Thursday, April 15, 2010
Another cancer in my neighborhood
Another call today. Mitch has lymphoma. He's under fifty. He lives less than a half mile from Joel, who had lymphoma last year. Shall I list more in my neighborhood? Carl, lung cancer. Marianne, breast cancer. Molly (8), leukemia. An unnamed set of at least five young mothers who died from breast cancer. My daughter tells me of mothers from school who don't have hair: "they're getting chemo mom, right?" She describes their condition as if it is so normal and routine. I don't remember growing up this way. Do you?
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3 comments:
This is the same with my neighborhood. They have all different types but the age range is 30-39, with a total of 7 people we know personally...something is WRONG and I don't know how to start researching our environment.
Jen,
I know how you feel. It is scary and very upsetting to discover how many people have become sick as a result of environmental degradation, and things keep getting worse. Fukishima is so disturbing. Toxics are disturbing. Fracking is disturbing. However, we can fight this and we must. Frank Lautenberg's Safe Chemical Act is really important and all of us need to rally behind it. We need Republican politicians to get on board with this.
Environmental Working Group is a great resource for information on toxics and the environment, as is Grassroots Environmental Education led by Patti and Doug Wood. Both of these organizatoins are posted on my blog to the right. We need to change the way things work in this country. Prevention is key. Since I began this blog, I have encountered many more folks in my circle who have developed cancer. It is truly frightening. There is much work to be done. Get involved! It helps you feel more empowered and it will help others, too. We can change things. We must.
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