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February 1999 Forum Summary
Cancer and Environment Forums

On February 5, 1999 the Ad Hoc Discussion Group meeting was held in Albany at the Legislative Office Building, with 34 participants. The main agenda item, a presentation by Dr. Charles Land, a Health Statistician with the National Cancer Institute and a member of the National Action Plan on Breast Cancer's Etiology Working Group, is part of BCERF's response to address the issue of medical ionizing radiation as a known risk factor for breast cancer.

Update on BCERF Activities

June Fessenden MacDonald gave a general overview, emphasizing BCERF products completed in the past year. Carol Devine, BCERF Education Project Leader, reviewed the educational strategies of the program, and the activities designed to carry out those strategies.

BCERF Educational Strategies

Medical Ionizing Radiation and Human Breast Cancer

Dr. Charles Land provided an overview of the November 1997 National Action Plan (NAPBC) on Breast Cancer's Workshop on Medical Ionizing Radiation and Human Breast Cancer Workshop. He also described his own conclusions based on his own work studying breast cancer risk among atomic bomb survivors and as a participant in forums such as the Breast Cancer Etiology Working Group. In covering the workshop, he described the content of presentations made by breast cancer advocates, working scientists in the field of breast cancer and radiation, professionals involved in the control of radiation exposure and an attorney discussing some of the legal issues. Space here will be used to review Dr. Land's own conclusions. An overview of the workshop presentations is available on the NAPBC world wide web site, also referred to in the previous Ad Hoc Discussion Group column, http://www.napbc.org/napbc/wkshp/wkshpsummary.html. It contains this overview as well as comments and suggestions generated from the roundtable discussion which followed the workshop. In addition, Advocates' Conclusions and Recommendations are available at http://www.napbc.org/napbc/irad/iradtoc.html. Asked whether there would be a final report issued from the workshop, Dr. Land replied that he did not know of plans to publish a final report, but that he thought it may be possible.

The following are Dr. Land's overview conclusions regarding medical ionizing radiation and breast cancer risk.

Update on Pesticide Sales and Use Reporting (PSUR) Database

Bob Haggerty on the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Bill Smith of the Cornell Pesticide Management Education Program (PMEP) provided an update on the second year of the Pesticide Use and Sales Database. Bob went over the numbers of the 1997 reports, and said that for the first reporting year, compliance was fairly high (over 85% of commercial applicators and over 93% of commercial permittees, which are those that sell restricted use pesticides.) He also reviewed for the group the kinds of information required by the reporting law, using the actual form for the group to see. He mentioned some of the problems experienced by both those needing to report on the forms and those needing to interpret the responses. An example of this is the problem of responders reporting diluted amounts of pesticide, instead of the undiluted amount. Another is the multiple counting of sales of pesticides from one wholesaler to another before it is used by an applicator.

Last Update 08.04.05