Pink, Shiny Cancer

The world is pink and shiny and full of cancer

I can’t go through a day without hearing or reading something about cancer. Cancer awareness, cancer fundraising, friend’s of friends or friend’s family members being treated for, dying of, or surviving cancer.

It got so bad the other day that I reduced myself to reading the sports section of the paper and I don’t even like sports. But I found no relief there either.

Toronto Star – Sunday October 14th, 2007-10-14 - Framed around last night’s Air Canada Centre visit by Sidney Crosby and the Penguins was the Leafs annual fundraiser for breast cancer research meant to also raise awareness of the disease. The players sported pink ribbons in their helmets, the coaches wore pink ties, the fans banged pink thundersticks and the wives and girlfriends of players wore pink jerseys and collected donations in the alcoves. It was all part of the teams Hockey Fights Cancer campaign.

So much for diversion. I don’t mean to sound negative, which is exactly what I sound like, but, isn’t everything pink getting a bit much. Stores have pink clothing lines. There are runs, swims, walks, marathons, sleepovers, golf tournaments, parties and bowling days, to name just a few, pink fundraisers. There are pink ribbons and bracelets and chain fobs and hats.

There are full page pink ads in newspapers. And, full length spots on radio and television. To sponsor the pink movement is now the most politically correct move a corporation can make. Who doesn’t want to wipe out breast cancer? Be honest, who would actually stand up and say, “Um, no, I actually do want women to die and have their breasts cut off.” (Well, someone somewhere might think it but not say it out loud.)

I read about politicians and celebrity women facing their cancer with the ‘right’ attitude. I want the ‘right’ attitude as well. I truly do want ‘it’. I just find ‘it’ hard to locate when I’m being barraged with all the statistics on how many women will die this year from breast cancer. There are only so many statistics to go around so each event seems to rehash the numbers. One in two of the eight women who get breast cancer will die. Fifty percent of women with breast cancer will die this year. It is expected that by next year that number will increase by one hundred percent.

We were watching TV one night about a week after the lumpectomy and Dave kept changing the channels to avoid ads for breast cancer fundraising/awareness events.

Dave: Do you feel like a breast cancer survivor?
Laura: No, I’ve been in denial.
Dave: Me too.
Laura: I’m more comfortable that way.
Dave: Me too. Want to watch XYZ?
Laura: Sure. (Turns out to be an episode dealing with – breast cancer!)

I took my book and my cigarettes and went outside. I didn’t end up reading. I ended up watching the smoke from my cigarette and thinking about how big a business cancer is in our world.

So I ask, how come cigarette packages aren’t pink with a picture of a mastectomied breast on the cover?

Come on, let’s face it, cigarette smoking causes cancer. It is a well documented fact. Read the ingredients - tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde to name a few.

Over the years, gazillions of dollars have been raised to find a cure for cancer. And, over the years, many cancers have been fought or brought under control or survived because of the money raised and poured into research. I don’t deny anyone any extra help they can get to keep their life.

But, I wonder, what the world would look like without cancer, if a cure were to be found. The stock market would probably crash. All of the pharmaceutical companies would go out of business. Hospitals, doctors and funeral homes would be considerably less busy. Entire professions would have to be re-trained.

I imagine a world without cigarettes. Entire strains of cancer would probably become extinct. The stock market would probably crash. Entire divisions of the pharmaceutical companies would go out of business. Hospitals, doctors and funeral homes would be considerably less busy. Entire professions would have to be re-trained.

With all the money that goes into cancer research why is so little spent on smoking cessation programs?

When I hear someone say that smoking is just a bad habit I cringe. Biting your nails is a bad habit. A habit is something a person does of their own free will repetitively enough for it to become a habit. Smoking nicotine is a drug. A smoker does not have a bad habit. They have an addiction to nicotine. A drug most addiction therapists will tell you is harder to quit than heroin. Why? My theory is simple. It has been proven that once you stop smoking nicotine leaves the body in 3 days.

That should mean that the smoking cessation process would take less than a week. Ever wonder why there are thousands of other chemicals and drugs in a cigarette? I think that these are there to extend the withdrawal process. I did quit for five months last year. For me, week three was worse in some ways than week one and at week eight I was downright squirrelly.I can't help but have the picture of some evil scientists working for the tobacco industry working away in a lab behind closed doors. There they spend their time perfecting the right combinations of chemicals to create a variety of specific extended withdrawal processes. Why is there formaldehyde in cigarettes anyway?

Smoking kills 45,000 Canadians each year. It is the highest cause of preventable death in the country. Yet, in 2206 the Canadian Government took in 9 billion dollars in tobacco taxes amounting to $13 in revenues for every $1 of profit the tobacco industry makes.

A health care professional can tell you about nicotine patches, nicotine gum and prescribe a prescription for other drugs such as Zyban. I tried Zyban. It started out in life trying to be an antidepressant. However, during the trial runs the depressed people didn’t get any happier but they did quit smoking. So inadvertantly, a quit-smoking drug was produced, and is now pushed by doctors. I unfortunately, got the side effects and had to stop taking it. I gave my leftover pills to my friend Larry. He quit. Go figure.

Unfortunately, when you look at the multi-billion dollar industries and tax base that depend on smoking and cancer there is little hope that a cure will come any time soon. (Think about it, one Mad Cow is treated as an epidemic. When 125 Canadians die each day from tobacco related diseases it’s business as usual.)I know that not all smokers end up with cancer, and certainly, not all cancer patients smoked by any stretch, but it makes you wonder. Why doesn’t more of the money fundraised for cancer research, go into helping people quit smoking? In many cases, they are researching how to cure some of what is a preventable disease.

So, with all this knowledge, you’d think the last thing I’d want to do is have a cigarette. On the contrary, I got so stressed out writing about it that I went outside and smoked, idiot, idiot, idiot.