Cancer and the animal world:
Learning the lessons
UPdate Fall 2007

It’s not only humans. The beluga whales in Canada’s St. Lawrence estuary are getting cancer, while those in the less-polluted Arctic waters are not. Fish in contaminated waters have tumors, but not those in clean water. Dogs that are exposed to herbicides from chemically treated lawns have more cancers than those that are not. …

It can’t get much clearer.

The belugas have survived in the world’s northern waters for millions of years, eating octopus, crabs and fish. Now one in four of the St. Lawrence whales is dying from cancer, mostly intestinal. They are also having trouble reproducing. When scientists examined their bodies, the autopsies revealed high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which almost certainly came from an upstream aluminum smelter.

Does the St. Lawrence beluga drink too much alcohol? Does the St. Lawrence beluga smoke too much? Does the St. Lawrence beluga have a bad diet? Is that why the beluga whales are ill? Do you think you are somehow immune and that it is only the beluga whale that is being affected?
-Leone Pippard, Canadian Ecology Advocates

Book Review of Cancer: 101 Solutions at www.environmentalhealth.ca/fall07cancer101 Additional excerpts from Cancer: 101 Solutions
Our Chemical Body Burden url:www.environmentalhealth.ca/fall07bodyburden
Cancer and lifestyle: looking at the whole picture www.environmentalhealth.ca/fall07lifestyle