My concern about the rising incidence of cancer prompted me to start writing a book in the 1950s that I titled Cancer: The Price of Progress. Even then, half a century ago, it was clear to me that most cancers were not genetic in origin, as was the prevailing medical belief, but had environmental causes. They could be traced to exposure to carcinogens in the workplace and to the industrial pollutants that increasingly were contaminating the air, water, and soil.
Health, health care system, pharmacare
On June 9, 2005, a bare majority of justices of the Supreme Court (four of seven) overturned decisions of two lower provincial courts by ruling that there was a constitutional right for Quebecers to buy private insurance to obtain services already available in the public health system. While applying only to Quebec and potentially to be stayed for 18 months, this decision nevertheless opens the door for anyone in Canada with sufficient funds to try to buy their way off waiting lines by getting care in the private sector--and, by extension, to more privatized care in general.
How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies are Turning Us All into Patients
by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels (Greystone, 2005)
Review by Abby Lippman
“At the end of times the merchants of the world will deceive the nations through their Pharmacia” [sorcery]. -- Rev 18:23
Smog-alert days this past summer were more common than days when the air was marginally breathable. The death toll of people with respiratory problems soared. Ontario’s premier blamed the United States for this unwanted free-trade export, but, on a per-capita basis, factories in Ontario and the rest of Canada are belching out just as much toxic pollution--into the water as well as the atmosphere.
We’re living (and many of us unnecessarily dying) in an environment so contaminated by dangerous chemicals that maintaining our health has become a formidable challenge.
Inside this issue:
After the Referendum: What Next for Electoral Reform?
Maximizing Benefits from the Cruise Ship Industry
An Action Plan for BC's Beetle Attacked Forests
Democratizing Public Services: International Lessons for BC's Health Care System
The Supreme Court’s recent decision favouring private health insurance didn’t sound the death knell for Medicare, but it did grease the skids for a faster slide into a two-tier system. Ralph Klein and other neo-con provincial politicians rightly see it as condoning their privatization policies. The big U.S. health insurance companies are slavering at the prospect of fattening their profits in Canada. The wealthy expect to get prompt access to the best medical care, while the rest of us keep trying to cope with a decaying public system.
With all eyes on the Gomery Inquiry, the Martin government was trying before an election was called to sneak a very nasty piece of legislation through Parliament. Bill C-28, an Act to Amend the Food and Drugs Act, would accelerate the adulteration of Canada’s food supply with cancer-causing chemicals, pesticides, food additives, and veterinary drugs like growth hormones and antibiotics.