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The Secret History of the War on Cancer
The War on Cancer set out to find, treat, and cure a disease. Left untouched were many of the things known to cause cancer, including tobacco, the workplace, radiation, or the global environment. Proof of how the world in which we live and work affects whether we get cancer was either overlooked or suppressed. This has been no accident. The War on Cancer was run by leaders of industries that made cancer-causing products, and sometimes also profited from drugs and technologies for finding and treating the disease. Filled with compelling personalities and never-before-revealed information, The Secret History of the War on Cancer shows how we began fighting the wrong war, with the wrong weapons, against the wrong enemies-a legacy that persists to this day. This is the gripping story of a major public health effort diverted and distorted for private gain. A portion of the profits from this book will go to support research on cancer prevention.
528 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
56 people are currently reading
846 people want to read
About the author
Devra Davis
11 books18 followersDevra Davis is an American epidemiologist and writer. Her book When Smoke Ran Like Water, which begins with the tale of the Donora Smog of 1948, was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2002. Davis's second book, The Secret History of the War on Cancer, was published by Basic Books in October 2007.
She is currently the director of the Center for Environmental Oncology of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute; the multidisciplinary center includes experts in medicine, basic research, engineering and public policy, who will develop cutting-edge studies to identify the causes of cancer and propose policies to reduce the risks of the disease. Davis is also a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and Visiting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School. A former Scholar in Residence at the National Academy of Sciences, she completed her Ph.D. in science studies at the University of Chicago as a Danforth Fellow, and an M.P.H. at Johns Hopkins University as a National Cancer Institute post-doctoral fellow. Davis received a B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1967.
She was born June 7, 1946, in Washington, DC, the daughter of Harry B. and Jean Langer Davis, and was raised in Donora, Pennsylvania and in Pittsburgh, where she graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School.
From 1970-76 she was assistant professor of sociology at Queens College of the City University of New York. Beginning in 1982 she was a faculty associate at Johns Hopkins University, Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Hygiene and Public Health. She served as a visiting professor at University of Missouri in 1983; Municipal Institute, Barcelona, Spain, in 1985; Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY, Department of Community Medicine, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, in 1988; and Hebrew University, School of Public Health, Unit of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in 1989.
A member of both the American Colleges of Toxicology and of Epidemiology, Dr. Davis is also a Visiting Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City. In addition, she is a Visiting Scientist of the Strang Cornell Cancer Prevention Center of the Rockefeller University and Scientific Advisor to the Women's Environment and Development Organization. Davis founded the International Breast Cancer Prevention Collaborative Research Group, an organization dedicated to exploring the causes of breast cancer. She currently serves on the Board of the Climate Institute, and the Coalition of Organizations on the Environment and Jewish Life, and the Earthfire Institute.
Davis married Richard D. Morgenstern on October 19, 1975; their children are Aaron and Lea.
-wikipedia
She is currently the director of the Center for Environmental Oncology of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute; the multidisciplinary center includes experts in medicine, basic research, engineering and public policy, who will develop cutting-edge studies to identify the causes of cancer and propose policies to reduce the risks of the disease. Davis is also a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and Visiting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School. A former Scholar in Residence at the National Academy of Sciences, she completed her Ph.D. in science studies at the University of Chicago as a Danforth Fellow, and an M.P.H. at Johns Hopkins University as a National Cancer Institute post-doctoral fellow. Davis received a B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1967.
She was born June 7, 1946, in Washington, DC, the daughter of Harry B. and Jean Langer Davis, and was raised in Donora, Pennsylvania and in Pittsburgh, where she graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School.
From 1970-76 she was assistant professor of sociology at Queens College of the City University of New York. Beginning in 1982 she was a faculty associate at Johns Hopkins University, Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Hygiene and Public Health. She served as a visiting professor at University of Missouri in 1983; Municipal Institute, Barcelona, Spain, in 1985; Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY, Department of Community Medicine, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, in 1988; and Hebrew University, School of Public Health, Unit of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in 1989.
A member of both the American Colleges of Toxicology and of Epidemiology, Dr. Davis is also a Visiting Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City. In addition, she is a Visiting Scientist of the Strang Cornell Cancer Prevention Center of the Rockefeller University and Scientific Advisor to the Women's Environment and Development Organization. Davis founded the International Breast Cancer Prevention Collaborative Research Group, an organization dedicated to exploring the causes of breast cancer. She currently serves on the Board of the Climate Institute, and the Coalition of Organizations on the Environment and Jewish Life, and the Earthfire Institute.
Davis married Richard D. Morgenstern on October 19, 1975; their children are Aaron and Lea.
-wikipedia
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March 29, 2009
After some reflection, I think my original 5 star rating was a bit much. Those 5 stars were an emotional rating on my part due to a recent and devastating diagnosis that hit way too close to home.
But look, there is something to this. The author wanted to write this book 20 years ago while employed by the National Academy of Sciences. When she told her boss that several institutions and research academies wanted to publish papers she had written on the war on cancer, her boss told her, "it had better be a good book." She explains that it should be and expects a nice advance from it. He tells her she'll need it. "Of course, I'm not telling you what to do... I'm telling you that you can't write a book critical of the cancer enterprise and hold a senior position at this institution."
So she didn't. She gathered more info over the next 20 years and then wrote her book.
I'm not so sure that the war on cancer is so secret. Really. There are competing interests and money talks. So what if your child has cancer. We need to keep profits rolling in! Sorry!
From the book:
Astonishing alliances between naive or far too clever academics and folks with major economic interests in selling potentially cancerous materials have kept us from figuring out whether or not many modern products affect our chances of developing cancer.
I think a cartoon from 1977 portrays the battle perfectly. A government official stands behind a scientist, saying, "Could you hurry up and find a cure for cancer? That would be so much easier than prevention." Behind the government official, there are folks representing food and drug, chemical and pesticide, asbestos and tobacco interests.
Yep.
So, screw you cancer, and screw you, cancer enterprise. Screw the profits. We need more information on prevention and we need a damn cure.
People are dying, you greedy assholes!
But look, there is something to this. The author wanted to write this book 20 years ago while employed by the National Academy of Sciences. When she told her boss that several institutions and research academies wanted to publish papers she had written on the war on cancer, her boss told her, "it had better be a good book." She explains that it should be and expects a nice advance from it. He tells her she'll need it. "Of course, I'm not telling you what to do... I'm telling you that you can't write a book critical of the cancer enterprise and hold a senior position at this institution."
So she didn't. She gathered more info over the next 20 years and then wrote her book.
I'm not so sure that the war on cancer is so secret. Really. There are competing interests and money talks. So what if your child has cancer. We need to keep profits rolling in! Sorry!
From the book:
Astonishing alliances between naive or far too clever academics and folks with major economic interests in selling potentially cancerous materials have kept us from figuring out whether or not many modern products affect our chances of developing cancer.
I think a cartoon from 1977 portrays the battle perfectly. A government official stands behind a scientist, saying, "Could you hurry up and find a cure for cancer? That would be so much easier than prevention." Behind the government official, there are folks representing food and drug, chemical and pesticide, asbestos and tobacco interests.
Yep.
So, screw you cancer, and screw you, cancer enterprise. Screw the profits. We need more information on prevention and we need a damn cure.
People are dying, you greedy assholes!
February 22, 2008
Having recently finished a very long series of treatment for breast cancer I found this book riveting. Devra Davis is a renowned expert in the field of environmental oncology. She makes a very strong case that we have been fighting the wrong battle because we have targeted the disease rather dealing with cancer's causes, including the environment. Our leaders of industry have worked hard to avoid dealing with the cancer-causing materials they have generated. The emphasis has been on making the disease less deadly, but not preventing it.
As I went through my very costly treatment I often wondered how the cancer industry would survive if cancer were actually prevented.
This is a deeply disturbing book filled with gut-wrenching information. The author does make it very readable and I found the various personalities fascinating. The 400+ pages make in impossible to summarize all the information, but for your families health, I urge you to read this book.
As I went through my very costly treatment I often wondered how the cancer industry would survive if cancer were actually prevented.
This is a deeply disturbing book filled with gut-wrenching information. The author does make it very readable and I found the various personalities fascinating. The 400+ pages make in impossible to summarize all the information, but for your families health, I urge you to read this book.
July 9, 2010
Being a anti-cancer warrior, I figured I should read this book to get the inside scoop. I found the the first couple of chapters hard to read but eventually decided to skip ahead and the rest of the book was actually engrossing. The first chapters represented what I liked least about the book: a style of writing that involves drifting in and out of detailed backstory, personal anecdotes, and historical vignettes. For instance, she starts a chapter describing the travels of a pathologist from Chicago to Brussels to attend an influential cancer conferene in 1936. This story then yields way to how cancer was known and treated in Egypt in 900 BC, then how x-rays were developed, then back to that cancer congress, then the story of an immigrant working in an IBM "clean room" that develops cancer, etc. I guess the personalized stories and switching back and forth from storylines is supposed to lure you in, but I found it frustrating to have to wade through - and often unclear what the point was. I think the book could be half as long and cut out a lot of the anecdotal implications of environmental hazards that make the book seem sketchy.
Eventually it became more focused. There are sections on the histories of the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute which were very interesting, and still relevant today. A central theme of the book that comes through is: why does it take us so long to identify and rectify major threats to our health? Why did it take so many smoking- and asbestos-related deaths before we could agree they were a bad idea? She seems to believe that our reliance on good epidemiology essentially leads to an unacceptable delay in preventing harms. She goes even farther by implying that the rise of epidemiology as a field (and our most famous epidemiologists) was shepharded by the tobacco and asbestos industries, who sought to dismiss animal experiments and embrace long term cohort studies as the only relevant form of evidence. In this way they could delay any regulatory action until long term studies were completed. She also takes a fairly hard line on the consulting fees accepted by our most famous epidemiologists from the tobacco, asbestos, and other industries. This section will give epidemiologists something to ponder in thinking about causality and public health (and their epi heros). We can only show that something is harmful after a large enough number of people have died or developed a disease. Is this retrospective approach the preferred framework for protecting the public? Should more weight be given to animal or in vitro studies, or should we continue to encourage and demand what Davis considers involuntary experimentation on large populations of humans? Obviously this is a complicated question.
I thought calling this book the "Secret History of the War on Cancer" was a little exaggerated - I can't say I was shocked about too much of anything. Overall, I did learn some very intriguing things - things that I feel I should have known about as a cancer epidemiologist.
Eventually it became more focused. There are sections on the histories of the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute which were very interesting, and still relevant today. A central theme of the book that comes through is: why does it take us so long to identify and rectify major threats to our health? Why did it take so many smoking- and asbestos-related deaths before we could agree they were a bad idea? She seems to believe that our reliance on good epidemiology essentially leads to an unacceptable delay in preventing harms. She goes even farther by implying that the rise of epidemiology as a field (and our most famous epidemiologists) was shepharded by the tobacco and asbestos industries, who sought to dismiss animal experiments and embrace long term cohort studies as the only relevant form of evidence. In this way they could delay any regulatory action until long term studies were completed. She also takes a fairly hard line on the consulting fees accepted by our most famous epidemiologists from the tobacco, asbestos, and other industries. This section will give epidemiologists something to ponder in thinking about causality and public health (and their epi heros). We can only show that something is harmful after a large enough number of people have died or developed a disease. Is this retrospective approach the preferred framework for protecting the public? Should more weight be given to animal or in vitro studies, or should we continue to encourage and demand what Davis considers involuntary experimentation on large populations of humans? Obviously this is a complicated question.
I thought calling this book the "Secret History of the War on Cancer" was a little exaggerated - I can't say I was shocked about too much of anything. Overall, I did learn some very intriguing things - things that I feel I should have known about as a cancer epidemiologist.
January 3, 2009
I heard Dr. Davis on a conference call and was excited with her observations and command of the issues.
Now after reading her book, I believe that my observations and conclusions are needed.
The reading was not medically detailed, well documented and laid out in good order. The epilogue was very pithy and sobering.
What catches my attention is that the concerns about cancer are about to escalate to new heights, since more and more cancer is being experienced by scientists, researchers, academia and doctors. Dr. Davis has not read the paper done by Dr. Alfred Stock, Organic Chemist of Germany. We are being poisoned systematically, in small doses. The trick is to identify body burden, reduce body burden and eliminate the sources.
Dr. Linus Pauling was spot on when he said, "there are 1000 new chemicals and compounds being developed every month." With those kind of numbers, science will study cancer forever. It is like trying to board a bullet train as it passes the station.
Dr. Davis uses all encompassing words that keep the general public off balance like environment, toxins, poisons, dioxins and industry. That's all fine for the book but if answers are what she is looking for, she should be focusing on the two sub-categories of poisons.
I suggest a number of actions for the Doctor, 1)Identify the sources of heavy metals that are consumed by the public, 2) Prioritize them in order of hazard 3)Make this information public asap and 4) Listen to the Rabbi when he said, "It is not for you to complete the task. But you must begin."
No cure will ever be found for cancer, it can only be prevented. The task begins with you and ends with the good health of your descendants.
Now after reading her book, I believe that my observations and conclusions are needed.
The reading was not medically detailed, well documented and laid out in good order. The epilogue was very pithy and sobering.
What catches my attention is that the concerns about cancer are about to escalate to new heights, since more and more cancer is being experienced by scientists, researchers, academia and doctors. Dr. Davis has not read the paper done by Dr. Alfred Stock, Organic Chemist of Germany. We are being poisoned systematically, in small doses. The trick is to identify body burden, reduce body burden and eliminate the sources.
Dr. Linus Pauling was spot on when he said, "there are 1000 new chemicals and compounds being developed every month." With those kind of numbers, science will study cancer forever. It is like trying to board a bullet train as it passes the station.
Dr. Davis uses all encompassing words that keep the general public off balance like environment, toxins, poisons, dioxins and industry. That's all fine for the book but if answers are what she is looking for, she should be focusing on the two sub-categories of poisons.
I suggest a number of actions for the Doctor, 1)Identify the sources of heavy metals that are consumed by the public, 2) Prioritize them in order of hazard 3)Make this information public asap and 4) Listen to the Rabbi when he said, "It is not for you to complete the task. But you must begin."
No cure will ever be found for cancer, it can only be prevented. The task begins with you and ends with the good health of your descendants.
November 11, 2011
This book should have been titled "Why Corporations Are Even More Evil Than You Thought." There is a lot of interesting information here, but it is presented repetitively and sometimes with annoying personal stories about Davis' family and friends and their varying experiences with cancer as well as some of her own rather New Age-y beliefs about God and death and other things. Some parts were confusing because the same people kept popping up and being re-introduced in each chapter. I found myself thinking, "Didn't I already read about this?" It seemed as though the chapters were written to be read separately rather than as part of a whole. There is also a bit of self-justification in her side comments about the agencies and organizations she has worked with that I found disingenuous, such as her noble refusal to take funding from some disreputable corporation or other.
There was some interesting stuff about the origins of the American Cancer Society and the huge (and hugely profitable) cancer treatment industry, but a lot of what she presents is pretty obvious (producers of toxic substances lie, cheat, wrangle, legislate, bribe, lobby, falsify, and pretty much do anything they can to prevent people from finding out that their products are dangerous, what a shock! And advertisers and PR agencies help them? I never would have guessed!) and by now well-known, if not well-publicized. What she does not address much is the actual number of people who are affected. It's one thing to say that people who work with various poisonous chemicals have "10 times more risk of x type of cancer," but entirely another to know exactly how many people actually GET that cancer. For instance, I was surprised to find out that the incidence of lung cancer in smokers is something like 16%, meaning that 16% of regular smokers get lung cancer (I don't remember the exact number - it may even have been lower than that). Now that's a lot of cancer, and it's completely preventable so it's stupid that people are getting it and I'm not endorsing smoking or anything like that, but from the commercials and ads and information put out by the anti-smoking groups, you'd think that all you have to do is try one cigarette and you're going to get lung cancer and die, when the truth is a lot of people - a huge majority - smoke regularly for a very long time and do not suffer from cancer, or if they do it is at the end of their lives (my grandfather smoked three to four packs a day, plus a couple of pipes at night and was not sick until he was in his 80s), when they're old and going to die anyway, or at least that's how it looks to your average young person. What percentage of steel workers actually develop cancer that can be traced to their work or is likely to have resulted from their work? How many people does this work out to being? We never know. Davis does address the difficulty of trying to figure things like this out, but there is a tone of "well, it doesn't matter because even one death is too many!" That is true, but how many other lives are saved and improved by the chemicals and plastics and other things that seem to sicken those who produce them? It's a nasty, terrible thing to think about.
Along that line, I was struck by the complete ignoring of the role of the workers in many of these cases. People would go to work in the asbestos mines and the chemical factories and the steel mills and come home with coughs they couldn't get rid of and burns on their skin and growths where there shouldn't be growths AND SOMETIMES THEIR BONES WOULD JUST DISSOLVE and they would see their coworkers developing cancers and illnesses and they just believed their bosses when they said, "Oh don't worry about it." Really? And this still happens! I have seen it myself in people who work in a computer chip manufacturing plant near where I live. They don't even ask for protective gloves when the acids and metals they work with burn their hands. It's almost a macho thing to suck it up and keep on working. Their bosses were wrong to lie and to hide what they knew about the dangerousness of their workplaces, but what about the underlying ignorance and lack of critical thought exhibited by the workers? This is even more disturbing to me than the greed and corruption of the industries and governments that caused the problem. Davis' suggestion that we form a sort of "truth and reconciliation committee" to get companies to stop hiding their knowledge about the dangerousness of their products is not particularly helpful. Truth and reconciliation are great, but how about we teach our children to ask questions and stand up for themselves rather than selling their bodies and their health for a job? How about we do that for ourselves? We all know that heads of companies will do whatever it takes to keep making money, but how many of these people were in unions that were more interested in upping their wages than in making sure the workers had protective gear, however primitive it may have been? Even more frightening, how many of them were so desperate for any kind of work that they were willing to suffer the effects even though they knew, consciously or unconsciously, that they were in trouble? How many of us are willing to expose ourselves to more and more radiation and chemical poisons with the technology and other comforts we love? I have never intended to get my kids cell phones, but now I am even more against them!
I found the final chapters, in which Davis discusses "green" technologies that may replace some of the dangerous stuff we use now, rather preachy and pie-in-the-sky. Recycling and other "green" methods have their own problems, not the least of which are their cost and the fact that many of them just plain don't work. Solar energy, for instance, is great on a small scale, but hideously expensive to set up and not particularly efficient. Buildings made of renewable resources like bamboo and cotton and such are nice, but how long are they going to stand compared to drywall? Hopefully for a long time, but we just don't know yet.
In sum, this book did make me rethink some of my opinions about the way corporations function and their responsibility to society. I consider myself a believer in capitalism and a libertarian in most respects, meaning in this case that I don't believe that governments should heavily regulate industries. After reading this book, I believe that governments SHOULD be able to monitor and regulate industries, particularly those that produce unstable and possibly toxic substances and technologies. However, and this is a big however, Davis shows that in many cases, the government is complicit in the cover-up for various reasons (most of them having to do with money - another huge shock! Not) and therefore not able or willing to carry out its responsibility to protect its citizens. So what is to be done? There are many people to blame for the unnecessarily high levels of toxic substances we cope with in our everyday life, but little that the average person can do about it. Davis mentions a few brave pioneers and activists who sacrifice their careers and reputations and sometimes their own health to try to get people in power to make the needed changes, but they have little to no effect in the face of massive profits, growth and progress, corruption, and the strange ability we human beings have to ignore and discount what we don't want to believe, even when it's right in front of our eyes. It kind of makes me want to move into a log cabin in the woods and raise my own crops and chickens, but then I'd be too afraid of what's in the well water to be able to sleep at night.
There was some interesting stuff about the origins of the American Cancer Society and the huge (and hugely profitable) cancer treatment industry, but a lot of what she presents is pretty obvious (producers of toxic substances lie, cheat, wrangle, legislate, bribe, lobby, falsify, and pretty much do anything they can to prevent people from finding out that their products are dangerous, what a shock! And advertisers and PR agencies help them? I never would have guessed!) and by now well-known, if not well-publicized. What she does not address much is the actual number of people who are affected. It's one thing to say that people who work with various poisonous chemicals have "10 times more risk of x type of cancer," but entirely another to know exactly how many people actually GET that cancer. For instance, I was surprised to find out that the incidence of lung cancer in smokers is something like 16%, meaning that 16% of regular smokers get lung cancer (I don't remember the exact number - it may even have been lower than that). Now that's a lot of cancer, and it's completely preventable so it's stupid that people are getting it and I'm not endorsing smoking or anything like that, but from the commercials and ads and information put out by the anti-smoking groups, you'd think that all you have to do is try one cigarette and you're going to get lung cancer and die, when the truth is a lot of people - a huge majority - smoke regularly for a very long time and do not suffer from cancer, or if they do it is at the end of their lives (my grandfather smoked three to four packs a day, plus a couple of pipes at night and was not sick until he was in his 80s), when they're old and going to die anyway, or at least that's how it looks to your average young person. What percentage of steel workers actually develop cancer that can be traced to their work or is likely to have resulted from their work? How many people does this work out to being? We never know. Davis does address the difficulty of trying to figure things like this out, but there is a tone of "well, it doesn't matter because even one death is too many!" That is true, but how many other lives are saved and improved by the chemicals and plastics and other things that seem to sicken those who produce them? It's a nasty, terrible thing to think about.
Along that line, I was struck by the complete ignoring of the role of the workers in many of these cases. People would go to work in the asbestos mines and the chemical factories and the steel mills and come home with coughs they couldn't get rid of and burns on their skin and growths where there shouldn't be growths AND SOMETIMES THEIR BONES WOULD JUST DISSOLVE and they would see their coworkers developing cancers and illnesses and they just believed their bosses when they said, "Oh don't worry about it." Really? And this still happens! I have seen it myself in people who work in a computer chip manufacturing plant near where I live. They don't even ask for protective gloves when the acids and metals they work with burn their hands. It's almost a macho thing to suck it up and keep on working. Their bosses were wrong to lie and to hide what they knew about the dangerousness of their workplaces, but what about the underlying ignorance and lack of critical thought exhibited by the workers? This is even more disturbing to me than the greed and corruption of the industries and governments that caused the problem. Davis' suggestion that we form a sort of "truth and reconciliation committee" to get companies to stop hiding their knowledge about the dangerousness of their products is not particularly helpful. Truth and reconciliation are great, but how about we teach our children to ask questions and stand up for themselves rather than selling their bodies and their health for a job? How about we do that for ourselves? We all know that heads of companies will do whatever it takes to keep making money, but how many of these people were in unions that were more interested in upping their wages than in making sure the workers had protective gear, however primitive it may have been? Even more frightening, how many of them were so desperate for any kind of work that they were willing to suffer the effects even though they knew, consciously or unconsciously, that they were in trouble? How many of us are willing to expose ourselves to more and more radiation and chemical poisons with the technology and other comforts we love? I have never intended to get my kids cell phones, but now I am even more against them!
I found the final chapters, in which Davis discusses "green" technologies that may replace some of the dangerous stuff we use now, rather preachy and pie-in-the-sky. Recycling and other "green" methods have their own problems, not the least of which are their cost and the fact that many of them just plain don't work. Solar energy, for instance, is great on a small scale, but hideously expensive to set up and not particularly efficient. Buildings made of renewable resources like bamboo and cotton and such are nice, but how long are they going to stand compared to drywall? Hopefully for a long time, but we just don't know yet.
In sum, this book did make me rethink some of my opinions about the way corporations function and their responsibility to society. I consider myself a believer in capitalism and a libertarian in most respects, meaning in this case that I don't believe that governments should heavily regulate industries. After reading this book, I believe that governments SHOULD be able to monitor and regulate industries, particularly those that produce unstable and possibly toxic substances and technologies. However, and this is a big however, Davis shows that in many cases, the government is complicit in the cover-up for various reasons (most of them having to do with money - another huge shock! Not) and therefore not able or willing to carry out its responsibility to protect its citizens. So what is to be done? There are many people to blame for the unnecessarily high levels of toxic substances we cope with in our everyday life, but little that the average person can do about it. Davis mentions a few brave pioneers and activists who sacrifice their careers and reputations and sometimes their own health to try to get people in power to make the needed changes, but they have little to no effect in the face of massive profits, growth and progress, corruption, and the strange ability we human beings have to ignore and discount what we don't want to believe, even when it's right in front of our eyes. It kind of makes me want to move into a log cabin in the woods and raise my own crops and chickens, but then I'd be too afraid of what's in the well water to be able to sleep at night.
February 7, 2014
The primary cause of cancer is incorrect human environmental conditions. Devra Davis has done a wonderful job of documenting the known causes of cancer and the extensive web of corporate and government deceit in this area. She states "Most people have no idea that OSHA is a ghost and has been so for years". Having had my health damaged by a large utility solar photovoltaic system in 2009 and interacted with the OSHA system regarding it, I have to support her statement. I was glad to see that electromagnetic fields (EMF) are mentioned and concerns raised regarding the cellular mobile telephone industry. I live in a community that has both cell phone towers and transmitting utility meters and they are extensively affecting the growth of my plants in the garden and inside the home. It is in line with the fatigue and buzzing “microwave” hearing that I display. Is cancer the next step for me? All of this is currently being ignored by the government while Autism has been following the rise of cell phones and cellular towers for the past decade in the USA. Did you know that wireless radiation can act like a growth hormone? I left the workplace in 2011 and that has coincided with regaining a level of health that is comparable to my teenage years. There are no doubts that for many people their workplaces are toxic and that it is affecting their health to the point of inducing cancer into them. This book does a good job of showing you some of the known cancer causing agents that you should be wary of both in the home and workplace environments. It also discusses some of the known cancer causing towns and cities that you should avoid living in. Highly recommended!
November 6, 2014
Devra Davis’s book was so devastating in its indictment of the chemical and tobacco industries that I had to take it in small bites, to prevent the bile of it overwhelming me: not Davis’s bile, mind you, but the bitter pill of industrial and governmental complicity in the illness and deaths of millions. Of course, not everyone would take it so personally. The systematic refusal to acknowledge the real causes of the cancer epidemic cost me my darling Katherine. It was like reading the detailed confessions and court transcripts of her murderers. It was that, in fact. To say that these industries do not have my daughter’s blood on their hands, and the blood of uncounted innocents, would be merely specious.
With experience as Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services and authorship of nearly 200 books and articles, only a few people would have been as well poised as Davis to reveal the truth of this War on Cancer: that from the beginning, even those supposedly on our side, like the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute, were complicit in the toxic war waged against us by the chemical and tobacco industries. Davis describes the systematic cultivation of a climate of doubt about scientific evidence, and a terrible hardening of assumptions about the evidence required to show that a chemical is harmful and subject to ban. She was there for much of the assault on public safety: “I watched the maturing of the science of doubt promotion – the concerted and well-funded effort to identify, magnify and exaggerate doubts about what we could say that we know as a way of delaying actions to change the way the world operates” (15-16). The callousness with which companies whose chemicals were implicated delayed protections by calling for more research is stunning: “From the very first reports that vinyl chloride could dissolve the finger bones of workers, cause cancer in animals and deform babies, the industry had a simple response: more research is needed. Let’s keep studying whether there really is a problem, while releasing enough information that people would feel assured the problem if it exists is trivial” (393).
This is a war in which the casualties have been legion: “I believe that if we had acted on what has long been known about the industrial and environmental causes of cancer when this war first began, at least a million and a half lives could have been spared, a huge casualty rate that those who have managed the war on cancer must answer for. This book explains how I have come to that reckoning” (22). Davis supports her claims, uncovering damning evidence from many different quarters. In some cases, she brought forth personal communications, in others, documents that show that scientists knew virtually everything about the link between cancer and smoking, radiation, and workplace exposures by 1938. But these findings did not see the light of day because of the many tobacco and chemical company executives in places of power, on the board of the American Cancer Society, for instance. Instead, all energies in the War on Cancer were diverted to treating the cases created by those industries. Davis describes the legal toxic onslaught against people everywhere in the United States, in chapters ranging from cigarettes to chemicals to cell phones.
Davis shows how all of us face a barrage of toxic exposures from a variety of sources, most of which we do not even think about. And not thinking about it is definitely part of the problem:
It is not simply that cancer is one of the diseases that afflicts the survivors of these polluted towns or those along China’s poisoned rivers in disproportionate numbers. What afflicts them more is that the very place they lived in – the air they breathed, the ground they walked on – was toxic. The real failure of the Superfund law, like the failure of the war on cancer, has only a little to do with bloated bureaucracies or scheming lobbyists or unfortunate yokels with trucks full of the wrong stuff. Ultimately, it’s a failure to look clearly at what’s right in front of our faces.
Davis’s book may be hard to stomach – because it looks at what’s right in front of our faces – but the effort is salutary, honest, and important to changing the world for the better. Her book is a call for action. She is frank about the barriers to truth-telling. She says in an afterward that her “own freedom to talk about avoidable cancer risks may suffer as well.” She names researchers who were fired or threatened with firing because their research impugned the chemical industry. Research funds were routinely withdrawn when results did not correspond with industry desires. Davis reveals how the secret war she refers to in her title was never as secret as she had thought: “Tobacco money paid for some of the best science in the world, yielding thousands of papers and years of delays in dealing with this important cause of poor health” (478). It is counter-intuitive but true that more science in this case resulted in worse health, not better, because of these deliberate, self-interested delays.
Despite the brutality of the subject matter, Secret History is very readable, and no doubt for someone with less at stake in the matter, would seem like a well-written mystery novel, or a true crime narration, more like. On the other hand, how many of us have less at stake in the causes of cancer when half of all men and a third of all women will develop the disease in their lifetimes? This is not the kind of book to bore readers, despite informing them and arming them against the duplicitous techniques of our industrial overlords. I recommend it above any other book I have read recently. Davis’s work may give more people the courage to stand up and say that it is not too much to ask that evil corporations – and I’m sorry, but no other word is sufficient – be prevented from polluting our bodies without our knowledge or permission. It is not too much to ask. Environmental Injustice is too pale a term when one person is indirectly and legally killing another, in our case, a beloved child. Other individuals’ economic interests should not come at the expense of dead loved ones, or our own diseased bodies. A clean environment should be a human right – in the United States and everywhere.
Reference
Davis, D. (2009). The secret history of the war on cancer. New York: Basic Books.
For more information, visit my blog at http://poisoningourchildren.wordpress...
With experience as Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services and authorship of nearly 200 books and articles, only a few people would have been as well poised as Davis to reveal the truth of this War on Cancer: that from the beginning, even those supposedly on our side, like the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute, were complicit in the toxic war waged against us by the chemical and tobacco industries. Davis describes the systematic cultivation of a climate of doubt about scientific evidence, and a terrible hardening of assumptions about the evidence required to show that a chemical is harmful and subject to ban. She was there for much of the assault on public safety: “I watched the maturing of the science of doubt promotion – the concerted and well-funded effort to identify, magnify and exaggerate doubts about what we could say that we know as a way of delaying actions to change the way the world operates” (15-16). The callousness with which companies whose chemicals were implicated delayed protections by calling for more research is stunning: “From the very first reports that vinyl chloride could dissolve the finger bones of workers, cause cancer in animals and deform babies, the industry had a simple response: more research is needed. Let’s keep studying whether there really is a problem, while releasing enough information that people would feel assured the problem if it exists is trivial” (393).
This is a war in which the casualties have been legion: “I believe that if we had acted on what has long been known about the industrial and environmental causes of cancer when this war first began, at least a million and a half lives could have been spared, a huge casualty rate that those who have managed the war on cancer must answer for. This book explains how I have come to that reckoning” (22). Davis supports her claims, uncovering damning evidence from many different quarters. In some cases, she brought forth personal communications, in others, documents that show that scientists knew virtually everything about the link between cancer and smoking, radiation, and workplace exposures by 1938. But these findings did not see the light of day because of the many tobacco and chemical company executives in places of power, on the board of the American Cancer Society, for instance. Instead, all energies in the War on Cancer were diverted to treating the cases created by those industries. Davis describes the legal toxic onslaught against people everywhere in the United States, in chapters ranging from cigarettes to chemicals to cell phones.
Davis shows how all of us face a barrage of toxic exposures from a variety of sources, most of which we do not even think about. And not thinking about it is definitely part of the problem:
It is not simply that cancer is one of the diseases that afflicts the survivors of these polluted towns or those along China’s poisoned rivers in disproportionate numbers. What afflicts them more is that the very place they lived in – the air they breathed, the ground they walked on – was toxic. The real failure of the Superfund law, like the failure of the war on cancer, has only a little to do with bloated bureaucracies or scheming lobbyists or unfortunate yokels with trucks full of the wrong stuff. Ultimately, it’s a failure to look clearly at what’s right in front of our faces.
Davis’s book may be hard to stomach – because it looks at what’s right in front of our faces – but the effort is salutary, honest, and important to changing the world for the better. Her book is a call for action. She is frank about the barriers to truth-telling. She says in an afterward that her “own freedom to talk about avoidable cancer risks may suffer as well.” She names researchers who were fired or threatened with firing because their research impugned the chemical industry. Research funds were routinely withdrawn when results did not correspond with industry desires. Davis reveals how the secret war she refers to in her title was never as secret as she had thought: “Tobacco money paid for some of the best science in the world, yielding thousands of papers and years of delays in dealing with this important cause of poor health” (478). It is counter-intuitive but true that more science in this case resulted in worse health, not better, because of these deliberate, self-interested delays.
Despite the brutality of the subject matter, Secret History is very readable, and no doubt for someone with less at stake in the matter, would seem like a well-written mystery novel, or a true crime narration, more like. On the other hand, how many of us have less at stake in the causes of cancer when half of all men and a third of all women will develop the disease in their lifetimes? This is not the kind of book to bore readers, despite informing them and arming them against the duplicitous techniques of our industrial overlords. I recommend it above any other book I have read recently. Davis’s work may give more people the courage to stand up and say that it is not too much to ask that evil corporations – and I’m sorry, but no other word is sufficient – be prevented from polluting our bodies without our knowledge or permission. It is not too much to ask. Environmental Injustice is too pale a term when one person is indirectly and legally killing another, in our case, a beloved child. Other individuals’ economic interests should not come at the expense of dead loved ones, or our own diseased bodies. A clean environment should be a human right – in the United States and everywhere.
Reference
Davis, D. (2009). The secret history of the war on cancer. New York: Basic Books.
For more information, visit my blog at http://poisoningourchildren.wordpress...
December 7, 2024
Even though this book was less about the current research being done and more about how research has historically been received by society (duh), I thought it was a worthwhile read. A little bit dense at times for me. It certainly leaves you feeling pessimistic about how easily scientific evidence is dismissed for a profit and how industry and government don’t see worker/consumer health as a priority.
October 5, 2008
I don't even know where to start; I can't review this book in the sense of "here's what was good and bad about it." For me, this book is too big and important for that.
Dr. Davis recounts in almost excruciating detail the painful facts about when scientists knew that cigarettes, benzene, and asbestos caused death and why and how that information was kept hidden for decades. At that point in the book I was thoroughly depressed (for one thing, how could all those company officials, scientists and doctors behave so cavalierly with other people's lives?), but at least relieved that we now know how dangerous those things are.
The book from that point on proceeds to explain how the exact same strategies of confusion, obsfucation, and hiding research as "trade secrets" along with some newer strategies of attacking scientific studies are leading to preventable deaths every single day. Her language and conclusions are very controlled, and she gives the benefit of the doubt in situations where I would want to give a jail sentence. This is a serious book, she is not a conspiracy theorist.
Much as I felt after reading Exposed, I feel again: Why do we choose to wait until proof in the form of thousands of injured and dead people piles up? Why do we choose to weigh the balance in favor of industry over health every single time? I have great faith in our ingenuity; if we currently have a dangerous product, like PVC (for one example), I know we can come up with an alternative if we just try. But we won't try if the manufacturers of PVC keep all the information about its dangers secret because we won't know we need to. Why don't we choose to shift the balance toward saving lives first?
When it seems like cancer is everywhere, why don't we know what causes it is a reasonable question. What Dr. Davis tells us in this book is that we may in fact know what causes a great many cancers, but that information is being kept hidden and with it our ability to prevent the disease. I'm glad, very very glad, that we have talented and brilliant people searching every day for better ways to cure cancer. But I'd still rather prevent it and I think we have enough talented and brilliant people to do both. But we can't have secrets and progress both.
Dr. Davis recounts in almost excruciating detail the painful facts about when scientists knew that cigarettes, benzene, and asbestos caused death and why and how that information was kept hidden for decades. At that point in the book I was thoroughly depressed (for one thing, how could all those company officials, scientists and doctors behave so cavalierly with other people's lives?), but at least relieved that we now know how dangerous those things are.
The book from that point on proceeds to explain how the exact same strategies of confusion, obsfucation, and hiding research as "trade secrets" along with some newer strategies of attacking scientific studies are leading to preventable deaths every single day. Her language and conclusions are very controlled, and she gives the benefit of the doubt in situations where I would want to give a jail sentence. This is a serious book, she is not a conspiracy theorist.
Much as I felt after reading Exposed, I feel again: Why do we choose to wait until proof in the form of thousands of injured and dead people piles up? Why do we choose to weigh the balance in favor of industry over health every single time? I have great faith in our ingenuity; if we currently have a dangerous product, like PVC (for one example), I know we can come up with an alternative if we just try. But we won't try if the manufacturers of PVC keep all the information about its dangers secret because we won't know we need to. Why don't we choose to shift the balance toward saving lives first?
When it seems like cancer is everywhere, why don't we know what causes it is a reasonable question. What Dr. Davis tells us in this book is that we may in fact know what causes a great many cancers, but that information is being kept hidden and with it our ability to prevent the disease. I'm glad, very very glad, that we have talented and brilliant people searching every day for better ways to cure cancer. But I'd still rather prevent it and I think we have enough talented and brilliant people to do both. But we can't have secrets and progress both.
July 30, 2008
This is a thorough and well-researched history of research on cancer, written by a renowned epidemiologist. In particular, this is a history of the difficulty of studying the effects of the environment on the development of cancer. Partly, this is due to the fact that, in today's world, it is nearly impossible to analyze the effects of any one particular element in isolation from others. But it is also due (1) to the fact that the industries which produce possibly toxic substances, and profit from them, also to a large extent control access to the information needed to analyze their effects; and (2) to the unreasonable (and in fact, hypocritical) standards industry and courts require to establish proof of harm.
This is a dense but, on the whole, very readable book. I confess, however, that I finished the book feeling a little hopeless about the chances of living a toxic-free life!
This is a dense but, on the whole, very readable book. I confess, however, that I finished the book feeling a little hopeless about the chances of living a toxic-free life!
October 17, 2016
An eye opener of a book that certainly makes one question so many issues focussing on cancer, its programs of treatments, and an eye opener.
Some was hard to read, partly because I am fighting a blood cancer at this moment and that I lost my mother 2 years ago to terminal brain cancer.
A book that certainly inspired me in one sense and enraged me the next. A very in depth read and one that I read, examined and made notes as I read along. I read much of this book multiple times during this lengthy read to ensure that I not only had the information correct but that I could try to corroborate it as well.
I urge anyone who has cancer, or has a relative, or friend who has cancer to read this book. Better yet, I think it is VERY IMPORTANT that those not even diagnosed with cancer read this book.
Some was hard to read, partly because I am fighting a blood cancer at this moment and that I lost my mother 2 years ago to terminal brain cancer.
A book that certainly inspired me in one sense and enraged me the next. A very in depth read and one that I read, examined and made notes as I read along. I read much of this book multiple times during this lengthy read to ensure that I not only had the information correct but that I could try to corroborate it as well.
I urge anyone who has cancer, or has a relative, or friend who has cancer to read this book. Better yet, I think it is VERY IMPORTANT that those not even diagnosed with cancer read this book.
May 13, 2008
The book makes some interesting points but it over steps on several of them as well. Combined with a tedious writing style (someone please have a sit down with her editor). Instead of sticking with the science the author weaves way too much of her own story into the book (boring).
June 28, 2025
It's really a shame how few reviews and ratings there are for this book. So often when people get cancer or someone they know gets it - especially in America - they enter the realm of various states of denial such as "why did this happen to me?" or "I lived so clean, how could this happen?". The Secret History of the War on Cancer can help provide some of those answers.
In this book, Devra Davis follows a long line of modern Cassandras, carrying on the work and legacy of those who came before like Rachel Carson. The writing style and Davis' insider knowledge reminded me a lot of Marion Nestle's books, especially Food Politics. While this book certainly had things I could critique more, I can't bring myself to give it anything less than five stars. Davis' message is simply too important to ignore. Yet it has been and will continue to be. Written nearly two decades ago, many of Davis' warnings have gone unheeded. These warnings focus on the reason that is ignored by industry, government, and most people alike: that our environments and lifestyles contain untold numbers of cancer-causing agents. Government, captured by industry, allows us to be exposed to these as the revolving door fills their pockets while our bodies are filled with toxins. While some areas of exposure have improved, such as smoking and asbestos, other areas Davis warns about like vinyl chloride, aspartame, and benzene are still entering our bodies with carte blanche.
At best, the War on Cancer has been a pyrrhic victory. Most realistically, it's a facade. It's a decoy used by industry and their captured government to pretend that progress is being made. Yet industry is still using completely legal mechanisms like trade secrets to cover up the damage they're doing to us and once we get sick, a totally different sector of industry bankrupts for the promise of treatment; treatment that still relies on poisoning us and often involves trading one disease for another in the future. Cassandras are often ridiculed as hyperbolic, exiled from the public sphere, and passed into history. We wish to see, hear, and speak of no evil. We can ignore voices like Davis' all we want. It doesn't change the fact that our environments and our lifestyles are the primary causes of cancer's prevalence in our lives. No magical cure is coming any time soon and we will continue to trade our health for industry profits. Maybe one day enough of us will demand better. But if history has taught us anything, millions of us will die solely because of someone else's greed.
In this book, Devra Davis follows a long line of modern Cassandras, carrying on the work and legacy of those who came before like Rachel Carson. The writing style and Davis' insider knowledge reminded me a lot of Marion Nestle's books, especially Food Politics. While this book certainly had things I could critique more, I can't bring myself to give it anything less than five stars. Davis' message is simply too important to ignore. Yet it has been and will continue to be. Written nearly two decades ago, many of Davis' warnings have gone unheeded. These warnings focus on the reason that is ignored by industry, government, and most people alike: that our environments and lifestyles contain untold numbers of cancer-causing agents. Government, captured by industry, allows us to be exposed to these as the revolving door fills their pockets while our bodies are filled with toxins. While some areas of exposure have improved, such as smoking and asbestos, other areas Davis warns about like vinyl chloride, aspartame, and benzene are still entering our bodies with carte blanche.
At best, the War on Cancer has been a pyrrhic victory. Most realistically, it's a facade. It's a decoy used by industry and their captured government to pretend that progress is being made. Yet industry is still using completely legal mechanisms like trade secrets to cover up the damage they're doing to us and once we get sick, a totally different sector of industry bankrupts for the promise of treatment; treatment that still relies on poisoning us and often involves trading one disease for another in the future. Cassandras are often ridiculed as hyperbolic, exiled from the public sphere, and passed into history. We wish to see, hear, and speak of no evil. We can ignore voices like Davis' all we want. It doesn't change the fact that our environments and our lifestyles are the primary causes of cancer's prevalence in our lives. No magical cure is coming any time soon and we will continue to trade our health for industry profits. Maybe one day enough of us will demand better. But if history has taught us anything, millions of us will die solely because of someone else's greed.
December 25, 2019
The key takeway from this book: the tobacco industry and other invested institutions (whether directly funded by the tobacco industry or heavily reliant on it economically) have been supressing, overriding and attempting to discredit research linking tobacco and workplace cancer-causing agents in order to profit from the unknowing population.
The tobacco industry has developed over decades a method of discrediting such research by essentially “funding” well-known scientists to poke holes in studies showing the link between tobacco smoke and cancer, a method which set back the War on Cancer by decades, resulting in the loss of millions of lives, and a method which is still used today.
It’s needless to mention this phenomena is still very pervasive in the modern food, telecommunications, cosmetic, and vaping industries.
In lieu of the 470 or so odd pages I think Davis’s otherwise engaging narrative could have been much more effectively summarised in 250 pages or so. Nevertheless, a very worthwhile read.
The tobacco industry has developed over decades a method of discrediting such research by essentially “funding” well-known scientists to poke holes in studies showing the link between tobacco smoke and cancer, a method which set back the War on Cancer by decades, resulting in the loss of millions of lives, and a method which is still used today.
It’s needless to mention this phenomena is still very pervasive in the modern food, telecommunications, cosmetic, and vaping industries.
In lieu of the 470 or so odd pages I think Davis’s otherwise engaging narrative could have been much more effectively summarised in 250 pages or so. Nevertheless, a very worthwhile read.
July 26, 2025
[2.5] Tl;dr the nazis did a lot to learn about what causes cancer. Industry does what it can to sow doubt about what causes cancer, and therefore, a lack of absolute proof that human health is endangered by something doesn't mean that the harm isn't there. We don’t do a lot to protect people against cancer. It’s more lucrative for the medical establishment to diagnose and treat cancer than prevent it. Epidemiology is hard. In an ideal world, we would do much more to address environmental causes of cancer.
Many good takeaways but a tough read. The Secret History of the War on Cancer is often disjointed and wandering, with asides and anecdotes that take away from the narrative. It would have benefited from tighter editing. What Davis does succeed at is encouraging readers to take a skeptical view of government recommendations around health, as she clearly demonstrates that they are not always in the consumer's best interests.
Many good takeaways but a tough read. The Secret History of the War on Cancer is often disjointed and wandering, with asides and anecdotes that take away from the narrative. It would have benefited from tighter editing. What Davis does succeed at is encouraging readers to take a skeptical view of government recommendations around health, as she clearly demonstrates that they are not always in the consumer's best interests.
November 30, 2024
VERY long read but has some good information in it. I agree with others that this could’ve been shortened quite a bit, with a lot of the random personal stuff removed. I don’t mind tying in things that happen in your person life to the point at hand, but we spent a lot of time learning about her family and backgrounds of specific people that weren’t really important. All in all I liked the content though. 3.5 but rounding up to a 4.
October 10, 2021
I thought I knew a lot about corporate corruption and negligent homicide, but damn the 20th century took it to a whole other level. This book is an enthralling look at the corporate, marketing, pharmaceutical and government complex that kept the world so misinformed about cancer for so long.
April 15, 2021
A VERY long read, but great.
August 24, 2021
I was interested in the part about eugenics and how all these industrialists, politicians, even some Jewish doctors were jumping on that bandwagon.
September 18, 2008
This book is important. While not as pleasant and easy-going of an important read as a book like the Omnivore's Dilemma, it is clear, impeccably researched, and excruciatingly relevant. I don't even know what to say here, because every chapter could inspire pages of reactions. I wish this review could include a picture of how many page corners I dog-eared, for starters -- just about every page contains either clarification/validation of something I suspected already or a tidbit that makes me stop and think, "SERIOUSLY??? Why does nobody know this?????"
This book took me a while to get through, simply because there's so much in it. Sometimes, despite her best intentions, Davis got a bit too academic and my eyes began to glaze over. But as you read it's apparent that Davis considered this the book she needed to write, not just something to publish. Good thing, too, because it's the book I needed to read and this time in my life. Part of me wants to dismiss some of her claims as sensationalized (which I sure many in industry and politics will do), but most of what she says is so painful to read that I know it's wishful thinking to think it's anything other than wholeheartedly accurate.
I'm glad this book exists. I also wish the same book existed, but in some sort of engaging multimedia presentation so that the average person/doctor/pharmaceutical lobbyist would actually pay attention -- because it's so obvious that this stuff MATTERS but the majority of people who need this book won't read it. Sigh.
I have way more to say, but I don't want to bore you, so just ask me if you're interested. :) But at any rate, don't drink diet soft drinks, don't smoke, and don't get willy-nilly CT scans just for fun.
This book took me a while to get through, simply because there's so much in it. Sometimes, despite her best intentions, Davis got a bit too academic and my eyes began to glaze over. But as you read it's apparent that Davis considered this the book she needed to write, not just something to publish. Good thing, too, because it's the book I needed to read and this time in my life. Part of me wants to dismiss some of her claims as sensationalized (which I sure many in industry and politics will do), but most of what she says is so painful to read that I know it's wishful thinking to think it's anything other than wholeheartedly accurate.
I'm glad this book exists. I also wish the same book existed, but in some sort of engaging multimedia presentation so that the average person/doctor/pharmaceutical lobbyist would actually pay attention -- because it's so obvious that this stuff MATTERS but the majority of people who need this book won't read it. Sigh.
I have way more to say, but I don't want to bore you, so just ask me if you're interested. :) But at any rate, don't drink diet soft drinks, don't smoke, and don't get willy-nilly CT scans just for fun.
cannot-finish-it
July 30, 2014About two-thirds done and don't think i can finish this one.
Very poorly footnoted, too many personal anecdotes (eg, "My husband's uncle says, based on his experience in WW2 Alabama war munitions factory ..." "When my cousin Mark worked in the Nixon Administration's War on Cancer ..."), a lot of vagueness that didn't need to be vague ("a relatively recent study" - isn't it easier to say 2001?) and the little jibe about her mom going to see an art exhibit in Russia instead of coming to her daughter's high school graduation ...
At some point i lost faith in this writer. I'm sure there's a lot of truth in this book, but sorting it out is too much of a chore. She ultimately comes across as a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist. Again, I'm sure there's a lot of truth in here, but her knee-jerk distrust of government, money, "corporate America," Readers Digest - everything! - made me question assertions I'd bought into 100 pages earlier.
The Emperor of All Maladies covers much of the same subject matter, is balanced, and much (MUCH) better researched and footnoted. Also very well-written, from a purely literary standpoint. This book is not.
I can't "rate" a book I didn't read cover to cover. I'll give her credit for questioning the motivation of a lot of "commissions" "societies" and various 501(c)(3) orgs who weren't following their charter to the letter, but she could have done so much better. Lose the hyperbole, the outrage, the ad hominem arguments, and let me judge for myself. And do a better job of citing your sources.
Very poorly footnoted, too many personal anecdotes (eg, "My husband's uncle says, based on his experience in WW2 Alabama war munitions factory ..." "When my cousin Mark worked in the Nixon Administration's War on Cancer ..."), a lot of vagueness that didn't need to be vague ("a relatively recent study" - isn't it easier to say 2001?) and the little jibe about her mom going to see an art exhibit in Russia instead of coming to her daughter's high school graduation ...
At some point i lost faith in this writer. I'm sure there's a lot of truth in this book, but sorting it out is too much of a chore. She ultimately comes across as a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist. Again, I'm sure there's a lot of truth in here, but her knee-jerk distrust of government, money, "corporate America," Readers Digest - everything! - made me question assertions I'd bought into 100 pages earlier.
The Emperor of All Maladies covers much of the same subject matter, is balanced, and much (MUCH) better researched and footnoted. Also very well-written, from a purely literary standpoint. This book is not.
I can't "rate" a book I didn't read cover to cover. I'll give her credit for questioning the motivation of a lot of "commissions" "societies" and various 501(c)(3) orgs who weren't following their charter to the letter, but she could have done so much better. Lose the hyperbole, the outrage, the ad hominem arguments, and let me judge for myself. And do a better job of citing your sources.
Read
June 2, 2013The Secret History of the War on Cancer, by Devra Davis, borrowed from the National Library Service for the Blind.
This book comprised 18 hours of audio time. Devra Davis is an epidemiologist from the University of Pittsburgh, who published in 2007 a very comprehensive history of the checkered history of searching for a cancer cure-primarily hindered by the fact that many of the same companies that pay for the research and/or cancer drug experiments, also create the problems of pollution. This book mainly deals with the environmental hazards placed in our way by companies who are too greedy to consider ways of producing products that wouldn’t be so hazardous to the public. The author is very personally involved in this book. She discusses the cancers suffered by both of her parents, who died of cancer, and of her best friend who survived breast cancer but died of brain cancer. She reveals what she found out from the hundreds of interviews she did with people throughout the country who suffered all kinds of pollution. She spent much time uncovering the tobacco companies’ secret knowledge for over 50 years of how dangerous cigarettes were and of the government’s willingness during most of that time to act in collusion with the companies. It’s a chilling book with always new hazards to consider, one of the most recent ones being cell phone towers and power lines and how they may be disrupting our lives.
This book comprised 18 hours of audio time. Devra Davis is an epidemiologist from the University of Pittsburgh, who published in 2007 a very comprehensive history of the checkered history of searching for a cancer cure-primarily hindered by the fact that many of the same companies that pay for the research and/or cancer drug experiments, also create the problems of pollution. This book mainly deals with the environmental hazards placed in our way by companies who are too greedy to consider ways of producing products that wouldn’t be so hazardous to the public. The author is very personally involved in this book. She discusses the cancers suffered by both of her parents, who died of cancer, and of her best friend who survived breast cancer but died of brain cancer. She reveals what she found out from the hundreds of interviews she did with people throughout the country who suffered all kinds of pollution. She spent much time uncovering the tobacco companies’ secret knowledge for over 50 years of how dangerous cigarettes were and of the government’s willingness during most of that time to act in collusion with the companies. It’s a chilling book with always new hazards to consider, one of the most recent ones being cell phone towers and power lines and how they may be disrupting our lives.
June 25, 2014
This was such a hard book to read. My range of emotion jumped frequently between extreme sadness and extreme anger, with a sense of defeat somewhere in the middle. I'm not ignorant to a lot of what she touched on, however, to have it come from such a well respected, credible and experienced epidemiologist was a big affirmation to what I've heard. What was also new to me is that the powers that be have been far from ignorant for a very, very long time and have chosen to ignore the repercussions of our modern Industrial Age. Some assuming that our future generations will have the knowledge and technology to figure out how to fix the damage we've done, some just not giving a sh*t because it's going to be another generations problem and there is money to be made now. I had fallen in the former category for a large part of my life. Partly from youth and ignorance and partly because I had no children. Now that I am a mother and have matured quite a bit, these things mean a whole lot to me and I don't think there is an easy way out of this mess that has been created. That is where the sense of defeat comes in. I don't think my sons generation is going to be given an opportunity to learn from our mistakes, I think they will be forced to. I don't believe they will have the liberty of choice.
February 29, 2008
The lack of regulation of chemicals that are used to produce our shampoo, cosmetics, plastic toys, plastic bottles, artificial sweetners and many more common everyday products is frightening. Devra Davis, an epidemiologist, conducts a comprehensive review of clinical trials, published and unpublished research (found in old archives) that demonstrates how government sides with business in an effort to preserve profit rather than protect the consumer from the known risks associated with exposure to toxic chemicals.
The known facts about chemical exposure are appalling. All of the research is cited so you can go and look up the original articles, read them and then decide for yourself if the research was used in a context you agree with.
This book can either push you over the edge - where you want to give up all commercial U.S. cleaning and personal products or it can make you better consumer by simply being aware of the risks associated with certain products.
Two things are for sure:
1. I never ever thought baby shampoo could be dangerous.
2. Never knew that potting soil contains asbestos and while it's banned from building materials in the U.S., the U.S. is still a huge importer of products containing asbestos.
The known facts about chemical exposure are appalling. All of the research is cited so you can go and look up the original articles, read them and then decide for yourself if the research was used in a context you agree with.
This book can either push you over the edge - where you want to give up all commercial U.S. cleaning and personal products or it can make you better consumer by simply being aware of the risks associated with certain products.
Two things are for sure:
1. I never ever thought baby shampoo could be dangerous.
2. Never knew that potting soil contains asbestos and while it's banned from building materials in the U.S., the U.S. is still a huge importer of products containing asbestos.
November 6, 2007
After hearing the NPR interview with the author of this book:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st... ,
I suddenly ended my long-term relationship with aspartame. Her point isn't that aspartame causes cancer... it's that every strong cause of cancer we know of is a combination of different compounds like cigarette smoke and air pollution.
After, I bought the book (which I don't do often, being a library enthusiast.)
She argues brilliantly that the FDA has accepted "scientific research" to approve substances for human consumption that are quite possibly adding to each of our cancer likelihood later in life. She also lays out a powerful argument that since the 1960s our federal government has been conducting a misguided "War on Cancer" that is totally focused on curing the disease and NOT on preventing it. She associates this fact with the direct interest and lobbying of the corporations that make carcinogenic chemicals to the making of American political policy.
This book is brilliant and a must-read for anyone who has ever had a second thought about artificial sweeteners or other personal items.
I suddenly ended my long-term relationship with aspartame. Her point isn't that aspartame causes cancer... it's that every strong cause of cancer we know of is a combination of different compounds like cigarette smoke and air pollution.
After, I bought the book (which I don't do often, being a library enthusiast.)
She argues brilliantly that the FDA has accepted "scientific research" to approve substances for human consumption that are quite possibly adding to each of our cancer likelihood later in life. She also lays out a powerful argument that since the 1960s our federal government has been conducting a misguided "War on Cancer" that is totally focused on curing the disease and NOT on preventing it. She associates this fact with the direct interest and lobbying of the corporations that make carcinogenic chemicals to the making of American political policy.
This book is brilliant and a must-read for anyone who has ever had a second thought about artificial sweeteners or other personal items.
September 3, 2010
Wow.
I've been around the block. I'm far from naive. Especially when it comes to the excesses that power brings and allows. But this book? It blew me away. Every chapter a revelation of the systemic depravity of corporations and governments and even medical/charitable organizations. Everyone out to make a buck. Choosing again and again to guard their own wealth rather than safeguard the public.
Yes, I knew about the naked self-interest of the tobacco industry. I didn't know the depth or the implications of their actions.
This book was a revelation on many fronts. It enlightened me on the how big business, time and again, suppresses/obfuscates/delays the release of information which might allow people to make better health decisions. That whole industries have sprung up to misinform and misdirect. How science is under attack daily. How our regulating agencies and associations are populated by the powerless or self-interested.
This is an important book. One I wish everyone would read. Maybe then we, the people, can push for a world where prevention of harm trumps profit. And transparent flow of vital health-related information is not hampered by a profit margin.
I've been around the block. I'm far from naive. Especially when it comes to the excesses that power brings and allows. But this book? It blew me away. Every chapter a revelation of the systemic depravity of corporations and governments and even medical/charitable organizations. Everyone out to make a buck. Choosing again and again to guard their own wealth rather than safeguard the public.
Yes, I knew about the naked self-interest of the tobacco industry. I didn't know the depth or the implications of their actions.
This book was a revelation on many fronts. It enlightened me on the how big business, time and again, suppresses/obfuscates/delays the release of information which might allow people to make better health decisions. That whole industries have sprung up to misinform and misdirect. How science is under attack daily. How our regulating agencies and associations are populated by the powerless or self-interested.
This is an important book. One I wish everyone would read. Maybe then we, the people, can push for a world where prevention of harm trumps profit. And transparent flow of vital health-related information is not hampered by a profit margin.
December 2, 2011
Davis is an internationally known epidemiologist and her subject here is the way research on cancer -- specifically on the dangers of smoking and industrial pollution -- has been suppressed or ignored over the decades. (The Germans, for instance, had proved smoking caused lung cancer by the late 1930s. But no one listened because ... well, because they were Nazis, but also because it was more convenient for the American tobacco industry, which kept health officials here from acknowledging the fact for another quarter-century.) Big Tobacco in fact is among Davis' biggest targets, but she also takes on government and institutional complaisance about the causes of cancer, which thrives because they'd rather pursue the more lucrative line of treating it and searching for cures. Davis is a fine writer, witty, feisty and incisive, and a good story-teller, guiding us through the lives of numerous heroic researchers, doctors and just plain citizens who did their part to bring new facts and carcinogenic dangers to light. Recommended, even if you don't usually read health or science books.
December 15, 2007
This book tells about the other "inconvenient truth"--that the war against cancer has been woefully mismanaged with a greater focus on protecting profits, rather than people's health. It was frightening to confirm what I already suspected, which is that the environment, the workplace, the water we drink and the food we eat (among a long list of factors) are linked to cancer. The burden of proof about what causes cancer has been on the scientific community rather than those who produce toxic fumes, pollute drinking water, and create products like aspartame. The greatest focus in the war on cancer has been on treatment rather than prevention for the obvious reason that there is more money to be made with treatment. As someone who has lost many close relatives to cancer, this book was quite upsetting; however, it motivated me to evaluate my life choices and ask questions so that I can try to remain free of cancer.
July 2, 2011
Scary... we already know the tobacco companies covered up and disseminated doubt about the harm of cigarettes for years, but it was much longer than anyone thought. Manufacturers of artificial sweeteners have followed this successful model to prolong lack of liability, and Devra Davis is alluding to the fact that we will witness a similar scenario from the cell phone companies.
She also chronicles the first documented incidences of cancers in textile workers, chimney sweeps and chemical workers, and how long it took for any employers to admit that theirs were definite causes. It's always been about the bottom line.
She stresses how so much of the research funding goes to trying to discover cures for cancer, but not causes and preventions. It ultimately rests on the individual to become informed of agents suspected to cause cancer and to limit their own exposure and that of their loved ones to these substances.
this book is a good start.
She also chronicles the first documented incidences of cancers in textile workers, chimney sweeps and chemical workers, and how long it took for any employers to admit that theirs were definite causes. It's always been about the bottom line.
She stresses how so much of the research funding goes to trying to discover cures for cancer, but not causes and preventions. It ultimately rests on the individual to become informed of agents suspected to cause cancer and to limit their own exposure and that of their loved ones to these substances.
this book is a good start.
January 4, 2008
This is one of my favorite books this year - while it seemed somewhat academic in nature in the early chapters, I found that each subsequent chapter was more easily read, and my passion for the subject matter built readily.
This book opened my eyes to strides made to uncover corporate, governmental and scientific treachery with regards to concealed information about cancer-causing agents affecting the general public as well as employees. I have subsequently (but not fearfully) decided to make some changes in my own life as a result of this book.
I'd love to read this again - I felt a little rushed since I had it past the public library due date and hate racking up those fines!
READ THIS BOOK.
This book opened my eyes to strides made to uncover corporate, governmental and scientific treachery with regards to concealed information about cancer-causing agents affecting the general public as well as employees. I have subsequently (but not fearfully) decided to make some changes in my own life as a result of this book.
I'd love to read this again - I felt a little rushed since I had it past the public library due date and hate racking up those fines!
READ THIS BOOK.
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