Breast cancer meeting fails people of Hunters Point, San Francisco, Marin County

I spent most of the day, Saturday, Jan. 21, at the single meeting this year of the Bay Area Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Center.

Incredibly, San Francisco and Marin County have the highest rates of breast cancer in the world. Radiation is a known carcinogen, and, together with diesel fumes, it damages the immune systems of people living in Hunters Point.


[This is the breast cancer map Leuren Moret displayed at the meeting. It clearly shows that the highest rates of deaths from breast cancer are within a hundred miles of nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons labs. See the Bay View article for the map.]

Marin Breast Cancer Watch states, “Approximately 11,000 women (in the U.S.) under the age of 40 will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, of which nearly 1,300 will die nationwide. Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women ages 15-40.”

BABCERC is in the third year of a seven-year study. The total budget is reported to be more than $175 million.

An itemized budget, which was not available at the annual meeting, would reveal conflicts of interest and how much goes to the University of California and the Nuclear Weapons Labs as administrative “overhead” and as salary offsets to institutions that have created a radiation-contaminated environment. The BABCERC Annual Public Meeting is a requirement for continued funding from the grant.

Community groups and breast cancer organizations in the Bay Area did an outstanding job of organizing the meeting and doing outreach. More than 200 people attended. These groups have put this serious issue on the national agenda and into the halls of Congress to benefit all women in America.

Dr. Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff from the Berkeley National Lab stated very clearly during her presentation that radiation is the only known cause of breast cancer.

I asked speaker after speaker, “Are you investigating radiation and diesel fumes in Hunters Point as a cause of breast cancer and other diseases?” The medical and scientific professionals did not answer the question.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Sandra Steingraber, a young doctor, was at least to the point. She replied matter-of-factly, “I know nothing about that.” She is not part of the study.

Dr. Steingraber is from Ithaca, New York. She won the Ms. Magazine “Woman of the Year” award in 1997 and has been called “the new Rachel Carson.” Steingraber’s expertise is chemicals, not radiation.

Carson’s brilliant and relentless exposé of radioactive and chemical pollution in her book “Silent Spring” inspired the environmental movement. The government response led to cover-ups of the causes of breast cancer and other diseases.

The meeting Saturday, at the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center, was a continuation of the lies, deadly deceit and science fraud from mainstream doctors and scientists that has gone on for decades. It has been a nationwide practice to hide the impact of radiation from the public.

The medical and scientific professionals blame chemicals in the environment. They ignore radiation and power plant emissions.

World renowned geoscientist Leuren Moret, an expert on radiation, also attended. Moret asked one powerful question that provided important information to the attendees.

She held up a breast cancer map her associates made from official Centers for Disease Control data. It clearly shows that the highest rates of deaths from breast cancer are within a hundred miles of nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons labs.

When Moret asked speaker Dr. Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff if BABCERC was investigating radiation as a cause around these sites, she replied, “Oh, I’m a microbiologist!”

It was a strange answer, since she spoke repeatedly in her talk about experiments on mice, saying, “Radiation is the only known cause of breast cancer in mice.”

After repeating this, she strongly recommended that every woman over 50 should have a regular mammogram. They expose delicate breast tissue to radiation, increasing the risk of breast cancer.

Her statement contradicts the BEIR VII report by the National Academy of Sciences released in July 2005, which found, “There is no safe level of ionizing radiation.” The report also cautioned about the risk from exposure through the use of radiation in medical diagnostics, including mammograms.

Moret was mobbed by people starved for real information about breast cancer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Throughout the meeting, representatives of two nuclear weapons labs in the Bay Area intensely monitored the meeting.

One woman tore up Moret and Nichols’ evaluations, which had “Radiation Cover-Up” written on them. She verbally attacked and threatened Ms. Moret, backing her into an elevator before she was restrained and pulled away by women organizers.

In an interview, I asked about cancer resulting from RNA cascades caused by alpha particles. Dr. Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff said, “Oh, you are very knowledgeable about the field. I really have to go.

“My research is in a different area. I am a microbiologist, a mouse doctor.” She said her research is about radiation, which she uses to cause breast cancer in mice.

The best part of the conference was the noon entertainment by the Northern California Soul Strutters and KIPP Bayview Academy African Drum and Dance Team. The kids were fantastic, and joyful music filled the room. The women, mothers and a few men in the audience cheered and applauded the performance enthusiastically.

After the entertainment, the conference continued with the high level cover-up.

Bob Nichols is a Bay View correspondent and a Project Censored Award-winning writer. Email Nichols at bob.bobnichols [at] gmail.com