Cancer Prevention Month CANVA (3)Posted on January 31, 2016

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is proud to join people from across the country and around the world in recognizing February as National Cancer Prevention Month and February 4th as World Cancer Day.

While promising research continues, prevention remains the only cure for asbestos-caused diseases.  Despite being armed with over a century of scientific data, asbestos remains legal and lethal in the U.S. and imports continue.  Each year, up to 15,000 American die from preventable diseases.

During February, ADAO will feature weekly blogs about cancer prevention to raise awareness about asbestos-caused diseases.

As ADAO says, “Hear Asbestos. Think Prevention.”

Here are the facts about cancer:

  • The National Institutes of Health estimated 1,658,370 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2015 alone while 589,430 people will die in the same year.
  • Centers for Disease Control states: “Each year globally, about 14 million people learn they have cancer, and 8 million people die from the disease. Research suggests that one-third of cancer deaths can be prevented, but sometimes services and technologies are not widely available, especially in low- and middle-income countries.”
  • The World Cancer Report 2014  highlighted several key aspects in the global fight against cancer – several of which have a direct impact in supporting a global asbestos ban. The report states that in 2012, the most common and most fatal cancer in the world was lung cancer (1.8 million causes diagnosed with 1.6 million deaths annually). Lung cancer is often a cancer caused by airborne carcinogens including smoke, pollution, and other harmful chemicals such as asbestos.

During President Obama’s final State of the Union address, he named Vice-President Biden the new leader for the multi-billion-dollar new initiative, The Cancer Moonshot, which will work to end “cancer as we know it today”. Biden called for more open sharing of data as well as harmonizing existing efforts by pulling together the right players in order to build on the work already completed by many others, including the International Cancer Genome Consortium.

ADAO is pleased to support National Cancer Prevention Day on Thursday, February 4th.  Organized by Less Cancer, there is exciting and informative program and panel of speakers for this year’s “Connecting Science and Policy for Action event in DC. Cancer Prevention Day

It time to shoot for the moon as we know that together, we can end asbestos-caused cancers.

Asbestos and cancer cannot stand alone, they are issues that are are complicated and intertwined, as too many victims of  asbestos-related cancers die every year. World Cancer Day serves as a reminder for our community that asbestos causes cancer and asbestos kills.

  • “It is unfortunate that we still need a World Cancer Day. We must recognize that the best method of dealing with this worldwide scourge is to practice more prevention in the form of reducing smoking, totally eliminating asbestos, improving diets, and taking other steps to stop this serious problem.” – Arthur Frank, MD, PhD
  • “The best message I can give on World Cancer Day is that if we stop a peoples’s exposure to a carcinogen, we stop the cancer. That’s something society can do.” – Richard A. Lemen, Assistant Surgeon General, USPHS (Ret.)
  • “More commitment to prevention and early detection is desperately needed in order to complement improved treatments and address the alarming rise in cancer burden globally.” – Dr. Christopher Wild, Director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

Cancer Prevention Month CANVA (8)In addition to National Cancer Prevention Month, February 4th is World Cancer Day and is coordinated by the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) with support from the World Health Organization (WHO). World Cancer Day aims to help save millions of preventable deaths each year by raising awareness and education about cancer and encouraging governments and individuals across the world to take action against the disease.

This is a great day for sharing your feelings and stories with us and throughout your social networks, especially since our network fuels efforts to raise awareness to prevent exposure.

Keep an eye out for our February blogs during National Cancer Prevention Month.

Together we can end asbestos-caused cancers.

In unity,

Linda Reinstein

Social Networks