Cancer: A Disease of Industrialization

by Zac Goldsmith
A major element in the accepted philosophy of the cancer medical establishment, is an assumption that cancer ran rampant among traditional people to as g reat an extent, if not greater, than that of modern industrial society, and as such is larg ely an unavoidable disease. But can such an assumption, so vital for the legitimization of a medical philosophy based on accommodation, rather than the prevention, of ill-health, be justified?

he 'health' of industrialized economies n o longer rep resents the health of societies o n which that ubiquitous Western economic m o d e l has been imposed. O n the

lonexistence of the disease a m o n g those w h o s e lifestyles have Iremained virtually unchanged for millennia. In order, however, for the cancer establishment to remain w e d d e d to the m o r e lucrative path of accommodation as opposed to prevention of the disease, an assumption (in order to justify further bill. . decreasing, must be maintained anu face of evidence to the contrary. A beiK and 'progress' requires a faith in the s a m e assu that traditional people in traditional contexts are . such degenerative diseases, that the only salvation i. .. is further scientific research and high-tech medical gadgc, icer is both traditional and
h

contrary, economic growth as a process is itself inextricably linked and in s o m e w a y s dependent u p o n societal sickness.

Thus, Irish economic analysts are able rightly to point out that anything resembling a lasting peace treaty in that country w o u l d have dire consequences for those m a n y thousands employed in the business of accommodating, avoiding and dealing with the results of conflict. L ikewise, the m o r e cars built, sold and maintained, the greater the need for highways, highway patrol officers, road maintenance crews and of course ambulances with their accompanying wealth of m e d ical wizardry. A n increase in crime also provides a v a c u u m for growth, furthering the need for police, prisons and lawyers not to mention huge opportunities for a rapidly increasing paranoia industry. Consistent with this pattern, a billion dollar industry has g r o w n u p around the almost epidemic problem of cancer. Powerful institutions, vast multinational pharmaceutical businesses and a very large number of people have b e c o m e wholly dependent not on prevention, but o n the continued existence and growth of that problem. What's more, if it is true, as m o s t independent researchers will testify, that m a n - m a d e chemicals and indus trial pollutants are m o r e often than not the cayse of this epidemic, then the very pillars of m o d e r n industrial economies stand to be toppled. A s such, it can hardly be surprising that the cancer establishment and large chemical companies have set out systematically and in full force to discredit such an analy sis with astounding determination. $ Cancer is not increasing, w e are told. It is both normal and natural that over one in three people m u s t suffer from the dis ease. A n d , if w e have experienced a small increase, then that, far from being lamented, is simply further cause for celebration that industrialization has brought with i t an extension of life expectancy (and unfortunately the unavoidable increase in the risk of cancer which accompanies old age). What's more, undisputed cancer clusters surrounding virtually every nuclear power plant are coincidental... it is, rather, natural foods like blue cheese, m u s h r o o m s and brazil nuts which are responsible. A close look, however, at w h a t f e w traditional, pre-industrial societies exist paints a very different picture. F e w studies have been carried out, but those that have s h o w almost a

e spent o n research) r'lv justified in the lustrialization >yn. namely >ne to :er

Traditional Society and Cancer

Sadly, w e have allowed too m u c h time to pass, subjected too m a n y cultures to colonization and industrialization to be able to carry out an expansive and honest study of cancer a m o n g tradi tional societies, the likes of which barely exist today, except in a few isolated, but now threatened, regions. O u r con

"On astonished Nobel

my arrival in Gabon, to encounter laureate Albert

I was 1913.

clusions, therefore, must be based o n past scientific studies, as well as overwhelm!tig anec dotal, experiential evidence. O f course, there is little point from a business perspec tive in promoting research into

no case of cancer' Schweitzer,

the health of traditional people. A s such, funding for research of that nature, which actually works to undermine the colossal medical establishment, and indeed our path to 'progress' itself, is hard to c o m e by, if at all. Nevertheless, one such, by n o m e a n s unique study, mostly, but not only, of North American Eskimos, w a s put together by Vilhjalmur Stefansson in 1960, entitled Cancer: Disease of Civilization?' In the preface, R e n Dubos, the late Professor of Microbiology at Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, points out that "history shows that each type of civilization, like each social group and each w a y of life, has diseases which are peculiar to it... F r o m this broad survey", he continues, "there emerges the impression that certain diseases such as dental caries, arteriosclerosis, and cancers are so u n c o m m o n a m o n g certain primitive people as to remain unnoticed - at least as long as nothing is changed in the ancestral w a y s of life." In 1915, the Prudential Insurance c o m p a n y of America pub lished an 846-page report o n Cancer, entitled, The Mortality from Cancer Throug hout the World.2 Its author w a s Frederick L Hoffman, chairman of the committee o n statistics of the American Society for the Control of Cancer. Based o n thousands

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CANCER: A DISEASE OF INDUSTRIALIZATION

"Hello! we can't be far from civilisation.

of separate reports and all the available data, one of his concluthe benign hand of m o d e r n civilization to scrape them from I sions was that "the rarity of cancer a m o n g native m a n suggests their m u c k , and build for t h e m a worthy existence. I that the disease is primarily induced by the conditions and meth- In 1836, however, such w a s the collective opinion a m o n g ods of living which typify our m o d e r n civilization." H e goes o n travelling m e n of medicine, that Sir George Back,6 accompanyto explain that "... a large n u m b e r of medical missionaries and ing the famous Dr. Richard K i n g o n an Arctic expedition, w a s other trained medical observers living for years a m o n g native races throughout the world, w o u l d long ago have provided a rence of malignant disease a m o n g the so-called uncivilized greatly surprised "to learn h o w m u c h disease ha[d] spread through this part of the country." His surprise would have been from virtually every medical report in circulation, had b e c o m e

m o r e substantial basis of fact regarding the frequency of occur- shared by most professionals and explorers of the time, w h o , races, if cancer were m e t with a m o n g them to anything like theaccustomed to viewing traditional people, living traditional lives degree c o m m o n to practically all civilized countries" ..."Quite to as being superior in health by m a n y measures to the 'white man'. the contrary," he continues, "the negative evidence is convincing I that, in the opinion of qualified medical observers, cancer is I exceptionally rare a m o n g the primitive peoples ..." Powell,3 that "there can be little doubt that the various influences grouped under the title of civilization play a part in producing a tendency to cancer", and from Dr. W S Bainbridge's4 "outstanding contribution", The Cancer Problem, that, "with changed environment . . . there c a m e an " O n m y arrival in G a b o n , in 1913," wrote Nobel laureate Albert Schweitzer,7 "I w a s astonished to encounter n o case of cancer... I can not, of course, say positively that there w a s n o if any cases existed they must have been quite rare." Dr. Stanislas Tanchou,8 in his address to the A c a d e m y of Sciences in 1843 told of a Dr. Bac, surgeon-in-chief of the S e c o n d African Regiment, w h o had never once witnessed a case of cancer in Senegal, where he had been practising

H e later quotes in the s a m e report from a book by Dr. Charles cancer at all, but like other frontier doctors, I can only say that

"Cancer is unquestionably very rare in native races." Frederick L Hoffman,

Chairman of the committee on s t a t i s t i c s of the American Society for the Control of Cancer.

increase in susceptibility to cancerous disease ... this suscepti- medicine for six years. H e told also of a M . Baudens, surgeonbility becoming more m a r k e d as civilization develops: in other in-chief at Val-de-Grace, w h o practised medicine for eight years words as environment changes." in Algiers, coming across only t w o cases of cancer, and of a Dr. " W h a t are the conditions peculiar to civilized peoples, and Puzin w h o , of 10,000 people he allegedly examined, discovered absent from primitive races, which are associated with its prevalence and increase in the former, and its almost entire absence or relative infrequency in the latter?" he asks. "Cancer is unquestionably very rare in native races."5 only one case of cancer, that of a w o m a n ' s breast. In 1914, Livingston French Jones wrote in A Study of the Thlingets of Alaska that "While certain diseases have always /been found a m o n g the Thlingets, others that n o w afflict them

Since then, the establishment has undergone a dramatic jan are of recent introduction. T u m o u r s , cancers and toothache change, and in the face of clear evidence, it has b e c o m e increaswere u n k n o w n to them until within recent years."9 ingly unfashionable, if not unacceptable, to suggest anything In 1925, under the title, Health Conditions and Disease other than that traditional people lived, until the arrival of m o dIncidence among the Eskimos of Labrador, Dr. Samuel King ern 'civilization', in conditions of extreme squalor, waiting for Hutton wrote that, " s o m e diseases c o m m o n in Europe have

94

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C A N C E R : A DISEASE OF INDUSTRIALIZATION

not c o m e under m y notice during a prolonged and careful sur-'Progress'

to Cancer

vey of the health of the Eskimos. O f these diseases, the most"Like practically all writers [emphasis mine] o n the Labrador striking is cancer."10 of the last hundred years," says Stefansson with obvious conIn 1927, Associate Editor of N e w York City journal, fidence in his underlying theme," "[Sir Wilfred] Grenfell is Cancer, Dr. J L y m a n Bulkley contributed an article, Cancer his "observations o n the subject were gathered during a worried b y the inroads of European disease a m o n g the native Contact with white m e n has blotted them out like chalk from Among Primitive Tribes, to that journal, in which he wrote that population. 'The sicknesses of the coast are not indigenous . . . sojourn of about twelve years a m o n g several of the different a blackboard.'20 F r o m east to west," adds Stefansson, "... the tribes of Alaskan natives, during which time he never discov- medical missionaries all looked for cancer, and they never ered a m o n g them a single true case of carcinosis ... [I] feel that to found i t a m o n g the 'primitive', though they did find it a m o n g . . . to civilization and all its influences m am ya y be attributed in a 'the 'modernized.' very large measure ... the increase in frequency of malignancy a m o n g primitive races."" In 1939, writing of his interview with Joseph H e r m a n R o m i g , Alaska's "most f a m o u s doctor", Dr. Preston A Price with these people he h a d never seen a case of malignant disease a m o n g the truly primitive E s k i m o s a n d Indians, although it frequently occurs w h e n they b e c o m e modernized."11 In 1958, Dr. L A White wrote in a letter to Stefansson that "... i t has been almost 17 years since I practised in W h e n in 1934, a U S Treasury's Public Health report21 w a s carried out, in which those regions and groups m o s t and least prone to cancer were surveyed, i t emerged, as one would expect from all we've heard, that incidence of cancer rose Interestingly too, in 1970, a study revealed that African

claims that"... in his [Dr. Romig's] thirty-six years of contactdirectly in parallel with Western industrial contact.

From east to west, the medical missionaries all looked for cancer, and they never found it among the 'primitive', though they did find it among the 'modernized'. Vilhjalmur Stefansson

A m e r i c a n s w e r e ten times m o r e likely then to contract cancer than w e r e rural Africans living in Africa.22 Roald A m u n d s e n , author of The Northwest Passage wrote in 1908 that: "During the three-year voyage of the Gjoa w e c a m e in contact with ten

Alaska. I w a s at Unalaska [Aleutian Islands] from 1934 until different Eskimo tribes in all, and w e had g o o d opportunities of 1948, having previously spent 17 m o n t h s at Metlakatla [Alaska observing the influence of civilization u p o n them, as w e were Panhandle], then several m o n t h s in 1939 at K l a w o c k [Panhandle]: finally one and a half years at Bethel [Lower tension a n d arteriosclerotic diseases w e r e practically able to compare those Eskimos w h o had c o m e in contact with civilization with those w h o had not. A n d I m u s t state i t as m y

Kuskokwim]. M y w o r k led m e to these conclusions: (1) hyperfirm conviction that the latter, the Eskimos living absolutely isolated from civilization of any kind, are undoubtedly the happiest, nonexistent a m o n g native peoples; (2) diabetes w a s extremely healthiest, most honorable and most contented a m o n g them . . . rare; (3) malignant disease w a s extremely rare - in fact I had M y sincerest wishes for our friends the Nechilli Eskimos is, that only one.proven case (Bethel, 1940). I s a w n o strokes nor corocivilization m a y never reach them." nary heart disease ..."'5 T h e story i t seems is very m u c h the s a m e wherever our once respected, n o w dissident thinkers cared to look. Sir Robert McCarrison, a surgeon in the Indian Health Service observed "a total absence of all diseases during the time I George Leavitt, another m a n of medicine, a 'stopgap' ship's doctor, w a s fascinated by cancer a n d spent m a n y years working with Eskimos. Before the measles epidemic of 1900, he w o u l d have been in contact with u p to 50,000 people. After years of questioning frontier doctors, and looking for a cancer

spent in the H u n z a valley" [seven years] "... During the periodvictim a m o n g those with w h o m he w a s in contact, he eventually gave up, "because he w a s so sure b y then that, except of m y association with these peoples, I never s a w a case of... cancer".14 Dr. Eugene Payne, w e are told, " w h o examined approximately 60,000 individuals during a quarter of a century in certain parts of Brazil and Ecuador, found n o evidence of cancer."15 Dr. H o f f m a n again speaks of the Indians of Bolivia, " a m o n g a m o n g civilized Eskimos, n o native cancers w o u l d be found

"My sincerest wishes for our friends the Nechilli Eskimos is, that civilization may never reach them." Roald Amundsen

in the Arctic."24 A belief that cancer is very m u c h the product of modernity w a s generalized in the late eighteen hundreds. Dr. John L e Conte, described as the "Father of the university

w h o m I w a s unable to trace a single authentic case of malig- (of California)" b y the National A c a d e m y of Sciences of the U S , w a s one w h o fully shared this view, so m u c h so that, joknant disease. All of the physicians w h o m I interviewed o n the subject were emphatically of the opinion that cancer of the breast a m o n g Indian w o m e n w a s never m e t with."16 Again, writing of the Hunzas, Dr. Allen E Banik and Rene Taylor ingly he explained that Paris, suffering four times as m a n y cancers at that time as L o n d o n , m u s t be four times m o r e civilized. "... it m a y be to s o m e extent consolatory to the

describe "their freedom from a variety of diseases and physi- inhabitants of England", he added "to discover that their cal ailments" as "remarkable ... Cancer, heart attacks, vascular recent mortuary records, from 1860 to 1867, indicate a very complaints and m a n y of the c o m m o n childhood diseases ... areremarkable increase in the death rate from this disease."23 u n k n o w n a m o n g them."11 A n d , again of the Eskimos, Dr. George P l u m m e r H o w e believed strongly, that even if s o m e cancers were going undetected, during years of w o r k and thousands of check-ups, surely "external cancers could not possibly exist in the inspected regions for decades without being recognized or without resulting in deaths."18 In the July 1927 issue of Cancer, Dr. William H a y points out that"... tribes living naturally will s h o w a complete absence of cancer t i l l mixture with m o r e civilized m a n corrupts the naturalness of habit; and just as these habits conform to those civilizations, even so does cancer begin to s h o w its head "Civilization," is, according to Dr. Berglas, "in terms of

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C A N C E R : A DISEASE OF INDUSTRIALIZATION

possibility of 'famine' are hardly worthy of notice," wrote M r . Schenk, Berglas" adds, "It is the nature and essence of indus-M a c D i a r m i d in the nineteenth century.33 trialcivijization to be toxic in every sense ...We are faced with Maclean's o w n research revealed that ..."in the days w h e n they t n T g n m prospect that the advance of cancer and of civiliza- lived in almost complete isolation from the rest of the world the tion parallel each other." St. Kildans had been a strong and healthy race afflicted by few diseases. 'They never had a potion or physic given them in their

cancer, a juggernaut that cannot be stopped." Quoting Dr. G

The Health and Integrity of Traditional Society

lives,' wrote Martin, another student of the St. Kildan experience, If w e are to question the dangerous path w e are treading, which 'nor k n o w anything of phlebotomy; a physician could not expect indeed w e must, for obvious reasons, then w e must also ques- his bread in this commonwealth.'... But as contact with civilization the assumptions which justify such a path. A n d if w e are to tion increased, the health of the islanders declined. T h e y became believe in the notion of linear, unending 'progress', as w e are susceptible to diseases previously u n k n o w n in St. Kilda and by taught to from an early age, then clearly w e must equally dis- the 20th century a general debilitating weakness had set in. T h e y believe in the integrity of the past. However, the distorted suffered m o r e and m o r e frequently from colds, coughs, picture of historic h u m a n misery and poor health that is so often headaches and rheumatism, while dyspepsia, scrofula, ear disease presented to us, simply does not bear up to the facts, figures and and dysentery soon b e c a m e c o m m o n complaints . . . accounts that have been handed d o w n to us. However, i t is important again to r e m e m ber that very few traditional societies have m a n a g e d to withstand the Western industrial juggernaut. O f the few writings o n traditional health that w e can rely on, i t is not surprising that the vast majority would have been carried out m a n y years ago, w h e n such societies still existed. ety which w a s heavily d o c u m e n t e d by a n u m b e r of writers from the eighteenth century until its collapse in 1930. B o o k s Contemporary opinion put the ill-health of the St. Kildans

While breast cancer today afflicts one in eight women in the US, the Canadian Medical Association, "In spite of strenuous efforts, [was] unable to discover one authenticated case of Eskimo breast malignancy."

d o w n to their peculiar diet and hard w a y of life, but it failed to take into account that the diet and lifestyle of the islanders had changed little over the centuries."34 T h e culture and w a y s of the St. Kildans were wholly unique, the story of their demise is sadly not. T h e s a m e has been d o c u m e n t e d else-

T h e distant Hebridean island of St. Kilda is one such soci- where, in Ireland, where H u g h Brody 35 describes a small t o w n in which the local nurse claims that she dispenses " m o r e antidepressants than headache tablets", or the Portuguese village

have since been written about its sad demise, from a society of of Alto, where according to R o b i n Jenkins,36 since a road linkself-sufficiency, custom, arts and plenty, its o w n religion, laning it to the global e c o n o m y w a s built in 1951, "most of the guage and unique cliff-based culture, to one of moral a n d eventual physical poverty, and consequent collapse. " A s long as St. Kilda remained remote from the world," writes Charles Maclean, "its society w a s viable, even sionaries, do-gooders and tourists, w h o under the that they were but in the 19th century the island w a s 'discovered' b y mismen...[have] in fact [become] alcoholics," a n d m o r e recently Ladakh, in the Himalayas, where the once often remarkedu p o n health of individuals has been o n drastic decline since too were linked u p to the Indian e c o n o m y , w h i c h in t u m has b e c o m e ever m o r e absorbed into the global economy. 37 T h e w o r k of Professor Neel 38 reinforced this view: "I find it increasingly difficult," he wrote in 1970, "... to see in recent

Utopian; they

impression

bringing

to St.

Kilda the benefits of civilization brought m o n e y , disease and despotism. Unable to withstand the effects of increased contact with the mainland and 'civilization', the St. Kildan culture gradually disintegrated, the population dwindled and in 1930 the f e w remaining islanders asked to be evacuated because they could n o longer support themselves."
28

Ironically, while it is encouraged and wholly accepted that we idealise and romanticize a societal model which has utterly failed us on so many counts, it is totally unacceptable, indeed politically incorrect to praise the only model for society which has proven a success.

reproductive history of the civilized world a greater respect for the quality of h u m a n existence than w a s manifested by our remote 'primitive' ancestors . . . T h e Xavante are in general, in excellent physical condition, a n d w e have similar u n p u b lished data o n the Y a n o m a m a and Makiritare." In 1948, Dr. R o m i g 3 9 described a "... general impres-

Before corruption set in, the general health of St. Kildans sion of average g o o d health and considerable longevity" was held in a w e by all w h o visited. O n e of the early visitors.presented by the Eskimos. " O n [their] diet the people were Dr. MacCulloch, 2 " acknowledged "the g o o d physique of the males", w h o , he said, "were well-looking, and appeared, as strong and did not get scurvy ... they did not have gastric ulcer, cancer, diabetes, malaria, or typhoid fever, or the c o m m o n dis-

they indeed are, well fed;... a n d bearing the m a r k s of easy cireases of childhood k n o w n so well a m o n g the whites. For the cumstances, or rather wealth." George Seton,30 in 1877, wrote m o s t part they were a happy, carefree people . . . It is with that "the remarkably healthy look of the children in arms w a sregret," he added, "that w e see the slow passing of these once the subject of universal c o m m e n t . " H e quotes a M r . Wilson 3 ' hardy people ..." w h o described the m e n as strong, handsome, a n d "with bright eyes, and an expression of great intelligence," and R e a r Admiral Otter,32 w h o s e experience o n the Island led h i m to believe that "those that survive infancy g r o w u p strong,

S o m e Doubts
While, today, such views are conveniently dismissed as "unscientific", they were readily accepted b y those w h o were

healthy m e n and w o m e n . " "... ludicrous insinuations as to the in regular contact with traditional people, before their demise.

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CANCER: A DISEASE OF INDUSTRIALISATION

o
# mm

i
I r ' ~

to

detect. in in

And the their by

in

1957,

Mrs. I we

Griest,43 know, found

head in all any

nurse my

of 17

Farth years with

North nursing lumps The an

Hospital,

wrote, hospital, breasts."

"This

never

women 1956 the of

Canadian in

Medical

Association Drs. pointed the from out

Journal that

in

printed and ten

article have spite It

three aware

authors, of

Lawson,

Saunders "for and

Cowen, 4 4

which i t is Arctic] case of

past

-. "M'jh )' "

we In one V

been of

relative breast we that they

freedom cancer been

Eskimos cystic to

[o

Canadian

eastern

disea

strenuous fairly

efforts,

have breast

unable in this

disco of

/, vA
t * :

authenticated seems were a

Eskimo if

malignancy." case no what be ten the at all. A n d , if

indisputable rare of old the age why of

cancers, existed

breast, cer is that ally told, than zero. life adds, sents and been

extremely to

disease free

(which it traditional For,

certainly is people have to can of of "The contrary people age result

more we

too fails been the life ours*Indeed,

explain

traditi highe rather

from

disease.

expectancy as Ren

traditional from has

if it is

calculated Dubos 4 5 in the of

the the

explained, age time

increase Rather, complex what

expectancy is this so-called medical

almost

exclusively young in life survival

virtu

"There can be l i t t l e doubt that the various influences grouped under elimination the t i t l e of of civilization play a part in producing a tendency to cancer." - D r Charles Powell.

mortality

groups." often to to through

increase

expectancy corresponds

"repre-

merely costly called our

prolongation medicated modern the

procedures . . . It survival." we medicine but in the of the growth

ha

With

have

managed we have diseases, old state,

reduce

childhood conditions erative / we in J it is people last i J) j I I for

mortality, for

process, age will of

created both less a

countless

degen

and the

infectious.

After

ten, it is age as more,

lik

industrialized traditional the the as in testify,

world people.

reach

safely,

among will years

What's

g r e a t
"Like seem the body

pre-death Allen One

vegetative E. Banik

which

ma

industrialized Dr. the

world, is bodily oldster in we for

unknown organs is

tradi

tionally. 'one he is they expire "They

Rather, at live one

explains,

th

hoss

shay', all time.

Hunzakuts' day the

there; and

gone."46 long, and remain among in youthful whom, and mind have their The Hunzas, today the was Dr. live of and the already to the

die."

see

"cancer is
"... as tribes these living . . . more habits illy will to show man those a complete the absence naturalness even so of of does cancer t i l l cancer habit; 120 and

unknown," . . . "a

famous

above all health longest-lived Eskimos. people this the of

remarkable in the

longevity, "... years just 1852, The begin same to

happiness people Dr. of far

ag

mixture show i t s

with

civilized Dr

corrupts Hay.

healthiest, said

world

conform

civilizations,

the

Simpson,48 apparently in North was 1955,

descr high

head . . . "

William

in

healthy

happy

longevity ..." untold In those days too, however, doubtful. who in He various One in I 1957 members such was on to man told wrote of the ment first of were came naturally to was that

Greist49

reaffirmed

view

"For

centuries . . .

Eskimo

health

H e lived to a very great age." T h e s a m e has been told, establishlarly of the Cogi Indians of C o l o m b i a by Alan Ereira.50 I

superintendent occurred death

Peacock,40 Labrador,

that

"[W]hen

1935, went the

among from

Eskimos." cancer

describe Further

Sudden cancer never Change... Willful Amnesia o w h y did the establishment change its views six Scases

on

the

issu

traditional people and cancer? O n e obvious answer is given research, Dr. S a m u e l Epstein5' in his n e w b o o k o n breast cancer, however, revealed that of those six, all had lived 'civilized' lives "... two m e n w h o died of stomach cancer w h o s e "Cancer respec- treatment is big business, with multi-billion dollar cancer drug sales. Cancer prevention is very m u c h l tive wives died of w o m b cancer; and both of a pair annual of brothers among Eskimos. who died of throat cancer." Peacock in later that of came to cancer Still, increase, current But how was indeed "environmental current denials by causation". cancer is the that sort

profitable, at least to big business." In other words, an in believe that try developed around the problem, which required a belief j r t not prevention o n the was not an option, i.e. perhaps, that the cancer was both which

however, and newspaper can i t

thinking is and lies are

absurd be,

headlines

increasingly logic,

DKinevitable and n a t u r a l . published in But m o r e fundamentally forthcoming.

while

science itself

grew around the issue w a s flawed. In 1932, a disillusioned breast cancer . . today, for example, afflicts one in eight w o m e n in theJohn US,41C o p e pointed out that in "more than thirty years . generation has been born, has lived and died; laborat there has been virtually n o sign of i t a m o n g traditionalwhole people living traditional lives? W e hear that of 10,000 patients ries seen have been built in all parts of the civilized world; m thousands of scientists have been devoted to the quest, and by Dr. Puzin in Senegal,42 only one w a s seen to suffer from breast cancer, which w e should note, is not a difficult whole cancerlibraries of magazines, articles and books testify to t anyone's

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C A N C E R : A DISEASE OF INDUSTRIALISATION

patience, industry a n d ability w i t h w h i c h this pursuit h a s b e e n c o n d u c t e d ... a n d yet not e v e n the m o s t s a n g u i n e research w o r k e r c a n point to a n y t h i n g that c a n b y a n y stretch o f the imagination b e t e r m e d a solution to the p r o b l e m w h i c h the researchers set out s o confidently to a n s w e r . " E x p e r i e n c e h a s p r o v e d that those w h o h a v e spent a g o o d m a n y years o f their lives in e x p e r i m e n t a l research h a v e

If w e are to deal w i t h this a l l - c o n s u m i n g a n d terrifying dise a s e w h i c h s e e m s to affect e v e r y o n e o f u s directly o r indirectly, t h e n w e m u s t clearly d e t e r m i n e w h a t are the c o n d i tions in w h i c h it d o e s n o t exist. Currently, o u r scientists d o the e x a c t opposite, s p e n d i n g millions o n s t u d y i n g the process o f m u t a t i o n , the uncontrolled division o f cells, o b s e r v i n g cancerh o u s g r o w t h o n the b a c k s o f millions o f d o o m e d a n d suffering

acquired m o d e s o f t h o u g h t a n d habits o f w o r k i n g w h i c h , to say ''animals. B u t for w h a t p u r p o s e ? A s S a m E p s t e i n h a s pointed the least, d o not m a k e t h e m safe j u d g e s o f the results o f w i d e r out, v e r y little h a s b e e n a c h i e v e d t h r o u g h s u c h a process. A n d m e t h o d s o f inquiry. T h e v e r y precision a n d exactitude o f detail d o w e ' really w a n t to t o c u s o n a c c o m m o d a t i n g w h a t is a n w h i c h are o f s o m u c h value in intensive research, a d d e d to the inherently u n h e a l t h y p r o c e s s ? Surely, it w o u l d m a k e m o r e

restricted c i r c u m s t a n c e s o f the laboratory, lead to a n a r r o w n e s s s e n s e to study the context in w h i c h those w h o s e e m n e v e r to o f v i e w , to a lingering o v e r m i n u t i a e , w h i c h m u s t n e e d s unfit those s o e n g a g e d f r o m taking a n y part in f o r m s o f inquiry for w h i c h broad, spacious v i e w s are essential."52 In 1 9 5 7 , the f a m o u s D r . B e r g l a s w a s o f the s a m e m i n d : " O v e r the years, c a n c e r research h a s b e c o m e the d o m a i n o f specialists in various fields. D e s p i t e the o u t s t a n d i n g contributions o f these scientists, w e h a v e b e e n getting farther a n d h a v e b e e n p l a g u e d b y c a n c e r o n c e lived. Ironically, w h i l e it is e n c o u r a g e d a n d w h o l l y a c c e p t e d that w e idealize a n d romanticize, b o t h to o u r d o u b t i n g selves a n d m o r e significantly to n e w l y d e v e l o p i n g countries, a societal m o d e l w h i c h h a s utterly failed u s o n s o m a n y c o u n t s - it is totally u n a c c e p t a b l e , i n d e e d politically incorrect to praise the o n l y m o d e l for society w h i c h h a s p r o v e n a s u c c e s s - tradi-

farther a w a y f r o m o u r goal, the c u r i n g o f cancer. T h i s special- tional, pre-industrial society. Is it n o t o d d that the o n l y ized w o r k , a n d the k n o w l e d g e g a i n e d t h r o u g h study o f the individual processes, h a s h a d the peculiar result o f b e c o m i n g a n obstacle to the study o f the w h o l e " 5 3 p l a t f o r m o n w h i c h it is acceptable to extol the viability o f traditional culture is o n tourist b r o c h u r e s a n d c a t a l o g u e s d o i n g s o in o r d e r to c o m m e r c i a l i z e a n d ultimately sell that viability?

References

1. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Cancer: Disease of Civilization? A n anthropological and Historical Study. Hill and Wang, N e w York, 1960. 2. Dr Frederick L. Hoffman, The Mortality from Cancer Throughout the World.The Prudential Press, 1915. Cited by Stefansson. 3. Dr Charles Powell, The Pathology of Cancer. Manchester 1908. Cited by

Sacramento 1888. 26. Dr William Hay, Cancer, a Disease of Either Election or Ignorance. Published in 'Cancer' 1927. Cited by Stefansson. 27. Dr Alexander Berglas, Cancer: Nature, Cause and Cure. Paris 1957. Cited by Stefansson.

28. Charles Maclean, Island on the Edge of the World, Utopian St Kilda and i t s Stefansson. 4. Dr William Seaman Bainbridge, The Cancer Problem. N e w York, 1914. Cited Passing. 29. Dr MacCulloch, quoted by George Seton, Saint Kilda: Past and Present, 1877 by Stefansson. 30. George Seton, Saint Kilda: Past and Present, 1877 5. Vilhjaltruir Stefansson, Op. cit. 1. 6. Admiral Sir George Back, Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition. London,31. M r Wilson, quoted by George Seton, Saint Kilda Past and Present, 1877 32. Rear Admiral Otter, quoted by George Seton, Saint Kilda Past and Present, 1836. Cited by Stefansson. 1877 7. Dr Albert Schweitzer, Preface to Cancer: Nature, Cause and Cure, by Dr 33. M r MacDiarmid, quoted by George Seton, Saint Kilda Past and Present, Alexander Berglas. Paris, 1957. Cited by Stefansson. 8. Dr Stanislas Tanchou, Memoir on the Frequency of Cancer: an address to the 1877. 34. Charles Maclean, Island on the Edge of the World, Utopian St Kilda and i t s Academy of Sciences, 1843. Cited by Stefansson. Passing, P. 121. 9. Reverend Livingston French Jones, A Study of the Thlingets of Alaska. N e w 35. Hugh Brody. Inishkillane, Change and Decline in the West of Ireland, plOO York, 1914. Cited by Stefansson. 10. Dr Samuel King Hutton, A m o n g the Eskimos of Labrador. London and Philadelphia 1912. Cited by Stefansson. 11. Dr J. Lyman Bulkley, Cancer A m o n g Primitive Tribes. N e w York City 36. Robin Jenkins, The Road to Alto, A n Account of Peasants, Capitalists and the Soil in the Mountains of Southern Portugal, Pluto Press 1979, London, pl21

37. Helena Norberg Hodge, Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh. 1991 38. Professor James V. Neel, Lessons from a Primitive People. Science, Vol. 170, Journal, Cancer, 1927. Cited by Stefansson. 12. Dr Joseph Herman Romig, Interview with Dr Weston A. Price: Nutrition and No.3960, 20 November 1970. 39. Dr Joseph Herman Romig, Private correspondence with Stefansson. Physical Degeneration. London and N e w York, 1939. Cited by Stgfansson. 40. Superintendent F.W. Peacock, S o m e Psychological Aspects of the Impact of 13. Personal correspondence between Dr L.A. White and Stefansson. 1958. the White M a n U p o n the Labrador Eskimo. Labrador 1947. Cited by 14. Major General Sir Robert McCarrison, Faulty Food in Relation to Gastro41. Dr S a m Epstein, The Breast Cancer Prevention Programme. 1997. 15. Example given by Dr Alexander Berglas, Cancer: Nature, Cause and Cure. 42. Example cited by Tanchou, Memoir on the Frequency of Cancer, addressed to the Academy of Sciences, 1843. Cited by Stefansson. Paris 1957. Cited by Stefansson. 43. Private correspondence with Stefansson. 16. Dr Frederick L. Hoffman, Cancer and Civilization: Speech to Belgian 44. Drs Lawson, C o w e n and Saunderson, Breast Cancer and Heptaldehyde, The National Cancer Congress at Brussels 1923. Cited by Stefansson. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 1956. Cited by Stefansson. 17. Dr Allen Banik and Rene Taylor, Hunza Land. California 1960. 45. Ren Dubos, Man, Medicine and Environment. 1968. 18. Dr George Plummer Howe, Private Medical Notes on Northern Alaska. Cited 46. Dr Allen Banik and Rene Taylor, Hunza Land. California, 1960. by Stefansson. 47. Ibid. 19. Sir Wilfred Grenfell M D , Labrador The Country and the People. London and 48. Dr John Simpson, Observations on the Western Eskimo, London, 1855. Cited N e w York, 1909. Cited by Stefansson. by Stefansson. 20.Ibid. 49. Dr Henry Greist, Seventeen"Years A m o n g the Eskimos, date unknown. Cited 21. F.S. Fellows, U.S. Treasury Public Health Report, March 2nd 1934. by Stefansson. Mortality in the Native Races of the Territory of Alaska, with special 50. Alan Ereira, The Elder Brother. reference to tuberculosis. 51. Dr S a m Epstein, The Breast Cancer Prevention Programme, 1997. 22. John Powles, The Medicine of Industrial M a n . The Ecologist, 1972, Vol.2, 52. Dr John Cope, Cancer: Civilization and Degeneration. London 1932. Cited by No. 10. Stefansson. 23. Roald Amundsen, The Northwest Passage. London and N e w York, 1908. 53. Dr Alexander Berglas, Cancer: Nature, Cause and Cure. Paris 1957. Cited by 24. George B. Leavitt, Personal Correspondence with Stefansson. 25. Dr John Le Conte, The Vital Statistics and the True Coefficient of Mortality, Stefansson. Illustrated by Cancer. The Tenth Biennial Report of the State of California, intestinal Disorder. Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, -1922. Stefansson.

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