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Toxic Bust: Chemicals and Breast Cancer
Over 130 people attended a sneak preview of the upcoming film Toxic
Bust: Chemicals and Breast Cancer at the Lark Theater on February
16, 2006. Blending fiction and documentary, Toxic Bust is both an
informative and emotionally engaging documentary that gives voice
and cultural context to women’s experience of breast cancer while
revealing the relationship between degradation of our bodies and
of our environment. The film suggests that our breasts are fast
becoming a repository for environmental toxins.
Toxic Bust interweaves the narrative story of a healthy woman
who finds a lump in her breast, with the real life stories of breast
cancer survivors in three cancer “hot spots” who believe
that their illness may be due to exposure to chemical toxins:
- The Cape Cod peninsula, known to many of its residents and summer
travelers for its bright red cranberry bogs and heron-studded marshlands,
is also known for a breast cancer rate that is 20% higher than the
rest of the nation.
- Bayview Hunters Point, a primarily low-income African American
community within the city of San Francisco, has the highest
rate of breast cancer for women in the world. Coincidentally,
it has the most polluting power plant in the PG&E system,
and an EPA-designated superfund site, a naval shipyard with
an abysmal record of disposing of radioactive and other wastes
into the ground and bay waters surrounding Hunters Point.
- Silicon Valley is home to the “clean” industry of
computer manufacturing. The mostly Asian and Latina women workers
using extremely toxic chemicals in the chip manufacturing process
have alarmingly high rates of breast and other cancers. A group
of these workers are part of an occupational health and safety
lawsuit against IBM to compensate victims, but more importantly
to bring about changes in how workers are exposed to toxic chemicals
used in manufacturing.
Two nationally recognized experts provide understanding of the
most current breast cancer science. Gina Solomon is a professor
of clinical medicine at UCSF and is a Senior Scientist for Natural
Resources Defense Council who has authored papers on the impact
of chemicals on breast milk and breast health. Julia Brody is the
Executive Director of Silent Spring Institute and the principal
investigator for the Cape Cod Breast Cancer and Environment Study.
Solomon and Brody talk about risk factors and environmental chemicals
that mimic estrogen in the body and may raise the risk of cancer.
As the narrative character travels along the difficult path of
a first diagnosis—discovering a lump and having a mammogram,
consulting with the radiologist and awaiting her final diagnosis—she
asks how she might have developed breast cancer. Her personal history
and questions guide us through the documentary stories above to
explore more fully cases of chemical exposure in the household,
community and workplace. Toxic Bust closes by highlighting efforts
that individuals, communities and businesses have made to reduce
toxic exposures.
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