book that inspired the environmental movement. Two years after its
publication, Carson died of breast cancer.
To Dance With the Devil: The New War on Breast Cancer, by Karen Stabiner.
New York: Delacorte Press, 1997. A journalist's intriguing view of one year in the
breast cancer advocacy movement and the current state of breast cancer treatment
and research, told through the filter of a detailed portrait of Dr. Susan Love
and a number of her patients at the UCLA Breast Center.
Waking Up/Fighting Back: The Politics of Breast Cancer, by
Roberta Altman. New York: Little Brown & Company, 1996. A detailed, thorough
and accessible examination of the important issues related to breast cancer
causation, diagnosis and treatment, examined historically from the social
perspective of the women's health movement.
Exposure: Environmental Links to Breast Cancer, Women's Network on Health &
Environment, 736 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON Canada M5S 2R4; (416) 516-2600.
This hour-long video raises awareness about the role that pesticides, chlorine,
plastics, radiation, electromagnetic fields and air quality may play in causing
breast cancer.
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