While awareness is growing about the many toxic chemicals that exist outside the home, an equally dangerous menace exists within the home. Many products that we invite into our homes and use on a daily basis have hidden ingredients that pose another dangerous threat to our children’s health as well as our own. The very commercial products that we spray, splash, wash with, rub on, and get pretty with harbor a more sinister side. Men in white lab coats whip up chemical concoctions that are designed to be used either in the home or on our body. While we naively accept advertising enticements, most people are unaware that personal care products are part of an unregulated industry, which incorporates known carcinogenic and hormone-disrupting chemicals.
Journalist Joel Beliefs of the Chicago Tribune wrote the following expose called “Take a Powder” providing an inside peek in the hidden world of personal care products.
Do you use toothpaste, shampoo, sunscreen, body lotion, body talc, makeup, or hair dye? These are among the personal care products the American consumer has been led to believe are safe but that are often contaminated with carcinogenic byproducts, or that contain substances that regularly react to form potent carcinogens during storage and use.
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• How many cases of my type of gynecological cancer have you treated or managed before?
• You have suggested I have some tests. What are they likely to show?
• Have my pathology tests been reviewed? What was the expertise of the person reviewing them?
• What treatment options are available?
• What is the success rate of each treatment?
• What are the physical, psychological and sexual side effects of each treatment? How severe are they? How long will they last?
• When do I have to decide what treatment I will have?
• Where can I get a second opinion?
• Who will supervise my treatment?
• How long will my treatment take?
• What information will be given back to my GP (or referring doctor)?
• How much time should I take off work?
• What follow-up treatment will be required? For how long?
• What symptoms or other physical or emotional changes should I look for during my treatment?
• I am using complementary therapies. How will these effect my treatment?
• How long will I be in hospital during my treatment?
• I am concerned about the impact on my fertility and sexuality. Can you give me specific details about this? What counselors are available to talk to?
• I am concerned about the impact on my sex life. What information is available? Who can I talk to?
• I am concerned that I may need psychological support – what signs will indicate this? What counselors are available to help?
• Who should I call if I feel I can’t cope and am overwhelmed?
• I will need the help of a social worker to help communicate my illness to my children – are there any resources I can read beforehand?
• I need help to organize my home/financial situation. Who can I talk to?
• I am concerned about the impact of the treatment on my body image (hair and weight loss). Who can I talk to?
• I am concerned about the impact of my treatment on my children. Who can I talk to?
• I am on a very controlled diet (diabetic, coelieac, gluten free, vegetarian, macrobiotic . . .) how will this affect my treatment?
• Where can I get reliable information about my condition?
• When should I contact you if I have odd symptoms or other issues of concern?
• What is the best way to contact you?
• I am a lesbian. What is your attitude toward this? Will it be of concern to any of your staff? Will my partner have open visiting rights?
• My language is very limited – who can interpret our discussions for me?
• Is there any support group I and/or my carer can join to discuss my condition and coping skills?
• I live in the country that is a long drive from the hospital – what subsidized accommodation is available, or other types of help such as financial assistance or traveling allowance?
• How do I find out about country support groups?
• My children are not able to travel to visit me in hospital very often and are getting very anxious about not seeing me? How do I manage this?
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Manage telephone calls Answering machines and group emails are a way of managing friends’ enquiries so you are not repeating the same information. Regular updates will keep people informed. Too many visitors will make you tired – control the times and number of visitors you receive. Inform your carer and nursing staff.
‘Feel goods’ Shop for something special to take into hospital to reward you after surgery or treatment, or draw up a list of ‘feel goods’ that friends can bring in place of flowers.
Create ‘peace of mind’. Update your personal affairs including preparation of a will. Have your hair cut short if you are having aggressive chemotherapy that may cause hair loss. A great time to experiment with that alternative look! Buy a wig if needed.
Keep your sense of humour. Create spaces in your day for laughter with loved ones. Don’t feel ‘ashamed’ of having cancer. It is not contagious. Sometimes friends or acquaintances are so threatened themselves that they cannot cope with seeing you because they are afraid. If their friendship is important to you, you may have to make the first point of contact and show you understand how they feel.
Create many moments for intimacy and sex, especially before treatment begins. Clara, who is normally tactile and physically affectionate, found that once she had commenced chemotherapy, friends stopped all physical contact – a kiss hello, a hug. She felt totally isolated. Some women who are sexually active may not feel like sexual intercourse for a few weeks, and this is one time in your life when physical touch acts like a security blanket.
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ADAPTING TO A CANCER DIAGNOSIS: STAYING “FEEL GOOD”Manage telephone calls Answering machines and group emails are a way of managing friends’ enquiries so you are not repeating the same information. Regular updates will keep people informed. Too many visitors will make you tired – control the times and number of visitors you receive. Inform your carer and nursing staff.’Feel goods’ Shop for something special to take into hospital to reward you after surgery or treatment, or draw up a list of ‘feel goods’ that friends can bring in place of flowers.Create ‘peace of mind’. Update your personal affairs including preparation of a will. Have your hair cut short if you are having aggressive chemotherapy that may cause hair loss. A great time to experiment with that alternative look! Buy a wig if needed.Keep your sense of humour. Create spaces in your day for laughter with loved ones. Don’t feel ‘ashamed’ of having cancer. It is not contagious. Sometimes friends or acquaintances are so threatened themselves that they cannot cope with seeing you because they are afraid. If their friendship is important to you, you may have to make the first point of contact and show you understand how they feel.Create many moments for intimacy and sex, especially before treatment begins. Clara, who is normally tactile and physically affectionate, found that once she had commenced chemotherapy, friends stopped all physical contact – a kiss hello, a hug. She felt totally isolated. Some women who are sexually active may not feel like sexual intercourse for a few weeks, and this is one time in your life when physical touch acts like a security blanket.*23/144/5*
Modern cancer specialists believe in scientifically-tested treatments which work in a way that makes sense to their scientifically-trained minds. The ‘best’ treatments are those which have been scientifically shown to produce the greatest proportion of remissions and the greatest average length of life, almost regardless of any other consideration. The ‘best’ treatments are those that are best at shrinking cancers and delaying death. They are not the treatments that make people feel best, nor are they the treatments that are most convenient and pleasant. A treatment which has any chance at all, however small, of temporarily making cancer growths smaller is ‘better’ than treatment aimed at simply relieving symptoms and making people feel better. A treatment which, on average, extends patients lives by three months is ‘better’ than no anti-cancer treatment. These treatments are considered better even though they may mean frequent injections, blood tests, hospital visits, weakness, nausea and vomiting and other unpleasant side effects. Doctors have set recommendations for each type of cancer. All that your doctor needs to know about you is the type of cancer you have, its extent and possibly your age. The same sorts of statements could be made about practitioners other than doctors.
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Thus, surgery has a good chance of curing some types of cancer, but only those which are usually still confined to the primary site at the time of diagnosis. Cancers which tend to release cells into the bloodstream or lymphatic system before they are diagnosed are unlikely to be cured by surgery. Other types of cancer are extremely sensitive to radiation treatment, so sensitive that they can be cured by it even when secondary growths have formed. There are also some types of cancer which are very sensitive to certain chemotherapy drugs, and these particular types can be cured even when they have spread extensively. There are some cancers which are verySensMve to the balance of various hormones in the body. These cancers can remain dormant for long periods of time if the hormone balance is changed (by taking pills or injections or by removing the glands which produce certain hormones). I will be discussing these treatments and the particular types of cancer against which they are effective in later chapters.
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