wfn.org | Breast Cancer Conference

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (231
notes).

Note 228 by UMNS on July 21, 1997 at 16:05 Eastern (3049 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Bloom                              416(10-71B){228}
          New York (212) 870-3803                    July 21, 1997

(Photo available)

United Methodist sees links
between environment, breast cancer

               by United Methodist News Service

     As a breast cancer screener for the Chicago Department of
Health, Irma Clark has been concerned about the rise in breast
cancer cases and about possible environmental links to the
disease.
     Now, after attending the First World Conference on Breast
Cancer July 13-17 in Kingston, Ontario, Clark plans to "educate
people as much as I possibly can" about those environmental links.
     Clark, a member of United Methodist Women (UMW) and mission
coordinator for the Northern Illinois Annual (regional)
conference, represented UMW at the conference. She has bachelor's
and master's degrees in nursing from the Tuskegee Institute and a
doctorate in public health from the College of St. Francis in
Chicago.
     The conference organizers -- the Women's Environmental and
Development Organization, based in New York, and Kingston breast
Cancer Conference Committee -- estimated that more than a million
women worldwide will die this year of breast cancer.
     A focus of the event was on the growing body of research
which links the incidence of breast cancer to a variety of
environmental toxins, such as pesticides, estrogen-mimicking
chemicals and various pollutants.
     Clark said she believes the fact that breast cancer cases
continue to increase "is directly coming from the environment."
     Particularly affected, she said, are women of color from poor
neighborhoods where environmental hazards and dump sites are
commonplace.
     With more than 100 speakers from 30 countries, the conference
was "important" as the first of its kind to deal with such issues,
according to Clark.
     She particularly was interested in the discussion generated
by Susan Love, a U.S. physician and author, about the effects of
birth control pills and estrogen-replacement therapy on breast
cancer risk, but also was impressed with the lesser-known
participants. "There were so many survivors of breast cancer who
were there and were speaking out," Clark said.
     According to Pamela Sparr, executive secretary for
environmental justice for the Women's Division, United Methodist
Board of Global Ministries, Clark's participation in the
conference is a follow-up to the denomination's resolution on
dioxins.
     That resolution, passed by the 1996 United Methodist General
Conference, calls upon cancer research organizations to fund more
studies on the relationship between cancer and chlorine-based
toxins.
     Clark will serve as a speaker and resource person on the
links between toxic chemicals and health problems in women and
men, Sparr said.
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