Hi All
This first story shows that British Health Authorities are failing to handle the cancer crisis in Britain.
Note this line from the story 'data which showed Britain lagging at the bottom of the European (cancer) league'.
Britain has the worst electromagnetic radiation safety limits in the world. Is that the reason that they have some of the worst cancer statistics?
Could the survival rates be very poor, because patients are treated and then sent home to unsafe environments, with toxic electro magnetic pollution?
Martin Weatherall
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Little change in survival rates despite cancer spending plan
Cash injection has failed to have impact, study shows
- Sarah Boseley, health editor
- guardian.co.uk, Friday 20 March 2009 09.34 GMT
The government's national cancer plan, backed by a massive injection of cash for cancer services in England, has failed to boost survival rates substantially, a major study shows today.
The findings will dismay government ministers, who have secured a tripling of spending on cancer over the last decade with the ambition of bringing the UK from among the worst countries up to the standard of the best in Europe. But the authoritative study, from a team led by Professor Michel Coleman at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, shows that survival rates have barely shifted since the cancer plan was launched in 2000.
"We are at best keeping track with improvements elsewhere rather than closing the gap," says an editorial in the journal which publishes today's study, Lancet Oncology. It adds that the government's aim of matching the survival rates of the best performing countries in Europe by 2010 is looking optimistic.
The study also shows that regional divides linger on, with people in some areas of England likely to survive longer than in others.
Cutting deaths and improving the length of time people survive with cancer, while ending health inequalities, is one of the major health goals of the present government, triggered by an outcry over data which showed Britain lagging at the bottom of the European league.
Key to improvements in cancer services was the introduction of maximum waiting times to see doctors and get treatment, first for women with breast cancer and then for all cancers. Urgent cases should be seen within two weeks. Money also went into new radiotherapy machines and better staffing.
It was assumed that extra resources would lead to people surviving longer, but today's paper shows only a slight improvement.
The study is the first to look at data on survival rates since the cancer plan was introduced. It compares survival rates in England with those in Wales, where a plan was not introduced until 2006.
The scientists used data collected by the national cancer registry at the Office for National Statistics, which links details of cancer diagnoses with records of deaths. To track any changes in the survival rates between 2000 and 2006, they split the information from 2.2 million adults with one of 21 common cancers into three groups: diagnosis between 1996 and 2000 (before the cancer plan), between 2001 and 2003 (during start-up) and 2004 to 2006. All were followed up to 2007.
They found that the one-year survival rate was higher in England than in Wales by 2004-6, having been lower before and during the start of the cancer plan. In 12 out of 17 different cancers in men and in 13 out of 18 cancers in women, one-year survival for those diagnosed in 2006 was over 60%.
However, there was very little improvement to be seen in England over Wales for the three-year survival rate.
Karol Sikora, medical director of the independent sector cancer services provider CancerPartnersUK and a long-term critic of the government plan, says in a commentary that bureaucracy has got in the way of good intentions, with armies of administrators recruited to try to ensure hospitals hit waiting time targets. "The bottom line is that there has been no striking improvement, despite the huge resources involved and the very diplomatic language of the authors," he writes.
"The difference in survival both within the UK and between us and Europe still seems to be greatest for common tumours such as breast, lung, colon and prostate. Relatively rare cancers requiring complex radiotherapy and chemotherapy have always had excellent outcomes, suggesting that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with UK oncology (cancer treatment) skills. The diagnosis has to be a whole system fault within the NHS with serial delays, poor access and serious under-capacity."
Professor Sikora's answer is to break the NHS monopoly of cancer care. "Efficiency, choice and competition are the hallmarks of a thriving marketplace," he argues. "Monopolies cannot do this. Real reform with real incentives for radical change in service delivery is now vital."
The government's cancer tsar, Mike Richards, in a separate commentary, says that the good news from the study is that survival for most cancers has improved over the last ten years in both England and Wales. He questions whether it is appropriate to compare England to Wales, however, on the grounds that Wales – even though it did not introduce a cancer plan until 2006 – brought in similar reforms. But Wales embarked on reform earlier than England, he says. "Thus a plausible explanation for the differences in trends ... is that Wales moved forward faster in the early years ... with England catching up and overtaking as a result of the cancer plan."
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Dear fellow ICEMS members and colleagues,
ElectroHypersensitivity and multiple chemical sensitivity is a big health problem in Italy. Some people suffering from this condition are known to have committed suicide. Recently, a man who suffers from MCS and EHS committed suicide in his doctor's office. Many of my patients suffering with MCS/EHS tell me that they want to commit suicide.
Even though the EMF exposure standards are lower there is wide spread of high frequency waves through multiple antennas. Italy is a small country but the high frequency sources are too much. Now, there are wireless antennas indoors and outdoors in homes in all countries. The Italian Parliament does not advise people, as done in Germany and elsewhere, to reduce wireless use. Professor Paulo Vecchia, who works at the Italian Health Department in addition to serving as chair of ICNIRP, has told everyone here (through the newspapers, on websites, before Parliament and to the Italian government), there is no health problem associated with EMF exposure.
These suicides are murder. When WIMAX begins to operate, it will be impossible for us to live in the world, Where shall we go? Underground?
You are welcome to contact me directly.
Regards,
Anna Zucchero, MD
Venice-Mestre
Italy
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Industry Canada kicks off process to give more flexibility to MCS/MDS licensees
March 19, 2009 - 4:07pm — Perry Hoffman
Looking to provide greater flexibility for fixed wireless Internet (MCS) and wireless cable TV (MDS) providers, Industry Canada has initiated a consultation that could result in the introduction of additional high-speed mobile services.
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I just ran across this opportunity to submit our stories of how and where we belong. Where do people with MCS/ ES/ EHS/ CI/ CS/ whatever you want to call it/ belong?
The Agenda with Steve Paikin's Interactive Map
Stories of belonging from around the globe - click on a placemark for videos and stories of different perspectives on what it means to belong. If you'd like to add your story to the map click here, fill out this form and we'll add the best entries to the map. (Works best with Internet Explorer 7).
http://www.tvo.org/TVOsites/WebObjects/TvoMicrosite.woa?belongorbust_interactivemap
Note - TVO is TV Ontario, a public television broadcasting station.
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Last-Minute News:
This Friday 20 March 2009, many TV channels have reported on the unusual reversal of public opinion that is being expressed in France against relay antennas. The real novelty in the situation, which is not entirely unexpected, is that the mayors of certain towns and cities who until now have been waiting to see which way the wind blows, or have even opposed local residents' action groups, are now taking sides with them against the mobile phone networks.
This morning the viewers of France 2, the main state channel, were able to watch a live interview with Claude Génot, the mayor of Chevreuse, who explained that in early March 2009 the town had brought a case against the phone operator Orange.
This statement is even more surprising in that residents' groups in the town have been campaigning for years and the town council has until now positioned itself in line with the government recommendations, which favour the mobile phone companies.
The crisis meeting of ministers with the phone companies scheduled for 26 March will change nothing in the face of the determination of residents' groups and of members of the public who want to see the mobile phone system made compatible with human health, in accordance with the conclusions of the report of the BioInitiative scientific consortium.
In addition the latest proposals announced by the government, such as prohibiting mobile phones for the under 6s, are considered scandalous.
EDF Foundation
"Research: The brain, an electrical power station".
"The brain is a veritable electrical power station, with each neurone acting as a generator. Every malfunction of the electrical system in the brain causes very disabling illnesses. In France 1.5 million people suffer from neurological conditions... Epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Charcot's disease."
- All Next-up News:
www.next-up.org/Newsoftheworld/2009.php
What a great crisis !
"in the last few days the unconfirmed number of 135 lawsuits have been launched"
"Every day there are dozens of (French) newspaper articles and TV reports that highlight the growing awareness among the public of the health problems associated with artificial microwave radiation."
"on 26 March there will be an emergency meeting with certain ministers and the mobile phone companies only."
